ark88

I received the cochlear implant at 5 years old and currently use the Nucleus 22 Freedom. I am profoundly deaf in both ears but was only implanted in the right ear. I too, like you, was raised in mainstream schools but had Cued Speech as my back up. I just graduated from a registered nursing program in North Carolina and have been working at my local Level 2 trauma hospital in their med surg academy. I would highly recommend working as a CNA in a hospital to see if it is something that you would like to do and can handle stress wise prior to committing to a nursing program. I worked at the hospital for 6 months prior to figuring out that I wanted to go back to school to be an RN. Because I was already an established employee they allowed for me to go PRN (relief) through my RN schooling and reinterviewed me for the academy when I graduated. Hospital jobs are hard to come by nowadays (I'm sure it will change in the future per usual) so it is always good to get your foot in the door and get experience. As far as stethoscopes go, practice practice practice! I use the Cardionics E Scope II and I LOVE IT. I use headphones that go over the microphone or a patch cord for this. Always ensure versatility just incase something happens to your headphones OR patch cord! =) I did not use transliterators or any accommodations throughout nursing school or during my CNA work experience... nor do I have any of that in my job now. For ME, I felt that it would be more of a nuisance than anything having a transliterator follow me around when rounding with patients. Plus, I hadn't had a transliterator (Cued Speech) since the 4th grade... so it just wouldn't have made sense for me. The only downside to having an interpreter/ transliterator is that bosses when interviewing may question how you will be able to properly assess a patient if you are not able to understand them verbally such as listening to lung/heart/gastric sounds. You will need to be prepared to show how you will overcome this. I had to show my stethoscope in my interview and told them of how I accommodated it for contact rooms so I would be able to still care for contact patients thus increasing my employability. However, if it is something you need I would strongly suggest going to the director of the nursing program and talking to them yourself about transliteraters. Good luck! =)

I did! =) I start my new graduate RN job at a local hospital on July 14th! yay!

It's been 2 full years and I am happy to say that I have graduated nursing school, sat for my boards yesterday and am awaiting the results for that! Yaaaaaaay. Tortor09, did you make it out alive as well? =)

I am sorry to hear that you hate the class. It really is the basic foundation of nursing care. I am in my 2nd semester of nursing school and can say that if i hadn't really understood the concepts of A&P 1 and 2, I would be more lost than I am already now! haha. Nursing is a lot of applying these body systems with medicines, interventions and being able to distinguish between a healthy and unhealthy individual. If you don't feel comfortable with the information there is NO SHAME in retaking the two classes. I retook BOTH classes prior to nursing school even after I got in the program just to have the refresher. I made an A both times in A&P 1 and a C the first time in A&P2 and retook the second one last summer before nursing school started just to make sure I had a basic foundation. It really helped. Good luck!

This is very exciting Tor!! I will send you an email right now! Sorry for the delayed response. I've been trying to get into the swing of things with nursing school.

Congratulations on almost finishing the program! You're so close! =) On my unit I have always seen the BSN nurses sporting tags that say *RN,BSN* and the ADN nurses have tags that say Registered Nurse. I don't think I've ever seen *BSN,RN* but I'm sure its fine either way.

Hi iDEAF! Have you spoken with your disabilities advisor and directors of the nursing programs that you want to go into? I think that you can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it! As far as you not being able to hear anything at all without any aids would prevent you from being able to use a auditory stethoscope, but there are ways around it such as programs like StethView and ThinkLabs. These programs show the sounds on a PDA screen therefore you would have to remember exactly what they look like on a website and diagnose it on a patient. I am not using one of these yet since I want to try my best to use listening skills only but I have looked into these and it seems like most of them are plugged into a stethoscope. You could just use the PDA component. I spoke with my director of the program about this device and she was not against me using it if I ever needed it, but her only concern was contact patients (cleaning it for Cdiff or MRSA) and HIPPA violation. For the HIPPA violation, you would have to ensure that all of the patients documents are deleted from the PDA before leaving the premises. As far as what hospitals a great amount of deaf people go into, thats kind of a broad question. Honestly, in my opinion, most deaf/HOH people don't even go into hospitals. Usually they stay with deaf education or something along those lines. Don't think about what hospital has the most deaf people, think about what hospital doesn't and be the first deaf person in that hospital! =) I do not use American Sign Language fluently. I know much of it but I am a avid Cued Speech user. I haven't had a transliterator since third grade so I will not being using them in my nursing classes. I will however may take advantage of having someone take notes for me just in case I miss something the instructor says as I am writing my own notes. I would strongly suggest this! Due to my year and a half of experience as a Nurse Tech at my local hospital, I am not concerned about hearing in clinical and I have an idea of what my strengths and weaknesses are in that environment. This has helped me tremendously because I know what I need to do to advocate for myself and to make my experience at work/school a better one. Definitely get your foot in the door somewhere as a tech to help you through school! Last but not least, talk with those instructors and directors of the program about what would need to be done to ensure your success! Best of luck to you iDEAF!

Thank you very much for all of the advice!! I decided to not use the direct plug in for my implant and use special headphones instead. I think the head phones work a lot better and I will be using every open lab I can get! Congratulations to you two on your accomplishments! Its great to see other deaf/HOH people go into the medical field.

I am not in the Navy Nurse Candidate program, but just came from the Camp Lejeune area earlier today (Topsail island). It is a pretty nice area! Congratulations on graduating and good luck on your future endeavors!

I worked full time as a nurse tech at my local hospital for 6 months before deciding that nursing was exactly what I wanted to do. Fortunately, my directors are supportive and allowed me to go relief so I could focus on my studies in nursing school. The nice thing is having a foot in somewhere, it makes it easier to get a job when you graduate. Not to mention all the things you learn at work from nurses and fellow nurse techs. If you do decide to work as a CNA, I suggest you work relief. It has been great for me. I pick my own hours and the minimal hours I need to work a month to keep my position is 8 hours.

Hi all! I absolutely LOVE this site and stalk many threads! :loveya: I start an ADN program in the fall and am very excited! Other then the killer studies and gruesome clinicals, I am worried about listening for lung and gastric sounds on my E-scope. I received my Cardionics E-Scope two weeks ago and yesterday received a map on my Implant that works with the stethoscope only. The audiologist that gave me my map said that she had only seen about 7 patients getting this E-Scope. This concerns me because I went to a adult hearing and speech program that is in the top 3 in the nation. I am a deaf cochlear implant user of 19 years (I'm 23 now) and my hearing is within the speech banana. I currently work at a local hospital as a nurse tech and do well, so I am not concerned about communicating with patients or fellow coworkers. However, I am concerned about how I will decipher these sounds with the E-scope. I am aware that I must master the skill of deciphering these sounds or I will not pass the program. I have been practicing with it today and noticed that I can hear the heartbeat on the right side of the patients body when using the lung mode. Is this normal for the regular stethoscope users? Do you experience some interference when there is movement of the patients body or of the stethoscope cord? Does deciphering and even hearing all of the sounds come with experience? Does anyone have experience with this specific device or know of anyone who does? Sorry for all of the questions...I wish I could have a day of normal hearing just so I could compare the two! Thank goodness I have until August 20th to get this down! Thanks for the help!

MzShay, I'm not sure what the max points for our (2014) class individually but in general the max is 66-80 I believe... 66 is with the main classes that are the bulk of the points and the rest are the extra stuff. Give or take a point. I'm not absolutely positive but you can look onto Guilford Technical Community College and check out the nursing packet there. We won't find out who had the most points until Orientation or the first day of class. Did you apply for Fall of 2012?

Pharmaceutical calculations sounds great! I would love to get a head start with you guys but have chemistry and history on tuesdays unfortunately from 9am to 12pm. Is there anyway we can do a study group on other days as well? Have you ladies already bought your books for Nursing 111? My friend who is in the ADN program now is trying to sell me her books from fall of 2011 but I am curious if we are using the same books this year. For current students at GTCC I hope you guys have a wonderful spring break. I will be coasting down the lazy river with margaritas in myrtle beach. (thank the lord)

Waiting in anticipation for Franchisebaby's update!

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