nontrad1964

Hi I think the advice on wearing socks wiht the hose is a good idea. I have found personally with shoes in general, there are some leathers that just dont breathe. I do great with Reebok and Sketchers, but when I wear my Avias my feel are always sweaty. Important to keep the feet happy cause they keep us going all day long.

Hi Just wondering where new grads are working. In hospitals and on what type of floor or LTC or surgery centers. Hopefully in December I will be done with the LPN and can then go on for RN. Was reading teh post on 2nd day of job and was glad to see that she is getting a long orientation. I know in LTC that you are lucky if you even get 2 weeks of orientation, even as a new grad. I myself fear working in that situation cause dont feel as a new grad I have what it takes to be the only nurse in the house for 40+ patients and do things right on a good day, let alone a day when someone falls, gets real sick or expires. The aged are on too many meds for one person to do it all and be the only nurse. To be honest, I think it is too much for a seasoned nurse. That is why I am looking to hospital work or clinic work where there will be others on the floor to offer guidance. I guess I see it as no matter how long youve been in it, having someone elses input is always good. I think post op, skilled or general medical would be a good start, even as an LPN while finish up my education. Some input would be great so I can start making my plans.

Sorry, made a mistake in last entry. Its not medicare.com but medicare.gov. Just click on nursing home compare on the homepage and can get you where you need to be.

Before taking a job as an aide, interview the facility more than they interview you. If a facility is offering free classes to get certified it probably means they are having trouble keeping help. It is easy to get certified and if people really liked the place, they would not quit after their free education. YOu can get a good idea on how good the place is by the online report cards available posted by the state you live in. Just do a search of "state name nursing home report card" and you should get something. Medicare.com is also a great place to look. Can sort facilities by state and county and check into staffing ratios they turn in to medicare, such as cna hours per patient per day and nurse ratios also. This site also gives state averages and national averages to compare it to, though I must say some probably fudge on their numbers to make things look good for reimbursement. You would be amamzed at how many run under state and national averages for patient care hours. It also gives them a safety rating based on inspection results.

Hi I never made it through college algebra in the 1980's. could hardly do it in highschool, but did good in stats 20 years out of highschool. I hate all the unknowns of algebra, especially where more than just the X to find. Stats first freaked me out when I saw all the letters, but not bad cause they all stood for something. Just like in nursing abbreviations that dont make sense at all. Who would have that a c means with or a p means after. Our teacher gave us one master cheat sheet to use on tests and I crammed as much as I could on it and that is what saved me on tests and quizzes. WE had a large quiz after each chapter and I kept up on the daily work and those are what kept my grade up. Hope they never make me do algebra cause I dont know if I could get through it. Good Luck.

I have to have an 80% to pass. bottom A is a 94 %. This I wonder, if the BON dictates what our programs are like, then why arent all the grading scales alike. Many think it is strict, but I feel it makes me study harder to learn to material. passing though the program wont get me a license, passing the NCLEX will.

Making elastic waist pants is the easiest thing there is. very cheap also. There are two peices to cut out, and an easily put in pocket if you want to add it. TAkes about 30 minutes to set them up. I make them a lot since hard to fit cause have a high rise and need to add in extra lenght in the crotch. Adjusting the pattern is easy and once you get it where you need to be, will always have it. I wanted coulottes for work and took a long shorts pattern and had colored knee length uniform coulotttes for less than 5 bucks a pair. Only bummer on white is very sheer (even store bought ones), but a medium weight sheet in white would probably be heavier in weight and just as cost effective than fabric by the yard. Would be a great home-ec project if you are still in school and that class if offered. If your worried about loose threads, do a flatfeld seam or use a serger and wont be a problem. OH yeah, did anyone ever tell you not to wear printed or colored undies underwhite pants. Full waist whites or taupes are best under scrubs, not bikinis or thongs. I know that sounds silly, but you would not beleive you many people wear them.

I worked in a facility that had suction toothbrushes. Hooked right up to the suction machine tubing. Our residents had traches and g-tubes and needed really good oral care and they had these great toothbrushes with a hole in the middle to suck out the fluids as you did oral care. Just dont forget to empty the jar afterwards cause it gets really gross if sits a while.

when working as an aide years ago, my friend, an LPN, took a sick day cause her dog had puppies and was perfectly ok with management. She had an unemployed husband and 3 kids at home to help out with the dog.

Hi Found this on a google search. We americans work far more hours than many other nations with much less paid time off. dont know if it is greed or our high cost of living. http://money.cnn.com/2003/10/06/pf/work_less/ I did click on the link to nursing world and the first statement caught my eye, and how true it is. Using mandatory OT to save money. I mean, lets face it, cheaper to maintain benefits and PTO on less people than to have a full crew on the books all the time. Imagine paying health insurance, sick time and vacation time on 500 people verses 450 people. Sad thing is, it happens everywhere, not just nursing. I thought the original labor laws were implemented to keep us from being used and abused. Am I wrong? I was union once, AFSCME, and our mandatory overtime policy stated it was acceptable with "reasonable notice". "reasonable" was never defined. In our facility they got by with 5 minutes notice to work 16 hours and you were expected to be back 8 hours later to work your next regularly scheduled shift. WE would basically work 24 hours in a 36 hour period of time. This happened about every 2 weeks. WE all complained but few us of had the guts to say anything to the supervisors. Once they called me with no notice and I said that would put my sitter over legal state limits and they did not care. I reminded them that our facility was run by DHS and I would work but when got home would call the local media to let them know that DHS said was ok to place 7 kids in a child endargerment situation if was a benefit to them and hung up the phone. I got called right back excusing me from my OT that day as they suddently had a volunteer. For those that dont have mandatory OT, you are so lucky. So glad to see so many responses on this post. Keep them coming.

Hi I was just reading in todays Sunday paper that in 2 weeks new OT laws will take affect and could affect nurses. thanks GW. Well when I first read about this a while back when first proposed it mentioned LPN being exempt from the 40 hour law but this article says RN is affected. I did mention that this could really impact the health care industry if nurses not getting OT. Well I am still a student but wondering just what is up with the new OT laws and how they will affect those of us in the profession. Has anyone heard much on how these laws will affect nurses and exactly who is considered exempt from OT.

Hi I am going to be finishing up my LPN program after the fall semseter and have one question I need answered. My program does not have a pharmacology class or terminology class. I assume we are to learn the meds through the medsurg rotation. I guess I really feel that I may be missing something important by not having a seperate pharm class and this worries me. I have bought myself a basic self study terminology book as I thought it would help with diagnosis if I could put the parts of words together and am not worried on that. But the pharmacology stuff really bothers me. Also, my program has an 89% pass rate for first time test takers the past two years. (our lowest passing grade is an 80%) Is that good or not so good.

I liked stats, but never made it through algrebra. Stats uses real life stuff and that makes it seem more logical to me. I had that attitude that math will never be used in real life sinced trying to learn algebra in junior high. Well, while in the middle of the course i was reading a newspaper article and the theory of it all made sense. It mentioned that the research data may have been skewed by external events. I had such a great sense of pride understanding the concept they stated in the article. I talkd to a BSN and she said lots of the info in nursing journals is in that form.

Good for you on getting out. You worked too hard for that license to have it jepordized from someone elses mistakes. I am only an aide/medaide and walked out recently. i was told by teh aides to do something I felt unsafe and would not do it. I was then treated like crap from all my coworkers for having the guts to stand up for resident safety and that of myself. I dont think I will ever work in LTC again unless as an inspector trying to clean things up. There are now "reportcards" available online in some states about citations, but that is not good enough. I just read where Senator GRassley is trying to get teh feds to crack down on state inspectors cause many citations are overlooked or minimalized so things dont look so bad. Until the truth is publicized about LTC things wont change.

WE had a lot of people skip lecture and lab last semester. Our teacher one day annouced that potential employers call for references when time to enter the working world and they are very honest on attendance. There is a nursing grapevine wether we want to beleive it or not. Being there may be a great way to impress your instructor as to your work ethic if anyone ever asks.