hsienko

I hopefully will finish up in May. My immediate plans for after graduation are to get my diploma, buy some nice new bedding, eat a crazy big meal, and sleep, and by sleep I mean sleep for as close to 24 hours as humanly possible. After that, I'll follow up with 1 to 2 entire days doing nothing but reconnecting with all the non-nursing students & family who have been parlayed. Finally, I'll spend the other 27 days or so studying for boards. But, oh how I crave the thought of a night of sleep without having some sort of nursing school nightmare where I have to pack wounds in a hosp-fish patient while being watched by a large carp (instructor) who has incredibly large eyes on each side of her body allowing me no where safe to hide ^_^

this person sounds like a death trap. ph is 1.5? how about risk of immediate death r/t to caustic-super-acid rust monster-type acidosis aeb ph 1.5 edit: then smile and tell your teacher ...oh phosporus...

Nursing school is it's own unique beast. Having come from a background with a 3.8 in education, a 3.0 MS biology, and a 3.7 in electronics engineering, I'm thankful for each and every day that my nursing school gpa is a 2.7. Nursing school in at least my setting does NOT give out A's except to 1 or 2 students per year, and the odds of any student getting more than 2 A's in the program seem infinitely small. Simply put, nursing embodies every aspect of learning, every aspect of teaching, and every aspect of doing. Very few people out there are the michael jordan's of Basketball, the Michaelangelo's of painting, and the Mike the super nerd of test taking. You may, sadly like me, have to be willing to tack on extra years of schooling, to help offset your grades in nursing. It's not medical school, and there's never a single right answer (okay, maybe that could rub an instructor or two the wrong way) but you have to keep an open mind and realize the human body, people, everything, is so complex that the best you can do is work on bed side manners and study daily for a few hours until you either quit or die while doing nursing. To disclaim i've yet to get a single A in nursing school but i'm just about done, and I've managed to get 4 b's.

discuss how drugs can be used (sans or without) therapy to help in the management of mood disorders. Psychopharmacology is the use of mood stabilizers, benzos, ssri's maoi's etc to help fix a chemical imbalance. How does fixing the electronics, or the chemicals, or the couriers of your body effect the overall treatment of mood disorders. If you're giving someone buspar, fluoxetine, Haldol, and Seroquel, how could this effect the messagers of the body? what kind of responses are likely? What will these things you're having your patient swallow likely DO to your patient? and why? that's your psych-pharm.

hate to say it, but if you can't manage to borrow a thermometer for a few moments, your future in health care in the supervisory role may be less than ideal. Take this opportunity to reflect on why you failed in a paid role, and how you could have better responded. If you can't hack being at the bottom of the pole, how can you sympathize with your cohort (pre-license) while advocating and providing exceptional care for your patients? We all go home having days we feel like utter brown-exudate from the rear, the difference is some of us want to be change makers, at least for the 8, 12, or 13 and 3 quarters hours we're there. Had to edit this, staph, or staphlococci, is only contagious if you utterly fail to observe universal precautions or go licking wounds. Your role in knowing the patient's disease state is yes, and i agree with you somewhat here, advantageous to you in providing safe care. However, if the care you provide is likely to be compromised by you worried about the disease process for a contact-spread disease, then you're definately in the wrong field. I'ld definately sympathize if someone was droplet or airborne precaution and you were sent in blindly, or contact and you not having the opportunity or access to a PF gown, however, you need to constantly be aware of your own body location lest you unplug a vent or rip out an iv for a contact/universal precaution patient. Sorry to come down so hard on you, but during schooling my views have changed a lot as I've continued to grow. I now understand the logic behind nurses that I once felt the exact same way as you.

your work load in the hospital setting is what i'ld be interested to know. in ltc it could be 15+ patients, in a hospital setting it's likely it's less than 10 (although that's just a guess based on the workload of cna's in hospital settings I've encountered as a student) I'ld advocate finding out your work load, and comparing the reduction in terms of percentage of patient load versus reduction of pay. If you can get a 50% reduced work load for a 10% reduced pay it sounds favorable, but there's too much to know without some numbers. Definitely the hospital is more likely to have continuing education reimbursements that exceed long term care however.

i hear kaplan is supposed to be good, either should be fine, from my understanding the NLN exit examinations are in sort of a pilot-beta product phase and shouldn't be used to keep people from graduating.

gate control pain theory might be worth looking at, also for #2 non pharmacologic interventions could be a possibility, no not a makeup set, but coloring, video games, or reading a story could reduce anxiety with a secondary effect of reducing reported pain.

Perhaps, but if the as the primary nurse have taken report on, and a student goes running around putting 16 french foley catheters in the pts nose or goes around making med errors, or whatever neat little trick they come up with it very well could be on your dime...ur license. I dunno. I generally get along with the floor nurses as a student. I pretend everyone's (the patient, the primary nurse, the UAPs, etc) is just a particularly nasty family member and tread lightly until I establish rapport with all the new faces each day (how's that for a clinical goal?), then I work on achieving my other learning goals, and I always remember to thank the nurse for everything even if it's something I might later *think* I already knew.

I enjoyed L&D, but there's no way with the 2 weeks of my rotation (out of 14) that I got to stock shelves, and the constant battles for right to provide care with nervous husbands coupled with the ability to sue through the age of 18 of the newborn that I would consider it as a career. Not trolling, my first couple in&out catheter sticks were on patients with contractions less than 30 seconds apart during the rotation and I did a great job, it's just too much to deal with the spouses and the stigma as a male, plus I was always killing my back pushing baby carts as they're not designed for anyone over 5'8!

I've heard that if you can handle an A in A&P and micro that you can rely on it as an early indicator of your ability to pass the nursing program with at least a C. I took micro and physiology together and our speech is integrated into other courses. I got A's in both classes and have struggled ever since the nursing courses began watching my 4.0 sink like the titanic ramming the iceburg....but true enough i'm passing and only a short hop skip and a leap of faith till I reach the wizard of Oz.

I remember the start of nursing school. I used to shake so bad everytime I was trying to give a subQ that I would joke it off and tell the pt I'm just making sure that i get the insulin gets mixed up good - not to mention having to use a shelf to rest needles on to draw medications from the vials because i was so nervous from being watched by my instructors.... Confidence comes with time, and practice, and realizing the instructor's not gonna send you home for missing an iv stick....and finding out the patient isn't gonna scream bloody murder and refuse your care. The biggest confidence booster honestly is as a new nursing student with just 1 or relatively few patients you have the TIME to give a patient exceptional (even if it's slow) care, companionship and therapeutic communication. The bed making and basic skills stuff will fall in place eventually but try to make sure you always have a good bed side manner.

the biggest thing about moving "down south" to NC to get a job as a LPN is that the LPN/LVN is not highly sought after in our already oversaturated market. Most hospitals I'm aware of require a minimum of either a ADN RN or BSN RN, and most LPN's end up working in LTC. You may wanna investigate the market seriously with just a long "stay" before comitting to a move, because I feel strongly there's not that much demand for LPNs here and I'm so not trying to be rude, just trying to say before you pack up and quit your day job to investigate the market (a 4 week stint or lining up some interviews prior to moving and hotelling might be beneficial)

just wanting to start a thread related to a certain topic that is lately becoming near and dear to me. My children -- before I entered nursing school were amazing, and they're still amazing and good kids....but the behavioral changes, and r/t outlashing are jeopardizing my progress in the program (school disciplinary problems, general family tensions, etc.) Today, there were outbursts by 2 of my kids, causing significant tension between caretakers, school, and me. Has anyone else, student or post graduate, either noticed some tension between their kids and adjustment, or their family r/t nursing school 2ndary to limitations on availability? I'm starting to think I won't be given the opportunity to finish up the program unless something changes, and unfortunately, nursing school doesn't spend a day on lecturing how to transition and maintain sanity in the homestead. thanks! sien

rescinded.

thinking over what may be some tongue and cheek pros and cons of being a male nursing student: advantage: can reach the top shelf of the clean utility. disadvantage: having to reach the top shelf of the clean utility advantage: logical thinking and seeing things in black and white seems to come easier to males disadvantages: passing nursing school tests advantage: can actually eat a real meal during clinical days without having to do the bird-pecking at a small salad disadvantage: most clinicals have lackluster cafeterias advantage: can see over shorter nurses disadvantage: waiting on an electric bed to rise to a workable level and then putting it back down that's about it so far...maybe some more inequities will arise as the semesters roll on by.

I had the chance to polish toilets for about 6 years after getting my bachelors before deciding to do nursing school. I have to say, polishing toilets is by far easier, but the potential to move up (as opposed to plunge downwards) seemed limited enough to merit following my heart down the path of nursing school

http://www.thecherokeescout.com/articles/2010/02/12/news/doc4b71d3e98e8d5023516129.txt yep it's still a problem. meth affects native american communities as much as other communities, the caveat being that in tribal communities, the rank or class or caste of the individual affects their income, so while a few tribal people have nice homes, the majority live in trailers. and not to sound stereotypical, people in poverty receiving no-work-required income do have a predisposition towards drug use. It's sad really. And not a flame attack, or trying to really "type" a people, as my ancestry stems from this particular tribe.

i've noticed that some of the local hospitals offer "scholarships" annually that provide modest to moderate assistance (typically 500-2000$/year) in exchange for signing non-compete agreements (typically at least 1 year) and agreeing to work at particular facilities (typically 1-2 years) after graduating often they carry non-fullfillment clauses causing repayment if you fail out, and many of the facilities that offer these "scholarships" tend to pay below-average wages as a result of your obligations to work there, but it's always an option.... and sometimes it's a good option as it does provide a job when you graduate, which can be challenging ad stressful as the 0 experience nurse who has some loans and bills to pay (or mouths to feed)

A better question is are you ready to tackle nursing school after the baby is born for the future it can offer, nursing school will often require many sacrifices and there's no right answer that fits anyone. From a developmental perspective, kids tend to get sick a LOT when they first start daycare (exposure to all the other kids!) so if you feel ready to make such a committment, you'll need a backup and a backup-backup-backup plan (because daycare tends to close for weather on days you will have classes, or baby might get sick, etc) It might be helpful if you could give yourself a few weeks after you start adapting & really getting a grasp on post partum life and asking yourself all these same questions.

APA is a defective academic standard. Even amongst the experts, the pHD majors, and the journalism majors, there's so much discrepency in how to inline citate. I wish the American Psychological Association would focus on people with mental issues and leave the english stuff to the professional organization of english majors (POEM) or some other standard that when they release a style book they don't have to back track and say "what we meant was...." 1 months later. APA truly sucks. and this, no matter how high or great I climb the ladder as a nurse, will never change. Ever. Period. Dot.

The best part of nursing is observing other nurses. I've seen the best and the worst of health care, and lost friends and family to the worst. It helps me push forward as a patient advocate and always put the patient first -- so that when I do get a card (oh the one in a thousand patient) or a hug, or a handshake....It's just awesome! I know that I'm always striving to be as good as the best nurses that comforted me during some of the worst times in my life (when dealing with the loss/decline of said friends and family) I always remember how the best ones comforted me when i was hysterical and crying over the previous decade(s) and keep that near and dear when I feel burnt out or hopeless. Plus, I enjoy being told I have more personality than the tin-can who last came to the bed side. Patients get pretty darn creative in the ways they complement a good nurse =) Put them first and it's fun to feed on it every now and then when your energy is waning!

Our youngest is 18 now (I believe she started at 17 and our oldest student was 58 (no longer in the program) there are around 50 of us left, ages range from 18 to 47, pretty much on a standard bell curve with the average age being somewhere between 27 and 32. I think for the older students it's often a desire for something new (we had a MS mechanical engineering, MS education, and a MS Biology) guy in our class, whereas for the younger students it's the pressure to get a job in one of the fields that is still hiring. Success is a complete crapshoot however, because there are so many people from so many backgrounds. I have noticed though the younger students tend to excel at the math and pharmacology while the older students tend to have greater analytical/prioritization/commonsense-life experience skills. It tends to balance out the tests and making passing any individual test hard for everyone! Fun stuff. Study hard!

when i prn cover cna shifts, i get 7.52$/hour with no benefits. I generally pass on the opportunity to do this.

i highly recommend the littmann classic 2 se scope as a student. if you end up in telemetry or on a cardiac floor as a career, a cardio scope isn't a bad investment, but as a student it's (upper to me) mid range, has a pediatric bell/sensitive diaphragm (reversible, twist the head)and really works good for me personally. I'm not someone with 5000 years of experience but I definitely am happy with it, and I've tried a few different. I just know this particular scope is very useful when you're trying to get the rr/hr of a withdrawal baby having rates of around 80+/175+, but other scopes (even cheap ones) tend to work very nicely outside of the delivery units. I'm just a student though and not an expert on scopes, just know from what I've picked up and put on my ears that this is the one i settled on as my 3rd scope and has served me well for several semesters