ccusherry

I am from the south central area of Pa, approx 1 hour south of Harrisburg. I am mostly interested in Drexel because the local hospital is one of their clinical sites but am applying to 4 schools. I am encouraged by your post because my stats are similiar to yours.

Snookie, Congratulations!!! Just curious, I see that you are from Pa. Are you attending a school in Pa? I am also from Pa and am going through the application process now.

As far as the GRE vs MAT, look at each schools requirements. Several schools in Pa like Drexel and Villanova accept either one. Good luck!

When I spoke with Lew, he said that I could apply in the late fall but would not be interviewed until I was halfway through my spring semester (my graduating semester). This was last year in spring of 2006 that he told me that information. Maybe Drexel has changed their policy. I tried to contact him a few weeks ago but my e mail was redirected to a different person.

When I was looking into applying to Drexel, Lew Bennet told me that I could apply but could not be interviewed until I was approx 6 weeks into my last semester of my BSN. If I would be offered a position in the class, it would be contingent on my graduating that semester. I met all of the other requirements including critical care experience. I just needed my BSN. I hope that helps!!

I work weekend option Friday, Saturday and Sunday 12 hour nights. I really like it because I have been going for my BSN and working weekends has really allowed me to have flexibility with my classes. Now that I have graduated this spring, I have thought about switching my schedule but I have really grown to like the money that I earn doing weekends. I don't have kids of my own but am helping my s/o raise his kids who are 16 and 12 who live with us and a 5 year old who lives with his mom. There are sacrifices whatever schedule that you choose, you have to decide what it most important for you and your family. Good luck!!

Not sure where you are located but Penn State has an on line program called "world campus". It can be accessed through their website psu.edu. I know that they have an organic chemistry class because I was thinking about taking it. I have taken several courses through the world campus and I really liked how everything was setup and organized. Good luck.

I am looking at my syllabus for my classes this semester and yes, they are that stringent. I do not think that the offical grade point policy for PSU is that stringent but the branch campus that I attend, that is the grade point system for the BSN classes. Brad, I do agree with you that earning a 92% average and receiving the same grade as a person who earned a 88% average is not fair.

I will be graduating from Penn State this spring and their grade point system is the same as the one that you have listed. In my experience, that is pretty much the standard anymore.

This is not quite a code but the patient came very close. A 40ish man came to our ER c/o not feeling right. He looked very pale so the intake nurse sent hom right through to the ER. I normally do not work there but was helping out as they were extremely busy. We got him connected to the monitor and the tracing looked bad, got an EKG which showed an inferior MI. To make a long story short, the ER doc was a very vain man, never a hair out of place, very arrogant and condescending to the patients. He had a thing for shoes, his were always polished and perfect. Well, the patient was deteriorating and the doc was examining him. The patient kept saying that he did not feel well and the doc kept saying you'll be ok. Well, next thing you knew, the patient said I don't feel well and the doc started to say "You'll be OK" when the patient turned his head toward the doc and started to vomit profusely. The look on the doc's face......I felt sorry for him. It had ran over the front of the doc's clothes and even into his shoes. YUCK!!!!!

By the Mason Dixon line in Pa/Md. I have been an RN for 10 years in critical care and work weekend nights. Base salary + WE night diff + WE incentive pay = ~40 to 42/hr depending on if charge of unit.

Thanks, I appreciate the info. I actually know 3 people from my unit who attended the program but they attended before Excela Health assumed the program. Unfortunately they have all taken positions out of the area and I have lost contact with them. I do remember that they said that the 1st semester is fairly easy, you only attend class 2 days a week and you do not go to the OR until the end. The 2nd semester is the exact opposite. Nathan told me that if you can make it through the 2nd semester that you have it made. Let me know what happens. I will sending out my applications this fall. Thanks again!!!!

I have a question for anyone who has or is attending the Excela Health Program in Latrobe, Pa. On the website for Excela Health and the website for the university supporting the program there is no mention of needing the GRE or the MAT. Does anyone know what their policy is? I am going to contact the program if no one knows but I wanted to ask here first and their opinions on the program please. Thanks in advance!!!!!

Just have to give my 2 cents!!! As a nurse who has been on days and nights... Yes, days can be more hectic but I feel that nights is also a good environment to learn in as well. On nights, you must use your critical thinking skills and contrary to popular belief, the pts where I work rarely sleep at night. In the ICU, our pts require care 24h/7 so days versus nights is more of a personal preference in my opinion. I prefer nights but some nurses I know cannot tolerate nights, they physically become ill.

Hi KermitRN, I live in Pa and have done a lot of research into the Pa schools since that is where I will be applying to this fall as well. Excela in Latrobe is a very good program from what I have been told. I personally know 4 people who have recently graduated from the program. The first semester is pretty light, your classes are on 2 days during the week and all of the people were able to work 1-2 days/week that semester. The 2nd semester is the exact opposite of the 1st. All 4 people said that if you make through the second semester, you can make it through the rest of the program. I hope this helps but if you have any specific questions, I can try and get them answered for you.

The CRNA I was with yesterday said that during the cysto and stent placement, the urologists at our hospital use a large amount of irrigation, more than she has seen used at other facilities. I do not have first hand experience with their pts post op nor have I ever had a cysto.

I spent yesterday shadowing a crna where I work and she thought that maybe the patient had received a large amount of irrigation fluid during the procedure and some of it may have been absorbed by her body causing a hyponatremia that made her body retain more fluid throwing her into failure. Any thoughts???

I am hoping to pick some of your brains... This weekend I took care of a young woman in her late 30's. She was admitted to our unit in right sided heart failure. Her IVC, right atrium and ventricle were dilated and she was in severe resp distress. Luckily we were able to diurese her and avoid having to intubate. Echo showed pulmonary hypertension as well as the dilated areas. CT scan was negative for a PE. She had just been discharged earlier in the day from med surg because of having stent placement for a kidney stone 4 days earlier. She came to the ER because she knew her heart rate was low. In the ER, she was in a brady arrythmia in the 30's. She was admitted to PCU but was transferred to us when her dyspnea worsened. We diuresed 30 liters over the weekend and the repeat echo on monday showed that the dilation of the IVC, right atrium and ventricle had resolved and her pulmonary pressures were almost normal. Prior to surgery, she had no medical problems. She is an athlete and took no meds. She had general anesthesia but I don't know which drugs were used. She also received dilaudid and other pain meds. Is there any known adverse reactions to anesthetic drugs that could account for what happened to her. Any help would be appreciated.

I've been following this thread and would like to add my humble opinion. I remember when I first graduated with my RN and started in the ICU. There is so much to learn!!! I would not have felt ready to apply to an anesthesia program so soon out of school. Nursing school only teaches you the basics and once you graduate and enter a specialty area such as critical care, you build upon that knowledge base that you have from nursing school. An RN I knew when I was in school once told me that it takes the majority of nurses 3-4 years to be a skilled critical care nurse. Only in the last 3 years have I felt that I was ready to apply to an anesthesia program. I feel I have built my critical care knowledge base solidly enough to take on the challenge of anesthesia. I just feel that 1-2 years of critical care experience is not enough before applying to a program.

I understand that for some masters programs such as nurse anesthetist, er is not considered critical care due to not having swans and balloon pumps. I am not saying that some er nurses aren't crtical care nurses but unfortunately have had quite a few that I have gotten report from that could not tell me what rhythm the patient was in and the patient was an acute mi. The same nurse told me that the patient was on a ntg drip at 30 and when the patient arrived he was on at 30cc/hr....100!!!, with unrelieved chest pain 6/10. I have gotten intubated and vented patients and the nurse had no idea what his settings were or where to find them. I think that just because one is an er nurse doew not make them a critical care nurse, it's what they choose to do when they get to the er.

Sharon, Where I work, the security system is fairly decent. If a visitor comes in after 8 pm, they must enter through the security entrance, the guard then calls the floor where they are visiting and verify that the pt is on that unit and if they can have visitors. All of the doors in the hospital require a badge to open. As far as carrying a weapon, the hospital guards do not. We have a large penitentiary near the hospital and receive many inmates as patients. Up until recently, they carried a gun but they no longer do because there was a tragedy a couple months ago. A inmate managed to wrestle a gun from the guard with him and shot the guard in the head before he escaped. Unfortunately the guard did not survive. Now, not even the prison guards are allowed to carry a weapon.

I have been reading over the replies to the thread and although I understand and basically agree with the main idea, I want to tell you guys about an incident at the hospital where I work. Approx 5 years ago we had a bad ice and snow storm. One of the nurses had called the floor where she worked to see if anyone knew waht the road conditions were. She lived in a very rural area and was contemplating calling in. The nurse manager happened to be in the station when she called and told the nurse that if she called in for weather reasons, she would be reprimanded. The nurse left for her shift an hour early to leave plenty of time. When she arrived at the hospital it was by ambulance because another car had lost control and t boned her. The er staff worked her code for over an hour beofre calling it. Needless to say, administration is now more understanding about weather situations. Unfortunately, that happened too late for that particular nurse. Yes, our patients are why we are in nursing but what good are we to them if we are dead?? By the way, no, I have never called in for weather. Guess I have been lucky.

I am curious about something..... Last week a patient was transferred to my unit from the OR. She was scheduled for a tka but when the anesthesiologist did her spinal, it went up instead of down. What I was wondering is.. what can cause this to happen and how often does it occur? Luckily she was t/v quickly and we extubated her once the spinal wore off. I was unable to speak with the anesthesiologist myself because we were crazy busy and I was charge that night so no time for chit chat. Thanks!!!!

Hi all, I'm presently taking my nursing research class for my bsn. My question is what are the criteria to differentiate between a empirical/research article and a conceptual/theoretical article? Any help would be appreciated!!!!

Erin, I live in Chambersburg and work in Hagerstown. I prefer Hagerstown hospital to Chambersburg. If you would like to pm me I can tell you about my experiences. Hope to talk with you!! Sherry