Cienna2000

I had gestational diabetes with my daughter. At that point my mother had been type II for a couple of years and was a wonderful support person. In the first few days between diagnosis and seeing the diabetes RN and the RD Mom advised less carbs, a bit more protein, walk but don't be too good at once. My husband, on the other hand, is a good example of what not to do! He completely freaked out. Hubby was the total sugar police. After I saw the RD and had guidelines on how to eat he would completely meltdown if I was wanting to eat a snack with 17 g of carbs instead of the 15 g of carbs that was recommended. So I guess my advise would be "Be supportive, but do not freak out over everything. Stressing out your loved one does not help, it actually makes it worse."

I work in a community clinic. We have one PA, 3 FNPs and 5 MDs that are our staff. We also have an FNP and 3 MDs from another clinic that are specialists that come in to work 1/2 days on a rotating basis. The mid-level providers and the younger MDs that our part of our regular staff are all called by their first names. The MDs from the other clinic and the older MDs from our clinic are all called Dr. I always address all of the doctors by "Dr." in front of patients and when taking messages on the phone -- my coworkers are not as good about that and it drives me INSANE. We also have a lot of hispanic patients that do not understand the mid-level providers, to them they are all doctors and when talking with a patient and they call their FNP "Dr. FirstName" I do not argue I just do the same to keep confusion to a minimum. I just wish there were titles that were easy to say that everyone understood for FNPs and PAs. I do have to say though that as a patient/mother of a patient I really appreciate it when the nursing staff calls the doctor by the name the doctor uses with patients. When my daughter was in the NICU her neonatologist went out of town for a conference and he told me that he was leaving but that Dr. B would be taking care of her in her absence. I came in and the nurses were talking about "Val said this" and "Val ordered that", etc. I had no clue who Val was. Turns out she was Dr. B.

Honestly I don't think 7 is too young to explain the hows and whys of sanitary products to girls. In the last week one of the pediatricians I work for had to explain just this to a hysterical 8 year old girl (and equally hysterical mom) that girls can develop that young. As much as HIPAA would like to protect them, it only can do so much when they are crying and carrying on so loud they can be heard through closed doors in the clinic and across the building...

Apply anyway. In your cover letter and in your resume talk up your critical thinking skills and your many years experience as a nurse. Google resumes designed for changing careers or job focus to help get yours set up to focus on your skills, especially any supervisory positions you have held. I'm pre-nursing and work in medical records of a community clinic. We would *LOVE* to get a LPN with your experience. The LPNs we have had usually work with the MAs and tend to room patients, take vitals, do blood draws, notify patients of lab results, call patients to schedule them for follow up, and assist the providers as needed. Those are all things I am sure you are capable of doing with a little training on the offices procedures (which will be different no matter what office you go to). Other doctors offices may have different job duties, but that is what I know you could expect where I work. Good luck!:nuke:

I can't tell you if it is the way it should actually be or not -- but the community clinic I work in has the the MAs read the PPDs all the time

I'm pre-nursing and work in medical records of a community clinic. We use paper charts and where I work the rule is to use chart numbers in emails. If not able to use chart numbers we are supposed to use first initial and last name if we are writing an email in regards to a patient that has not established care (so they do not have a chart number). I also agree with Canoehead and the insecurity of faxing patient information. But it is one of those things where technology both helps and hurts us.

I do not know about your state laws, but here in Oregon we can treat patients age 15 & older without parental consent (though the parents still get the bill).

I just hate articles like that. I swear I find them no matter how much I attempt avoid them. They make feel guilty and I should not let the written word do that to me. My milk never came in after my daughter was born premature. No amount of pumping was working and the LC waiting until I was alone to tell me that if I did not produce milk my daughter was going to die did not help. The NICU nurse that told me that I didn't deserve my daughter because I wasn't providing breast milk is why I want to be a NICU nurse. I want another mother who can't provide milk to at least feel like 1 person in the unit does not hate her. As my mother and MIL both repeatedly assured me, if the neonatologist felt my daughter needed breastmilk that bad he wouldn't have suggested formula he would have been asking for donations from moms with milk. A rhetorical question though. Why do strangers in the store/park/post office etc feel they have the right to lecture you on the value of breastmilk just because they see you have a baby? The elderly in my area were sure to harass me about breastfeeding to the point that I actually started lying and saying that I was because I didn't feel they needed my medical history.

This makes me wonder if that is what happened when I was stuck in antepartum for 2 weeks. I had GD and my OB wrote an order for insulin if my blood sugar went over 200, which it never did so it was never used. However, I was billed for 4 bottles and I disputed the charge so the hospital after much arguing finally removed the charges.

I cloth diaper my daughter. I started cloth diapering when she had a diaper rash that would not go away, months of nystatin, bactroban, diaper rash creams, baby powder, lots of air time, etc. Here is a link to a lot of info on cloth diapers: http://babyslime.livejournal.com/151952.html I was able to verify most of her info, and after so much was correct, I quit trying to verify it. I personally love Happy Heiny's, which are a pocket diaper as are Fuzzi Bunz (the other popular brand). These are wonderful for nighttime, but do not use the ones with the pretty prints over night -- they tend to wick when on for such a long period of time. The best thing about pocket diapers is they wick moisture away from your babies skin so they do not feel wet. I stuff most of my pocket diapers with microfiber towels from the auto section at Target. They are very absorbant. If you go for prefolds and covers, if the cover is not pull on, you do not even have to use snappis (a wonderful invention) or pins to secure the diaper. The cover will take care of that for you (see http://www.diaperpages.com for folding and securing info) I most definately would not buy diapers from Walmart, Target, etc. They just are not all that absorbant. Avoid Gerber products unless you want burp cloths. My favorite online stores are: http://www.clothdaddy.com http://tinyheiny.com http://www.naturalbabies.com I have bought products from all three stores and have been impressed with their customer service. The most important thing is DO NOT USE BLEACH on cloth diapers. If they have elastic (fitted, pocket, covers) it will break it down. And even without elastic it is very irritating to babies skin. My personal washing routine is run the wash cycle as a cold rinse. Restart washer, add 1/4 of a cap Sun Free and Clear liquid detergent and 1 capful Tea Tree Oil. Allow washer to run full cycle, rerun rinse cycle and throw everything in the dryer.

Just a thought here. But how do you know for sure that they are exposed to second hand smoke? My parents smoke, but not around my daughter, but if I leave her coat or sweatshirt in their hall closet it smells of cigarette smoke when we leave.

Very interesting thread. I am just getting prepared to starti the pre-reqs to even get in the nursing program after RSV season is over. I was always somewhat interested in nursing, but never pursued it. Then I developed severe pre-eclampsia and had my daughter 9 weeks early. While the LDRP nurses were nice, I want to be a NICU nurse. The good nurses are not what motivated me, I can only hope to be as good as them. My motivation is actually the 3 bad nurses my daughter had. I know I can be a much better nurse than them, because if nothing else I can be nice to the parents (and not so rough with 2 lb babies--one of these nurses slammed a supply cart into my daughters incubator and didn't even respond to the A/B/Ds it caused, the charge nurse did)

I'm trying to get into prenursing also. I decided against LPN because none of the local hospitals here hire LPNs for any floor and the ones that are currently employed there are being pressured to get RNs or go to LTC facilities. (I heard this directly from two LPNs in the feeder/grower section of the NICU and numerous RNs in the NICU and LDRP during my daughter's 7 week stay in the NICU). I know every hospital/area is different. Good luck!

I'm pre-nursing, but with my hubby's step-SIL, I let it go in one ear and out the other. I was not a normal low-risk pregnancy to start with, and the local midwives only do home deliveries (which I am not comfortable with since I live 50 minutes from the nearest hospital). I can understand how as a L&D nurse this could be incredibly frustrating to deal with. As it was, my daughter was delivered by c-section at 31w0d due to pre-eclampsia. According to the umbilical dopplers my daughter wouldn't have survived contractions. My daughter and I were very fortunate to have VERY good nurses during our stays. What'ds really kind of funny though is step-SIL is all for natural labor with midwives but did not breastfeed any of her kids for more than a few days. The breast nazi of a LC I dealt with in the hospital though drove me nuts. My milk never came in due to a variety of reasons (all the meds that kept me pregnant from 28 to 31 weeks according to my OB and daughter's neonatologist) and this LC actually told me if I didn't get my milk in my daughter would die. Guess she was wrong because 15 months and no breast milk later my toddler is completely healthy and happy.

I waited a couple of days for preemie parents to respond. Everyone who was on mag said that they just wanted to be left alone. One of the Dads is undergoing chemo and at his hospital the PTL moms are on the same floor as the inpatient chemo, he says they have movie nights and arts/crafts together a few nights a week. He is in Europe and have people that speak a variety of languages and lately they have been teaching each other a variety of languages. I hope that helps!