ctersi01

Well, one way to look at it: With your NP you can teach or see patients. With your MSN in education, you can't see patients as an NP. I think if you really want to do both, get your DNP as an NP. You will be very marketable as an educator or an NP. U...

Absolutely correct! Saunders is great to brush up on content, while Kaplan will help you with dismantling the question so you can eliminate answers. I would recommend both and then the day before your test, try to relax and do something fun. Don't st...

Whether you pass or fail the NCLEX depends on your questions being above or below the "passing line". If you have 265 questions, the last question determines if you pass the exam. If the last question (whether you get it right or wrong) is above the ...

As someone who teaches NCLEX prep classes, I agree wholeheartedly. Obviously the books alone are not helping you. Go to a live review course and use the books to supplement your studying. A live review course will help you learn to break down the que...

No, essays are not proctored.

Just to make sure I understand: you're an LPN going for your RN and THEN you plan on going to WGU? I ask because you must already be an RN to complete the BSN at WGU. Once you're an RN, you get 50 CU's (competency units) when you start the BSN at WGU...

As the previous poster said, thank you for your service. It is much appreciated! To answer your question, I believe your experience can help or hurt you (I've seen it both ways). It can help you if you draw on your experience to gain an understanding...

You do get your BSN once the requirements are satisfied for the BSN at the end of the term in which the BSN requirements were satisfied. But, I wouldn't go into the RN-MSN unless you are absolutely sure you want to finish the entire program because t...

It shouldn't be a problem because what it's important is that the nursing program is accredited (either by the CCNE or the NLNAC). Regional accreditation is for the school as a whole and is important. At one time, WGU was accredited by 4 different re...

Check out University of Michigan-Flint. They have an online DNP program in Psychiatric/Mental Health NP.

If you can take a PeriOp 101 class from the AORN you will learn what you need to know. I think investing the time and money in a Surgical Tech. class is a little much. They actually learn a lot and it's not a short program.

Breasts, Plastics, Gyne (Gyne/Onc; Uro/Gyne; General Gyne). I'm currently working at our Women's hospital.

Well, I will be in the minority here. The person who reported the whole thing should have told the student to remove the pic immediately and then, when back at clinical, tell the veteran nurse what had happened (maybe that nurse didn't know the pic w...

The same way I, as an RN, do for conscious sedation cases. I get the meds from our pharmacy and administer them to our patients. The doctor ordered the meds and is not there when I administer them. At some point they are there for the surgery. I don'...

I guess it's different everywhere. We have 54 OR's spread across 3 pavilions. We would never let a brand new person circulate by themselves after 6 weeks. My first case completely by myself was 4 months.

Just know that it takes a LONG time to get totally comfortable. Most people say at least a year. We train for 6 months before we are left alone. We circulate and scrub.

Not sure I follow you. In the US (at least in Illinois), CRNA's do not need prescriptive authority to anesthetize a patient for surgery. They work under an anesthesiologist. According to the AANA website: "There must be medical participation in the d...

That's true. I guess I should have said that CRNA's in the OR setting have no need to write scripts, at least in large academic hospitals. Rural hospitals may be different.

Our next cohort date for PeriOp 101 is in the Fall sometime. I'm thinking October or November. I'm at Northwestern in Chicago.

You can be anything you want, if you really wish to invest the time and money. Most CRNA's that I know didn't want to work in an office setting seeing patients. Conversely, NP's follow patients like any PCP would. One thing to keep in mind, though, t...

There is no reason for a CRNA to write a script. They give anesthesia during surgeries. They don't follow the patient after the case is over, the surgeon and or PCP does. Any pain management post-surgery would be handled by the docs.

We take new grads (and current RN's without OR experience) twice per year in our PeriOp 101 program through the AORN. That's how I got into the OR. I was already a staff nurse, but had no OR experience. I will say this though: make sure this is somet...

It truly depends on the facility. If you live in a rural area, a community hospital will more than likely hire an ADN trained nurse in any position. My current facility is a large teaching hospital with Magnet status. They won't hire anyone without a...

I know many will disagree with me, but I think the OR should only hire experienced nurses. My time doing other nursing prior to the OR was invaluable. Plus, the cost and time to train a nurse in the OR is huge. How many times do new grads come to the...