psych308

I don't know what resources or time you have available at your facility, but in the times that this has happened to me, I've been lucky enough to take time to educate and reassure the patient. I usually do this by: 1. Acknowledging their fears ("I understand that this pill looks different than what you take everyday and that this makes you worried") 2. Explaining the reason for the difference ("In this facility, we use generic brands because they cost less for the hospital, which means sometimes the pill or package looks different. It's like buying Aquafina instead of Dasani--both are still water, just different brands") 3. Showing them the package and a reference ("This says Quentiapine--that is the generic name for the brand name Seroquel. See how this website says they're the same?") For most of my patients, this has been enough. I find that this works a lot better than explaining noncompliance or saying "just trust me" or whatever.

At my facility we were having this same issue. IMO, the problem is the bystander effect. People get complacent with not doing checks due to not having experienced a situation where something went wrong, and everyone assumes the next person will just do it. A few RNs put their concerns into writing to the supervisor with a suggestion of having assigned round times (either in hour blocks or at a set time each hour per person depending on staffing,) with a document requiring to be initialed as each person walked. It caused a fuss with the people who were set in their ways of never checking, but it took the pressure off of the few people that were constantly having to round all night long. It is definitely a better process now for employees and for patient safety. Try taking the pressure off your supervisor by suggesting a solution and seeing if that helps the situation.

I have a question about a calorie free soda sweetened with a sugar alcohol. It's called Honest Fizz organic zero calorie soda. It states that it has 7g of carbs, 0g of sugar. The ingredients are: carbonated water, organic erythritol, organic caramel color, natural flavors, organic stevia leaf extract, citric acid. My question: would I cover those 7g of carbs if I were giving this soda to a patient?

I'm not sure about nursing homes specifically, but I know that in my hospital we aren't paid for our lunches. We are scheduled for 12.5 hour shifts with a half hour of that automatically deducted for our lunches we are supposed to be taking. However, we have an option on our time clock as we clock out to choose "worked through lunch" which will pay us for the whole time we were clocked in, such as if we were too busy to take a lunch.

If you haven't already started applying for jobs, I definitely would start looking online at positions you are interested in and have a resume ready. I waited until I passed the NCLEX to apply for jobs figuring they wouldn't even consider me until I had licensure, but I feel like most of my peers were employed first because they had been job hunting in school before graduation, and then started orientation as soon as they were licensed. Also, it seems like a lot of places, at least in this area, will let you work as an aide until you've passed and can start in a nursing capacity. Good luck!

Late to the party, but I took the exam a few years ago. It was offered several times per year while I attended, but you may only take it once. From what I remember, you choose one of two writing prompts and have a set amount of time--I think it was two hours. I can't remember my topic exactly, but I believe an argument between two people was presented to me, and I had to side with one of them and give rationale. I'm not sure about the likelihood of success, but if you're a person who likes to go back an edit your papers, this may not be ideal for you. I am a very strong writer, strong vocab, good organization, correct punctuation, et cetera, but I definitely like my time to go back and edit. I'm used to typing papers out (easier to edit, in my opinion.) I did not pass the exam. I believe they notify you by email, and no scoring details are provided. I found it challenging. It is worth mentioning that it was at 0800 on a Saturday, I was very hungover, and definitely did not give it my all. That being said, I was also on a full ride scholarship to OU for perfect reading comp, writing, and English scores from my ACT. I'm sure it's passable, or they wouldn't be offering it... I would say to take it more seriously than I did, if you still are considering sitting for it; Junior Comp was an awful class to have to take my last year!

Thanks so much, applesxoranges!

Sorry if this is a really dumb question. I just graduated with my BSN in Ohio. I want to start looking for aide jobs to gain experience, make money, and get my foot in the door somewhere while I study for boards over the next few months. Do I need to take the STNA classes and get certified, or is my BSN all I need to start applying for STNA jobs? Thanks very much for any input!

@JM... I can tell what school you go to based on your username, I'm the year above you at the same school. my advice as someone who just passed both semesters of NCoA I&II with the new professor you keep hearing about-- do what everyone else here has said, but most importantly and specific to this class at this school: get your book in the summer, and start reading. get an nclex book, and start doing practice questions so you get into the mindset of knowing application-style reasoning. you're going to be swamped. it's going to be hell. you're going to have to give up liquor pitchers, slice night, and life in general if you haven't already if you want to pass this class. pharm and pathos were a joke. you will spend every free moment either studying or stressed about this class. brush up extensively on anatomy, then pharm, then pathos this summer. we were vastly underprepared for this course because of those classes, and as a result lost about 40 kids, conservatively speaking, as I'm sure you've heard. for success in this course: -get the workbook that accompanies the text, and do it when you study. read all of the rationales -she will constantly tell you to focus on nclex questions, since all of the points in the class come from her nclex-style tests, so get an nclex book if you don't already have one from foundations (though this didn't really help me for her content, it helped for her style) -get other reference books to supplement for when what she taught in class wasn't clear. nursing pharmacology made incredibly easy will really help because she focuses a lot on pharm. also get the med surg nursing made incredibly easy. I also got an A&P for dummies book. i've heard the saunders was much like her questions, and it would be beneficial to get that book -go to every single facilitated lab -take your computer to class and type out all the things she says in lecture under her powerpoints--study that, after you've read the book. I'm sure you heard all about there being "a more right answer" than what was listed in the book, so what you should do is take anything she said in class as being the right answer, and then supplement that with what the book tells you. -skim the pathos parts in the book but focus on collaborative care and nursing interventions. pay attention to charts and boxes. a lot of questions will come from those priority nursing interventions -study in a group, and talk it out in terms of: "a pt comes in with sx abc, has a hx of xyz, what would be the priority nursing intervention for this patient? safety measures? treatment plans? what will you be worried about? what are the contraindications? this is my first post ever, and the only reason i'm giving you these tips and tricks is because of the off chance you happened to be one of us, and having been in your position I pity your soul. get ready, get set, and welcome to hell