Brian2MN

Never hurts to check eBay though too. I did a quick search and found one with a Buy it Now price of $37.56 with 5.95 shipping. The publication date is 2000 though--not sure if there's a more recent revision or not. I would think it's the most recent, because I couldn't find a more recent one on Amazon or the Barnes and Noble websites.

Thanks for everyone's response. It's good to know that other people out there share my problem too and I'm not nuts. :chuckle When I was in college I went to an ENT doctor at a good hospital, because I wanted to give it one big try to see once and for all what may have been wrong and if anything could be done. He took X-rays and said he couldn't see any reason for it. He then gave me a scratch-n-sniff "test" with 50 different samples where I was supposed to say what they were, and he then left me in the room for almost an hour before returning to find me napping because I was so bored. I hadn't filled any of it out, and he asked why. I said I didn't because it was multiple-choice, 4 choices each, and if I got any right at all it would have been pure chance and 25% would have been misleadingly high. He asked me a bunch of questions about taste, and I know he didn't believe me. Oh well. I don't have a problem at all asking for help when I need it. If anything, I'm probably more paranoid about personal hygine, bathing too much, changing clothes any time I feel a drip of sweat, etc. Obivously bottles of stuff in a hospital would need to be handled and labeled in a way where you wouldn't rely on your nose to identify it....but I was thinking about things like where if someone had an "accident" or whatever, I'd hate to get fired because I let someone lay in soiled pants all day or something. I appreciate the advice.

I'm a very healthy guy who is considering a career change into nursing. The aspect of working with people, dealing with stress, and physical labor aren't too much of a concern for me. However, I do suffer from anosmia, which is a lack of the scent of smell. I figure I was born this way, as I've been that way throughout my life. The doctors I've visited said that it's abnormal that I have this condition but seem to have a very acute sense of taste, and they could find no medical reason for this and figure I must have a damaged olfactory nerve. My question is this--how limiting is this condition in the field of nursing? Of all the sense, I often feel lucky that this is the one I'm missing, but it does impact some avenues of my life. It doesn't officially have disability status (I suppose because it's difficult to prove that someone actually has this and someone may lie about it), but I could see where it might have an impact. I honestly can see where it may have some benefits in this field. I just want some good advice--those of you who are reading this--if you suddenly lost your sense of smell, could you do your job? I'm still trying to decide on a specialty, any particular ones to avoid? Thanks

Thank you for your help. I'm really just thinking things through right now. There are plenty of community colleges around the metro area that offer LPN programs, and I'm considering a few of them. I've also been looking at the schedules to get an idea if it's realistic to have a job or not at the same time. Of course the RN program is much more demanding on time than the LPN program, and it's looking like some schools don't offer the RN program part-time? I'm fortunate enough to not need to work, but just doing all the math in my head if I were to move up to the metro area and buy a house I'm looking at, etc. I guess the daunting task is trying to see how all the pieces would fit together.

Thanks for your input on this. Maybe this question is better in a different forum, but how "portable" is the LPN/RN? I'm reading a lot about people moving around in specialties. From what I see there's not really any difference in the education?

I have some questions that I thought some people here might be able to help me with. I'm 30 years old right now, and considering a career change into nursing. I have an MBA and a corporate job that I hate, and found that the daily 8-5 every day schedule and politiking just doesn't do it for me. I've always been a weightlifter and played rugby in college at a large school, and to be honest I thought that male nurses were strange back then. I've been working part-time on weekends in a group home with developmentally disabled men for the past 6 years though, and have found that to be a much more rewarding career path. I've considered that line of work, but honestly I feel that if I managed a house full-time I'd get incredibly burned out on the general lack of discipline and dedication that results from the low-pay people there make. For me to decide on nursing, I'd need to have clear indication of what kind of specialty I'd want to have. I've been reading a lot of the posts in here and really appreciate the information in this forum, but I have some more questions. To be totally honest, some of the aspects of rehab nursing sound more desirable than others. I'm a weightlifter and a competitive bodybuilder, so the physical and lifting aspect of the job aren't a concern to me. I'm sort of an unofficial personal trainer as I'm not certified, but I have a reputation for being willing to give newbies pretty detailed tips and demonstrations on equipment at my gym for free. I'm very interested in the rehabilitation aspects of this job in terms of helping people get back on their feet and to be strong. I'm wondering how much of the daily job entails this sort of thing, where the boundaries are between that side of the job and physical therapy, and how much toiletry stuff there is to the job. I'm also wondering how "portable" an LPN is. Do you formally decide on a specialty, or do you go into it, get the diploma and certification, and then you decide and the skills can be transferred into other areas? I apologize for my questions being pretty basic, but I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks in advance, Brian

Sorry if I was unclear. What I meant was "during every occurrence" as in this exact situation we were to call the nurse during every occurrence so the nurse could advise to administer the PRN based on the described symptoms. I was just trying to remember his situation and remember reading those words, "during every occurence", and thinking that DEO could come out of it. Really all I'm trying to do is brainstorm for a possibility of what it could mean, so she can at least professionally present the ambiguity involved in the question for her own reputation. I would agree that one way or another, the question needs to be asked since it's undoubtedly an non-official acronym one way or another. Sorry if I wasn't clear as I maybe muddled up my response in my attempt at humor.

You know, I was trying to think about this though because I did work in a group home with a guy who was scheziophrenic when I was in college. There I was at Super Wal-Mart trying to decide between Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke, spending my hard-earned money to drive up Wal-profits so they can afford to put yet another 35 hour per week employee on government medical assistance, and it hit me. None of us were RNs, so we were supposed to call the nurse when he was having an episode so the nurse could say whether we should administer a psychotropic med to him that he had as a PRN. It's been 10 years so I can't remember what the med was, but I believe the language was to call the nurse DEO or "during every occurrence". Keep in mind again I'm not a nurse, I'm just thinking logically. From the perspective of doing research, it makes sense to do a study that would consider that a subject takes their medications religiously during an episode or those do not in terms of their effectiveness. What I was getting at in my previous post, as I'm sure your sister knows, is that the politics of asking a question usually leads to people thinking she's dumb or asks too many questions, etc. Due to the importance of this, I'd definitely have her ask for clarification. Instead of saying that some anonymous guy in an online forum had a revelation while grocery shopping, she should say something like "I was discussing the use of DEO with some professionals, and someone mentioned that 'during every occurrence' has been used in association with using psychotropic meds"..... Just an idea.

Department of Extra-Normal Occurences. No, seriously I wouldn't know. I'm new to this site and just looking for entry-level information on here. Strangely enough though, I do work with data analysis in my current job though, and can say from experience that if the data requirements aren't clear, ask for clarification. If someone sends me an email asking for a report, I respond by rephrasing the question in my own words to see if they agree. It's a good way to get them to either agree or disagree with what you think the question is without looking stupid. Better to be safe than sorry.