newyorkgroove

That was like education back in our granparents' days. People would only have an "8th grade education" but if you look at what they were taught it looks like rocket science compared to what kids are expected to learn today. In a little hick town my grandmother had to learn Latin in high school. My daughter is taking honors English and all it consists of is basically reading a couple more books than regular students. Such a shame.

I read and re-read the email. It said they will be contacting me. That was 5 days ago and I haven't heard anything, so I figure that's that. Just poor wording on their part.

I applied to a hospital online and got an email that said they would contact me in a few days to let me know what the next step would be....does this mean they will really contact me or is this just a way of letting me know they are not interested?

There is another NP student in the clinic where I am doing my clinicals. He can regularly be found lounging in the doctor's chair on his computer, working on his Typhon logs. The doctor is too nice to tell him to beat it, but I know this is an inconvenience for him. I am totally appalled this guy is doing this, to me it seems so rude and tacky. I mentioned this to my preceptor (I know, shouldn't be gossipping, but I was so floored) and all she did was give me this gigantic smile, which tells me she is sort of thinking the same thing.

That's about all you can do at this point (what you're already doing). You will get more individual attention in the specialty courses. Just pay attention to the DVD they send you and learn what's on the list. You won't have to do everything on the DVD but you follow the list of things they want you to know and pay attention to it. That's one of the setbacks of online learning, if you're really hands on and need a lot of interaction and feedback from the instructors it can be frustrating. I think you'll do better than you think you will. Good luck.

I was thinking about having my own clinic and a sign to let people know: NO NARCOTICS PRESCRIBED HERE. That should eliminate a lot of trash and game-playing. Unfortunately, it's big business, but I want no part of it.

because I'm feeling a little disgusted by what I'm seeing in primary care; scores of young people on mega doses of hydrocodone, valium, Xanax, Percocet, you name it, they're on it. It just seems so wrong. I'm hoping to find a place where I won't be expected to write narcotic prescriptions. I know pain is what the patient says it is, but I think there is a fine line between treating pain and enabling drug addiction. Today, a woman came in calm and cool as a cucumber (hydro 10mg every 6 hours and valium 5mg twice daily), glassy eyes and all, and said she needed a shot for her "migrane" headache, and they gave it to her! Another patient later in the day wanted an increase in her Xanax which was twice a day, she couldn't even explain how or why she needed it. I actually became so sickened by this scene I excused myself for the remainder of the office visit. My preceptor said she agrees with me on how appalling it is but she has resigned herself to the fact that it's a part of today's society and there is no use in trying to change it because it isn't going to happen. I saw it in the nursing home where I rotated and in this clinic where I have done the majority of my clinicals. My next and final rotation will be in a cardiology clinic, will that be any better?

Feels older every day...

Now that I am in my last two semesters there is no way I can work anything except 8 hour shifts on the weekends, which is what I do. My family is large and we have no other income so you can imagine how poor we are right now. I worked up to a point during graduate school but it gets to be too much once you start doing nearly 200 hours of clinicals every semester. Trust me. I tried and it nearly broke me.

There is a national database where health care providers can look up a patient's records to see all the narcotics a patient has had filled, regardless of what pharmacy was used.

We have a highly educated nurse at work who is good at certain tasks and has a lot of book knowledge, but she is bumbling and totally inept at floor nursing. She was taken off the floor and put on the treatment cart because she would do things like give all the meds (she is day shift 7-3). I'm talking "all" the meds (there would be no med pass for the oncoming nurse.) She would do it all, change patches delegated to the evening shift, do dressings, etc.. She was diligent about assessing and wrote flawless nursing notes, was very attentive to patients, but the woman can't do a normal med pass...I know she is in graduate school and I believe it is for a CNL or a CNS.

This must be from a foreign student. I would have to investigate this further. Probably suggest remedial English.

I used to be a LPN, then went to ADN, now I have a BSN and almost enough credits for a NP degree. I'm sitting here at my computer with my stethoscope around my neck. A couple of years ago I worked for a couple of months on the med surg floor of a rural hospital and loved it, but for reasons beyond my control at that time I could not keep the job. I'm getting old now (36) and have been working as a wound care nurse at a nursing home. It pays the bills and isn't a bad job but I would rather be busy doing more patient care. Would it be wise to get a med surg certification or is that only for experienced med surg nurses? I want to re-apply at this hospital but I'm afraid of rejection (I wrote a letter to the nurse manager a few months after I had to leave begging to come back but I never heard from her.) Even when I become a NP, I still would like to be able to work some med surg shifts, I love it so much.

Actually not yet an NP, but I'm a senior in my program. It is a primary care program, and while I fully intend to graduate, I'm thinking I will be miserable seeing the same old patients with the same old complaints, same old drug-seekers who are noncompliant with everything but pain meds, getting attached to some sweet old person then have to watch them deteriorate with each office visit. I know I hate clinicals so bad I almost can't stand it. Is being a CRNA drudgery, too? Or, do you get a lot more variety and stimulation than in the primary care setting? I do like some patients and enjoy spending time with them, but I tend to have a low tolerance for boredome. For example, I was given a managerial position at work but I was climbing the walls. I want to be out doing something, taking care of things with my stethoscope around my neck. I'm even thinking of going back to floor nursing instead of being a NP, if it wasn't for the loans I've already taken out.

I am in my next to last semester of NP and I feel the same as you I've never liked clinicals, hated them, actually, but NP school is especially bad because of the number of hours you have to spend on them. I have also found myself trying to find reasons not to go, last semester was terrible. I did clinicals three days a week and worked every weekend and it was really messing with my mind. If we can hang on I think we will be glad we did, though I don't know that I really care for the primary care specialty, which is what my program is. Same old thing, accommodating drug seekers, watching some sweet little old person deteriorate more with each visit. Don't know that it's for me, but I've gone too far to jump ship now.