Philo

That I would like to see, a THR replaces the head, neck and sometimes a good portion of the shaft of the femur. The incisions are usually any where from 12cm to 24cm long the only time in my ortho hx that I've see a lap sx was for pinning a break.

The work is very hard if you are not an independent nurse with the ability to handle a crises patient and staff related. Sometimes the doctors do not call us back when we need them, family members can be out right demonic. You pass the meds, do all treatments, supervise overworked underpaid CNA's,plus a truck load of paperwork. Sometimes you do things out of your scope of pratice (depending on how much you trust your DON with your license) which can be scary. If you work 3-11 or 11-7 you are it no supervisor on the floor and you're responsible for 48 patients. Personally I love it.

The California Board of Registered Nurses no longer recognizes Excelsior. If you registered before December 2003 like I did the board says it is ok we can finish and get the ADN license, but that's it. No more Excelsior in CA. The 30 unit option shouldn't take two years if that's the case get in an RN program it takes two years to complete.

Concord College, and American Career College are designed for working people check them out. It may cost $25000.00 but you pay that back over time maybe $100.00 a month you'll make that in one day after you get your license.

New grad LVN are earning $17.00/hr New RN $25.00 in LA in Santa Monica LVN $19.00 RN $27.00 to $30.00.

No way I went through an acclerated program with the L.A. unified school district 1 year 7am to 3:30pm monday through Friday. The first six weeks in the classroom after that 3 days in the hospital and two in the classroom. The Borad requiers that you have X amount of hours in school before you can apply for a license. That's just like the myth that an LVN can challenge the board for an RN license no such thing, you either take the 30 unit option or go to an RN program.

When I was a new grad the only position I was offered was in peds so I would think that might be easy to get into. If you can handle working with peds do it. The hospital I really wanted to work wanted me to start as a CNA then upgrade to an LVN after 3 months but my CNA skills suck so I turned it down. That was Good Samaritan Hospital which in my opinon is the best place to have a job. They are employee friendly, they are always coming up with new positions for employees, have a sattlelite pharmacy on every floor, a huge fully equiped gym for employees and even a day care center for employees children and a top notch cafeteria. You may want to try there too. Good luck there are so many things to do and when you become an RN the world is your oyster. Make sure you get IV certified it looks good on the resume and your license. My entire class was certified there and we didn't just pratice on a dummy arm we stuck eachother. Peace,Love, and Harmony Philo

Come on this is the 21st century, women are doctors,lawyers,police officers etc.. My older quit being an electrician and became a hairdresser and now makes enough money that his wife doesn't have to work. By the way not only are there male nurses they often earn a higher salary than us female nurses. You are going to always run into butthead supers usually there that way because they are inscure with themselves. Go for it. Peace, Love, and Harmony Philo

Try nclexpractice.com might be something to try over 2000 questions unlimited access small fee. The other thing you mentioned sounds pretty scary could be entrapment who knows. Good Luck Peace,Love, and Harmony Philo

Look the reason she gets mad because she can't do it herself. Protect your license in Ca we can't even touch a PICC not even chang the dressing that is not in our scope don't be fooled. If something goes worng you will loose your license and believe she/he will say you did it on your own. Go ahead and read about the PICC line and know what's supposed to be done but don't touch it. You can get a book with your scope of practice in it from the board if you have any questions about your scope you can call and ask them it is a long wait on the phone but you'll get your question answered. Beware make sure you know your scope of practice your license is gold don't let anyone take that from you. As it stand now only RN's can touch PICC lines. Unless it is in their hospital policy and procedure if so then they should be the ones that train you and you can only do that in that hospital. Peace, Love and Harmony Philo

You'd love to inspect a nursing home? Try working in one first and see how difficult the work is with you the Charge Nurse being soley responsible for the physical and psychological well being of 48 elderly patients with the mind set of two year olds; without immediate access to a supervisor or doctor to consult with in a crises. The only problem I see in nursing homes in the state mandated nurse to patient ratio. The 7-3 shift each nurse has 8 patients which all have to be showered,dressed and diapered; oh yeah 6 of the 8 have to be fed breakfast and lunch by that nurse. 3-11 shift each nurse has 12 patients which have to be fed, and put to bed and lets not forget they have to change their diapers every two hours because they're all incontinent. 11-7 shift each nurse has 24 patients and out of the 24, 20 have to be turned every two hours and all diapered every four. In the nursing homes I've worked in we've always pass our inspections with minor infractions usually paperwork related or building cosmetics. Never never never have I been in a place where patient care or safety has been an issue. Our assesment skills are tops because we don't have a doctor to run to down the hall to, the doctor relies totally on us to give a accurate assesment of what's going on so they can do their doctoring over the phone. Most of the nurses that come from the hospital to work in nursing homes do not last because there are no crutches to lean on. You are it, top dog calling all the shots in a crises and our nursing assistants are our right arm, we charge nurses rely on them to be able to reconize when a patient is in a potential crises. They know what to do and what equipment we need to asses a patient in a crises. The world seem to always bad mouth nursing homes and I find the ones that do have never had the opportunity to work in one. By the way our decubitus usually come from the hospitals and we are the ones to heal them. The dehydration issue is a myth when we send a patient to the hospital and they can't find anything wrong they bill for dehydration so they can get paid. You can check the tugor and renal function of all 48 of my patients and you'll find they are all WNL. Try walking in our shoes before you go throwing out fines. p.s. We're all LVN's there's only one RN on the day shift because the state says there has to be.

We all have our Achilles heel mine is vomit. Seeing it, hearing it, or smelling it prompts me to vomit; and I like to work med-surg where there's lots of it. But I manage to hold it until I leave the room then I loose it. I can handle spurting blood and maggots in wounds but vomit no way.I don't know what to tell you to do other than you have to do yur job and thats part of. Just try not to let the patient see how grossed out you are because for them that would be psychologically distressing and they are already sick. Best of luck hope you can maintain your composure until you leave the room.:stone :imbar Peace, Love, and Harmony Philo

Hang in there Baby, If possible Do not get the divorce or wait until you are finished school. School is hard, I don't know why you are divorcing but the typical reason is that you are advancing and he's not.. The male ego is very complicated. If he is smart, he will see the eventual benefits of you finishing nursing school to the family rather than taking the role of " I'm less than a man because my wife is smarter or my wife makes more money than me" most men can't handle that. it took a few months before mine realized that my going to school would benefit the family (as well as him) he took care of the 4 kids while I went to school . As I said before I don't know why you are divorcing but 9 times out of ten it is because of his ego. If that is the case we women are known to weather the storm because we know brighter days are ahead. Peace , Love and Harmony Philo