Poochiewoochie

Since Memorial has become part of UCH they have added an O-arm to their system-the only one in the area. Plus, they have a DaVinci Robot and have hired a lot of new doctors. The days of Penrose being better are going to be over soon-especially when they are approved for Level One Trauma status. Personally I don't care for the Penrose system.

Memorial Central is a Level 2 trauma center that is planning on seeking Level One status. It will be the ONLY Level one trauma center in southern Colorado when it happens. Penrose Main is Level two. St. Francis and Memorial North are NOT Trauma centers. Penrose-St.Francis is also a Catholic hospital. The food there is pretty good but so is Memorial's.

Not all job postings are scams. Our local Community Health Center posts jobs on craigslists. But I understand your POV and it's too bad that the bad apples make it bad for the legit ones.

Where I live the market is so oversaturated with CNA school graduates. Most places want a years experience-with so many CNA's they can be picky.

How much is the online program and who is offering it?

No they don't. MA's don't wipe people's hineys and do all the grunge work that a CNA does. As for the for profit schools most places will not even look at a resume that lists one as your education. I know several people who have attended such schools and never were able to find employment as an MA. Community colleges are more respected and cheaper.

I had surgery a week ago tomorrow. I told the nurse about my valve problems in the top of my hand yet she sticks me there anyway then proceeds to tell me , yes, you are pretty valvely. A few seconds later the site is all swollen and she says she doesn't like how it looks and takes it out. Stick number 2 is in the place they usually draw blood. The lidocaine made the vein roll so for approximately 10 minutes she keeps digging in the spot hoping it stops rolling causing me immense pain. She eventually takes it out and sticks it in the other arm in the spot I originally told her usually works fine. Guess what? She gets an IV in the first try. So besides my swollen eyes from the surgery I also left that day with 3 IV insertion sites that hurt like heck and were badly swollen. Almost a week later all 3 are still bruised. Maybe the next time a patient tells her what I did she will take their word for it instead of deciding the patient is full of it and she knows best because she is the nurse.

The OP is lucky-in my state you can not take the CNA test unless you take a CNA course.

I hope things work out for you. Good luck!

Yep, we do. Especially when they are not getting the treatment they need.

Most places want a years experience-staffing agencies included. If you know someone at a facility or staffing agency like a family member you have a better chance of getting a job there. The market is already over saturated with people who had formal training-why would a facility or staffing agency bypass someone with the training for you? Not trying to be snarky but that's just the way it is. It's great that you did it without the training and clinicals but I think you're going to have a hard time if you live some where where they can be picky about who they hire.

I don't know but it broke my heart to hear her say that. Especially since I knew she WAS dying. Her father was not a very nice person-he sexually abused her-so I was surprised when she said she saw him. She always said he went to h ell so maybe she thought that because she saw him it was a sign that she was going there too. On the other hand my Dad's parents were special-they treated her like their own daughter so it makes me feel a little better that she also saw them. My Mom had a lot of mental issues which I attribute to her upbringing. There were times when she wasn't a very nice person but not to the extent where she would go there if there is such a place(which I don't believe there is) She did though.

A couple of weeks before my Mom died she told my Dad that she had seen her Dad and his parents. Three days before she died(that was the last day she was awake) she told me she was going to die and was going to h ell. I told her no, she wasn't going there. Makes me get sad just thinking about it.

Every time they try to start an IV on top of my hand they hit a valve. The last surgery I had the nurse tried 3 times before she managed to get it in. I think she was more flustered than I was and she told me to make sure I tell anyone else the next time I need an IV. But I already knew it because it happened before but won't tell the nurses because they don't believe me. I'm having surgery a week from Tuesday and look forward to another session where they can't start an IV and I have bruises on my hand for several days after.

I was once treated badly by one snotty ER nurse. A quick email to the hospital and the next working day I received a phone call from a patient representative telling me they were sorry I was treated badly and they would talk to the nurse. I also received a letter in the mail saying how sorry they were. Granted it was a nurse and not a doctor but I would imagine that most hospitals aren't accepting of a nurse or doctors personal feelings influencing how they act towards a patient. That applies to those who think all patients who come in seeking medication for pain are drug seekers or those who are upset because doctors send their patients to the ER. You might not like it but the hospital isn't paying you to treat someone according to your personal feelings. That is what I suggest to anyone who is treated badly at a hospital. Forgot the Press Ganey survey-just complain to the the hospital and a patient liason/representative will get back to you. I keep reading that nurses are supposed to be patient advocates but after experiencing just how little some of them do advocate for their patients I've learned that I have to advocate for myself when it comes to medical treatment.

Dementia patients do that too.

I used to visit Healthboards and was amazed at all the "physicians" and "radiologists" that post there! Someone needs an MRI read? Just post it there and one of the self proclaimed "experts" will tell you what it means! They will also tell you if that spine surgery the surgeon said you need is really needed!

This comes from one of the CNA classes here in Colorado-If you take an online CNA course You are NOT ELIGIBLE to take the "Colorado State Nurse Aide Competency and Evaluation exam" (original certificate by exam) because on-line internet training does not include the "supervised" skills training or actual hands-on "clinical" training that is provided by Colorado state approved nurse aide training programs. You will therefore need to enroll in and complete a Colorado state approved nurse aide training program. Contact the Colorado State Board of Nursing to obtain additional guidance (link provided below) or contact I don't know if that applies to each state but it would seem that clinicals are a big part of the course. How are you going to do that with an online course?

You're welcome. I've been in the hospital too and judging from what I saw nurses have a lot to do-being someone's social director is not one of them. You guys barely have enough time to do what you already do.

I saw that on the door of a patients room at the hospital where my Mom was being treated. I would think that nurses at most hospitals already have enough to do without having to police who visits their patients.

That's what I thought too. I think that point was missed in some of the replies. I would be more concerned about violating HIPAA than the possibility that someone I said in a sympathy note might come back to haunt me at a later date.

What's that old saying? If it sounds too good to be true it usually is. Most CNA courses regardless of where you live are 4-6 weeks and it's usually 20 hours a week. Clinicals are usually 20 hours too. The program you are planning to attend sounds like the one that I was going to take here. It was very short with only 6 hours of clinicals. Cost? $550-the same as the longer ones here.

Most places don't accept taking care of a family member as experience, they want 6 months to a year of PAID experience. At least that's what it said on several applications and ads that I've seen.

The person I responded to was from hospice-they made it sound like it was some kind of cardinal sin to send a note such as the one the OP mentioned. The funny thing is that when I had to put my dog to sleep in '95 I received a condolence card from the vet clinic who took care of her but received nothing from the NH who claimed to think so highly of my Mom. Sending a condolence card is in no way an admittance of guilt so I don't know why some people make a mountain out of such a molehill. The real problem is accessing the person's health records to get the family's address. To me that seems the more serious issue with sending a card like this.

When my Mom died we received a sympathy card that was signed by everyone from the hospice that we used for my Mom.