newflgrad

I had a meeting with TCN and got the cost of the BSN at ISU and was shocked about the price. I am wondering do I have to go through them to take the CLEP,DANTES, and EXCELSIOR COLLEGE exams at the testing centers? Or can I buy the books off ebay and just call and sign up at Pearson Vue (testing center) and say "I would like to take blah blah exam"? Or do I have to be enrolled at some college to do this? Or what...? Another words I have one paycheck to live and feed my kids on, so I have to do it the cheap way and if this can be done then I can do it this way. Then after my pre reqs enroll in ISU? Has anyone done it like that or know if it can be done that way? Skipping TCN all together? Please let me know. Thank you!

Ok, so I can CLEP all the pre req classes on my own, by using books and study guides off EBAY? And then go directly through ISU.......am I hearing that correctly?

I am an LPN single mom who does not have alot of money to throw around, just as I know alot of you don't either. I am so confused reading, what seems to be over hundreds of threads on how to get your BSN online. I live in Fla and I have to still do my pre reqs. Are any of you that are ISU students or planning on being ISU students going through TCN? I have an apt with them Sat. but keep getting mixed ideas and what to do from reading all these posts. Do I have to use them, or can I do it all on my own by buying what I need off of EBAY? And how do I know what to buy off EBAY if I so choose to take that route? Also, I don't know how to CLEP classes or acutually where to begin. Can anyone help me on what I should do? SO lost, so confussed........................................HELP ME PLEASE

Hi Kimly! I would like to talk to you more about what you are doing. I also am an LPN in Fla and a single mom and really want to get started online for my RN. I am just SO CONFUSED with all the info out there, that I honestly don't know where to start and don't have the time or money to get ripped off on any unecessary books or courses. If you are willing to email me here is my email [email protected] or if you want to talk to me here that will be fine too. Thanks and hope to talk to you soon!

:trout: I have been on this case for 10 months doing at the most 32 hrs a week and min of 24 a week. It is for twins (very active) and have a question for anyone out there that can give me advice. One parent that use to be in the home and stay at home and go on doctor's visits and make apts and handle the refills on meds is now gone. There is a single parent in the home that works M-F day shift. We have one nurse that has joined in the care and giveing me a hard time and calling my DON and telling her I am not doing my job and I am at my wits end! There is no phone in the home, but the grandmother lives next door and it's a duplex, which I am told we can use her phone if we need to. What the problem is, I am being told I AM THE ONE That has to call and make ALL the doctor's apts and call and set up Medicaid transportation, call in all refills, etc.......... because this is a single parent and they work during normal office hours and they can't call. Am I wrong about saying, I am not going to use my personal cell phone to make long distance phone calls? It's also very hard to always go next door and borrow the family members house phone when you are medically careing for 2 very active twins! And while you are on the phone they are screaming at the tops of there lungs, hitting, biteing and hurting each other! I have called before and someone thought I was calling from a pet shop with birds yelling in the back ground!LOL I am also worried about haveing to call 911 if I dont have a cell phone and leaveing the child to run next door and call 911. I have expressed that to my DON and they just keep telling us to talk to dad, when that gets us no where! Also I can't go to doctor's office apts alone with 2 very active twins, with active seizures, oxygen tank, diaper bag, with meds' and carry two car seats because we have to ride on Medicaid transportation! So I refuse to work on the days they have apts! I will not put my license on the line like that! One could take off and run right into the street and they will look at me and say "well why did you take them if you felt unsafe?" Sorry this is long, I am upset because I love these kids, love what I do and am just confused. Is there a chain of command in the office for something like this? Thank you very much!

It's just a little fustrateing. I love my job and I enjoy what I do, so in that respect I am very thankful for my job that God has given me. But at the same manner, I don't want to be ignorant to the fact that I am being short changed either. For instance, I know for a fact that one nurse gets paid $20.00 an hour for takeing care of these twins. And when she asked for a raise they told her that's all they get paid by Medicaid (which I told her that is a lie because they have to be pocketing somewhere). But if you have 2 patients that your license is on the line for and you are delivering ALL patient care shouldn't you get paid for both of them? Does anyone know how to find out the Medicaid reimbursement rates for home health on twins for the State of Fla? Thanks for any advice.

Just curious to see if anyone knows if you are taking care of twins, if you get paid for both patients or only one? I am told that Fla. Medicaid only pays for one child and half for the other to have round the clock nurseing? I am with an agency that is paying the nurses that go there only the rate of pay for one and they claim that even though they each have thier own medicaid number...and they both need round the clock nurseing, not one worse or healthier than the other. They are same disease and everything. I am told that Medicaid is not paying for each child, that since they are twins that Medicaid is paying one full payment to the agency and half a payment to the agency? I am just wondering if they are not paying the nurses fairly that are on the cases since they are takeing care of Two patients? Any similar circumstances for you guys or comments? Thanks in advance:idea:

Excuse the no clue question.............but what is a Certified Ped. Nurse Examination? Can LPN"S take it? How can being Certified in Peds Help you in your career? I would be interested in takeing it, if it will help. Just curious. Thanks

I live in and I sent you a PM

Thank you everyone who responded with thier support and words or wisdom. I wanted to let everyone know I did report it and told the agency I was reporting it. There respones was.............Nothing. She just sat there and said, ok, well let's see if i have any other shifts for you to pick up. I was thinking you have got to be kidding! There is no way I will ever go back to them or reccomend them to any other nurse. I am with another agency, one that is well known now and I have orientation on Wed. They already sound great and want to give me the orientation that I deserve and should of had with the other one! I can't go into the home health until I have a 2nd TB test and have to wait one week between them both but they said I could work in a hospital setting until then so I can get a paycheck! That is nice since I am a single mom with no paycheck right now thinking did I make a mistake leaving the hospital for this? I pray to God it will get better and I can come to learn this Home Health thing! It sounds great from what I read on this forum! I will keep you posted. Thanks again!

Thank you all for that. Yes I have been considering my oath I took very seriously. I am required by law I guess I was just have trouble with "what constitutes abuse" or neglect really. No there were no maggots, no, there wasn't feces anywhere. It was just a house I have not seen before in this state except one other time and it is just shocking. Knowing they have a lice problem they have clothes laying everywhere, on the floor, on the kitchen table, on the sinks, and when I got there you could feel the junk built up on the sheets she was laying on, couldn't see them because they were brown.:uhoh21: The doctors have this child heavily sedated for some reason, and that is my other concern. They child was asleep the entire time! Which is not the parents fault they are just doing what the doctor told them to do! Medication adjustments need to be done. I am going to call CPS today just let them know my concerns and let them figure out what constitutes negelect. If they walk in and just say this parent needs training hopefully they will just give it to her. And yes, I spoke to someone who went with this company and works for them for over a year and they loved them. I can't get in touch with them now because it was a bump into someone situation. Well, hopefully this new company can get me work fast because I am broke and out of work until then!

If you live in the State of Fla I believe they will require you to have your IV certification to hang IV piggy backs or any IV's. Check with the BON in Fla and see if your training will cover you for IV"s

Thank you for that! I am happy to hear from you guys, it makes me feel alot better to hear from peers and that can understand what I went through somewhat. I tell something like this to my family that has no idea and they are dumb founded. I have thought very honestly about reporting them to Children and Families but was worried, for what I don't know. It is a scary thing to put a family in the system, but they are pretty much there anyways, I have many questions about how and why and there could be good explanations but I don't have them.Why is it so scary? The mom adopted them (they are all from her family) and mom told me the younger girl got the STD from her mother while giving birth to her. It just raises alot of questions and makes you wonder what is going on. Thanks for the input and listening if anyone else has anything to share.

Long Post, Sorry, but I can use some encouragement! If you have the time! Some of you have been reading my posts and answering me through this new chapter in my life and I want to thank you. I wanted to share how my first 2 days in my Peds Home Health went. First all I will give you the run down so you can encourage me or discourage me I am hopeing this is not a "typical" thing that has happened to me, but if so please tell me and I can be prepared for this. I am a new grad as of last summer and went straight into med/surg and got quickly burned out! Home Health has always appealed to me on many levels but one that I can bond with a patient and give them my ALL and not bits and pieces of me! So after going on 3 interviews and all wanting to hire me I decided to go with the one that offered the most per hour and the best benefits, well this is a mom and pops place (which means not a big chain like Gentiva etc..) They never explained any paper work that I had to do and send in to them, they told me it would be on the table and If I had questions to call them.Well my first question of is this right, happened when she told me there would be no nurse on the case to orient me because they had all left because of a undiscovered DUI, and one of the nurses comeing in drunk for her shift (God help us!) and that I would have to get my orientation from mom. I thought no problem, families know thier kid best anyways. That went well, and on the first day I walked into some very unsanitary conditions! I thought, well I am here for the patient and education can be done as long as the child was not in immediate danger, The mom told me stories of the other children in the home (aren't hers) and how one of the smaller child has an STD, and I just was about to fall on the floor. I am not a nieve person and have dealt with almost anything in Med/Surg but this was just throwing me for a loop. Well today after the child's bath I washed her hair and discovered the child was Covered in head lice! I showed mom and after laying her bed today with her, and roleing on the floor with her, I suddenly became so sick! I have to girls to come home to and wondered if I had already infected my self and clothes! As nurses, we are prepared to handle everything thrown at us and a little thing like head lice shouldn't scare me, but it did! I told her I would have to leave early today and gave her instructions on how to handle the hair, room, couches, clothing, pillows...etc. Told her I would be back on Monday because I am sure she would have the problem tackled by then but to call me if she didn't. I may have been wrong in doing that, but I did that knowing I did not want to come back to this Unsanitary house. The child has CP and she is constantly coughing and being suctioned and both parents smoke constantly inside the home all day! I am a non-smoker so I was hateing that! Her suction yanker was always on the floor when I went in, with the dog laying on it, and other household things that would floor the seasoned home nurse, and when I tell you this, my house is a mess so I am not a clean freak at all!! Oh and while I was there today, someone was murdered just a couple of houses down. So my fellow peers, I am suppose to start orientation with a well Known Home Health Agency next week, can it get better than this? Or is it pretty much the same no matter where you go? I am hopeing I can learn to like Home Health the way I have it pictured it would be. Oh yes, and when I called the agency and told them about the unsanitary conditions and I could not work there do they have any other cases, they said not right now, but when they talked to me last week they had 23 cases~! HMM?LOL

Ok guys I started with a new child, in thier home and this is a Cerebral Plasy pt and both parents smoke all day long in the house. I am not a smoker and believe everyone has a right to choose, but this poor child is not getting a choice here. I have a choice also, and would like to stay with this child but am getting migraines in the afternoon from the exposure. :uhoh21: This is my very first home health case and I am starting to get the feel of "throw it to the new girl" with it. She has a doctor's apt comeing up and was wondering is this something you bring up to the doctor in private, don't bring it up or what? Do I tell the agency about it? I am the patient's advocate, which is the little child, and also the family's I guess, but am in a tough situation and would like to know how to handle this. I can tell I am going to love home health "WITH THE RIGHT FAMILY" and thinking of calling the agency and asking for a new case but staying with her until then. But wonder if the agency will hop right on finding me a new case or since I say I will stay until then they will take thier time. There are other small isues that raise a flag and home not such a good situation, worried about my license being used as a shield or to take a fall for someone. No hard concrete things yet, but that is what is giving me a feeling. Any thoughts? Thanks guys, it's nice to know there are peers out there that will sound off for you!