broke1

I'm wondering if anyone has information on how you go about being compensated for providing nursing care for a family member. Although I'm not a home health care nurse, I do provide nursing care for my mother on a regular basis. The reason for the question is that my direct care is responsible for keeping her home, thus saving the insurance company much $$$. If she's hospitalized, she does get home care for a couple of weeks and then it stops, leaving me to pick up where they leave off. She's my mom and I'm doing it because I care about her, but shouldn't there be a mechanism to be compensated since the insurance company is saving money because of my license? I did contact the Missouri BON who said they have heard of it but have no specific information about it. Thanks,

I know a few folks that graduated from STLCC and the wait time was not reality for them. It seems many people apply and get on the list but things happen such as poor grades in pre-reqs or even acceptance in other programs. Basically, a lot can happen in 2 years. I went to an out-of-state school because of relocation and found the circumstances to be a little different there. They did away with their "list" and based entry off the top 10% (35) applicant's entrance exam scores and cumulative GPA from their pre reqs. If you didn't make the cut, you had to re-apply.

i know we live in a very litigious society and agree with the moderator about using people's names, especially in a defamatory way, but is there risk involved in giving one's opinion of a particular school or program, be it positive or negative?

I just finished a program in Ohio and moved to Missouri so I'm stuck in the paperwork transition waiting for boards etc... I had similar thoughts during clinicals. My last 9 weeks, my group (6 students) were essentially turned loose on a med/surg - telemetry floor. Worried? Heck yes. What if I make a mistake? My instructor told us this: You're all essentially nurses now and just working on finalizing things and NCLEX review. Look at it as though you work here - BE a nurse. I learned more about being a nurse then, than I did the entire program because I knew the stuff, I just was affraid to apply it. I'm not afraid any longer and other than orientation to the facility I choose to work at, I'm confident I'll do fine as will you. Congrats on passing your boards and as the commercial says, "just do it".

Perhaps the change could start with those of us in the profession. Calling men in nursing "male nurses" is not much different than what the patient did. As far as filing the report of discrimination, would more people have agreed with the action if she had said she didn't want a "black nurse" or "white nurse"? I agree that patients have rights as to who they will allow to care for them, but not the way she did it. I too, have been "fired" by patients because I'm a man. Do you really believe it doesn't bother us?

This is 2006, not 1906 right? My mail is delivered by a female. I think she does as well as a male but I'm not sure. I noticed a female on a pumper the other day. I think she knows how to put out fires but I'm not sure. Just to be safe, if my house is on fire, I'll call 9-1-1 and ask for an all-male engine company. If I ever have chest pain and the doctor happens to be female, I'll ask for a male because I'm just not sure that she's competent in what WAS a traditional male role and hopefully.....I won't infarct waiting. Nurses AND patients need to get over it. Personally, any patient who happens to be female requests a nurse who is also female to insert a catheter, that's ok with me. The pay is the same. It's a good thing patients don't ask for nurses based on race. How offended would you be if you were black and the patient only wanted a white nurse, or visa versa? I'll just be glad when we get to drink from the same fountain as the ladies.

Believe it or not cuteCNA, it's possible for us males to control ourselves, even around someone as lovely as you must be. If your choice is a female caregiver, that's fine, but don't try to qualify your decision with such a stereotypical view on males. My A&P classes located the male brain in the skull, not the member. If a person (male or female) cannot get past a patient's gender and their looks, they're in the wrong profession anyway. With the nusing industry being represented by only 6% male, it will take some time to overcome the gender bias. On the women's side: We can surely understand some of what they've had to put up with over the years so I think a little "patience" is in order.

A few months ago I was elevating a patients bed to change her linnen. I didn't notice the IV pole on the headboard and it went through her overhead light, causing the flourescent tubes to explode. Most of the glass was contained in the fixture but the noise increased her LOC for a while. I really felt like a dumbass but at least no one was hurt. I also found out it happens fairly often. It seems the new beds don't conform to the old rooms. Go figure.

We have all see good doctors and bad ones as well as good nurses and bad ones. I think what you do on your own time IS your business. Nursing school is a huge time committment, and unless you're being forced to go, it's on your time. It's possible to get straight A's in nursing school without studying while staying out late partying every night. Winning the lottery is also possible.

I just entered the field as a Nurse Assistant in January. I came from a management and administrative background and left it bacause I hated what I was doing. Of the 20 or so NAs on my floor, only 2 of us our males. There are only 2 male RNs as well. Industry wide, about 5% of nurses are male, so it only makes sense that you would have more problems with females than males. Like it or not dude, you gotta learn to deal with the ratio or you're not gonna make it. I experienced some of the same things you wrote about, and still do, and probably always will, but I'm learning to put my opinions to the side and just concentrate on fixing the problem. I actually got reprimanded by both my Nurse Manager and my Nurse Educator because I didn't take a lunch break one day. Every NA and RN had left for a variety of reasons and I was stuck watching the entire hall (14 rooms) by myself for about an hour. I got yelled at. Make sense to you? I feel your pain. There are a few perks we get for being male: 1. Female pts almost never let us insert or perform catheter care. 2. I get my choice of lockers in the locker room. 3. Men's room is usally open so no running to the next hall like the women sometimes have to do. 4. Guys don't try to look down my scrub top when I take their BP. 5. A number of patients think I'm a doctor so they behave better (at first) 6. A female pt. can "fire" me because I'm male, and it's ok with everyone. 7. Psych. pts don't deal me nearly as much BS as the ladies put up with, even the female ones. You'll get used to it.....or not. lol

You may want to check your local hospitals for tuition assistance with nursing school. Many are short on RNs and will pay quite a bit and some even pay for all of your schooling. I'm finishing pre-nursing next spring and should start nursing school next fall. I hired into a Nurse Assistant program at a local hospital where they provide a 200 hour course with clinicals and skills validation. There is no state certification for it, but you do a lot of nursing skills on the floor like catheters, enemas, IV removal, O2 administration and so on...lots of charting. One school allows PCTs or NAs to test out of Intro to Nursing or better known as "bed, bath and beyond" if they have at least 6 months experience. I found the Community College is $66 per hour. The tuition assistance offered by my hospital will cover nearly all of it.

Our NAs dc IVs, insert and dc catheters and in one of our sister facilities they draw blood and are called patient care Techs. I think it really varies across the board as to what they can do and I'm not sure there's any logic for calling one a NA and the other a PCT. We had to complete a 200 hour course taught in our nursing school and go through skills validation to become a NA. Since we are not licensed or certified by the state, I'm not sure how they get approval. It most likely has alot to do with the medical director. We're called Nurse Assistant II and don't believe we employ any NA Is. My guess is the state is aware of what we do. In this litigeous society, I doubt a hospital would risk such a practice just to save a few $$$ if it wern't approved. Hope that helps.

Very well said.

As I indicated, things are done different state to state and so on. Our Facility is part of a consortium of hospitals with 18,000 employees. Even though we all fall under corporate guidelines, each hospital still differs from the rest. One example might me NAs in one facility can draw blood while in another they cannot. Our NAs incert Foleys while thay cannot in some of the other facilities. Don't misunderstand, the RN is still the team leader and issues instructions and has the final say. My point was merely in our facility, the NA would be the one shaving the patient, therefore our nurses give them full reports that are pertinent to their job. Educating a patient on shaving practices while on blood thinners is basic information and totally within the relm of our NAs to teach. No matter what your position, no one has the right to chastize another team member, either above or below them, in the chain of command while within in front of the patient. The aid was wrong for what she did but not for the original education.

I believe the role of the NA is different from facility to facility and even state to state. The NAs in our hospital do much of the patient education on admit, during their stay and at discharge. They are trained to do so in a 200 hour in-house course. Obviously the NA cannot educate on many things, some of which are directly related to medications and their effect on the patient. However, the RN on the team is responsible for letting the NA know of such things like blood thinning drugs as they do change the way the NA performs their patient care. Some NAs may be jealous or envious of RNs for whatever reason. Many are nursing students themselves and may possess the knowledge of the medication and many simply do not wish to have the responsibility that comes with RN. In our facility, the NAs and the RNs have their own patient care responsibilities that often overlap by design. NAs do not report to RNs because they are RNs. They report to the Nurse Manager just as the RNs and LPNs do.