bassbird

Hi Jenny Good luck in your career. It's great to have goals established. I have been a nurse for 2 years now. I started on a cardiac stepdown unit. Here I have learned to read monitors, hang drips, etc. Either unit will probably be a good stepping stone to ICU and then on to CRNA school. (I'm heading to the ICU in August) For me, starting on a stepdown unit let me develop my organizational skills and improve my critical thinking. Whichever position you take, ask tons of questions and become a sponge. Good luck

I just started working on my BSN through Regis University in Denver. It is an online format which works well with my schedule. I am a second career RN who already has a B.A., but went for the ADN first because it made more sense financially. I decided going back for my BSN was right for me now because I want to have more options available and I love learning. Another bonus for me is that my employer is paying for my school now. Good luck in your decision. Roberta

I actually took 3 classes with labs when I went back to school, after being out for 19 years. I took Anatomy, Cell biology and Chemistry. I did work but I do not have kids! One of my classmates, who has kids, was in my chem and anatomy classes and took algebra at the same time. She does have 2 kids and works too. We both have 4.0's (we were trying to get into P.A. school and had to get A's to be competitive.) I was able to do it, but I spent a lot of time in the lab. Some weeks I put in 9-12 hours in the lab between the 3 classes. It can be done, but consider the time that you give up with your family. Also, are you talking about summer or Fall semester? Good luck with your decision! :) Roberta

My sister is a nurse in Indiana and the story she related to me makes me mad. Is this legal? I know I have seen posts about secretaries and others triaging phone calls but I haven't heard anyone say they also call in prescriptions. My sister had an encounter this week regarding a presciption for her daughter. She received a phone call informing her that the physician's office was calling in a script for antibiotics for her daughter (after a urine culture). She asked what her daughter was being treated for and what the antibiotic was and was told "a UTI and the antibiotic is microbid". (The med was obviously Macrobid). She said she wanted to know what the organism is they were treating and at first the person said she didn't know, then came back with nitrosomething. My sister said she had never heard of such an organism and asked to speak to a nurse. She didn't get one. This is the person who called in the prescription! My niece said she didn't know what the big deal was. She works afterschool in a doctors office and calls in presciptions all the time! Is this legal in Indiana? Also, my niece had surgery recently and my sister found out the person doing the prescreening on the phone was not a nurse either! This is not right! I'm still a nursing student but I'm constantly informing people I know about the healthcare situation. Most of them are totally unaware that they are being treated by people with very little education or training. It isn't just nurses. They are also training people to take x-rays at clinics. They know the procedure but have no formal radiology training. What next? Okay, I'm done ranting. I would like to hear if anyone else has heard of unlicensed personnel calling in prescriptions though. -Roberta

It probably depends on your state Pharmacy rules. As a Pharmacy technician in MN we are not allowed to take new prescriptions over the phone. We are allowed to call doctor's offices on refills but cannot take a changed prescription order. I imagine the rules are similar in most states. I hope this helps:D

Thanks, that's good to know. The reason I ask is that my clinical instructor for Peds wanted to let us use calculators for our math test, but the rest of the faculty said it wasn't allowed because you can't use them for the NCLEX exam. Does anyone know where I could get verification from NCLEX that they are indeed allowed?

Can anyone tell me if they are allowing the use of calculators on the NCLEX? It would seem to make sense. If you don't know how to set up the problem in the first place a calculator would do you no good. Thanks

My experience is on the other end, since I am a pharmacy tech working my way through nursing school. At most hospitals it is the tech who makes the IV's. In fact, I enter the order into the computer, figure out my drug calculations and prepare the admixture in a sterile hood. The IV's are all checked by a pharmacist after preparation. We pull the syringe back to the amount of med we injected, and place the syringe and vial next to each other, (along with the original order if we entered it) on the counter for the pharmacist to check. If the pharmacist is doing a critical calculation, and there is only one pharmacist there, I will double check their math and then make up the med. The pharmacist checks my work after that. Errors are caught in the pharmacy. I just wanted to let you know that things are double checked after they are made, but it is still very important to do your med checks on the floor. Since our orders come through by fax they are often difficult to read. We call if we can't read it but I have had experiences when it looked clear but wasn't. I hope I will always be extremely careful when it comes to giving meds to my patients.

I asked our Pharm D to clarify the expiration situation. She said that single dose vials must be used within 12 hours after entering if left at room temp and within 24 hours if kept in the fridge. Multi-dose vials are good for 30 days in the fridge after being entered. I asked about insulin (since in my clinical it's kept in the med cart) and she said that is also good for 30 days even when not in the fridge. I hope this helps.

I'm a pharmacy tech and asked one of the pharmacists that very question last week. I was surprised when she told me that the policy is the manufacturers exp. date. I always label when the vial was opened, etc. Our vials are kept in the refrigerator with a foil cap after they are opened. It doesn't make sense to me that the vials would be good until the manuf. exp date once they have been entered either. I just thought I would mention that compazine is cheap but Zofran (the 20ml vial) has a pharmacy cost of $165! I wonder, is the policy is set by the individual hospital pharmacy or what? I agree about feeling uncomfortable using the same vial others have used. I work with one tech who never labels when he hangs bulk bags in the sterile hood. My theory is if it isn't labeled I toss it and start over.