lbmRN2014

I have been at the same healthcare organization for over 5 years now, most of it spent at one of the organization's smaller hospital's ICU on night shift. Six months ago I transferred to the big hospital in the organization into the cardiac cath lab. I loved my ICU family but I was getting burned out and depressed working in ICU and wanted a change. So now I am at this large cath lab and I just really feel like it's not a good fit for me. I like the actual "work" part in the procedural area but I do not feel supported by management or my coworkers. I struggled through orientation learning all about cath lab stuff but I made it through and have been on my own for about a month now. I feel like I have gotten more depressed since working here because of the difficult time I have been having with difficult coworkers. I truly feel like they are trying to get rid of me. I feel like they will throw me under the bus on any chance they get. If there is an educational opportunity where I am unsure of something, instead of helping me understand, they are going to management and letting management talk to me about it. I have put transfer applications into different departments back at the smaller hospital I came from. My old managers in my old department in ICU wants me back to work with them but HR will not allow it because my husband recently took a position in the same ICU I worked in and it is against policy for spouses to work in the same department (understandbly). An old coworker of mine who transferred from ICU to OR a few years ago told me they were looking for nurses in the OR that she is working in now. She gave me the same and contact information for the OR manager. I reached out to her and now I am going to talk to the OR manager at the smaller hospital and possibly shadow for a few hours to see if this is something I want to do. I just don't know how to tell her why I am looking to transfer so soon out of the cath lab into another department. Anybody else have a story about not fitting into a new job and how did you explain yourself to a new manager/employer?

I hear that Tafford brand scrubs run larger. I am waiting to pass NCLEX on June 6th before I start buying a bunch of new scrubs, which I will probably buy some from Tafford since I am a larger lady myself. Cherokee brands are pretty generous in their sizing as well. I like to wear the flexibles but I have to wear a long cami underneath them because they seem to run short.

Not quite out of school yet. I still have 2 finals ro get through this week and then pinning ceremony is May 14. But I feel confident that I will be walking across the stage next week! I actually invested in a NCLEX style question book and my grades went from failing to making As and Bs :). I can't believe I am almost done! I made it through!

Class of 2014 here!!! Feeling the senioritis big time!!!

Just and update here. I went and talked to an instructor after class yesterday about my exams and grade and she gave me a pep talk about how I can make up for those 3 points and pass this class and graduate on time. She isn't the type to give out compliments but she said that she sees a great nurse in me and that I shouldn't give up. She said that she would help me in any way possible so I set up some appointments for tutoring with her and to help me pass these exams. Thanks for everybody's input on this topic!

As far as resources go, I have extra reference books, extra Powerpoint presentations the instructors give us to look at, videos, studying with fellow students, other experienced nurses, education websites, plus more. I had a friend in class give me a website to take practice NCLEX exams on and she said that it has helped her with test taking. I'm going to go talk to one of my instructors tomorrow about how I can improve and be successful with the program. I guess I just needed to vent because of all this stress that I have. There is nobody that knows what other nursing students are going through except for people who are going through it or who already have gone through it. If I do make it through I am going to need some serious counseling and hope that my hair grows back! I don't think I mentioned that my hair was falling out too! The bad part about it is I KNOW the material going into exam day but I screw up on those NCLEX style questions somehow. It's like "all answers are right but you are probably still wrong" type answers lol. I think I just need to work on the NCLEX style questions and reading the questions and answers thoroughly and not add anything to them in my head. Thanks for your response.

Okay y'all, I am in my 2nd semester of a 4 semester program. I did fairly well in the first semester and I do know "my stuff" during clinical. I have gotten very good marks and comments on my work in clinical. But these darn NCLEX style questions on exams are messing me up! I know the content, I do practice questions, watch videos, discuss content with other students in the class, and I STILL don't do so hot on the exams. We are halfway through the semester and I'm riding a 77 in my NUR 112 now and only have 2 more exams and a final exam to go until the end of it. So that means I have to make at least an 83 on the remaining exams to pass with an 80. It's not out of reach by no means but I just don't understand where I am going wrong with these exams! I think I may be second guessing myself too much, or maybe reading too much into the questions on exam day. I have a LOT riding on me to graduate nursing school on time. And if I fail it, I am not only failing nursing school but I am failing myself, my husband, my family, and everybody that has supported me throughout this time. I have put a too much time (and by time I mean YEARS), heartache, tears, and money to get my pre-reqs, entrance testing, equipment, etc. for me to fail now. I am 27 years old and I will be almost 29 if I graduate on time. I am holding off on starting a family, buying a car, and building a house until after I graduate nursing school. We are struggling now paying bills because I am not working while I am in school because I keep telling myself and my husband that it will be worth it in the end when I graduate and start working. I have constant nausea, headaches, depression, all because of this. I really just don't know what else I can do to help myself with these exams. My school is supposedly one of the most difficult ADN programs in the state because of its 100% pass rate on the NCLEX every year for the past several years. They implemented a new type of learning/teaching called Contextual Learning last year. The second year students started with 60 and are now down to ~25 left for the graduating class (that's if everybody passes this semester). My class has already lost around 15 students out of 60 and about to lose a lot more because of these difficult exams. Before last year they were graduating at least 40 a year but now its down to averaging 25 a year! It makes me sick. I need any advice you can give me, please. I am desperate!

I am considered morbidly obese as well and I felt the same way you do. Some of the instructors at my school are young and petite and I feel awkward when I go to them for help. I don't feel like I have been discriminated against in anyway but I did feel somewhat uncomfortable when we were going over the obesity part of metabolic diseases because I felt like everybody kind of looked at me :/. But I think that was all in my head because I have a lot of good friends in the program and a lot of them say how great of a nurse I am going to be because I know my stuff during clinical (although exams are getting to me here lately, eek). I do feel like I have to be "better than everybody else" to be considered equal with the class but like I said it is probably all in my head. It sounds like me and you have a lot in common as I have ALWAYS had issues with weight ever since I could remember. I have been tested for hypothyroidism many times only for it to come back "normal". I was diagnosed recently with PCOS but the doctor just put me on birth control for the hormonal effects but I quit taking that because it was tearing me up and making me gain MORE weight. Anyways, I may not look like the "model nurse" but I do eat healthy and exercise and that has to count for something. And I have found that a lot of patients, especially overweight/obese patients, are more comfortable with a heavier nurse and will open up more and not feel as intimidated like they would with a thinner nurse. I think people who have never had weight problems have ANY idea the struggle we go through everyday. It's not as easy as cutting calories and exercising. There is a physiological and psychological challenge we have to overcome as well. My doctor told me that a sugar addiction is just as bad as a cocaine addiction because the same pleasure chemicals are released in the brain for both addictions. That's why a lot of recovering cocaine addicts eat sugar straight out of the bowl.

I agree with you, except my agency is pretty good about not digging into my business. If I need a day off, I just shoot them an email saying what day or days I need off and that's it, no questions asked. I do agree that we are underpaid and that we should be compensated for gas mileage between clients' homes and being considered "on-call" 24/7. Another thing I don't like about HHC is that my agency has a bad habit of giving me a client to go see and not telling me ANYTHING except a last name and an address and the day and time I have to be there. They don't tell me anything about the care required, whether they are mobile or are totally paralyzed, who lives in the home with them (which it does make a huge difference if the client lives alone vs. living with 6 other people), or if they are even easy or difficult to get along with. I love my job and most of the time it is very rewarding, I just find it so awkward going into a client's home for the first time and not knowing anything about what's going on with them. I like helping a client who follows the careplan with me instead of me being considered a glorified house cleaner and/or personal chef and totally ignore what the careplan says that I need to do. In a way I think people who can care for themselves and have us come in anyway to clean their house is a waste of taxpayer money (well the ones on government assistance) and taking the hours they are getting with us and giving them to somebody who really needs our assistance. I have been to too many of these type of houses to be comfortable with it. I don't know what to do or say about it because the agency will just ignore my concerns with it because it will be money out of their pocket if they call the government entity that is responsible to tell them that the client is capable of taking care of themself and does not need our assistance.

I won't start the actual ADN program (the NUR classes) until August 2012. I don't know anybody that has been through the program before but I have never heard it being "impossible". It will probably be challenging and time consuming and involve lots of studying, which I have prepared myself for as much as I can. I don't know what the pre-req classes are like at Mitchell since I took the majority of those at Rowan Cabarrus Community College. I made all A's in my pre-reqs. I would recommend getting all of your pre-reqs out of the way before even trying to apply for nursing school. The only advice I can give you to do well in the pre-reqs is to study, do the assignments in a timely manner and show up to class. Have some form of communication with your instructor and with your other classmates. It made going to class enjoyable and I looked forward to going. I wouldn't recommend taking an online class unless you ABSOLUTELY have no other choice. I feel that I have to do a lot more work on an online class. I made an A in the online class that I took, but I feel that I wouldn't have struggled as much with it in a standard on-campus class. Another thing I have experienced is that evening classes (after 5PM) were a lot better classes to take. They seemed a lot more laid back and not as full as the day classes. The students were different too in that most of them were working adults and not kids straight out of high school. So the atmosphere and conversations were more serious and you feel like you are in college and not back in high school. Also the instructor is normally a part time employee with the college and has a full time job during the day. They understand that students have to work and they are more laid back about assignments and homework. Day classes are okay, I just felt like I was back in high school in some of them. The classes I enjoyed the most were Microbiology, Psy 150 and Psy 241. Microbiology class will change how you look at everyday things. I actually became a germaphobe for a short period of time during the class, and still am to an extent. That is all I have for now. If I think of anything else I 'll let you know. Good luck in your classes!

Yeah it kind of sucked that I have to run all these errands for the client in my own personal car with the gas the I purchased with my own money and did not get reimbursed for gas mileage from the agency.

I have worked in home health care for over 3 years now, and I have worked in LTC facility for 2 years before working in home health care. I thought I would like HHC better than LTC because of the flexibility of hours and one-on-one attention to clients. When I first started with HHC I really liked it, even though I wasn't getting stable hours. Now I am getting to the point that I don't like it as much. If you luck up and get a regular client, great. I have gotten lucky a few times with wondeful clients that treated me like family. I have also been stuck with a very unpleasant person's house while they slave drive you for 8 hours. God forbid you sit down to eat lunch or anything of that nature. I only like going to client's homes where they live by their self because I have been to clients homes where all their family lives and you have to try to work around them to try to get your work done. Sometimes the family can be helpful but mostly they get in my way. Not to mention you end up having to clean up after the family, even though I am there for the client and not to be a maid to the family. If I can help it, I try to only go to client's homes that are at least semi-mobile (where they can walk and have to deal with a wheel chair minimally). I find out what kind of neighborhood they live in and if they live in a dangerous part of town, I will not go to that client's house. I thought I would mention also that I am a younger caucasian female and I have no problem going to African-American clients. I have had some good experiences with some but sometimes they do have a problem with me especially the older generation in this part of the country (I am in the southeast). They have animosity towards me for no apparent reason other than because I am white. This has happened to me a couple of times at different homes. Some of them have a chip on their shoulder and believe that it is an opportunity for them to work me to death while showing no appreciation for my efforts. I try to be as sweet and kind as I can be and perform all the tasks on the care plan as thoroughly as I can. They also want me to do way more than what is on the care plan. I actually went to one black lady's house and she took one glance at me when I walked in her house and before I could even introduce myself she said "I don't know why they keep sending these WHITE girls out here, they don't know how to take care of BLACK people." Really? And she was VERY condescending and talking down to me like I was nothing to her the whole time I was at her house. She kept looking at me while I was doing my work and kept talking about how many HHAs she gotten fired at my agency and was quite proud of it. I did everything I could to please her and completed the tasks on the care plan and treated her as politely and as gently as I knew how and she STILL called the office and complained about me! I have a good reputation at my company so they knew when she called up to complain that she was full of crap! They asked me anyway what happened and I told them everything she told me. She is still a client of the company because my agency has tried to send me out there a couple of times and I say NO WAY. No I am not racist, but I do sometimes get treated differently at African-American homes. I imagine African-American HHAs probably sometimes gets the same grief at caucasion homes. I have had my good experiences with HHC though. I had a regular client for over 2 years up until he passed away. I loved him so much and his family. I was even mentioned in his obituary which was very honorable and made me cry when I saw it in the newspaper. I still keep in touch with the family now because we grew that close. I have a client now I have been with for almost 3 years and I am very close with his family too. HHC can be very rewarding if you can find the right client's that fit your personality and work style.

I did get my acceptance letter after a mix up of addresses. I guess they sent it to my old address instead of my new one (I thought I gave the school my new address??). Anyways I will be going April 27th to the orientation. If anybody else that reads this post that is going to Mitchell CC, please add me as a friend on here so I can get to know some people before I go! Thanks!

Thanks for looking this information up RT21! I will have to look into this.

CNAs are not required to be CPR certified at my company unless we are caring for patients under 18 years old. I had to pay for my own certification, which was like $35. I currently do not have any clients under 18. So if my certification would run out it is not mandatory to renew my CPR certification unless I get another client who is a minor.