New Horizons

i am a second career student and have had my share of work experience. during clinicals i have run into some nice nurses and some not so nice nurses. i go into my clinical experience with two things in mind, to #1 get an education and #2 to figure our which facilities and units i would like to work for and which ones i definitely do not want to work for. i have been evaluating from day one. i look at our clinical time as a classroom and as a reverse interview where i have an extra 6 -12 weeks to evaluate the place. when nurses are cranky, i leave them alone and don't give them much thought, because we have our clinical intructor to assist us. i attribute the crankiness to a number of things: 1. our clinical assignments are at teaching hospitals, so maybe they are just tired of seeing students. hey, not my fault and i can't do anything about that. 2. politics and dynamics of the unit. 3. they don't like their jobs. 4. they are burnt out. 5. they have issues in their personal life that have nothing to do with students. if i know i am not doing anything to jeopardize a patient and i am a willing learner i don't take the attitudes personally.

at one time i would have agreed with you, but i'll tell you why it makes a difference to me now. one of my physicians has a very large practice. a matter of fact he is considered one of the best in the city. they have a about 7 or 8 mds on staff, 1 nurse practitioner and alot of medical assistants. first of all the dr. had one of his mas call me for a prescription i had to get filled. i picked up the prescription and took it as prescribed. i went back for a check up a year later and the same ma called me and told me i had to take the same medication. this time i went on line and looked up the medication and realized that it didn't work the first time because it interacted with another medication i was taking that the same dr. prescribed!!!! also, i was supposed to come back for a follow up visit. she never told me this!! if the dr. or the nurse would have called me about these medications, i would like to think this wouldn't have happened. through all of this, the ma acted like she knew what she was talking about. i don't blame the ma because if her boss, the dr. told her to do something, she thought it was ok. heck, anyone can be a mini nurse right?(please don't throw lightning bolts at me, i am being very sarcastic.) now let's fast forward a few years, i am a nursing student myself, i don't know much, but i know a little more than i did back then. i am conversing with this same dr. and he knows i am going to nursing school. he goes on to say that he knows how tough nursing school is. five minutes later he says that one of his nurses will be in to take my bp. he wasn't talking about his nurse he was talking about one of his medical assistants. i was amazed. obviously the practice holds nurses in some regard, because they do have an np on staff for exams, but its amazing how nurses and med. assistants are spoken as if they are one and the same. basically, this is a problem because when people misrepresent their knowledge the public believes them and medical errors do happen, as happened to me. back then i believed what my drs staff member told me because i didn't know any better. as people try to hire cheaper and cheaper labor the public gets hurt.

I will be graduating soon and am considering hospitals in NYC (5 boroughs) and Long Island. I'm looking for hospitals where the nurses are somewhat safisfied with their overall working environments - management, patient -staff ratios, and benefits . An excellent (or at least very good) new grad orientation is also very important to me. I've been reading these board for a while and it seems like this MIGHT be difficult to get in one hospital in the NY Metro area, but I'm still hoping that the hospital exists. Can someone please help me. If there are hospitals I should stay away from, I'm willing to hear about that too! Feel free to PM me.

My school calls it a concept map but it is a full report that combines data compilation, the concept maps with care care plans and psychosocial reporting. We come up with at least 5 problems from our concept map and we have to create a care plan for each of the 5 problems. The darn thing takes several hours. Personally it has taken me 5 to 7 hours. I don't know anyone who likes doing concept maps.

I really empathize with you and understand the difficult choices you have to make. I am also single with no children. One of my grandmothers died when I was in my late 20s. She finally died died after a year with COPD. During that year she was in and out of the hospital the family had to make decisions on what to do. One of the ideas that came up was maybe I could move in and take care of her. It didn't come to that, but just like you said in your post, my thoughts were will I have a chance to date again. I would like to have a family of my own. In that one year the family went through the gamit of looking at how to pay for help and what to do as the illness progressed. She stayed at my parent's house for a couple of weeks during the summer when my mother was on vacation At night, while everyone was asleep she would pull off the oxygen mask and try to walk around because she couldn't breathe lying down. She was confused , had problems seeing and could have hurt herself. She ended having to be readmitted to the hospital. Imagine if she had had Alzheimers. I didn't mean to jump on the poster that mentioned people caring for families in the home. I guess the comment just hit a nerve because caring for your loved ones is hard. Also, I wonder if the ole' days were as great as some of us want to think. People had the same problems that we do now, but they just had to deal with it. I really wouldn't be surprised if there was more elder abuse and neglect, because people had to "deal with it" and had no other outlet to de-stress.

I hear people say this a lot. I don't think the "community" actually took care the elderly, I think it was more of the individual's family. I think it would be great if most families could still do this, but a lot of families don't, not because they are selfish and chasing the dollar, but because they honestly cannot afford to stop working to be a full time caretaker. We all know this is the case for some of our elderly. If you have a significant amount of money you can afford around the clock assistance. If not, maybe your loved one will get an aide 4 hours a day. If you are going through medicare this might only lasts until the person is "better" than they were when they went into the hospital. Then the family starts all over again trying to get help. Even if you do have someone for a few hours a day, who is supposed to take care of your family member during the remaining time? Please don't say this is about selfishness. During the "good ole days" some women didn't work so they were able to be the care takers. What do you do when a family has children in college and both parents need to work to pay the mortgage and afford college? Even if tuition is not an issue, often both people need to work to make ends meet. I know if either one of my parents were to become ill to the point where they needed around the clock care, I am not in any shape whatsoever to stop working and care for them. The entire situation is sad.

I wouldn't confront the women personally. I would have a meeting with the Dean and the instructor and have my seat changed. You might be able to get by by saying you find her very difficult to get along with and prefer to sit away from her. Also, as another poster said stay quiet and do not engage her. Honestly, this women sounds mentally disturbed and is more that a mere bully. The fact that she almost got into a physical altercation with someone else speaks volumes. I look at it this way, if I encountered an obviously mentally disturbed person, that seemed prone to violence, on the street and they tried to bait me, would I get into it with them or would I ignore them? Unfortunately, it seems like she has picked you for a mark, but stay away from her!!! The scary part about this situation is that this woman wants to be a nurse!!!!! We also know that nurses have to deal with patients and family members that are two sandwhiches short of a picnic. If she ever becomes a nurse and encounters one of them, what is she going to do get into a fight with them?

Actually some people DO go into teaching to get the summers off.......:uhoh21:

Hi Fonenurse, Is the 32,000 in pounds or US dollars. If the figure represents pounds, it is the equivalent of 56,400 US dollars.

Yesterday was my last day of freedom. Semester 1 of 4 starts today!

I want to address two things that have come up on this topic: 1. The smell of people that smoke - Whether I am a patient or not, the smell of cigarettes bother me. It just plain stinks. It's just as obnoxious as bad BO or bad breath. Would you want someone with bad BO leaning over you for ANY amount of time? Honestly, either smell makes me want to yack. If you smoke and are used to living with cigarettes, you may not realize how bad it smells, but I know may a former smoker that can no longer tolerate the smell of cigarettes in the air or on someone else's clothing. 2. I live in NYC and remember when people could no longer smoke in restaurants at all . There was a big uproar on how smokers would no longer eat out in restaurants and how restaurants would lose business. :stone Well, how stupid was that thinking? Like people would choose sitting at home and smoking a cigarette over outside entertainment. The same thing happened in bars and clubs. Of couse people continued to eat out, go to bars and went clubbing. The only difference is that if they needed a quick smoke, they went outside. The good thing about this ban was that non-smokers had a chance could go to bars and restaurants without smelling like cigarettes by the end of the evening. Also, the number of smokers across the city has decreased by 10%! :) I guess with the cost of cigarettes and the hassle of finding a place to smoke it just wasn't worth it anymore.

My aunt asked, "Don't you want to be a PA?" Uh, No. I think there are so many directions you can go being a nurse. The general public really doesn't understand this. I have to say I love my grandmother though. We have 2 MD's in the family and 1 in Med School, but when I told her I was going to nursing school she was OVERJOYED and so excited for me. How's that for support :)

I've been reading this board a while and I see the LPN vs. RN debate come up quite often. I am really interested in the history of the two levels of nursing. Why is there a Licensed Practical Nurse and a Registered Nurse? I don't see two tiers in other areas of medicine. I don't see a practical medical doctor and a medical doctor. I don't see a practical pharmacist and a registered pharmacist. I understand the need for techs and assistants, but LPNs and RNs responsibilities seem so similar in scope, why do the two levels exist?

Introversion simply means you draw energy from your inner world. Extraversion means you draw energy from others. It doesn't necessarily mean one is quiet, or loud, or talkative.

I attend BMCC and have finished just about all of my pre-reqs. I had already completed Eng 101 before attending BMCC so I won't be too helpful there; however I have some insight into Bio 425. The catalog might say that Chem 118 or Chem 121 can be used as a pre-req for 425. In actuality Chem 121 is the course that is needed. I suggest before doing anything speak to Mr. Sierra. He is the nursing program advisor. He will put you on the right path.