jasonglh

I started with a group of new grads in ICU with no problems. I have seen nurses with that magic year of med/surg come to ICU and fall on their face. It all depends on the RN. ICU is a completely different environment and mindset. The only advantage my wife had by working on a medical unit first was learning to be organized dealing with 8-9 patients. No more time than you have with each patient what exactly are you going to learn up there for a year?

Started with 13 guys out of 53 students. I'm not really sure whats left now.

You know I thought I was pretty secure about the whole thing but I suppose I usually tell people I am in RN school not nursing school. Part of that though would be to differentiate between LPN and RN. I think I will probably tell people I am an RN not a nurse though. Nurse leads you to think of a kind gentle caregiver which is not really me. I really like the technical knoweldge and skill side of nursing. I am really enjoying the challenge of Externing in the ICU I could see me staying there or working as a flight nurse err flight RN I worked EMS for 7 years before and prehospital will always be my first love but it just doesnt pay well and will grind your lower spine into dust in the end.

Wow the panty police. In this day and age of lawsuits that would be instructor career suicide I would think. Its not like if someone was wearing colored underwear they couldnt tell without making you bend over. There are several girls in my class that wear thongs to class but not clinicals I dont think. However where I work one of the unit managers wears thongs to work. For the original question just wear loose boxers you wont notice much difference and you wont have a yellow circle on the front of your white scrubs. Running down the hall for a code blue with no underwear ........that just sounds painful.

Will certainly appreciate any info you can provide. Good luck to you!

I wouldnt say I get cut any slack but to some of the "girls" it might seem that way. My wife graduated last May so the instructors all knew who I was coming in hearing greatly exagerated stories of what a pain in the *** I would be. I cut up with them but they also know I have a good back ground and generally know my stuff. However on my care maps and papers I often got low scores in 1st semester even though some of the girls had alot more red ink than I did. So to test a theory I copied one of my wifes care maps and turned it in because the patients were almost the same. She got a great and I got an okay. Maybe it was penmanship :chuckle My first semester instructor was like a shark who could smell fear in the water. She tested everyones mettle the first 2 weeks. She would just kinda push you to see what you would do. I'm just not the type to back down so I was okay with her. Every clinical day I had my info and drugs in my head and didnt need my sheet so I knew she wouldnt rattle me. Those that showed fear or indecision she rode like a pogo stick until they quit. One guy she even pulled aside in front of others at our 2nd clinical day and told him to quit because he was not cut out for this and would not make it. I couldnt believe he quit! I'm sorry but I would have to flunk out or die but I'm sure as hell not gonna quit.

Are you on any work restrictions now? I was an EMT for for 7 years before injuring my back (3 herniated disc). I was advised by my MD to get out of EMS and put on a 50lb weight restriction for my safety really. He figured if I didnt lift any more than 50lbs I wouldnt rupture one and he wouldnt have to do surgery. I started an ADN program last Aug with my restriction and have not had any real problems yet. If it becomes a problem come job hunting time I will just have him remove it. Lifting in the hospital is nothing compared to working the street so it shouldnt be that big a deal for you. I worked the last semester as a nurse extern on a medical unit so had plenty of turning and moving going on.

Strange I would stumble on this thread today. We had 2 codes today both Pt's in PEA. I never really thought about putting one on a crash cart before. The doc asked for a doppler on one but not the other. It took forever on the 2nd one for people to agree wether or not the Pt had a pulse. Several of the ER docs request the echo to see whats going on if we get a pulse back. Incidently both codes appear to be the result of a PE. The first happened when the central line was removed and the 2nd became very anxious before coding.

It would seem some schools are going out of their way to get them into the program. My class started with 13 men out of 52 students which was a record. It would seem that there may be an advantage to men applying to get a job in ICU or ER straight out of school as well. Thats where most of us end up after graduation. But as the nurse recruiter and I talked about the men rarely stay in ICU but go on to even more challenging things.

Thanks for the reply. I have pretty much absorbed all the info the Army has put out there on the subject on the net. Really more looking for the input of someone who has been through it or is in now.

I have read all the threads on this forum and have asked around other forums looking for anyone in the Army Reserve Nurse Corp. When I get my ADN next May I am thinking about enlisting and would like to hear experiences of people who have joined recently. How long was the training at Ft Sam and what was it like? How were things on the weekends you worked. Deployments?

Our hospital recently changed the uniform policy because people couldnt tell who is who. Well its a no brainer that most people are stupid and they still cant tell who is who. RN's and LPN's wear white pants and a solid colored shirt of their choice and supposedly white shoes. CNA's wear navy blue scrubs. ER wears royal blue, Peds white pants and a kiddie scrub top, and ICU wears OD green scrubs, Resp wear red scrubs, lab wears khaki scrubs and the NICU/OB wears hospital supplied surgical scrubs. Looks like if you want to work in the NICU all white is your best option over lavender. Decline the job and take one where you can wear something cool. I love my OD green scrubs. Do they not wear something over the scrubs from home when handling the premies?

I'm kind of suprised that they would have you wear your scrubs from home in the NICU. Most of the hospitals here have you wear their surgical scrubs. White sounds better than lavender to me. I'm a man and I do not recognize any color thats not in the Crayola 8 pack.

I don't cook I grill. I have a Holland grill and you can cook anything on that. I like my smoker also but thats just for special occasions. When I was 18 I moved into my grandparents cabin by the lake on their farm. Most of my money was spent on gas and beer. When I got home from work I would stop at the lake and toss out a milk jug. It had a short length of twine and a big hook with a minnow attached. In the morning when I got up there would usually be nice catfish attached. For other meat I had a freezer full of deer and many flavors of hamburger helper. For filler I had a small garden with corn, okra, lettuce, tomatos, and melons.

Depends on why you want to get your Paramedic. If you want to do it on the side or do some flight nursing I say sure. But if you are an RN I do not suggest EMS as a long term career choice. Its very hard physical work and its not an if you get hurt its when. Go over to EMS and take a hard look at some of the Medics on year 20 hobbling around. I did it 7 years before my spine bought the farm and enjoyed it. But I could see before that I was not going to be able to make it a career financially or physically. Luckily I had already gotten most of my classes to start RN when I got hurt. They dont let EMT-P's challenge RN boards so I dont see why the Medic boards should allow RN's to challenge theirs. I had been and EMT for 10 years when I let it go in Dec, now I am finishing 2nd semester RN. The schools are totally unrelated. EMT and EMT-P are heavy on skills and RN school as not been at all to me. If an RN has a background in ER and has had ATLS, ACLS, PALS it would help I agree. In our BTLS classes the RNs from ER took it with us but its all taught from a pre-hospital stand point so I often wondered why they had to take it. I would not want a shake n bake Medic or RN working on me.