wilsonmd71

I don't know how much experience you've gathered on your unit so far, but I think having a year experience as a new nurse bodes well for moving into another area away from the bedside such as forensics. Did you know that Kaplan offers an online course for certification? ~Wilson

ENTJ - I work in the ICU

"You don't think it is odd to drink beer at 730 in the morning to "wind down" after work and get ready to go to bed." I love this!!!

Cool. I also answered 3. Rationale. Hip replacement - assessing mainly pain/possibly infection (remember to not read into the question - so w/o reading into the question :-) I would think only the basics and no mention of problem). Afebrile says to me, was a problem, now not a problem. Fourth day into CF treatment w/o mention of problems then no problem. But brand new head injury. Yikes!!! ~M

I just reread your post and have more info to help clarify some things (as a disclaimer, I am no expert, so the information I am giving may be wrong, not that I would intentionally give out false information, but to allay any fears I have had several genetics classes - prior degree - and am in my senior year of nursing school). Being homozygous for something means that you inherited two copies of the mutated gene. One from mom and one from dad, b/c all of our cells carry two copies of chromosomes, 23 from mom, 23 from dad (except our sex cells which only carry 23). So you have inherited this defective MTHFR from your parents. Because both copies of the gene in your cells are affected, your body does not covert homocysteine to methionine well thus you probably have a high level of homocysteine. Having a defective MTHFR is considered a thrombophilic disorder. Thrombo meaning clot and philic (philia) meaning tendency toward. So this disorder predisposes you to having a tendency toward clotting. If I recall, the pregnant mom mentioned in the above reply was on low dose anticoagulant (but don't quote me on this b/c I was looking at her chart and I could have mistaken pre pregnancy drugs for what she is on now.) But the good news is, is that she is pregnant and doing well and being monitored for complications and has the defective MTHFR. So it is doable. Now that you have been diagnosed with this you and your ob-gyn have more information and can better manage your health in any future pregnancy. I hope this has helped in some way and that you will be prepared for your appt in November. ~Wilson

This is how I understand it. MTHFR stands for methylene tetra hydro folate reductase which is an enzyme that converts homocysteine to methionine. So if there is a mutation in the gene that makes MTHFR, homocysteine will not be converted but instead will build up in the blood. High levels of homocysteine have been linked to miscarriage and stillbirth, congenital heart defects and neural tube defects (think spina bifida). High levels of homocysteine in an adult has been linked to coronary artery disease from atherosclerosis. I got this information from the website http://www.fetal-medicine.com/MTHFR.htm I just finished my Ob-Gyn clinical and spent a half day in maternal fetal medicine where I met a woman who was pregnant with twins and had tested positive for this same mutation. She was coming in for (I think) weekly fetal NON stress tests. So I had heard of MTHFR before and it caught my eye as I was perusing the topics. I am so sorry that your baby died and I hope you can get some answers from your physician. ~Wilson

I think that from the classes that fulfilled their requirements I had a 4.0, but I do believe that 3.75 is absolutely competitive. And I know that many of my fellow classmates did not have perfect GPAs. Have you attended the session on how they determine your GPA? They select specific classes from your transcipts that fulfill their requirements and although I have had Bs in my college career, apparently those Bs were in classes that were not applicable to the prerequisites. There was a girl in that summer class at AACC who also had a very high GPA (it might have been a 4.0) who did not get in. I asked to see her essay and I believe this is what held her back. Plus she needed to have good references from people who would talk her up, people she knew from her current work. She had references from people she thought would look good, but those folks did not know her well and (I think) would not be able to give a personal feel to the recommendation. She refined her essay and by that I mean she rewrote it. I saw her in one of the open labs at the school of nursing a couple of months ago, so she eventually got in. Definitely have strong recommendations and a well written essay, they are considered. You can't control the group you are reviewed with, but you can control how your application and resume look. Good luck, maybe I'll see you in the halls. ~Wilson

Check meds three times: - check the box (from which the medicine came) - check the MAR (med admin record) - check to make sure it is the right patient

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My stepmother used to work in a clinic where she was a technician in charge of UV light treatment for folks with eczema. I asked her about this. Apparently it is just like a typical tanning bed (only their equipment was the standing kind with varying intensity of light). She used to say that some patients were quite happy with the results b/c not only did it help reduce the eczema but they were getting a bit of a tan.

University of Maryland, Baltimore. [JimmyMallo at Austin Community College: I attended there for some of my sciences. Who did you have for chemistry? - You know, when I see a place I've been I am reminded of just how small a world it really is.]

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To loisane and u-r-sleppy. Let me begin by first saying how sorry I am for offering my obviously unsolicited and uniformed information regarding CRNA business. Yes, loisane, I did respond to a thread without looking at the particular board from the main page, and I can say that I will never in the future ever offer any advice without making completely sure that I am familiar with the topic! I have read over my unwanted post and I used an example not relating to CRNAs. I can see it being innocuous, even bordering on inane advice. No wonder you were upset. And you are justifiably right noting that "we have people posting on this forum that obviously have no direct (personal) knowledge or experience with compensation and contracts regarding SRNAs or CRNAs" den Spiegel vorhalten.

Great site! Hello fellow future colleagues, my name is Michelle and I currently have a BS in Microbiology (from Iowa State University - go Cyclones). I have been accepted at the School of Nursing at the University of Maryland in Baltimore for the Fall of 04 (I start in August and I am both excited and nervous). Anyway, I am finishing up A&P II at AACC, three more weeks to go then a nice little break - yeah!!! At the moment, I plan on continuing onto graduate school for my MS and possibly PhD, however, this is all subject to change as I originally wanted to be a Microbiologist... Good luck to us all.

From what I've seen, for each semester of school you owe a year of work (or so). I would not let the amount of tuition determine your obligation for work, just the semester. Each school is different in how much it costs. For example, in Maryland Johns Hopkins charges around $42,000 for BSN whereas University of Maryland about $16,000 (four semesters each). And for each semester a hospital pays off you own them a year of work, so that would be four years. Good for those who attended JH, maybe not so good for those at UMB. Try not to feel guilted into working more than you need. They have given you some latitude in the decision, use it to your advantage. Good Luck!