MikeyJ

If you look at a President or Provost's bio, you will find that all of them started off as an assistant or associate professor and went up the ranks until they got full professor. They then usually start taking leadership positions within their department (i.e., Director of Undergraduate Programs, Assistant Dean of Research, etc.) and then eventually become Dean. It is then that they can begin to look at applying for positions of Provost or President. Also, if you look at most President or Provost's bios, nearly all of them have a Ph.D. in their specialty. Most of them have extensive experience in teaching and impressive lists of published publications. A Ph.D. in "Higher Education Leadership" will not give you a leg up... what will give you a leg up is many many many years of experience as a professor, hard work, and ensuring you publish a lot of research. President/Provost positions are far and few between and are extremely competitive. Go to higheredjobs website -- nearly all colleges/universities use this site and take a look at the requirements for president and provost positions.

2/3 of posts relate to being sued and losing license? I actually cannot remember the last time I read a posting related to either of these topics. I have only been a nurse for a few years but have never known anyone to lose their license or get sued.

Most nursing students do not get a whole lot of exposure to blood draws & IV's but do not fret... you should get a lot of experience when you begin working as an RN. As a student I probably did 2 IV sticks on patients and 2 or 3 on fellow classmates. I never did a blood draw as a student. As an RN I have done some blood draws and a few IV attempts -- I always have a seasoned RN in the room with me when I do my IV attempts so they can coach me. I have done a few blood draws but I work in the Ped's ICU and many of our patients have central lines and arterial lines, thus we always draw from them.

When you find an easy nursing school, let me know... :) And when you find that "easy" nursing school, you better check out how many students are passing their NCLEX licensing exams. There are schools that make it easier on their students to pass but in the end when they need to pass the NCLEX to become an RN, they have a tough time with it.

I was required to do it in nursing school and did not find it helpful at all. If you refer to the NCLEX discussion forum, there are quite a few threads on NCSBN, Kaplan, etc. :)

With any state board of nursing, you typically need to do finger printing, go through a background check, and be able to prove you are a U.S. resident or citizen.

I will only be applying to one, and it is the school I graduated with my BSN. Reason I am only applying to one is because I am locked into a 2 year contract with my hospital and cannot realistically move at this point. If I am not accepted, my school allows students to take 3 or 4 classes as a non-admitted student -- thus, I would begin taking those classes and apply again.

University of Nevada Las Vegas

I am unaware of any standing orders on my floor for labs with the exception of drawing a lab after a rider has completed.

I am jealous of some of your hospitals! Our hospital is dead broke and we have very little in our patient kitchen. I rarely take anything but I at times need to suck down a grape juice or apple juice when I become hypoglycemic.

It depends on the extent of the head injury. With a severe closed injury, you usually have increasing ICP (intracranial pressures) which can damage brain tissues and cause herniation if not treated quickly enough. Severe CHI usually include intracranial hemmorhage (there are different types - subrual, subarrachnoid, epidural, etc.). Those type of CHI can be a surgical emergency. Open head injuries can be just as severe/deadly. But it depends on the type of injury -- with OHI, you usually have a penetrating or perforating type of injury. If the object passes through the brain and hits a major blood vessel, it can be just as severe as a CHI. The skull provides great protection, thus if an object hits the head and causes and open head injury, it usually does not penetrate deep into the brain because of the skull. I feel as if I am rambling here.. lol.. but usually a CHI as far worse results than an OHI, but an OHI (gunshot wound or something similar) can be just as severe or more severe than a CHI. Thankfully our skull protects us from objects penetrating too deeply into the brain.

That makes no sense but with the financial crunch some hospitals are facing, I am betting more hospitals will be reducing their per diem rates.

I am on orientation right now, thus it hasn't affected me yet... but I think it will be not so great once I am scheduling myself and can be bumped around because others have seniority.

My unit uses self-scheduling based on seniority. We do monthly schedules and you schedule yourself for whatever 3 days you want to work and you mark what days you would like to be on-call and what days you can to overtime and you mark if you have any classes (ACLS, PALS, TNCC, etc.). The week before the new schedule comes out, the manager has a self-scheduling meeting where nurses can discuss who wants to switch their days if a certain day is short. It is based on seniority though -- thus, the low man on the todem poll usually is stuck working those days that no one else wants to.

I was always taught to watch the patient take the PO med -- you should never leave them at the bedside. I work with ped's patients, so it is a bit different... but with the older kids, if they are not ready to take their PO meds, I put them in their bedside med lockbox and come back 20 or 30 minutes later to give them. I never leave them at their bedside and hope they take them.

I agree that you may not always get blood return from a PIV. As long as the IV flushes with ease and no signs of infilitration or phlebitis, I still use the IV.

The big difference (for me anyway) was that it was a change assessing someone who could not communicate their issue to me. Thus, when you assess a child, try to do a more thorough assessment... in the adult population, they can tell you what is bothering them or what seems abnormal to them. With the infants, remember to assess their fontanelles and umbilicus (they may have the umbilical cord remains) and their reflexes. If you need to do a newborn assessment, I would read up on that before going to clinicals (you do things you normally would never think of, such as ear recoil, "hip click", etc.). If the child has an IV, meticulously assess it every hour and ensure you chart on it every hour -- children are prone to IV infilitration. Remember to do a general head-to-toe assessment but try focusing on the problematic area (ex: if the child is asthmatic, focus on respiratory... if the child is in there for cardiac issues, focus on cardiac... etc.). Children usually do not have multi-system problems, thus it is important to focus on the issue that brought the child to the hospital. Regarding peds math, it is not much different than any other dosage calculations with the exception that we use weights when dosing medications.

It will all depend on the unit -- for example, the unit I worked as an apprentice nurse was AMAZING! The nurses worked together so well and everyone was friendly with everyone else. There was no back-stabbing and everyone was supportive. Now that I am working as an RN in a different unit, things are far different. Most of the nurses get along and help each other out but there are still a few nurses that everyone watches out for that will go out of their way to make life hell for the others. I try to ignore that gossip and do my own work and stay close to those nurses I know I can trust.

It baffles me why people argue whose program is "harder" or more "demanding". I think it is a matter of personal perception -- and furthermore, why argue about it in the first place?

It also depends on your state -- some states do not issue Interim Permits. The state I live in automatically issues an Interim Permit upon graduation from a nursing school and it is good for 90 days and is not renewable. If you take the NCLEX within those 90 days and pass, your permit is revoked and you are given an RN; however, if you fail the NCLEX, the permit is also revoked. Best to check with your State Board of Nursing.

You may want to post this question on the pre-nursing or student nursing forum. I haven't looked at the Kreb's cylce since biology 2 or 3 years ago. Did you try Googling it? I am betting there are a few websites out there that explain it well.

The NCLEX does test on a wide variety of subjects, and yes it does seem a bit like trivial pursuit. However, one must understand how to take an NCLEX based questions. Many of the questions do not require any real knowledge about the disease or medication being questions; instead, it requires an understanding of how to answer an NCLEX question using Maslows, nursing process, safety, & ABC's. The NCLEX is testing whether the tester can utilize safe practice, but at the same time answer an analysis-based question as opposed to a knowledge-based questions. You can pass -- figure out what your weaknesses are and focus on them. Good luck! :)

I only used Kaplan (I did some questions from a few other review books but did not find them helpful) and I passed with 75 questions. But before embarking on a new study plan, I think you first need to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. Some people struggle with the knowledge area and others struggle with the analysis-based questions.

To be honest, all of the "basics" that I spent so much time reviewing for the NCLEX never came up on the NCLEX. I would still definitely review your basic electrolyte imbalances, lab values... Definitely review infection control -- it is going to be on your NCLEX and I think everyone I have spoken to has had infection control on theirs. Most important -- do 1000's of practice questions! The NCLEX is not designed to test you on your knowledge -- it is designed to test you on whether you can practice as a safe nurse.

If they allow you to do 3 12-hour shifts in a row, you could possibly find a cheaper hotel or a room to rent for those 3 days. Driving over 2 hours after working a 12-hour shift would be horrible. I have a 30 - 40 minute commute -- I could not imagine a 2 hour commute.