la_chica_suerte85 BSN, RN

For what it's worth, I used allnurses as a student as a way to practice and solidify the fundamental information I was learning in school by helping other students -- the resources posted by GrnTea and the help given by Esme and Ruby (and SO many oth...

HAHAHA OMG this is the best thread ever!!!!!

Still new and I'm sure I've blocked the abjectly ridiculous things I have done so far because my gaffs are escaping me but, GOOD GOD, there are a lot of blood bag mishaps (and not just here, but from previous preceptor experiences, too). This is maki...

It's sort of policy (as in, we generally don't but can in a pinch) at my hospital to not draw off of PIVs but we work in the peds population and it would be great to not have to do q2h sodium levels by constantly sticking a patient. One of the groups...

Ugh, I hate it when people refuse to learn to press the call light and must venture out into the hallway to find someone and find no one at the nurses' stations at 2AM because we're all in other rooms doing pt care (or, we're ALL there doing change-o...

I'm actually more of the idea that if they don't want me, that's 100% okay w/ me! I hate being the difficult families' 'favorite nurse.' That said, don't take it personally. I work in hemonc and we see a wide variety of responses, especially when b...

That's an accelerated BSN and usually you go through those when you are going into a BSN as a 2nd Bachelor's. The process of getting through pre-reqs and getting into nursing school itself is very tiresome. But, once you get into nursing school, you ...

You must have never had to deal w/ new residents or docs that couldn't care less about the specialty you work in and are just going through the motions to get through that rotation. We get weird/incorrect/unclear orders all the time and, when you wor...

No, not 'LOL.' That was gross and it's use obviously distracted from the topic, hence people bringing it up. It you wanted to more effectively communicated your point, you shouldn't have said it. Duh.

When I was first starting I would have trouble making sure I didn't accidentally inject any med from the syringe into the NS vial as well. Now, it depends on what I'm doing and how much time I have, but I do it both ways. We give ampicillin in vials ...

It seems like the ones that are actually RNs or LVNs seem to be the most reasonable and know not to say something that might make staff nervous. They seem to like to have the "colleague-to-colleage" type of conversations. It's the CNAs, the housekeep...

::shudder:: Having your hair drag through something (i.e. blood, wounds, feces, etc.) because you either didn't have time to put it up or chose to wear it down that day definitely is a good way to understand and appreciate the mandate to put your hai...

If you have a nursing student handbook, having your hair up is likely in the dress code. This is normal and kind of distills down to the idea that you do need to suck it up. You may feel that being told that is extreme and militant but I have never s...

They might not necessarily need to do it as a bone marrow harvest -- you can still definitely do it as a peripheral blood stem cell collection. The most involved would be requiring a PIV or a PICC for the harvest (it's similar to platelet donation ph...

I second others' advice that at a minimum a BSN is the way to go. If you find that the accelerated route is the way to go, then do that. Doing a traditional 4-year BSN will make you insane, especially since you clearly are good with things that are v...

I was taught to approach the patient from the left because I am left-handed. However, if I overthink it, I jack it up and should have just don't it from the right. There are sometimes, though, when I'm about to do something (i.e. CVC dressing change)...

She could also be FOS. Now, if this was a patient confessing this type of behavior, as an RN, interventions are warranted/legally mandated. As one student to another, the best someone can do is to suggest they get help and that's the end of it. Also,...

Peds hemonc nurse, here. I'm a new grad but worked on the unit I was in prior and we had several deaths over the summer prior to orientation so, when I went back and it didn't seem like it was ever going to stop, my mental health took a pretty big hi...

This needs 1,000 likes. Life happens and sometimes a preceptor might just not be having it all together to take a newbie under his/her wing. This is okay and it should be understood. If you're being trained by someone going through a divorce or who j...

As a nursing assistant, I precepted a new float nursing assistant and I was surprised at how exhausted I was at the end of the day when all I really was doing was explaining things and teaching a little here and there (and this was for someone who wa...

Cancer does indeed smell and it depends on where it is located that informs the smell (there are differences between an oral cancer and OB cancer, for instance, and I've heard that OB cancers are the worst). This is just one example but I've recently...

No, like it was mentioned, it is fun to get your more, I guess, adult scrubs? I work in a children's hospital and wore bright, distracting colors and scrub tops as a nursing assistant. I had a lot of scrubs but I felt like I needed to look more toget...

No, you should not expect to have to work nights (weekends and holidays, of course, but if nights aren't for you, you don't have to put yourself in a position where nights are mandatory). In school, I worked my butt off and networked and carved out t...

Where I work, we go out of our way NOT to bug the docs at night so saying that he gets paged for things he considers small is really annoying and is likely coming from his inability to relinquish the idea that his and ONLY his sleep is precious (they...