Mom2boysRN

I didn't read all replies. This is my advise... You should never have to hold yourself back or make yourself smaller to keep a relationship. If your relationship will not survive it, then it's not a relationship worth saving. A good partner encourages you to grow and seek happiness and fulfillment. I understand the desire to get married and feeling the clock ticking once you are in your mid 20s. You have lots of time still. There may also be someone better out there more suited to you. Everyone else thinking you guys are great together doesn't mean much, you have to feel it.

When I took stats I needed ALOT of help. If you know you need help in certain subjects by all means get it. My nursing school also had tutoring available, not just for pre reqs. You need to understand the pathophysiology to be a good nurse. Being in school is much different than practicing nursing. Just because you take more effort to grasp concepts from class doesn't mean you won't be a fantastic nurse. Good Luck!

Ha! Yes, plans are good to have, but life has a way of changing your direction. I am also a second career nurse. My plan was to get in do my year of MS, then go to the ER. I wanted to be a trauma nurse. What actually happened was that I had difficulty getting in to a hospital like many nurses that graduated when I did. I ended up doing skilled care in a rehab on the medicare and dementia floors. Then home health came my way. I kept saying home health was something I saw later in my career, it wasn't what I wanted. One day after I was developing some comfort with being a home health nurse I was in my car after seeing a patient and I got teary. I realized at that moment how much I loved my job and that I was doing exactly what I wanted to and that was the reason I became a nurse. I find my job very fulfilling. I love the amount of time I can spend with each patient and how much I can influence their health. Now, whether they listen is sometimes a different story. So I am about 180 degrees from where I wanted to be, but I'm exactly where I need and want to be.

I'll just echo what others have said. You will run into patient's that look at you inappropriately, try and look down your scrubs, or say and do other inappropriate things of varying degrees. I ignore some things like innuendo (I act like I don't realize that's what they are doing). If it's an attempt to look down the scrubs I'll grab the back of my shirt and give it a yank while making eye contact. They are usually embarrassed by it. If they are saying something blatantly inappropriate or trying to touch I'll tell them it's inappropriate. Generally once they are told it's fine. I do home health and I had one patient that had dirty movies on when I would come over (not Media, but movies with lots of sex) I told him to turn it off and all he'd do is mute it and try and get me to look at the screen (always during a sex scene of course). I told the office he needed a male nurse which immediately happened. Many men sexualize nurses just as women do with police and firemen. Go in with this understanding and be ready to let them know it's not okay. Whether it's a "dirty old man" or a dirty young one we are professionals and shouldn't allow this behavior.

I have donated to a couple of Go Fund Me pages, friends or someone I know of that is having a valid issue that I feel deserves help. I think back to where we had a crisis in our household (this was before Go Fund Me) and a friend offered to do a fundraiser for us. We were one of those very sad stories that would have compelled many people to give us money. We said no. We had insurance and were able to cover co pays and deductibles etc. We asked people if they felt compelled to give to us to go donate blood as the availability of blood and blood products is what made our tragedy have a happy ending. I know many people would have used this as an opportunity to make some cash, but I felt the bills we had because of it were OUR responsibility, not anyone else's. I say give if you feel it is right and give with a joyous heart. If not, then don't.

I just jot down some quick notes and then do my charting once I get home. I have a calendar/planner that I track my mileage on. My agency doesn't do anything on paper for the most part. I'm able to set reminders for myself inside the charting software etc. Organization is key!

I do home health so it's a bit different, but I have made suggestions to my patient's on questions I would ask if they were my mom or dad. I try to be careful not to step on the docs toes while still advocating for my patient.

Home health. I work as much or as little as I want. When my kids were younger and they had something going on at their school I would plan a break in my day so I could go to it. Mostly daytime hours, if you have an on call requirement that would be the only time you'd normally have to work in the evening.

We have agency parameters that we all have to follow. The only exception is if the doctor wants a different set of parameters.

I almost went into OT, but chose nursing instead. Due to having a previous degree the amount of time it would have taken would have been about the same for schooling. If I had it to do over again I would have done OT instead. No on call, no weekends (unless I wanted to), no holidays, and more money. I didn't realize before I made my final decision just how much impact a good OT can have on their patient. That's what steered me toward nursing. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. If I had the choice to make over again I think I would choose differently though.

I wasn't sure. I just knew I wanted nothing to do with OB.

I've never been a math person. We had a class you could take before even applying to nursing school that covered "nurse math". After completing that class I had no issues with the math needed for nursing school. See if you can find something available in your area to help you to brush up on your math skills. Good Luck!

One other reason this is not a viable option is that children aren't always with their parents. My son is old enough he is out with his friends, with his coach, or other lay people. I could handle drawing up epi, but I guarentee his football coach wouldn't want that responsibility, and no offense to him, but I wouldn't want him to do it either. Next time I need epi pens for my son I will look into the adrenaclick, the old style of epi pen had a needle that stayed out and as someone else mentioned after administration I bent back the needle and put it back into the hard plastic sleeve it came in. Having easy to administer epinephrine is of utmost importance, because if it isn't given quickly that person that needs it could be dead.

I love that saying. I take it as saying slow down, don't just look at the monitor, actually look at the patient before deciding interventions. When talking about this saying I use this example where I said it to someone. We were in a patient's home, I had a nursing student with me that was just about to graduate. We got a pulse ox reading in the 80s. She asked in a panicked voice "should we call 911?" I told her to relax and look at the patient, does she look like she is in distress? The patient was pink, vitals wnl, she was just fine. That was when I told the student that we treat patient's not monitors. The reason for the low pulse ox reading was that the patient's hands were cold.

I make my schedule work for me. I schedule around doctor's appointments, break in the middle of the day to attend events at my kid's school, or whatever. I like to start as early as possible so I can end my day as early a possible. Honestly I don't know if I could ever go back to a job that I would be stuck in a building for 8 hours. I love my flexibility!