katy_kenemy

It took me seven years to get hired at the hospital of my choice. (as a CNA). Seven years!!!! I worked a lot of crappy jobs til then. I am happy now. Never give up! I also have the lowest GPA I have ever heard of actually existing. I want to do nursing schoool, but my grades were adversely affected by my profound postpartum (postpartnum?) (sp?) situation--- now I am on meds but still stuck with the grades I had earned. So I face quite a struggle. I will not give up yet. I hope you don't either.

Thank you Melissa--- I know I will use this information when I am a nurse. ---Katy

Ohmigod, I thought this said homophobia! I was like no, never have been homophobic. Hemophobia.Never been that either!

just my opinion, but being a perfectionist is wrong for nursing. because if you want to do everything perfect, you will never go home. i think someone on allnurses once said the thing was to not get all upset over stuff that was not worth it, and i think that is key. i find the perfectionists get upset over every little thing and take forever to get the simplest task done, and need help constantly.

i would love to be called a beautiful lady.

I personally think you are entitled to ask any damn question you want, even if you are asking others to do your work for you. Sometimes hearing it put a certain way by the right person gets it in your head and it sticks that way. I feel that way about EKGs (which I am learning right now); hearing my "Old Nurse" friend explain it gets it in my head in a way studying does not. And besides, what ever happened to the idea that the brightest students ask lots of questions?

I know what you mean! I see it all the time! Maybe at some point when you are a nurse you will have the opportunity to sit down and talk with these families, explain to them what it means that the pt is a full code. Sometimes when you simply say to them, with compassion and honesty, "I see your father/mother/whatever is a full code. This means that if something happens we will have to do everything possible to save them, inclusing chest compressions and possibly a ventilator," they will say, "Oh no, we don't want that." It is surprising how often they change their minds when you put it like that. I hope you don't mind the unsolicited advice; I just see nurses all the time who don't broach the subject and I feel so sorry for the pts. Does anyone else out there have ideas for how to broach the subject? I would like to know.

My nursing instuctor assisted in a roadside emergency. He then got sued for not (allegedly) working at a level on par with his skill level. He had insurance and the insurance paid them off. My other nursing instructor refuses to work roadside emergencies. I stopped to help a drunk driver who had crashed into a wall. She later claimed I had caused the accident!!!!!!!! I had to go to court, at the last minute she accepted a plea bargain and I did not have to testify. Still, I don't do roadside emergencies.

My hospital has CNAs in the ER, also in critical care/ICU. In ER, they mostly transport, comfort and clean up pts/rooms.

I thought some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, change the very structure of the brain and would be visible during an autopsy. ?

I love the "old time nurses." They know what they are doing and don't freak out everytime something goes wrong, and they don't spend half the shift talking about their burgeoning bellies and showing ultrasound pics. Just my 2 cents. They also have enough experience and are secure in being a good nurse, so they are not afraid to laugh at things that are funny--- they are not as P.C.

I pray that when the day comes for me to go to LTC, I have strong advocates like you and your family. Bless you.

try sending in your app via snail mail and include a couple letters of recommendation. it worked for me! : )

don't forget, CNAs cannot supervise or delegate. that is the nurse's job. this should be in your CNA book.

I am so sorry things are bad for you right now. I work at a pretty good hospital : ) if you ever want to travel here, private message me and I will tell you where I work and anything else you want to know about the place.

it used to really irk me when pts used to say things like, "that's good, right?" (about a 160/90 BP). i always felt like blurting, "no, that sucks!" or about a 90/50 BP: "how am i still alive?!" they say. i just used to want to roll my eyes and promise them they won't die. i do seriously love the little old people who assume we catch up on our sleep in between pts. "have you gotten any sleep tonight honey?" "yes ma'am, thank you for asking," i say, figuring if they think i need my sleep they are more likely to go back to sleep themselves. it usually works.

I don't think it is as likely as you do that they won't remember you. I always thought that with Alzheimer's, at least, the pt can have lucid moments. So if you promised to write, I think you should write. It's not your fault you can't be as consistent as you would like with visiting and writing because you are in nursing school.

the most important thing for you to know, IMO, is that this year next time you will be totally confident and will have learned and accomplished so much, not from knocking yourself out or being overly critical or trying too hard, but just from showing up every day and doing your best. also, if you feel too freaky at work, show up on your free time and enjoy the residents. they'll grow to know you and trust you and your job will be easier for it.

this all sounds childish to me. let's face it, CNAs and other lowly jobs (i am a CNA, so i can say that) are people who have not had the opportunities that other people with more socio-economic class have had. therefore their social skills are not the greatest. and it shows. of course, sometimes they are just young, but that comes with poor social skills--- usually--too. i don't think you should say anything to anyone. except maybe the CNA involved, if it bothers you that much.

When I originally trained in LTC, the creepy girl who taught me kept referring to the residents as "them." I found it dehumanizing. It was very clear to me she thought of "them" as different from the rest of the world. I would like to evetually see pts occasionally referred to, when individual names are not possible, as "our guests." I think it could really change how we see them. I do not mind an occasional sweetheart or whatever. I once wrote an entire essay (long gone) on how to talk to older people, including people with dementia, so I am pretty passionate about the subject. To people who snarl, "Talk to them just like anyone else!" I would suggest that communication is a fairly complex skill, learned (internalized) before many are conscious of how complex it is; speaking to an elderly person with compassion and conscious intent can lead us to greater compassion and better intent. (Whew! That's my rant for the day). There is a customer service book called Customer Service for Dummies that helped me a lot, and there is an essay on dementia called "Using illogic logic in dementia care" by Susan Hart. It may be on the net somewhere.

I think you should go for it! Then you can really call yourself both a feminist and a romantic! And nobody can argue with you because you will be living it! I would do the same thing in a second, if I had (sigh) a man to do it with.

It was kind of lame, yes. I love House---- so much so that one of my birthday presents is an autographed picture of Hugh Laurie, so much so I spent forty dollars on the House first season DVD and another eighty for a DVD player when I am on a sad-ass CNA budget. BUT, you may be interested to know that House has a message board on their website so if you want you can tell them as much as you want. Just type in House MD on your search engine.

Our UC's often go to school. There is some kind of program at the local community college. They make about the same as what the aides make, which is absurd, about $8.00/hr to start. They deserve more! They often work without breaks or even lunch. Under lots of stress too. If this interests you, you could take medical terminology at the local community college and that would help you understand the terminology and the abbreviations. Good luck!

My hospital recently went non-smoking. If a pt really wants to smoke, we are supposed to let them go AMA. Well, some of the nurses have been letting them go out to the parking lot and turning a blind eye. Guess what. A pt went out to smoke, while he was out there he drank some alcohol, came back to his room, aspirated and died. I thought I would post this so maybe it would prevent other deaths. I am a little shaken up about it, to be honest.

i work for a private non-profit. we have great benefits--- if you pay your fifteen dollar co-pay, or fifty for ER, everything else is basically covered. on the other hand, the rate of pay is not so great--- because it is a rural hospital. i pay about seventy dollars a month for myself and my child, including dental. our vision is free, but we only get one vision check/glasses or contacts a year. dental cleanings are free, i recently got 2 wisdom teeth out for 20 dollars each and was thrilled. meds vary-- usu. about 10 dollars per, fifteen or 20 for non-preferred scripts.