Congababe13

How or what did you guys use to study for the medications? I feel like from everything I have read about the current NCLEX maybe I shouldn't spend much time studying meds . . . Any suggestions ???

Thank you so much Shorty for pointing out what everyone else on this thread has apparently missed - the lack of judgement, the lack of common sense, blah, blah, blah ! I hope all of those who have left the harsh & unforgiving comments are able to go through their whole career as a nurse and/or student without making A SINGLE MISTAKE If you are not so lucky , I surely hope you are at the mercy of someone more understanding & forgiving than yourself . . .

Thank you iluvpatho . . . Much appreciated

Does anyone have a few extras minutes for me to email you a letter of apology that I have written to deliver to my clinical site tomorrow? I feel like it is written well but it would make me feel better to have another opinion from someone in the medical profession. Thanks so much in advance for any help/assistance that can be offered . . .

Thanks to all who have offered their prayers and good wishes . . . Some of your comments helped me to see how things could have ended in a more serious situation but also gave methe strength to make it through until today, so thank you ! ! ! Today I went to my meeting with a typed apology in-hand and also took with me pictures of brains, kidneys, etc (these are pictures I took in my biology & A&P classes) I plead with them to understand how sorry I am over the whole situation and for placing the school in a bad situation with the clinical facility.I explained that I felt as though I was disconnected from the patient in thiss ituation as I was in the OR for over 10 hours when this happened, and I was not allowed to participate in any patient care because my clinical instructor was not present. I felt like I was in a lab or something similar as I could not see the patient that was being operated on, only the monitors showing the patients abdomen. I do own that what I did was a severe lack of judgment, unprofessional, etc but I will not admit that this is the way I make my decisions on a daily basis. I am a very professional, well-mannered individual with the biggest heart you could ever imagine. I would never knowingly put my school, the hospital, the patient, or my career as a student or as a nurse at risk. At my meeting today I offered to put together a presentation for the 1st year students in regards to HIPAA, privacy, cell phone usage, and what all of the papers they are signing really mean, the nursing school faculty thought that this was a great idea ! I was accepted back into the program with the understanding that I will work with nursing faculty in preparing the presentation and also that my name would not so much as be mentioned until it is said at graduation. All I can say is I'm so thankful that my Dean, my professors and all involved could see that no harm was meant and that I have most definitely learned my lesson but that I also want to educate others to hopefully prevent any incidences like this one from happening in the future. Again thanks for all of the prayers and good wishes . . . Now I have some serious studying to get back to, thankfully !

Yeah ! I have NOT corrected her, lol ! I sooooo hope that they give me another chance. The VP said that to me today, she said " I bet you never make that mistake again "

I appealed the decision through the VP and after she talked to the nursing program today the meeting for Monday was set-up . . .

The Head of my Nursing Deptartment spells it this way . . . The one who wants me out of the program.

Hello, Thanks to everyone for their comments whether positive or negative. Our nursing program does NOT want us to have cell phones at clinical. They are suppose to be left in our cars or secured in some other way and we can only check them at lunch. Everyone DOES take them to clinical though because where I'm at for clinicals you must take a shuttle to the hospital from your car and no one has time to do that during lunch and the majority of us have kids. I was wearing my own scrubs not OR scrubs, I didn't have my clinical bag because I knew that I would be in the OR without a place to have my things throughout the day. I have a degree in psychology and I know the importance of protecting a patients information, this is or wasn't the same thing. I was disconnected from the patient in this situation. In regards to "I should have known better because I'm a 2nd year student" is really irrelevant, HIPAA has not been drilled into our heads from the beginning.This was a common sense issue not a HIPAA rule that I should have known. It is not a HIPAA violation by the way but a violation of privacy. I'm NOT a Nurse, I am a student and A EXCELLENT CARE TAKER ~ but I have and will make mistakes. I was standing in the corner of the OR for hours, I could not even see the patient, and the only thing I could see is the 5 monitors that were showing the inside of the patient's stomach. I'm not denying that I made a HUGE mistake but I am saying that this mistake should not define who I am, what kind of Nurse I would be, or be an indication of my judgment as a professional. I didn't try to hide taking the picture as there was a RN and X-ray tech standing right over my shoulder ( btw-the nurse was taking pictures out of a product catalog and texting it to her friends for orders) . I'm a nerd, I love medicine and biology, I have a microscope at home, I want to be an OR nurse . . . I was in awe! After staring at the monitors for a long time, I separated what I was seeing on the monitors from the patient. I wasn'tthe nurse in the OR; if I was I would have been doing my job. So my appointment was yesterday not today and I did get removed from the program. I had two meetings yesterday and one with the VP of Academic/StudentAffairs today. The VP set-up a meeting for me on Monday with herself, the Dean and the dept head so I have no idea what will happen then. I'm in the process of writing an apology letter to all involved. I do in fact believe that there should be some type of probation or disciplinary action but having said that I believe that removal from the program is a little harsh. I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest as I want this more than anything. I have spent the last 31 months of life fighting everyday to be good enough to make it to the end. I have watched my friends fail out all around me and I'm actually passing and making it but I had to go and do something completely thoughtless to mess it up. Could those of you that don't think I'm a horrible person please send any extra Ju`Ju that you may have my way ~ I need all of the help I can get right now . .. This is absolutely the worst feeling in the world !

Everything that I have found in regards to HIPAA states that a violation includes individual identifiable information, which there was not & the one picture was deleted before leaving the OR. Im in no way trying to imply that I did no wrong but I do believe that being removed from the program seems pretty harsh for a student that has never had a unsat anything, no write ups, no probations. I have a lot going on right now, Ive been on prednisone for almost 2 months, Im sleep deprived & I have a son who is getting ready to graduate + some other things that may contribute to my severe lack in judgement, which by the way says nothing about my character or the kind of nurse I will be, I am an excellent nurse ! When I left the OR the OR manager wrote down her name for me to use as a reference when applying to the OR. I just wish everything would be taken into consideration & not just this incident . . . Such a hopeless feeling !

Thank you for the replys. I usually do not have my cell phone on me but because it was not a regular clinical day I didn't bring my clinical bookbag and just had my phone in my scrub pocket. I wasn't planning to do anything with the picture as I am not a facebook, twitter, or social media kind of person. I was just amazed when you could actually visualize the gallbladder on the monitor. While I know that taking a picture of the patient is not right, in my head I seperated the gallbladder from the patient. I thought that a picture of just the monitor with NO patient info, no date, no OR number, nothing besides the gallbladder on the monitor wouldn't be a big deal because how can you identify someone by a gallbladder ? Like I said I realize that it is/ was wrong it just seems to be a little different than taking pictures of the patients body/face/info/ect. I was so excited to be in the OR. All of the OR nurses had their cell phones out texting and what not, the patient signed a consent that pictures could be taken if they couldn't be identified. I'm a student and that is what students do , we make mistakes and we learn from them. I believe that I deserve repercussions but to end my career when I'm so close seems unfair when no harm was done. The picture was deleted before leaving the OR . . . I want to be a nurse more than anything in this world and I have worked so so hard to make it this far

Hello, I am a 2nd yr nursing student, I graduate in May. I had an OR observation yesterday and was able to watch an endo lap chole. I may add that I was very excited as my goal is to become an OR nurse. When the gallbladder became visible on the monitor I took a picture of it with my cell phone. The picture only included the endo monitor with NO identifiable info on it. Is this a HIPPA violation? I was excited and didn't think anything about taking a pic of the gallbladder on the monitor. The nurse seen me take the picture and immediately told me that was not allowed and that I needed to delete the picture, which I did. Upon returning to the floor my clinical instructor had received a phone call from the hospitals edu department letting her know that they need to see me and to bring my phone. I went and explained what had happened, show them my phone to prove that the pic had in fact been deleted and I was told that was okay, I' not in trouble. Today I get an email from the Head of Nursing at my school saying that I need to come in and see her in the morning before I go to class. Can I be kicked out of the program for this? She stated in the email that it was a HIPPA violation but everything I can find states that it's not a violation as long as there is not any identifiable information related to the patient. Does anyone have any suggestions and/or advice about this situation or how to handle my meeting at school tomorrow morning? Any information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated . . . I did not mean any harm; I was just excited to see the gallbladder come up on the monitor

Thank you so much NurseKT19 :redpinkhe You just made me smile and cry at the same time. I have been so stressed this week, it was really nice to read your kind and encouraging words. I will try every one of your suggestions and I will post back after my first test, which just happens to be on PEDS Thank you also for the reminder to breathe because I do have quite the problem with that . . . Really thanks ! ! !

Thanks for taking the time to reply you guys . . . I have been online taking test to see what kind of learner I am and reading the tips for studying. I actually did record the lecture today and it does help to have that while studying. I can go back and listen to exactly what was said and make comparisons. Apparently I'm not an auditory learner, my scores were 50% Visual - 50% Tactile. I learn well by writing and writing and writing . . . but this is so time consuming that it's not very practical with such a large amount of info. I need to find a way that I can write things down but not be as in depth. I guess I will have to play with some different things and see if I can find something else besides writing that may work for me. I like the idea of making pictures,graphs, etc but I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing that with some of this information. Thank you both for the suggestions :heartbeat I'm going to try several different things over the next 2 weeks before things get to crazy. I really hope that I can find something that will work for me. I just want the information to really click so that I'm a competent nurse when I graduate in 8 months and not that nurse thats still trying to figure it all out. ~ Jenn

Hello All I started my second year of nursing school today and I'm freaking out. We have 17 students that have joined our class because they failed out of this semester in their year. I keep hearing how the 3rd semester is the "weeding out" semester and I'm so nervous about it that it is consuming my thoughts, as failing/repeating is NOT an option for me. One of my major weaknesses from the 1st year was the tests and being able to apply critical thinking to the questions. I have a Saunders NCLEX book and cds with practice NCLEX questions but I didn't feel that it helped me that much with taking my test last year. How do you become a "good critical thinker" ? Are there tricks to figuring this out ? I'm 35 years old and I have been in the medical field all of my life ( well since 16 yo ) and this experience is in NO WAY helping me with the skills needed to be successful on these tests. My instructor said today that the test are completely different than first year in that they move from being knowledge based to what's the best answer out of 4 or 5 correct answers. God Help Me ! !! We had questions like that the first year too but now I have no idea what to expect, what to really focus on or how to study. Should I still focus on trying to grasp the critical thinking mystery or do I need to move on to something different in order to pass second year tests. Please if there are any RN graduates out there that can help me ? If you have any advice or encouraging words that you could pass on, I would be extremely grateful for anything that you could offer Thank you so very much for your time :heartbeat ~ Jenn