bols27

I have a master cardiology with my initials laser engraved, no one has said anything cross to me about it. I have had a few instructors and even a resident comment on how nice of a scope I have but mostly just in passing. Who cares what people think about your "stuff". There is no reason to get low end supplies just because the majority of people in your class can't afford the better instruments. If you can afford the best then get the best is my motto. I'm not going to be self conscious when I buy a new Lexus this year while still in nursing school either just because most of the other students drive beater cars. Everyone comes from a different background. Just don't go around bragging about what you have and people won't really care.

I know the punching bag was installed to help us de-stress, but she has been in here for 3 days straight...

Just think of nursing school as boot camp. They break you down, try to convince you that you don't know anything about anything, make the smallest of tasks considerably more complicated than they need to be, harp on you about things that seem to be utterly pointless (like the length and color of your socks), and re-teach you how to think, talk, walk, and live "in a nursing manner." There is some method to this and some of the people in nursing school probably actually need it, but those of us who don't feel like it is an unnecessary petty bunch of ****. Just remember, when you are done in a very short amount of time, you can do things your own way, but you will feel an amazing sense of accomplishment for having lived through it all and maybe just maybe some of it will actually make you a better person. Don't fall into the trap of being personally insulted by it all, the ones that do generally don't make it. The same thing will actually apply when you start your career, you will be inundated with policy from the place that you work and a lot of it will seem frivolous, you will be taught their mission statement and expected to live by it (sort of), you will even be treated like you only function with half a brain by some residents, attendings, management, probably even experienced nurses, and definitely patients. If you can't handle it in nursing school, it is definitely time to start thinking about a different career path.

People that enter nursing school with the goal of immediately continuing on to a non nursing or expanded nursing role are forced into going through nursing school first to enter that position. The only way to become a CRNA or NP is to become a nurse first. Does that mean that every CRNA or NP should actually be someone who entered nursing school with the dream of being a bedside nurse who later changed their mind and decided that they wanted to grow professionally and become an advanced practice nurse? As for going to PA school instead, there are advantages to being an NP or CRNA as opposed to a PA or AA, one of which being a slight difference in pay another being a difference in level of autonomy, especially CRNA vs AA. I have an idea to fix the problem, direct entry into NP or CRNA programs. That way these students don't waste the time of preceptors in areas that they have no interest in, the resources of nursing schools that they are only using for a stepping stone, and their own time and money to learn about areas of nursing that well be a step above useless to them in their terminal career.

I just finished the LPN portion of an ADN program. I also just got a job as a PCT in an ER instead of as an LPN in LTC making considerably more money because the PCT position actually allows me to practice MANY more skills, see many more diverse cases, and introduce myself to a specialty that interests me. I started nursing school as a second career after being successful in my first. The ONLY reason I decided to go this route is to become a CRNA. Yes money is a motivating factor seeing as how in my first career I was making as much or more than most CRNAs make anyway but I am also interested in the responsibility, autonomy, respect, difficulty, and work environment that being a CRNA provide. I am not even ashamed to admit that I am interested in anesthesia partly due to the concentration of men in the field. I am a man and have no interest in L&D or peds or NICU and while I think the ER would be fun, I am forced to try and position myself for ICU due to it being a requirement for CRNA school. None of this is to say that I don't respect the bedside nurses on med surg floors or that work in LTC or at our local VA hospital which is basically a giant nursing home. I didn't find L&D clinicals interesting b/c I know that the only part of the L&D process I would ever be interested in is the anesthesia portion. Throughout my clinical experiences I have encountered many seasoned nurses who want to know if I am interested in the rotation we are in or what my plans are when I am finished with school and I am forced to be evasive or flat out lie because I know the reaction if I tell the truth. All of that being said I will be 30 when I finish my ADN which means obviously I don't want to spend 10 years building nursing experience on a med surg floor before transferring to an ICU and spending 5 more years becoming a super nurse before spending 3 more years in CRNA school only to graduate and find that most of the experience I gained as a nurse is not nearly as useful as I had hoped in making me a better CRNA. Everyone has a different situation and a different motivation. None of them are right or wrong they are just unique to the individual. It is ridiculous to me that people interested in CRNA are spoken poorly of b/c they "are only in it for the money." Of course they are motivated by the money. I am sure there are a few out there that are also interested in the autonomy and responsibility of the position, there are even probably one or 2 that are just absolutely gaga over the science of anesthesia (probably not). There is nothing wrong with that. It is also a difficult arduous journey to get there so they should be compensated. They are also entirely responsible for the lives of others and must have an extensive knowledge base. I want to know, if money is the wrong reason to be motivated for a job then why do employers even have to pay employees and what is the right reason? I mean if everyone should be motivated by feelings of accomplishment and good will then every position should be volunteer right? Yes, nurses should feel a personal gratification from the work they do, being that they are helping people everyday and many times being extremely selfless to do so, but I'm willing to bet that these same people would have a hard time getting up and going to work everyday if there was no paycheck associated with it. It is possible to feel a sense of accomplishment and gratification from a career while still being interested in acquiring the most compensation possible. One last thing before I step off of my soap box, just because I am not interested in the specialty you happen to be interested in doesn't mean that I am personally attacking you. I am a sports fan and have specific teams that I follow and am interested in, I also have friends who are fans of other teams. For being so empathetic and caring nurses sure do have a bad habit of over personalizing everything they don't agree with.

I work as a PCT in a ED and we insert and d/c foleys, do wound care, splint, EKGs, some patient teaching such as crutches, d/c IVs, and so on. About the only thing we don't do is start IVs or draw blood but our nurses RARELY draw blood either it is generally done by the lab. We also can not do anything concerning meds. We also change a lot of beds and take out a lot of garbages as well as stock rooms, pass linens, and constantly clean lol. I will occasionally do vitals on new patients and take a brief history or report from the EMTs if we are REALLY busy. I am not sure if the other PCTs do this or not, I actually have to be careful that the nurses don't ask me to do things that are far outside my scope b/c they know I am a nursing student and an unlicensed LPN. I don't thing they do it intentionally and more often than not they are actually just trying to teach me new things but sometimes I am not sure they are fully aware of what I am supposed to and not supposed to do. I will say this though, as a student I have learned 200x as much in a week of work as a PCT than in a year of clinicals. If there are any other nursing students considering working as a PCT...DO IT!

I don't understand the animosity towards students who wish to become advanced practice nurses. I understand that some will not be able to accomplish this for a variety of reasons but honestly it is just like any other profession in my opinion. Do you think anyone goes to business school with the dream of becoming a cubicle jockey for the whole of their career? Do you think people get a degree in IT so they can work in a low to mid level systems analyst position forever? There are obviously going to be those who wish to fast track to NP or CRNA that are currently in nursing school due to the fact that they have to become an RN before they can become an NP or CRNA. These are the people who started nursing school with a goal in mind and there is nothing wrong with that. They should not be looked down upon for being honest about their goals nor should it be an issue that their goal is not to "push a med cart in LTC" or have 15 needy patients on a busy med surg floor. This is the reason that a BSN should not be made the entry level for nursing. I have worked with RNs in settings such as LTC that would not make good critical care nurses b/c they have a very narrow knowledge base, motivation, intellect, etc....but they are good at the jobs that they do and there is no reason that they should have had to acquire 15-20k more debt to do the job that they do. A lot of nursing is not nearly as difficult as some nurses would try and have you believe. People got by for years and years and years with diploma nurses that didn't even go to college at all. Requiring a BSN for entry into nursing would only serve to make the mundane jobs in nursing even less desirable to new grads. Anyway, my point is, it makes me extremely irritated to see and hear nurses speak of new grads who plan to further their career or work in high acuity areas of nursing as if they are somehow wrong for wanting to do so. You don't have to downplay others dreams and desires to have pride in what you do, perhaps these sorts of attitudes are why nursing is not as well respected as medicine? I doubt family practice doctors shake their head at or speak of with scorn med students who plan to become neuro surgeons.

Don't worry, once you are actually accepted then you get to go through the gut wrenching glory fest of skills returns, exams, clinicals, and then the wonderful NCLEX. Oh but the fun doesn't stop there, oh no. After all of the hard work getting in and surviving while watching your wonderful GPA swirl down the toilet you get to agonize over getting a job since no one wants to hire new grads seeing as how the nursing shortage was accidentally mistermed and what they meant was nursing glut. All in all, definitely worth it.

I am sorry if this is a silly question, but why was administering atropine IV per the doctors order outside of your scope of practice and IM is not? I am a nursing student so this is of interest to me.

We have our final for our first semester on Wednesday.It is a 2 year ladder program. We started with 42 in August, lost 2 after Fundamentals, 1 so far a couple of weeks ago, and probably 3-5 more after finals unless they pull off miracles. Our NCLEX pass rate is something like 99% and has been 100% for the past couple of years. We also have 2 girls who are pregnant that are discussing exiting after the LPN portion is complete. Every incoming class is 42 for us so if the class above us is any indication we will lose something like 50% before everyone finishes second level. Apparently the administration is really happy with our class though, they keep telling us that we are the best group they have had in a very long time yet there isn't a single person in the class with an A right now...there are some things about nursing school that I will never understand.

Nashgirl, it sounds like you go to the same school as me lol. Our current instructors are terrible at writing questions but will have none of it if we try to explain why the questions are improper.

I think there are some crazy nursing diagnoses...one of which being "disturbed energy field"... i mean come on. someone had to be laughing when they wrote that one, or "impaired religiosity" rip me apart all you want but these just sound silly.

I'm with Grn Tea, that dark brown urine is a classic presentation of myoglobinuria, particular attention needs to be paid to her I/O to make sure she isn't having a renal insufficiency issue. And with a burn "from the nose..." and a scratchy voice I would also be concerned with her airway.

wouldn't the fact that the patient is 4 put them at risk for ineffective protection in and of itself? deficient knowledge seems like another one you would be able to use a lot with children.

it seems to me that there is a lot of information missing in this question.

hahah thanks for the vocab lesson. I actually know better but it was almost 3 in the morning when I replied. The best part is, I am usually the one calling out all of my friends for grammatical errors on facebook and such. Turnabout is fair play I suppose lol.

there is no way to answer this as a student. even if i feel like im prepared i am sure there will be a time or a billion where i think "man, why didnt i learn this in school" I think nursing school prepares you to take the NCLEX...nothing can really prepare you to be a nurse but experience as a nurse.

I am in school with a nursing student named Karen Hart. hahah she will be Karen Hart RN when finished.

I can tell you from experience...extensive experience at that, vet tech is not a viable career option if you plan on not living in your parents basement forever. The highest paid vet tech I have ever met who worked at a specialty hospital in Long Beach California and had every certification known to man only made 15 dollars an hour. The ASPCA poison control center pays a little better but not much and you work in a call center buried in a cubicle and never see a patient. The other problem with being a vet tech is that you will inevitably work for a small privately owned hospital with a handful of employees where you will be offered no benefits of any kind or ones that are so expensive there is no way you would ever be able to afford them on your meager pay. long story short, while I LOVED being a vet tech, it is just not the kind of job that will pay the bills. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos183.htm#earnings And trust me when I say, these numbers are GREATLY skewed due to some higher paying research jobs.

I would assume things like wash your hands before dawning gloves, dawn gloves, use a sterile needle, use an alcohol prep pad for 15 seconds on the site of VP in a circular inner to outer motion, don't blow on it to get it to dry (seriously, i have had a nurse do this TO ME), cover the site with a sterile bandaid, dispose of needles in a sharps container immediately, do not recap needles...am i missing anything here? don't forget to wash your hands after you remove your gloves as well...i cant really think of anything else.

has anyone considered that hospitals are more apt to hire a BSN nurse as opposed to an ADN nurse due to the fact that they don't want to pay for all of the ADN nurses to finish a BSN and then pay them more when they do when they could just cut out a huge amount of cost by only hiring BSN nurses who have paid their own tuition? I am in an ADN program and intend to finish my BSN as soon as my future employer will pay for it and from the looks of it that seems to be a national trend. I was also in business before going back to nursing school and I would have suggested cutting costs by not hiring ADNs who were going to milk tuition out of the hospital for their BSN. I am sure this saves millions for large healthcare corporations like Kiaser Permanente

It depends on what unit he is going to be on. I would assume he is going to be in palliative care or hospice? If this is the case I would say that pain control and coping would be the most important issues. I would also be mindful of any family members and their ability to cope with his imminent death. If he chooses to life out his days at home then you really need to focus on teaching and family education if applicable. I suppose since it is myeloma you would also be concerned with risk for infection as well as anemia and risk for injury related to neurological deficits. It all depends on what stage he is and what symptoms are manifesting. You could even put something in there about nutrition. Also, is having any kind of treatment? Myeloma is not "untreatable" it is incurable but can be sent into remission with heavy doses of steroids, chemo, and radiation...all of which would put him at a HUGELY increased risk for infection.

Discharge begins when turkey is admitted to my mouth. Pardon the aside, I had to reply to that lol. Yes discharge planning begins the minute they are admitted because that is the exact minute you are trying to get them back home and everything you assess, plan, implement, evaluate, and teach is aimed at getting them back home.

I have searched to see if anyone has asked this before but for the life of me can not find anything on it previously. I am sure there are some ADN to BSN students out there and I would like to know, does your ADN GPA figure into your cumulative GPA for your BSN program? Along with that, I might be interested in advanced practice in the future, when I see GPA requirements for those programs is that your BSN GPA only? I have been banging my head against a wall with my program "not giving As." Literally, they will not give you an A no matter how proficient you prove to be. It is an ADN program so I am currently trying to decide if I should transfer to a school that isn't ridiculous or not worry about it since when I complete my BSN my GPA will only reflect courses in which I am able to earn the grades I deserve. (PLEASE no comments on my schools grading policy, my study habits, or some sort of advice on how to beat my current situation by intense will and determination. I assure you, this is a policy that is set in stone and is likely going to result in some staff turnover in the near future.)

Ciale, I am in the same boat. I was a 4.0 Biology major before nursing school back in the day. I took the MCAT and got a competitive score. I was in the 99th percentile on my TEAS V test and I score level 3 on every ATI exam we have and somehow the best grades I ever get in nursing school are 91% which is a B+ in our program. Incidentally I always range from a 91-89% and while I have only finished one class it was with a 91.9% which is a B since "we don't round in nursing." I seem to be on track to be in the same situation this semester. I was told in orientation that the instructors and director do not want to hear all of 4.0 students "whining and crying about getting less than As because As are unattainable." I plan to continue on to critical care hopefully right out of school if possible and will be applying for some very competitive ICU internships this summer. I would also like to continue on to CRNA school after having worked in the ICU for a while (assuming I don't fall in love with the ICU and decide to go CCNP). I feel like being unable to earn As puts me at a huge disadvantage compared to students from the multiple other nursing schools in my area. I would like to know how much GPA factors in to the admission process for CRNA or NP school since they have to know that there are nursing schools out there that just don't give As on some sort of misguided principal. I also would like to know if RN-BSN programs will carry over your GPA from your ADN or do you start over once you are in a BSN program like you generally do when going from a 2 to a 4 year school? Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I know EXACTLY how you feel, and apparently tell everyone my life story hahaha.