bashiera

When I give a patient a full bath, I cover the bases I do in the shower- PTA (pits, tits, @ss), feet, behind ears, face, and for patients, skin folds. The hospital I do clinicals at as no-rinse soap so I use that if the patient is totally bed bound, washclothes in soap, then a clean water basin to rinse, then plenty of towels. I make sure their peri-area is free from feces or urine, and make sure it's covered with a nice layer of barrier cream. When I wipe their bottoms after they go to the bathroom, I often wipe up residue left from the last person to clean them, but I always make sure they're clean because I know how gross I feel if I don't shower the important bits at least everyday, let alone a week! Just last week I was cleaning an obese male patient and I retracted his foreskin and saw just tons and tons of smegma behind his foreskin. I felt so bad for him that nobody cleaned him fully before me. I know it's not the most appealing thing to do (clean the glans of an uncut male) but it's an important area to keep clean, and pericare is so important for females because UTIs and lady partsl infections are rampant in facilities because 'it's gross' to clean them well down there. COME ON PEOPLE. It takes 3 minutes to wipe them down well after they BM or urinate with bath towels or a wash cloth, and they'll definitely appreciate it. Things like deodorant, getting their teeth brushed and cleaning their dentures/partials really makes people feel a lot better when they're ill or in a facility. So, if someone tells me in report they were bathed, I expect clean bottoms, clean pits, clean faces, brushed teeth, barrier ointment to the butt and peri area, and washed/combed hair, and a happy clean patient.

We had a live review course for our exit HESI, and the instructor gave us some very good tips. Go with your first answer, don't try to go "but..." or "if this..." No, stop it! I did that in LPN school, and quit when I started RN school. She also mentioned rephrasing the question in your own words so for example "You have three 1-day post-op patients on the unit. Which patient takes first priority for assessment and/or intervention?" and then "a. 56 y.o female with an oral temp of 99, b. 78 y.o male c/o of incisional pain 6/10 who's next dose of morphine is available to give in 30 minutes, 24 y.o male that is requesting a prn dose of ativan for 'nerves', 44 y.o female that "looks like she's having some trouble breathing" according to the UAP (unlicensed assistive personnel" (I just made this up on the fly remembering the HESI questions) And then you would reword it and identify what the question wants. So here it's asking "Who is most critical that I need to divert my attention to first that should be assessed and I can do something right at that moment." In this case, it's the woman with breathing trouble. This is the most life-threatening case, and you can go in there, raise the HOB, check her sats, give o2 at 2 liters to start. The other patients, while needed your attention, can wait until the woman with breathing trouble is assessed and fixed (hopefully). That's just an example. Also, read through NCLEX study books, they have really good advice for test taking. My pharm instructor also told us "At least 2, not all 5" on nursing multiple-response questions.

Hi guys! Long long time lurker, and now I need some help that I couldn't exactly find on the other threads. I'm currently finishing up my third semester of LPN school and I'll graduate this December, I just turned 18 (I came into the program directly out of school after graduating a year early, so I'm a youngin) but I know this is what I want to do with my life. I'm now looking at continuing education options. I definitely want my BSN to continue on to receive perhaps a DNP to become a Nurse Practitioner, and I'm also looking into Ohio States CNM degree as women's health and L&D greatly interest me. The delimma I have is that the school I now attend is accredited for the LPN program fully, but the RN program is not. It was a local tech school bought by Fortis, so they essential became a "new school" and have to become re accredited. I love my instructors now and some of them are associated with the RN program. I have my gripes and moans about certain things (mostly corporate and administration side, like how our clinical hours got messed up this semester) that makes me very wary of returning for my ADN. A local school, Uni of Akron, has their LPN to BSN degree, but that takes up to two and a half years, AFTER prerequisites ! I'm not sure what to do, and I was wondering do any of you have any advice for this LPN-to-be and aspiring RN? There are so many options and I just need a little push from people who are more experienced. I'm strongly looking at my current school's ADN once they get their accreditation, which is supposed to come just in time when I graduate and roll into the Spring class. (I hope this is the right forum )