taxifolia

I have no experience in CA but: definitely TAKE the EMT course for the experience.... don't try to challenge it. as to new grads. I have only around 7 years corrections experience but if you are a new grad and especially a younger person I would not recommend starting in corrections if you have other opportunities. even if you are the best new grad nurse in the world. and the most mature. Because it will be harder for you when you are younger than older. When the inmates see a new young nurse come in, male or female, you will be the focus of their creative manipulative energies until another distraction comes along. So you skills will be challenged to the max. Not just nursing skills but people skills, that often take years to fully develop. Remember that while of course there are many very legitimately sick people inside, medical visits and seeing what they can "get" is a recreational activity for many inmates. So you need to think veterinary medicine sometimes. When I started in corrections I had about 8 years nursing experience but 25 years EMS experience, and in many ways the EMS/Paramedic experience was probably the more valuable in many ways. A common saying is that "how can you tell when an inmate is lying.. his lips are moving" sadly there is a lot of truth to it. It takes a lot of experience to not be manipulated. Now this is less of a problem in jails. With all of this said I do wish you luck, maybe my rambling will give you food for thought, you should also read a book "Downing A Duck" about some of the more overt manipulations that happened inside. You will sit in your home and say that would never happen to me, but some of our employees were escorted out of our facility that I never would have thought it would have happened to.

I have worked in two facilities and in both pre-pouring is an absolute no no..

In a medical office, if you are willing to work for a med asst pay, some providers are quite happy to then hire you as an RN, since that is what you are held to anyway, they just can't afford to pay you for it. I have done this and it can work out well for all involved if everyone starts out with a good understanding of the situation.

I called NSO as I have been covered by them for a number of years, and have only recently started working in corrections, they told me that they used to cover corrections until recently, but they no longer do, they said if you go to sign up for their insurance now that is one of the questions that they ask new people and will exclude them from getting insurance. existing people like us are also no longer covered but how we "discover" this change is more of a grey area. I did not go there in my discussion with them sue

go to http://www.proliability.com sue

HI "call you pharmacy first", is standard practice for this clinic I work in, it has nothing to do with concerns of any type, it is faster and more efficient for everyone concerned. If there are no changes, the old script is faxed from the pharmacy, reviewed, only needs the practicioner sig and entered on the chart faxed back and filed. and no handwriting to decipher!!! The script and all the info connected to it is already in the pharmacy system, even if there were no refills initially authorized. the pharmacies insist it is faster on their end to where we rarely will write a new script unless it is truly "new" to that pharmacy. we are not yet on electronic prescribing, not sure what that will mean. sue

hi I am considering applying for a position in corrections, if I am sucessful I would sure appreciate a heads up on the comments about the other staff members, I fear that I was terminated from my first hospital job because I did not appreciate the importance of politics, for lack of a better word, maybe listened to the wrong people, I want to be better prepared next time !!! thanks sue

Hi need to get LPN first, and check with the online school you select for additional classes, she might look into getting her LPN before coming to the States? as might be easier to get into a LPN program? you really need to do an online search of the availalbe programs to see what might be a good fit and realize that they can change requirements often. and to find out how they would look at nursing education from out of the US. sue

HI to add to the above right on reply, consider how the skills you have now might translate, i.e. you might not do blood draws now, but you do IVs? go to an online used book source (Amazon) and get a phlebotomy text and study it, and maybe a MA text as that was about the only resource I could find on office practices, get a used one as 90% of it will be much too basic and useless to you. you just need to get familiar with the things you probably did not learn in nursing school, at least I didn't. like scheduling, insurance, general office practices a feel for how things are done in the office vs. the hospital. this might help you to present yourself as knowledgable and having the elements of "experienced" if not in the normal sense. and while some of this is "front office" vs. back office you should know all of it in a general way. where I work in a small office you need to be able to do both. just some thoughts and good luck sue

to muddy the waters on cranberry a little further, I recently did a Goggle and found new study(S), maybe from UK that showed cranberry was not the concern that it has always be considered, I'm sending this message from memory, I did not print or save the reference, but if you are really trying to track it down try a Google search and you will find it along with the many traditional references to cranberry being a concern and that you must either eliminate it or be very consistant with it. and always with a single study, take it for what it is worth.

HI just one additional comment, in OR, an RN, if also current in ACLS, PHTLS, and PALS I think (going from memory on this, have not needed to look it up lately), can serve on an ambulance at a parmedic, you might just want to check if your state has any similar provision. although I was an EMT then Paramedic, then RN, I believe there would be value to taking an EMT course, and there is still truth to the saying that "basics" (EMTs) save paramedics, because of the knowledge from those courses.

Maybe there is some poor comm going on here.. in my hospice we use scop patches and atropine patches, and rarely a Lasix neb, and they do work effectively to manage sectretions in pts that also have an existing condition that caused problematic increased secretions, in which case we have suction on hand and we use it when pt is "actively dying" just like before. however it is real important to start early and agressively with the patches and drops, it sounds like you came into a stiutation where sectretions had been allowed to develop untreated for too long, I don't know how effective the patches or drops would be then, have not been in that situation, and perhaps that (how did that situation develop) should be part of your discussion and thought process, and what to change so it would not again. I am puzzled about " actively dying" comment. of course you treat the actively dying, whatever. ok, I have the advantage of being in a hospice hospital, so care is more continuous, in that situation for us those treatments for us are amazingly effective. I hope your meeting goes well, don't give up on this too quickly.

I now work in a clinic, find it more rewarding than I expected, others seem impressed with my knowledge, I avoid discussions with co-workers that could go to nursing school (of course it was on my application).

HI I don't know if this will help, but I came with many years of IV experience so I knew how to find veins etc. and I bought a used Pheb. book asap from Amazon.com and devoured it and my employer taught me the rest, not much really, local practice issues, on the job.. Good Luck

I did this program 8 years ago when it was Regents, after 25 years as a Paramedic. I put a lot into it and did very well. including the CPNE, I did not attend their prep workshop, although I wanted to, it was very stressful, but I passed all of my stations first try and was the first person to complete. and I am a bit of a perfectionist which is both the good news/bad news here. I had no prior hospital experience. and maybe not enough knowledge about the culture of nursing for lack of a better way to put it. I was hired immediatly at the first place I applied, a small rural hospital. without going into the long details everything seemed to be great until the other nurses found out that I had gone through Regents. I went from being great to being a new grad without support, a active preceptor or a teamwork environment. and the other nurses, I was told by the DON, just felt they were not sure they could count on me to pull my share when things got tight, and this was not because of errors in practice or lack of knowledge, but because I was just somehow different than they were used to. and maybe too independent. this is perhaps something an ex paramedic needs to watch. but it is serious. nursing is a teamwork environment, and you need to be able to work as a team member, I think you learn that "culture" and practice in nursing school, not in distance learning. and it did seem the harder I tried to worse it got. I was fired and devasted. I tried to enter a re-entry program at a local community college to get additional training, even though I had a active license, they would not take me but would accept me to re-take the entire two year program. In summary, while there are many sucess stories, in the context of nurses "eating" their young this degree and preparation does at least provide another opportunity. and some states will not license its graduates.