Decisions7

I need to get started with my continuing education but I am not sure how, I was wondering if I could get some advice on this.

Hi, I was wondering, if I refuse to work an assignment 1 day in advance could I lose my nursing license?

How are you only making 50k as an experienced nurse? that would be extremely low pay here even for a new grad. I think the minimum around here would be $29 an hour.

I currently converted from a mental health technician to an RN and I am taking training shifts. I work a rehab hospital that receives patients that other rehabs don't take. A lot of patient's are dual diagnosis so they have a mental health issue and have abused drugs and/or alcohol. I have and will continue to work on several different floors so I get a mix of different experiences. I enjoy working there but I will never hang IV's, give foley caths, or do any trach suctioning. It's technically a med administration with a lot of other tasks. I talk to every RN there that I can. Some RN's got a job there and kept working, some are PRN and work in a variety of settings, others had a med surg background before entering this field. A lot of people say I should do a year of med surg. I feel that on hand this could open up doors I didn't know about, but on the other it could just be a year (or less) of craziness and then I go straight back in to rehab or mental health work. Money isn't much of an object but I would be taking a pay cut if I got an entry level hospital nursing position. Has anyone been in my situation? What did you do and why?

I was going to post something but I'm sorry what was this thread about?

Hey all, So I'm in my last semester pursuing an RN degree. I have made it through previous semesters and clinical experiences but I have often struggled with hearing in specific situations. I sometimes missed some information in report, and would have to get the rest of it in the patients chart. Also if a clinical instructor or patient was talking softly, I would often have to ask her to repeat herself. Thankfully last semester my instructor was a man, and for whatever reason I hear men better than women. Over the winter holiday break I got hearing aids. I also upgraded to a cardiac stethoscope, which cost around $120. They don't work with the aids, so I will have to take the aids out to use the stethoscope. I haven't used it that much yet, just tested on a friend. I have never had a problem with hearing basic sounds such as heart, bowel, and lung. If there is a some very quiet diagnostic sound that a patient has I can't guarantee I'd be able to hear it. However, I will say that I still don't always put the stethoscope in the right places anyway, and I definitely have room for improvement. Anyway, everything is so much better. I can hear further away in class, and It's great at work too. The problem is that clinical starts next week. I don't want to run into trouble. I truly think I will give better patient care with them on. Does anyone know if I could get kicked out for wearing hearing aids?

I have failed out of nursing school in my last semester. I received a clinical failure. I'm not going to go into a long story about everything that went wrong. I just have some questions and would like advice. Has anyone ever changed programs? I am going to talk to other colleges in the area and learn about BSN programs. I wouldn't mind starting over and paying more if it made me a better nurse in the long run. What could I tell the new college? How can I hide my failure from them or should I explain what I learned from it? How do I get a job as a nurses aide or patient tech? I have ZERO paid work experience in healthcare. I volunteered with patient transport at an ER for a few months. I don't know how to show a hospital that I have 3 semesters of clinical patient care and nursing assessment experience and would be a good fit for them. I would be able to clean patients AND do head to toe assessments. My resume says I worked in a call center and have done retail. My goal was to just get an RN license and get a job from that. Now I have to take a detour but I'm not sure how to make it work.

Guy, you answered my question.

I'm not going to get into a big story on here, she was clear... ly fabricating a story that I made a mistake. I want to defend myself and clear my name.

If I think that I did everything 100% correctly but my instructor gives me a clinical warning, am I able to argue it? Who do I go to and how to I defend myself? I didn't read anything in the handbook (guide to the nursing program). I don't want to contact the wrong person or follow an incorrect protocol. I also want to know if anyone has argued against something like this?

Does anyone ever feel like a previous clinical experience did not prepare you enough for the one you are currently in? Like the clinical instructor didn't expose you to enough hands on nursing or autonomy and then your thrown in on the next semester like a full on nurse?

Hi, I used to write good papers. Then I got into nursing school. I thought my paper in Nursing 110 was well written and well thought out, but I got a bad grade on it. But thats just background information. I have an 8-15 page paper to write about a patient I cared for that had pneumonia and bronchiectasis. I need 3 nursing journal articles that discuss this topic. They must be no older then 5 years. I think the hardest part is the research articles. None of them seem to have what I need. I need nursing care planning, communication / nurse client relationship, and understanding client behavior. The articles need to address these things and it would be helpful if they were related to my client and topic. Honestly respiratory assessment seems so self explanatory and all the lung disorders pretty much manifest the same way. Check vitals, listen to the lungs, head to toe assessment, ask the patient how they feel and about their history. boom that's not even a paragraph! ugh! I was wondering if any of you have any advice or if any of you did really well on papers like this one? I want to get at least a C+ on it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the test average I need to get to move on to Nursing 212 but it's 20% of my grade. Any advice helps.

Having been through maternity and passed it I would say the material is boring no matter what your gender is. I hated learning about how the baby rotates out of the birth canal and all that stuff. But as a male nurse you should learn it. What if you have a pregnant woman in the ER and her water breaks? You need to know what to do to get the process started. What if you are at a resort in Aruba? Take it seriously. Women give birth, and you could be the first or only responder. And if you are given a chance: watch a C-section or lady partsl birth. My heart rate shot way up when I watched the C-section there were so many layers of tissue and a lot of blood being suctioned out. It went from tissue and a uterus hanging out and a baby being pulled out, to a neatly sewn scar with stitches that dissolve. And there was a male nurse anestetist in the room. Some of you might want to be one of those. One more thing to add: the woman who's Csection I watched thanked me and told me I was very professional. It's all about your personality and professionalism.

I'm not a nurse yet but maybe you should put on some dance music and dance in front of him show him moves he will never be capable of. (don't do this :))

Hi everyone, People fail at all sorts of things. failure is a part of life etc etc insert something profound here. Let me cut to the chase: I am extremely close to failing this semester. If I make one more mistake such as: Failing a demonstration test, showing up late to clinical, making a mistake at clinical, or not doing paperwork correctly. If I do any one of these things I am done. I had 2 lives. like if you have ever played Mario and you are given 3 lives to beat the level. I am down to my last life in this semester. You would think this would motivate me to work extremely hard and make it through this but it has the complete opposite effect. I have 2 more demonstration tests to get through. I have to repeat the IV test I failed today and then demonstrate NG. I also have 7 whole days of clinicals to survive. So here are my 3 choices: 1. Audit the course, sit through the lectures, get a job, prepare to repeat the course. I won't be able to sit for the tests, and I don't think I get to continue to go to clinical. I won't get an "F" (my life) on my transcript. 2. Work really hard at passing clinical and demonstration tests, go to class but reduce exam studying time so I can get a job. Probably repeat the course. Ive lost motivation to study as much as I have. 3. Keep doing what I'm doing. Try to stay motivated. Continue to drain my bank account. Probably repeat the course. I am looking for advice on what you all think I should do, and what you would do in my shoes.

I understand. I already have my own ideas, I wouldn't let my schooling change them. I would also like to help people manage their disease. Basically as a health care provider I would want to be well rounded. Not just weightloss but other conditions as well.

I did weight watchers, as well as a combination of weights, cardio, hiking. I started in 2012 I am still trying to get to my goal weight but I am close to "overweight" (currently still in "obese") I'm not close minded though. I understand that obesity is very complicated and we still don't have all the answers as to what causes it. It could really be anything, hormones firing off too much or not enough, imbalances in gut bacteria, psychological. No single scenario fits everyone. Some people do need bariatric surgery.

Hi, I apologize if this is in the wrong section or something. As a long term goal, I would like to help people use food to manage their weight and other health symptoms. I have lost 95 pounds and I feel like I can help other people. The problem is I'm not sure how to go about doing this. If I choose to pursue a nutrition degree it seems unlikely that I will get a steady job. Hospitals generally use only a few dieticians. Furthermore I would like to get more experience before I became an outpatient nutritionist. I'm not sure it's something I would be able to do right out of school. One more thing, a nutritionist has to LAND an unpaid internship to become a dietician. So AFTER I got my degree I would have to be lucky to get the internship. Another obstacle in that program. I feel like a BSN degree is MUCH more versatile. I could start out doing pretty much anything and eventually steer my career towards something involving what I want to do. I figure there are also a lot of nutrition related nursing jobs out there. I figure there is a figurative "bridge" a nurse can cross and become a nutrition counselor or something to that effect. Does anyone have any advice or personal experience? I guess I can add a poll to this as well.

I have just heard that some places are like that, you don't get much time with a patient and rush the care

Hi, I am on the fence about nursing. I like how broad the field is. I'm interested in some lower stress facility work and also interested in home care because I wouldn't have to shove pills down patients mouth and could give a patient the care they needed. I am also interested in the non patient care side of things. I did the phone answering / data entry portion of insurance precert and I would like to try the decision making side of things especially in 25 years or so when I'm older. Whether or not a patient should get a crazy invasive surgery. If I could easily get into a PTA program I would probably rather be a PTA, the only problem is that the schools are ridiculously expensive or far away. They are also difficult to get into. Furthermore if you fail a course you fail for an entire year. Ultimately being a PTA is just that, for the rest of my life I would be a PTA and confined to certain work, no point in PTA > PT unless a job would pay for it. They also don't make as much money as an RN, I figure I would wonder what if? I figure with nursing I may need to relocate to an area with less nursing schools to get a job and experience. I live in the Philly area and there are nursing schools all over the place. Anyway what do you guys think about my career decision?