Karen

You actually said to her "this isn't my first rodeo"? If so you owe her an apology, that's rude and condescending to someone responsible for your work as it is your first day on the job. And you are working in a psych facility with those kind of communication skills? Her concern was the patients--not making the paraniods more paranoid, whether for their sake or just the sake to have a drama free shift. Your response sounds like you were embarrassed.

Totally False

Yes healthcare for all would guard the general welfare. If you look at what was considered healthcare in 1776, there really wasn't any. Nor could they forsee or even imagine the possibilities of today.

Wow, that sums up a lot. I worked in Florida, so lots of elderly and sadly this is often the case. One vivid memory I have as a nurse was a shouting match on 4th of July with the oncall cardiologist (and it was a colleague cardiologist who had admitted the patient and was his attending) on addressing a do not resuscitate order and hospice consult on a guy just begging not to be on bipap and wanting to have a rootbeer. He was seriously endstage no question and had been on and off bipap and "worked on" all night. He was going to get intubated and go to MICU for his slow death or the a****le doctor who didn't want to deal with the situation, (he said he had seen him and he was fine) even with the patient and the family begging. I didn't back down and everyone knew it and could hear because it was loud, the doctor wrote the orders and left in a huge huff. In the end, after he was weaned from the bipap, he was DNR and hospice came in, he had rootbeer and his family and died the next day. I have to say one of my proudest moments as a nurse to fight for this guy and give him a rootbeer.

If religious employers such as hospitals and universities want to discriminate then they should not take any medicaid/medicare or other federal monies. Easy as that, no responsibility to government because you take nothing from them. There is no reason I should pay for health insurance every month and not receive any basic medical care and if for me basic medical care is contraception then so be it. Doesn't any one see how basic health care is of national importance? You wouldn't leave the military up to individual states. The priority of for profit health care is to eek out as much for their share holders as possible leaving patients with the minimum. I live in Florida where our current governor was CEO of a company that was fined millions for defrauding medicare---Great he's in charge and dismantling the public health system and decimating medicaid. I live where one of his hospitals was located and during the time that Columbia owned it the care was so bad, the facility so bad I could no longer take students there for clinical because everyday in post conference I would have to start with "That's an example of how things shouldn't be", and almost as bad at a not for profit hospital nearby the ceo makes $500,000 a year to manage 2 hospitals and some medicenters while on telemetry they wanted us to have 5 patients regardless of acuity and 2 nursing assistants for 26 patients, after they decided to add the stroke patients to our unit that was it for me.

I guess that isn't the college Newt Gingrich worked at

There are already many preventative care measures that are required by law in Florida (and I am sure in many other places, not like Florida to be forward thinking) such as well child visits and other preventative screenings. This is preventative care and should be covered. It seems to be a big deal because, GASP!!, in some cases women use birth control to avoid pregnancy during sex! Nurses could play such an important role in management of chronic illness (and research shows with much success) and prevention. We need an expansion of public health and programs for prevention and chronic disease. I am so fed up with the ridicuousness. Health is an issue of national concern, just as the military is a national concern.

Lets face it if men became pregnant contraceptives would be basic health care and no one would question it. For those saying BCP costs $10 month, where are you getting them because in this area $30-50 is what the going rate and even at PP depo shot is $75-110. IUD's and tubals/vasectomies should be more affordable and easily available. Countries with comprehensive sex education have lower abortion rates and unintended pregnancies so to start with giving people information about how their bodies work would be a great start. Why can't women be sexual beings? It seems that religion has totally perverted women's sexuality and have spent so much time and effort repressing/controling women. Sex is great, it is a basic human function, it seems to be the elephant in the room in this whole controversy.

I haven't heard of that but in general for someone without a lot of insulin resistance (which type 2 diabetics would have) 1 unit of regular insulin will reduce blood glucose by 10. So in terms of having an idea of what will happen when you give it you can figure if you give 5 units of regular it will decrease by 50 (or less with insulin resistance) but as far as deciding to give something other than what is ordered that is out of your scope of practice.

Here's the thing people believe life starts at a certain point based on science and/or their religious beliefs. I feel religious beliefs have no business deciding law because that is a persons personal belief and should not be forced on anyone. Now even contraception is being attacked by right wing religious conservatives. Initiatives are being made in many states to what will in effect outlaw most forms of birth control. What seriously ****** me off is not people disaggreeing with what I think but that women are standing by allowing MEN to make decisions regarding our reproductive rights and sexuality. That even a person can make a comment like if you became pregnant by rape just make the best of a bad situation, that is total crap and he is running for president. That Catholic Bishops can make decisions of whether women can receive basic health care. That organized religions dominated by men can suppress and pervert a women's sexuality. Our elected officials villify Planned Parenthood which was started by a nurse that was willing to go to jail to just to educate women about how their bodies worked and whos main focus is not abortion but prevention of abortion.

Totally agree

With more than 3,000,000 nurses, yes that is 3 MILLION PLUS nurses in the US why aren't we ruling? Just think if every nurse emailed their representatives in government and told them to stop trying to block access to contraceptives, sexual education, and attempting to squash Planned Parenthood. Or donated 1, 10, or 100 dollars to the ANA PAC? Nurses votes ALONE could determine who is President. Even more important nurses can play a huge role in local politics, what are a few deciding for all at local school board meetings? Doesn't it bother anyone else that the whole health care system was set up to benefit Drs and Hospitals, nurses were put in the bed charge because at the time when insurance companies and hospitals were developing nurses didn't matter and had no power. Why nursing care is not paid for directly (which would also make nursing the most revenue producer in a hospital rather than a revenue drain) Why chronic disease management by RN's is not reimburseable even though research shows its extremely effective. Blah blah blah, honestly after going on 27 years in nursing I feel like nothing has changed at all. Isn't it time we had a revolution?

It is an awkward situation for people to receive cath care and comments like that are a real teachable moment. I think your response about it being very important about preventing a UTI was spot on and probably she was embarrassed and needed some reassurance that this was not an issue for you and that it was important nursing care. BTW I wouldn't feel degraded being a stripper either, why are women so judgemental to women.

Is this from the same people who were shocked they had a baby in the first place because they drank mountain dew. Probably some tired mom made it up to get a break.

Because urine is so dilute this works for urine (may not work for other fluids) remember to weigh or zero out the scale with a dry diaper on it so you don't include that weight.

I am sure there are organizations that need volunteers, a good place to check would be your local health dept or planned parenthood office.

I reread your post and realized you weren't just coming for a winter contract. That hourly rate is probably what to expect for a full time position with benefits

Any RN's or ARNP's on the treasure coast interested in volunteering as little as 3 hours a month to prevent teen pregnancy and STD's in St Lucie County Florida? My sister is a health educator and director of teen zone, that runs a reproductive health services clinic for teens in St Lucie County via the Health Dept. The clinic is open two tuesdays a month from 3pm-6pm. Check it out at www.teenzoneslc.org Thanks! If teens and reproductive health don't interest you, my brother in law is the director of the HANDS Clinic in St Lucie County, a free clinic for uninsured people not eligible for medicaid and could use volunteers as well www.handsofslc.org

Personally, Brandon is a nicer area. It is basically a suburb of Tampa. Brandon is a newer area and tampa has a lot of fun stuff/culture, near beach etc. Kissimmee was an old small town and it became a touristy area on the way to disney world in the 70's and 80's, there is not much substance and traffic is crazy in Orlando and Kissimmee. As for the rate it sounds low for florida, especially night shift but I guess it depends on your differential. I live on the east coast (Ft Pierce) and have been to both cities many times, if I were going to work in one or the other I would pick Brandon.

This is not complicated if you know what a unit of blood is, what hgb is, and can see what the situation is....Ok 8-5=3, that is all the math in your question. The context is what makes it confusing as does it for most math questions early in nursing school because you don't know what the situation means. Hemoglobin is a lab values indicative of the amount of red blood cells. A unit of blood is a standard amount of red cells taken from one unit of whole blood. (a unit is a measurement not equivalent to anything else but that item, for example a unit of blood is not the same amount as a unit of insulin or a unit of heparin. In fact a unit of packed red blood cells may be a different volume from another unit of prbc's by some ml, 230 vrs 250 but are considered the same.) So to bring a hemoglobin up generally one unit of prbc's will increase the hgb by one gram--that's why you see it ordered like that--infuse one unit for every gram below 8. So hopefully if you infuse 3 units of blood the hgb should increase to 8 from 5. However, if it doesn't that indicates the patient is still bleeding. A hgb of 8 is not great to start with but with disease and risks with transfusions they are more conservative than 25 years ago when they transfused people with hgb's of 10 routinely. You start out by saying you are not good in math--stop saying that you are setting yourself up. Certainly you couldn't have gotten into nursing school without math skills.

I am sure you have learned your lesson but you should have gotten in your car and driven it back immediately to the hospital the minute you pulled it from your pocket.

I have found new nurses have difficulty with lab values. Also, I rotated shifts when I was just out of school and found the back and forth on sleeping made me a wreck in more ways than one (I even rearended someone, however minor, because I dozed off at a red light coming home) The solution for me was to just work nights until a daytime position opened up. I also found night shift had less in the way of doctors, testing, family members and had more time to focus on the patient (and learn more) plus more money.

Another vote for "Definately shoes!" No need for a nurse to spend big bucks on a stethescope, a low end littmann is all you need

Look how your text is organized. There might be 4 chapters on Cardiac with the first being patho. Most people read chapters in order but a lot of times the Nursing Care is in the later chapters. Start with those and look back to the patho and diagnostic tests info as it comes up in the nursing care. It will be more meaningful then and if you run out of time and only know the patho and diagnostics you won't do well on an exam that will be focused on nursing care.

When I taught nursing I saw a lot of this mostly from stress, poor eating, lack of exercise. Some schools have gyms students can use for free or at least have areas safe for walking. Some students would walk the campus during lunch or just after class. Also, taking your lunch and having healthy snacks helps to keep one away from vending machines. Eating breakfast is very important.