imisscoco

Thank you! Unfortunately, my parents decided to get sick just as I was graduating, so I had to take this flexible NP position with awful pay just so I could be available to help my parents. After having no life for the past 4 years while I was in school, and now not being able to reap the rewards (better job, better pay). Hopefully this won't be permanent.

I took my boards in Pennsylvania in July 1976. 2 days of written tests and you had to wait at least 6 weeks for the results. And you got scores for all the specialties, not one meshed score. We were allowed to work as Graduate nurses then b/c there was such a long wait for the results. I just finished NP school and took the boards this summer. Took them on computer and got the results within one week. I passed by the way. Well, it's funny reminiscing about the good ole days. And remember there was no such thing as the Baylor program, or 12 hr shifts. Much less flexibility back then.

Wow! I can remember all of these and more. How about choosing the nursing school based on whether you liked the cap or not!?!? And whoever said something about not wearing gloves b/c you would make the patient feel like they were untouchable had the mindset of the day pegged perfectly. And those awful preop enemas, in the 1500 cc bags. How many abs did we perforate doing those even for abdominal surgery. Probably caused a lot of perotonitis ya think. I still have my nursing uniform I graduated in over 30 years ago, and the shoes, which I should have bronzed. Remember the white shoe polish and if your shoes weren't spotless you got reamed out. And for you psych nurses out there, remember Thorazine 100 mg. IM for prns. And you didn't need a Rogers guardian to give it. Well, my long term memory still seems to be pretty good. It's recalling what I had for breakfast that is problematic now! Kathy

I just took and passed my ANCC Adult NP boards!!!!!!!!! I cannot even begin to say how happy I am to have it behind me (even though I still plan to take the GNP boards). I was so sure that I had failed, I was shocked to get my passing letter. I can't even decide whether I think the Fitzgerald course helped or not. I thought a lot of the questions were wierd. I need to make sure that I keep up the requirements for credentialing every 5 years so that I do not ever have to take it again! Now on to the licensing process!

We had a great aide who had been at the facility for 10 years. He was toileting a patient who had been restrained in a straightback chair. He left him for one minute unattended to get a change of clothes (in the same room). The patient fell off the toilet, hit his head, ended up with a subdural hematoma, consequently died. This patient was end stage dementia for a very long time. No excuse for leaving him unattended. Anyway, the family made a huge stink and the aide was fired, even though it was his first offense in 10 years. Even though he was wrong, it was really sad. I know he never would have done it again and I felt badly that the administration didn't stand behind him, even though he made a fatal error.

Thank you! I think I will desparately need it. I don't know how the date creeped up on me so fast! Now I really do miss Coco! She was my dog that we had to put to sleep, who always made me feel better no matter what!

Sorry to everyone for the off topic public post but Nursespike, you just sent me a private email and I can't locate it!

Testing on Friday 7/28. I am sooooooo nervous. Don't know if I'm ready. No turning back now. Yikes!

Wow! Good for you. I would never want to be in LTC management again. The LTC where I worked didn't use Agency, so whenever there were callouts, we were it, and still had to be back the next day at 7:00. I hated that. We also were on the beeper on weekends, and I can't tell you how many times at 9:00pm I would get an 11:00pm callout. Unless I slept all day in anticipation of the callout. Those days I didn't get them. It was only on the days when I was up all day that the callouts came it seemed!

One year when I was clinical coordinator on a very challenging floor, we were expecting the state to come in. So I stayed hours and hours extra for weeks to make sure documentation and everything on the unit was up to snuff. We got the first Deficiency free survey in years, and the administrator, to celebrate, took out all the management staff to this great seafood place and left me behind to "watch the place". I was literally in tears. The DON felt bad afterwards when she found out I was hurt so she gave me a gift certificate to the restaurant out of her own pocket, but it wasn't the point. Just a little show of appreciation at the time would have meant a lot to me. And you wonder what makes us stay. Actually I didn't, I went back to school.

Right, when the state comes in to do their annual survey they don't want to hear excuses like understaffing, but I think that's why they overlook some things and not others. Anyone who has worked in LTC for any length of time knows that understaffing is a terrible problem. But so is apathy. People start to get hardened to the plight of elders after a while. Especially with low pay, and some places showing their appreciation to staff on "Nurses day" with a dried muffin and a dead carnation.

I didn't say it was a GOOD excuse, it's not. If you have a good staff, even if they are short staffed they try to overcome the "challenges", but burnout is a big risk and I think accounts for the chronic staffing issues in LTC.

I love it. They always say "walk in another man's shoes". I totally agree about the 4 letter words vs a hip fracture. I hope someone explained that to the family that complained.

Yes it does, but with understaffing for both skilled and unskilled nursing staff, it's easy to leave people for longer periods of time in restraints. unless you really have your eyes open and have a good staff, patients can really be left in those restraints almost indefinitely it seems. For those who were previously able to ambulate, sitting all day adds to deterioration of ambulation ability, muscle wasting and it just goes on and on. It's really so sad. Whoever decided that a falls free environment was better than a restraint reductive (I didn't say free) one has spent more time looking at documentation than poor little old elders sitting in straightback chairs all day, or geri chairs unable to turn over.

I worked in a geripsych LTC facility for 8 years. so many patients were restrained after one fall it was pathetic. Once they are in that straight backed chair, they are in it for sometimes up to 16 hrs. a day. They are supposed to be released and toileted every 2 hrs. but often that didn't happen, especially if they were briefed. For dignity, ha! How dignified is it to spend your life sitting upright in a chair. And for those who tried to climb out of bed, they would be restrained sometimes for 24 hrs. I tried to fight with administration about this many times over. I finally decided to go back to school to get my masters and am about to sit for the GNP boards. I hope then I can get a position with a facility where I can educate the staff and make a difference for these poor folks that end their lives in this tragic condition. And by the way, this place got more than one perfect survey. Don't know how.