stephatron289

I took my NCLEX on a Friday and my license wasn't posted until Monday on the BON website here in Arizona. People who took their tests Monday - Thursday got their results the next day, so I think it's because the weekend doesn't count. I took the PVT 3 times and got the good pop-up all three times and passed (obviously, lol) so I wouldn't worry too much, although I know that's useless advice for someone waiting for their results! I'm sure you did fine! Good luck!

Right now, my commute is around an hour one way. It's worth it to me as the program is great, I like my professors and classmates, and the high NCLEX pass rate the school has is pretty appealing as well. Besides, its only for a short while that you'll have to commute for school.

I'm at Scottsdale.

Weird... I'm going into Block 2

I don't think that's correct. I'm in traditional and am at Mayo for my Med/Surg rotation. I don't believe any of our CEP groups are at Mayo, either.

In my experience, it is mostly medical assistants, not nurse, who help with the physician or NP in urgent care. I know that there are places where there are nurses but mostly, it's just me and the physician in the back. We aren't allowed to remove those diagnosis or change them from active to inactive. I would highly suggest speaking with your PCP or the urgent care physician if the UC isn't attached to your doctor's office and ask that it be removed from the active problem list. Same with medications: at my old healthcare system, only the doctor could remove the medication, not the MA. At my current health care system, I am allowed to remove meds only with notes that state that it is per patient request. The urgent care may not have known or had updates since those issues were discussed. Yes we read the discharge papers, but that is to help you if the doctor wrote any specific instructions or if he/she sent the rx to the correct pharmacy and try to help you as much as we can.

I have a husband, dog and cat. All are important in my eyes. If you love something as much as you say you do, you fight your hardest to make it work, not give up after a week. Pets can be worth their weight in gold for stress. Just ask my cat anything about microbiology, because that's how I studied: teaching him with stress-free petting in between. You did yourself a disservice but you did that dog a disservice even more.

A&P is your foundation for nursing school: if it is not strong, you will crumble. You build on that material you learn in A&P, and sets you up for not only nursing school but for being a safe nurse as well. If you are looking to get into a school that is competitive, I would retake both classes and see if you can take ones that are longer than a month. For me, there is no way I would have been able to take A&P in a month, as there was just too much information. I received a C+ in both Anatomy and Physiology and retook both classes, receiving an A- in both the second time around. I also found that I was more focused the second time and understood the material better, which has helped me so far. Check and see with your school what your retake policy is, and retake if you can. Good luck!

"You're a big girl." (I'm not terribly overweight, but I could lose 15-20 here and there.) I straightened up and said: "Thank you" and smiled. Honestly, I don't care if I'm called big, but she said it to hurt, and I refuse to let her think it did. She was an older lady, and she looked confused when I pulled a thank you out of nowhere. I don't think she was expecting that. It's not like she's going to explain her statement to me as to why I "misunderstood" her. Really, saying thank you to someone who is insulting you is my best response, as it stops the behavior most of the time.

This week, I learned: Not all blood wants to flow out of someone, especially when I actually need it to. That I can actually use a butterfly! I normally use a straight stick to draw, as I would always miss, but this past week I only have butterfly needles, so I got to practice. I'm in love, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. That you CAN get sick two times in the same amount of weeks. First an ear infection, a week of health, and now a sore throat/cough with body aches. Needless to say I am grumpy, as the husband is on a business trip and can't take care of me (That was NOT in the marriage agreement ) That I've decided that the doctor who told me the amount of sore throats I was having would reduce drastically once I got my tonsils out was a big ol' fibber.

Ours are: no visible tattoos, earrings in one ear, no nail polish, undershirts can only be either solid black or solid white, no porus shoes and they have to be full black or white. No facial piercings, hair had to be tied back and solid black or white socks. Those are requirements during our sim lab, regular lab, and clinicals. Lecture days, we can wear jammies if we wanted (I don't think anyone has yet.) Wedding rings and the one stud in each ear are the only exceptions, I don't think we can wear necklaces as a patient can grab onto it fairly easily.

They drive me crazy. It's even harder when a patient is new to our clinic and has been on a specific medication but needs a renewed prior authorization and we have no paperwork on them

My favorite is when they want a prior authorization for the EpiPen, even though in their chart and medication information it states "Allergy to peanuts, causes anaphlaxis." I have to sit down and compose myself when those come up.

I hate giving shots to children. They are strong, despite their size, and it happens to everyone at some point or another when the needle comes out. I will normally have another co-worker come in with me to assist because I've learned that I'm unsure if I can trust the parent to be as strong as I need them to be. I do give them a heads up why there are two people helping and I tell them why (if they kick, and it comes out, I have to poke again, and I can't guarantee that the child will let me.)

I had a rainbow Littman Classic II when I was working as an MA before I got into nursing school. Once I got admitted, my dad was so proud, he went and got me a Cardiac III. My view was, "I'm upgrading in the medical field, I might as well upgrade my stethoscope." (Not knocking the profession as an MA, just noting that my responsibilities and scope are upgrading.) I do use it at work as I'm still an MA, and I absolutely love it. I really did love my classic as well, so I think you should do fine with the classic :)

I'm in the same boat. I was also diagnosed with an ear infection this, and dealing with pain is not something that I "don't want to treat," especially if I have to stick something in my ear, something like a stethoscope, for example.

I got into my 3rd option. It was a blessing, I think, as I really enjoy my class and the instructors.

-I've learned that answering phones, forwarding med requests and deal with poor attitudes exhausts me more than being on the floor doing hands on work. But I've also discovered that the reason I'm put in the phone room is that I'm really good at it, and am one of the few people in that office that can handle the work load. -I've learned that I actually miss school during the summer. I'm putting that energy into discovery of my new state that I haven't really done since I moved here 1.5 years ago.

Exactly. I actually had to tell a receptionist today to stop calling us nurses, as we are no such thing.I sometimes work the phone and I had 50 or so people ask for Dr such and such's nurse today and I tell each and every one that he doesn't have a nurse but I would be happy to pass them on to his medical assistant, clarifying further if they were confused. It's all about educating the patients.

To add to mine: I learned today that I will breathe fire if I have to (metaphorically speaking, as I am not a dragon last time I checked.) ESPECIALLY when it comes to prior authorizations for medication that it is OBVIOUS that the patient needs due to certain lab levels (can you tell I'm frustrated?) Insurance prior auths drive me insane (i.e. yes the patient is deathly allergic to peanuts, but we're going to deny her epi-pen, so there!), even more so when the insurance personnel has an attitude of a teenage girl who has to do the dishes. I turned into the "you wanna play this game? Fine, let's play" type of tone. I am this close to calling back and discussing her "professionalism" to management, but I'm half sure that they'll probably have the same attitude. So I've relearned that I hate insurance companies. Some of them, anyway.

I learned: That I really like talking with the doctor in our immediate care. She gives us tidbits of information about medications and is happy to answer questions that we (the NP and I) have. That those with mono may end up with a rash if given amoxicillin. Very cool. Mono takes about a week to have a positive result. Patient have to be off proton pump inhibitors for two weeks before they have the breath H. Pylori test done or it won't be accurate. Ouch. ANd the best one from today: Sometimes you have to inform a grown man on why he should probably always wear a condom while having unprotected sex in the...ahem...."exit only." And sometimes you have to explain this to him for a good 10 minutes before he understands.

On BP meds its 126/84 Off BP meds? .........160/100 HR is usually high 80's to low 90's I get yelled at if I don't take my BP meds on the regular. I've noticed that it goes down if I stop drinking soda with and without caffeine.

You're a nursing student when you are admitted into a program and accept, not any time before. How awkward would it be to tell people you are a nursing student, and then find out you didn't get accepted? And as an CMA, it totally grinds my gears when the other MA's call themselves nurses. A lot of them don't see the difference, which is my opportunity to kindly educate them. I just finished my first semester, and I learned things that an MA would never be allowed to do.

Mine came from a friend who said that my robot name was stephatron. My brother in law actually calls me that regularly. The # are part of my birthday.

People who come into lecture late are not allowed in after 8:00. The professor will send you outside and make you wait to come in until break. That means that if a quiz or a bit of lecture that may be important was introduced during that time, sorry but you missed out. You're an adult, don't throw a fit when you miss out on points because you couldn't get to class on time. I know that there are exceptions to every rule, and I personally don't care if you are late or not. It makes no difference to me and my grade. When you are late almost every day, though, it does make me question how motivated you really are to buckling down and doing what you can to be the best nurse you can be and learn as much as you can. We worked hard to get into nursing school, and now you can't be bothered to show up on time? If you're late to clinical, that's a different story. We are representing not only our school but the other # of students that are in that clinical rotation. If you're constantly late, what is the impression on that nurse going to be for the rest of the cohort? How is she going to treat the rest of us? Is she going to trust us with performing skills with her? Because, congratulations, you just made us all look unprofessional with one or two actions that were "no big deal."