NurseBranch

I have Betty Boop as a nurse with my name,RN and my graduation year. I got Betty about 2 yrs ago and my name added last year when I graduated and passed boards

As a CNA i have wondered the same thing. CNA's usually have 15-20 patients (noc shift) and are under 3-4 nurses. I have gotten asked on more than one occasion where I was when I was helping another nurse because that nurse needed help too. Don't get me wrong, I am not one who disappears off the unit, I am about to take my RN boards and I love to see everything that is going on. It's just hard for us to be two places at once and sometimes nurses forget we have 3 or 4 people to report to not just one. However, one night we had two nurses and two aides and commom sense would have suggested that one nurse and one aide are matched up, but we were split between the two nurses. When I questioned this, no one seemed to have an answer. It's a tough question to answer. Good pros and cons to both situations.

When I first started my CNA classes my instructor would always talk about an infection called "Mercer" we needed to be aware of. Not having any education, I kept googling and trying to research Mercer to no avail. I did not know what she was talking about until I put 2 and 2 together at the nursing home and realized what she was talking about. However, at my hospital, we say Mer-sa.

Hello, I am doing my OB rotation now and I wouls say be prepared to know the different standards of vitals signs for the newborn and also about fetal heart tones. I don't know if you have had an OB lecture yet, but these nurses assume you have some knowledge, so if you are not really proficent in this area, just do a little review, because you are taking care of two pts, not just one. Hope this helps! Good Luck and have fun! Christy Branch

Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. It is easy to teach them out of a book, but helping me to share real life treatments is invaluable information. Thanks again.

Hello, I am a sophmore nursing student and I am doing a presentation tomorrow on femur fractures in children for my clinical group. My question is I have all the general infomation dx, tx and such but I was wondering if there were any hints or tips that you could share with me that I could share with my fellow students on caring for these children. Somethings that only an experienced nurse would know. Thanks so much for your time!!:loveya::icon_hug::heartbeat

As an employee of Advocate Health, I work as a CNA on a post surgical unit and I can tell you that we are very committed to doing the timeouts everytime. We do them 3 times, on the unit, in the holding area, and right before the procedure begins. There are always some dr.'s who think they are above the rules, but in the end, the timeouts are always performed. A red rule for advocate is a policy of doing something that either is done or a write up leading to termination is given. There are no room for errors with red rules at my facility. Thanks for sharing that article!

1. I really admire someone who doesn't talk down to me and that teaches me things. As a nursing student, I appreciate that. Also, someone who can tell the supervisor or whoever needs to be told no. When you have 2 nurses 18pts and one aide, we really cannot take any more admits. When there is a pt coding, it amazes me how our charge nurses can get right in and help out, no matter what. I admire strong nurses who stand up for themselves in a dignified manner. 2.I think the bottom line at my hospital is staffing and not having equipment. We had one thermometer for 2 aide's and 3 nurses, management said if that one breaks, we get no more. 3. I have learned that complaining about other shifts doesn't do anything...nothing changes. My management has their favorites (and Night shift is the stepchildren there). I have asked politely, gotten louder than I needed to, gone to the person and to managemant and it has gotten me nowhere. So, I just do my 8 hours to the best of my ability and not worry about what others are doing. I do however wish they could clean up after themseleves and restock. 4. I personally just want to be told by one of my coworkers. I trust and respect them wholeheartedly and value any input they can give me. That being said, there are definetly some people in our field that do not take any critism no matter what the delivery method is. You can never please everybody. I hope I have helped you and good luck with whatever you are doing. Feel free to contact me further if you need to.

i couldn't have said it better myself...thanks for this comment!

Hello, I attend Prairie State College in Chicago Heights and right now I can say that there is a waiting list to get in there. I had to repeat second semester with about 30 others, and we had to do a lottery system to see who would get in and the rest would have to wait because there were not enough seats. So those people are waiting as well as others trying to get into the program. It's a really tough program, but very thorough. As for South Suburban, I know from co-workers that attend there that they are on the verge of losing their accrediation. Hope this helps a little. GOOD LUCK!

As a CNA myself, I can not fathom the idea of taking on a position such as this one....very scary. As a mother, be a thorn in the school districts side and continue to follow up. If you don't get answers soon, go to the state. This is such an unsafe environment for kids. I am shocked.:uhoh21:

I am not a nurse, yet, but when I was in clinical this past Wednesday my instructor told me I charted too specifically. I put that the pts wound was on "the right side of his abdomen."

This was my first thought, too.

My dear mom made some scrub tops for me using a "Sew Easy" pattern...however either she made the head hole too small or I have a big head because my head did not fit in them..lol. After some adjusting, I got many compliments on them because they are so unique.

As far as I know, there is a waiting list at all the JC's in our area, unless you have most if not all of your prereq's done. There is no job placement either at SSC, PSC, or MVCC. Class size from what I was told was average lecture has the most students and clinical has no more than 12.

Hello, I do not attend SSC, but I do got to Prairie State. However, I work with several people who do go to SSC if you want me to ask them some questions about thier program.

At my hospital, have what they call the "three P's" for potty, position, and pain. The nurse is to round at the top of the hour and the CNA at the bottom of the hour, so the pt will see someone every thirty minutes and we are to ask about these three things. Doesn't work like this at all because there is so much else going on that you just can't be everywhere all at once. It is just impractical and a nuisance to the pt that is trying to rest and sleep.

Good Morning! I had a first responder class to which the instructor did tell us that if you are having a hard time hearing the pounding to watch the needle bounce and that would give you an good estimate of the BP. However, he did stress the importance of checking again with different equipment or having a co-worker check it out with a stethoscope. Working in a hospital (right out of CNA training) I use my stethoscope all the time. I think if she is using it a lot everyday like I do to try a better model, not a littman or anything like that, but a little nicer than the cheapest one. Also being a nursing student myself, you will always have pts that you work with on the job that will let you practice your learning skills on them ie lung and bowels sounds, so it's always good to be prepared. Hope that helps! Good Luck to your daughter! Christy:wink2:

Hello, I had my 10 year IUD inserted on August 25th, and although the insertion was very painful for me, it wasn't anything that motrin didn't take away. With my first cycle, I had pretty bad cramps that first day, but I didn't get cramps prior, so I have nothing to really compare it to. So far, my husband and I are very happy with our decision. Good luck to you.

Hello, This is my first post here, but something happened at my job and I really feel I need to speak out about it and get opinions from other professionals. I currently work as a CNA in a hospital. I do work the night shift. I found out on Thursday August 19 that my son needed sugery to have his adnoids out. My manager was off on Friday so I couldn't talk to her, so I talked to her Monday about the time off. His procedure is scheduled for Tuesday 8/29, so I told her that I just really needed Monday off because Tuesday is my scheduled day off and Wednesday there are three aides scheduled and we never use more than two, so she said If I found somebody to work Monday night, she would take me off the schedule on Wednesday. Well, even though I was mad she wanted me to find coverage I did. I wasn't asking for time off for a party or something. Anyway I did find coverage and I wrote her a note stating I found someone to work for me Monday and asked if she was still going to take me off the schedule for Wednesday. Low and behold I get a message in my mailbox this morning stating that she couldn't give me Wednesday off because someone has come to her after I did and needed to switch their schedule for their clinical experience. And once again told me to find coverage for weds. I understand that my son is not having major surgery, but it is to me. I don't think one day off was too much for her to do, being she already agreed to Weds. and I followed her conditions. Most people I spoke to tell me to go to upper management and HR to see my options, but I feel so angry and betrayed because we have had a good relationship up to this point, I don't want to rock the boat if I am being out of line. Not to toot my own horn, but I am a great CNA and don't sleep in the corner at night and don't go on mutiple disappearing acts throughout the night like others. The nurses and patients both really enjoy working with me and I with them. Please give me your opinions and be honest if I am being to naive about things. Thank you all in advanced, Christy:uhoh3:

At our hospital, the night CNA, (me) does q6's at 0600 and the night nurse covers, the BID's and TID's are for 0700, so I do those at about 0715 because it is the day shift RN who covers these and I don't want the patient to wait too long for insulin if needed while the nurses are giving report. If it is low, I start by notifying the RN and giving OJ ASAP. :)

I work as an aide in a hospital on third shift so my work is not nearly as stressful as yours, although there have been some nights I ask myself why. I am also a nursing student and I did my clinicals this past semester in a nh and it was terrible. I could not believe a resident would be in the hallway at the nurses station where 3 capable bodies were sitting chatting about who was sleeping with who and they would page the aide overhead to assist the resident. I brought it up to my instructor who talked to the DON but to no avail. You are great person for working where you do because I couldn't do it.

ditto

I can relate...but as a CNA, i think of passive range of motion :rotfl: