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If you know your patient is going to be vomiting before hand, you would wear a face shield and mask to protect against bodily fluids. Before putting on the mask, smear a bit of minty toothpastes below your nose (not the mask because you don't want to destroy the integrity of the mask). Should help alot IF it's the smell that's gets to you. The same applies with still specimens.

Maybe it's in the back of your mind that it's your agencies protocol to wait. Either way...food for thought and something to look into at your place of employment to open up discussion on improving patient outcomes.

I've done that too!!!

just a thought...O2 sat should be placed on opposite arm from arm you're doing BP on. This was never taught to me in nursing school.

There is some great discussion here. Our college here in Ontario, Canada just updated our Medication standard and I would like to quote it here: "The College advocates for the same nurse performing all administration steps to minimize the chance of error and clarify individual accountability. This document applies to prescription drugs as well as other substances, including over-the-counter medications and herbal preparations." As you can see, this applies not only to prescribed medications, but also to over-the-counter medications which a suppository would fall under this if it is a laxative. I would also like to point out that being "pass the buck" does not allow you to do the following in OP situation: Verifying: - the right patient - the right medication - the right reason - the right dose - the right frequency - the right route - the right site, and - the right time If you would like to check out our medication standards here in Canada, you can read it here: http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cno.org%2FGlobal%2Fdocs%2Fprac%2F41007_Medication.pdf&ei=khKzVLPQLI6XyATluIDACQ&usg=AFQjCNHFYRDmGSqA2sQvnq2s8H24HMPL3g&sig2=T_EyWmq2mpCEpWCu7KwB1w&bvm=bv.83339334,d.aWw I know that nursing isn't a black and white profession, but in my opinion, some things need to be treated this way such as medication administration. Ultimately, we are protecting the patient's safety and our own licenses and we can never be too careful in that regard. I do, however, humbly respect everyone's opinion.

Another exception to the rule may be the prepping of vaccines for mass immunization campaigns. Otherwise, a vehement NO.

The only meds I would give if prepped by someone else is pharmacy. I'm a Canadian nurse so maybe the rules are different here but I highly doubt it.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind giving a suppository if a nurse asked me too if I did all the checks and signed the med off.

Nope. I wouldn't do it. The person who is doing the three safety checks and signing off the med as administered is the person that gives the suppository. Safe handling of medication administration. What at if they made an error and gave you the incorrect medication to aminister? Potentially huge consequences for you.

This is what angers me about the CDC regarding this entire situation. Currently, the CDC only is recommending to front-line health-care workers such as NURSES personal protective equipment for EBOLA from the BSL - Level 2 - for microbes that pose a "moderate risk" yet classify Ebola as a BSL - Level 4 - a toxins that is exotic and frequently fatal and has no treatment or vaccine, thus advising the wearing of full body, air-supplied, positive pressure suits - basically - a hazmat suit. Additionally, for potential and known Ebola victims, the CDC only recommends a single patient room (containing a private bathroom) with the door closed and a log of all persons entering the patient's room for our front-line staff, no dedicated supply and exhaust air, or use of vacuum lines and decontamination systems. Is this appropriate? Should more precautions be taken/recommended? Are the BSL Level 2 protected nurses who became infected with Eboa in the United States this past week a wakeup call that the current CDC recommended Level 2 precautions are not enough? Why is the CDC only recommending BSL - Level 2 precautions to its frontline nurses and health-care professionals? Is it really fair to be blaming nurses for a breach in protocol when the protocol recommendations may be insufficient and never breached at all? Please see the following PDF I put together about the above information detailed further with information taken from the CDC website. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4u2BWNTMUiJeUVpRjN3Z2lkdWM/view

Don't get fooled into thinking your hospital is prepared if they are going off of CDC recommended guidelines. I put this together from information I gathered from the CDC and their recommended precautions to prevent transmission of Ebola is contradictory. Currently, the CDC only is recommending to front-line health-care workers such as NURSES personal protective equipment for EBOLA from the BSL – Level 2 – for microbes that pose a “moderate risk” yet classify Ebola as a BSL – Level 4 – a toxins that is exotic and frequently fatal and has no treatment or vaccine, thus advising the wearing of full body, air-supplied, positive pressure suits – basically – a hazmat suit. Additionally, for potential and known Ebola victims, the CDC only recommends a single patient room (containing a private bathroom) with the door closed and a log of all persons entering the patient's room for our front-line staff, no dedicated supply and exhaust air, or use of vacuum lines and decontamination systems. Is this appropriate? Should more precautions be taken/recommended? Are the BSL Level 2 protected nurses who became infected with Eboa in the United States this past week a wakeup call that the current CDC recommended Level 2 precautions are not enough? Why is the CDC only recommending BSL – Level 2 precautions to its frontline nurses and health-care professionals? Is it really fair to be blaming nurses for a breach in protocol when the protocol recommendations may be insufficient and never breached at all? Please see the following PDF I put together about the above information detailed further with information taken from the CDC website. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4u2BWNTMUiJeUVpRjN3Z2lkdWM/view

For future: I did a NANDA pdf search in Google and found a legit pdf from Elsiveir, publishing company of Aukley's text that I thoroughly recommend: http://www.elsevieradvantage.com/samplechapters/9780323085496/Sample%20Chapter.pdf now...here's the best part...if you already have text books by Elsiveir, you can sign up to their free student extras at their evolve.com site (it will tell you in the textbook how) and even if you didn't buy the Aukley's, you can register the book in evolve website and have access to all the NANDAs without buying the book. And my favourite, they have a care plan constructor that will simplify making your care plans.

Safety. Safety. Safety. During my first codes I looked for opportunities for the environment to be safe. I moved furniture out of the way. Anticipated safety hazards. Made sure gloves were available and gave them to code staff when they realized they hadn't donned their gloves. All code patients will be hooked up to IV so get a bag of Normal Saline primed and ready to go. Stuff is flying everywhere during a code. Pick up garbage from off the floor or kick it off to the side so it doesn't become a hazard; ie. catheter and needle caps. If syringes for needles are retractable after use, be there to put them in the sharps container immediately. Keep your ears open for supplies needed. Doc will call out what they need and you can go get it. Repeat back that you are grabbing the supplies. You know the stock room better than the code team and time is of the essence. If you hear the doctor ordering a 16 French catheter with urometer, you can say I'm grabbing the catheter supplies and will be right back. If the room is shared, push the other patient beds as far away as possible from the code to give more space for the code team and equipment. Remember to lock those moved beds right away. Angle the bed if necessary so that the bed with the Pt coding can be wheeled out to ICU/Stepdown. Draw the curtain between Pt coding and room-mates in same room. Remember to don your gloves right away too. Things can be messy with bodily fluids. Other things you can grab for a code: - oxygen tubing - biohazard bag for specimens (they'll be drawing blood; once done and labels signed, you can make sure the blood gets sent off to the lab STAT) - restraints if the Pt has "come around" but is resisting the code teams interventions like intubation or IV lines/catheter

the first 2 semesters i colour coded my courses with different coloured binders. i gradually transitioned from handwriting lecture notes to bringing my laptop and taking notes that way. (for me this was so much better and i focused on the lectures better...i also recorded lectures on my laptop and if i wanted to review something, i typed the time stamp right into my notes so i could find it quickly.) when an exam or quiz came up, i would print my notes and put them in colour coded duotangs based on the course. made it nice when archiving my notes in bankers boxes at the end of each semester and quick to pull them up when i needed to review. essentially, all my notes are on computer also hard copy. i always emailed myself my notes each day as an additional backup and (shortcut for saving a doc) became my best friend. i also learned lots of other shortcuts along the way. our curriculum expected us to do our "packages" before we came to class so a group of us 6 girls (we stuck out the whole program together for the most part) would each be assigned a package to type out for the week and complete and email to the rest of the group members via a deadline. then it was a matter of filling in the blanks and fleshing out the notes on laptops during lecture. this worked great for me and i graduated with a 90% average. you will spend 1st semester finding out what works best for you and fine tuning in it throughout the rest of your program:) good luck!

Yay I passed! I'm in Hamilton, Ontario.

lol. that's funny. do you ever recall getting mail on a Saturday? tee hee. just flyers and newspapers. i wish we got mail on Saturdays. waiting is hard. From someone that failed (not me) and has the exam breakdown, the passing grade is 107/177. that equals a passing grade of 60.45% Check out the conversations at the Canadian Practical Nurse Registration Examination (CPNRE) facebook group.

there is no mail service on weekends guys. unless the results are coming by courier which i doubt. i believe results are sent out using Canada Post. correct me if i am wrong.

i have a classmate who got her PASSING results today. we went to school together in Hamilton but she lives in Toronto and may have wrote her exam in Toronto.

Quote from fellow classmate re: Ontario

how is the pass mark for the exam set? the pass mark is set in reference to the content and the difficulty of the test questions. the pass mark is not set using a norm-referenced approach such as “bell curving”. the pass mark is set by a panel of content experts from across canada. these content experts work closely with entry-level practical nurses, and include educators, experienced practitioners and administrators. the pass mark is set at a level that represents the performance expected of a competent entry-level practical nurse. the panel of content experts reviews each exam question and produces ratings based on a common understanding of a competent entry-level practical nurse. in addition to these ratings, a variety of relevant data (for example, information on the preparation of new graduates, data on results from previously administered exam) are carefully considered to ensure that the pass mark that candidates must achieve on the exam is valid and fair. based on this information, an appropriate pass mark is set. also, to ensure fairness, the different versions of the exam are equated so that all candidates have to meet the same standard regardless of the version of the exam. for each form of the cpnre, the pass mark is the same across writing centres and across provinces and territories. the pass mark is also the same for english and french versions of the cpnre. -assessment strategies inc. - canadian practical nurse registration examination

Hmmm. I'm going to list things that you won't necessarily be told you need or what comes in handy. This is tough...: 1. Bic multicolor pen (the one with red, black, green and blue all in one) 2. Clipboard 3. Pocket sized ruler 4. Pocket-sized notebook 5. Elastics (if your hair is long, nurses must tie their hair up) 6. Advil/Tylenol (believe me, you'll get stress headaches during class. Kill them right away with analgesics so you can keep concentrating) 7. Good water bottle (always stay hydrated) 8. Recorder (if you have an iPhone or android you can use their apps...bring your charger) 9. Powerbar + extension cord (if you plan on bringing your laptop to class for lectures, you'll be in competition for electrical outlets. Save the day and come prepared.) 10. Hand cream (all that hand washing and hand sanitizer really dries the hands out...treat them right) 11. Sticky tabs (for your gigantic textbooks, drug guide and your notes) 12. Nail clipper (nurses need to keep their nails short for physical assessments involving palpating)

Wow!!! Unbelievable. I am so sorry you are experiencing this. I would be inclined to speak to a lawyer about this. What you have experienced is defamation of character and is a chargeable offense. You don't need to go this route but I think you should check out your options or at least scare the common sense back into this instructor and give her a badly needed life lesson by having a lawyer draft up a letter with a warning should an occurrence happen again or your marks are affected. If your parents are supportive or your spouse (sorry, I don't know your age) I would get them involved. Also, have a third party unbiased school staff member sit in on all your future meetings with the DON, one on one with the instructor, etc. Your school should have someone like this on staff for this purpose. Often called a mediator. This is very serious. Treat it as so. Don't hang your head down and be passive as another poster suggested. We as nurses need to tackle conflict head on in an assertive manner that is respectful to ourselves and others around us.

I would also check out the NURSING PROCESS and CARE PLANNING. It is the holy grail of nursing. It's how we do what we do. You can google the nursing process and get lots of info. Just do some light reading up on it. The concept was so foreign to me when I first started learningit. It would have been nice to know some of the concepts ahead of time.Btw, I did an LPN program in Canada:)

Are you close to your school? Do you have your school ID? If so, you may be able to access the campus library and sign out books already. Also, if you have a school email account, you may also be able to access the schools digital library where you can browse numerous Nursing books online. I just finished my nursing program and if there was anything I would have liked to have a head start on was pharmacology. There are so many drugs you have to learn. I would suggest starting on Heart Meds (Ace Inhibitors, ARBS, Nitrates, Beta Blockers, Calcium Channel Blockers, etc.), Diabetic Meds (oral and injection) and Respiratory Meds. Study the meds by classification for now and when you have to go more in depth for school it should be a whole lot easier and less overwhelming.

Hi Everyone! Thought I would start a thread for our examination group. I found the exam really challenging but after reading the CPNRE - January 2012 threads and seeing how freaked out everyone was and worried that they failed, then seeing their posts about passing the exam, I feel encouraged. I also spent a good month prepping by reviewing my notes, doing the prep guide, doing the predictor tests, and doing various test bank questions from dozens of textbooks and internet sites. I am becoming quite confident that I passed. From what I can gather, the passing grade for last January's exam was only a 56%!!! Let's hope it is the same for us, as some of the repeat writers who failed the January exam but wrote the May exam found it as equally as difficult. Please post your thoughts about your CPNRE May 16, 2012 experience! - Rachel Mohawk Practical Nursing Program Jan. 2010-April 2012 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada