DeeSki

OK, so I have read that there are different ways to organize your "brains" and I believe this means your patient information that you've received on report. I have never heard it referred to this way on the floor though. Anyway, it would be great to get some advice from the experienced RNs on how to write up the sheets.

Does anyone have any tips on how to set up a report sheet in order to facilitate good organization? I graduated last week and will start my first nursing job in July. I have read that some nurses call the report sheet a "brain" and there are multiple ways to set one up to best serve your needs. Any advice would be great. Dee

Yes, that was me! I private messaged you. Dee

Are you a new freshman? Selden or Grant campus? I'm at Selden, a senior. Dee

You definitely have to go try on some shoes for yourself. I saw a lot of negative posts about Nursemates last summer when I was looking. I bought them anyway because they were the only ones in the store that were the style I needed for school (no sneakers or clogs allowed) and were wide enough for my feet. I have large feet (size 10) and lots of foot pain. These shoes do not cause me any pain. I have worn them for every clinical and recently started wearing them to work for 13 1/2 hr shifts. No pain, though my shift is mostly sitting.

I attend Suffolk County Community College-Ammerman campus. Will graduate May 07. I intend to apply to Stony Brook for the bachelor's to Master's program after graduation. Is anybody active in their school student nurse association?

that green color is pretty hard to read, or maybe its just my monitor. i go to suffolk county community college school of nursing. i'm not sure what the min gpa is, maybe 2.5 but i don't think anybody gets in with the minimum. you want to have the highest gpa you can because it is so competitive to get in. they recently changed the pre-reqs so now you need both a&p one and two instead of one and sociology. you also need english comp, psychology. they are recommending taking all outside courses before getting into the program including microbiology and i have to say i agree.

Thanks for sharing those "rules" I love to know the right way of doing things. I have a question regarding wearing the pin. If you are in a nursing position where you do not wear a uniform, possibly a lab coat if anything, maybe you are an NP...can you then wear your nursing pin? Nowadays, wearing a "uniform" is relative. Also, I don't graduate until next year, normally freshman in my program participated in the ceremony by receiving a "stripe" for their caps (that they didn't wear). This part of the ceremony has been deleted now. I attend pinning ceremonies as I am freshman class president - senior president next year. We have to wear our white uniforms for pinning. Graduation is the next day and we wear cap and gown (for those that participate).

I disagree. Maybe the original post was just a vent (that's the way I saw it) but the latter post directed at the person you are writing to is definitely angry in tone and very nasty. I too hope that I won't be as (seemingly) unhappy after 1 1/2 yrs on the job. I hope that the OP doesn't have such bad days often. On the same topic- I never knew you could get stuff in the hospital as a patient such as bacon sandwiches, toast, soda. Sheesh I must have been in some really low budget hospitals LOL. edited for grammar :)

:yeahthat:

1st child was 5 weeks premature-breastfed and formula 6 months I didn't know better! That was 18 years ago 2nd child -14 months 3rd child - 3 1/2 yrs

Not to start another "fire" but if this was in reference to Danu's post...I actually appreciated it and think I understand where it was coming from. I read many posts but rarely make my own because I usually find that someone eventually writes what I would have. In this case, I am reading the entire thread at once so I see the inconsistencies, questions, etc that might be lost if I were reading them at seperate times. It would appear that the original posts referencing the statistics and studies, etc could have been explained way better. I have been reading through waiting for several questions posed to be answered and they never were. This particular "statistics lesson" was very enlightening and as a student, I actually appreciated the learning opportunity. I didn't feel "talked down to," it seemed to be more about someone with some concrete knowledge about the topic making a case for their "take" on it. Well done

As a first year (first semester) RN student, I may be putting my foot in my mouth but I do believe that I recently learned that only an RN can ASSESS a patient. LPNs are able to gather data but not assess. I'm not sure if this is a state by state rule. I am in NY. This would lead me to believe that the NM incorrectly identified the problem.

Thanks so much for the compassion. After so many years go by (10) nobody quite gets it, that the pain is never gone. I very rarely discuss it with people in person, online is so much easier. Yes I am in school now, my first semester of clinical so probably next year I will get more exposure to these areas. One of the students in my program who graduated in May got her first job directly in the NICU so I'll definitely be asking her for input.

Oh but he is soooo cute! He doesn't need a storyline. I miss Carol Hathaway. I remember the very first ER episode. Hadn't she tried to commit suicide? hmmm

I read all these posts and cried my eyes out . It is so amazing to see all of the nurses with so much love and compassion. I have to say I have not experienced that brand of nursing care here in NY. My oldest son was born five weeks early, weighed 6 lbs 8oz. Doesn't seem very small but he couldn't breath and eat so he was placed in the NICU. The nurses there were the pits. At least they were when I was around to see, maybe they were loving when I was back in my room :uhoh21: . It got so bad that I had to get my husband (ex now) and pediatrician up to the hospital to "save" my baby from the NICU nurses! He was oozing what looked like ground beef from the sites on his head where the internal monitors had been placed and they wouldn't even let me feed him because they were "busy". Those oozing sites were scars under his hair for the rest of his life. He did leave the hospital in good shape and turned out to be very healthy and so smart (IQ of 141). We survived the NICU. That was eighteen years ago. Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of his death. He survived at birth but ultimately died accidentally-tragically 8 years later. The Trauma nurses left crying that day. What can I say but that God works in mysterious ways. I often read all the posts in the different specialty areas to help decide what area of nursing I'd like to go into. I know I love L&D, NICU and ED but sometimes I wonder how I could care for a dying child and stay detached. KWIM?

I'm pretty sure gr i (one grain) is equal to 60 mg. gr v (five grains), gr x (10 grains) you can do the multiplication. No clue what SR stands for. I'm a first semester student as well.

I am a new nursing student so my involvement with death as a nurse is nonexistent, that said, unfortunately I do have quite a bit of experience with death as a person. Last month my 54 yo Aunt died of lung cancer. I believe she had a very positive experience with hospice care in florida. I was with her for her first (possibly only) visit to the oncologist. After this visit the futility of treatment was recognized and she immediately signed on with hospice. During our long distance phone calls she would tell me about her hospice nurse. My aunt didn't want the nurse to become too friendly with her because she didn't want her to be sad in the end. She thought providing the care for a younger dying patient was more difficult for the nurse. This from the patient's point of view, not the nurse. She was diagnosed at the end of November, oncology visit in January, hospice care began in February. She entered a hospice house for help due to not being able to stop vomiting, etc in June. Believe it or not-she left hospice and went home. I called to speak with her and the nurse on the phone told me "they are taking her out now." I thought she meant that my aunt had died. Turns out, they were taking her home. She died on 7/24. Her nurse had been sweet to her by not coming more than once a week. My aunt was terrified of the visits being more than once per week because that meant she would have to be dying. The same reason she didn't want to stay at the hospice house. I'm sorry that I couldn't be with her in the end (we were very close) but it seems like I was because she often thought I was in the next room or I had just left. sorry to go on and on. I've had a month to deal with the death but it seems that now that I have to concentrate on classes my mind is dwelling more and more on the sadness.

You might consider purchasing the Taber's for your PDA (if you use one). Right now Skyscape.com has a package that includes TAber's for PDA and desktop together. Then you wouldn't need the hardcopy. I did actually purchase a current edition of Taber's on ebay fairly reasonably. I can't remember exactly how much. I wouldn't have bought it at all if I had realized that I was going to use a PDA.

Have you all noticed the advertisements at the bottom of the screen targeted to whatever the discussion is about? I had to click on this one http://babacaddy.com/ it is for a bottle holder for the baby so that mom can get on with life while baby feeds itself! hmmm too bad those boobs don't detach so you can leave one with the baby :rotfl:

That is exactly what I was trying to say. :)

Interesting that you state "Kudos to those of us who can not", I see that as a big difference from those who wont. If a mother tries and can't for some major reason, it is understandable but what about mothers who just don't care? Who think its gross or icky? You know what...to each his own. My personal opinion is that almost every mom should at least try-I'll leave out the drug addicted mothers who shouldn't be having babies to begin with.

I don't know if you were addressing my post but the study I was speaking of was actually from Denmark (not Sweden) and it can be found in the May 2002 issue of Today's Science I believe it was retrieved at http://www.2facts.com according to my bibliography. There is plenty of scientific evidence citing more advanced neurodevelopment amongst breastfed infants as opposed to bottlefed. You can do a search through an academic/medical search engine for it. I could send you my bibliography if you PM me.

LOL I just made a LOOOOOONG post, then I thought better of it and hit delete! I guess I might be a secret or at least fairly quiet (unless I'm in the right company or put on the spot) breastfeeding "nazi" as it was put in an earlier post. Fortunately, an open mind allows me to listen to both sides and attempt to incorporate at least some of the other side into my thinking so that I may be able to become a compassionate (to all) nurse in the future. I do agree with a lot of the article. I also agree with the poster who suggested we look to animals in the wild. Human infants should drink human milk. That's the bottom line. If they can't for some significant reason, such as a medical condition rather than a mom's desire to "share" all the parenting chores, etc then I guess there has to be exceptions. Its true that education is the only way to ensure that new moms will at least learn the actual benefits of breastfeeding. I wish that more effort would be put into creating an environment in this country that makes breastfeeding the norm so that moms don't need so much "educating." I just did an evidenced based paper on breastfeeding and my research showed that even ONE day of breastfeeding is beneficial to the baby. I applaud any mother who at least tries. The research also went on to discuss the higher IQs for the breastfed children (citing an actual study in Sweden [i think] that followed a group of children from birth into their late teens.) I breastfed my three children and I know they were/are smarter than the average bear (add the Yogi accent there). But I also know that I have always been very intelligent and I wasn't breastfed...to be honest, my mother was a young teen probably using drugs. So maybe my childrens' IQ can be derived genetically, who's to say. I can say for sure that I did my very best to give them a positive, healthy and natural start in life. I also want to add that I never had a nurse after delivering that didn't try to give my infant formula or sugar water before we were discharged. I also left with a diaper bag full of formula and coupons with each birth. I sure would have preferred free diapers in the diaper bag since my baby's milk was free!