Crystle_clear

Hey just wanted to give you guys some encouraging news. I got my letter last Wednesday from Ivy Tech Terre Haute for their ASN program for the fall semester and.....I got in!!!! (yah Happy Dance!) Anyway, just want to tell all you guys and gals still waiting for that most beautiful envelope to keep the faith. I was almost certain I didn't make the cut because I still taking Advanced A&P right now so I was 32 points behind all those that had finished all their classes. But by some miracle I made it. Now I guess I can stop obsessing over all that and start obsessing about clinicals:uhoh3: . Good luck to you all.

Shay, I feel your pain. I worked on a psych unit specifically for borderline personalities for about a year. It was the longest year of my life. Imagine working everyday with 16 of those people. They certainly have a knack for just sucking the life out of you during a shift with all that attention seeking, manipulation, and antisocial behavior. The best advice I have for dealing with this type of patient is to act as unphased as possible by their antics. Set limits but do it with a smile on your face no matter how much you want to strangle them. What ever you do, do not ignore them. They will just keep upping the ante until they get a reaction. Give them a reaction, just not the one they want. I had a pt. one time smear feces all over her bedroom wall. When I walked in and found it I just smiled and said " Oh well now I have an excuse to use that new cleaner we just got. I just love the citrus scent." She never did it again because I acted like I was happy to clean it up, and a borderline never wants to see other people be happy. This approach always worked for me. Good luck!

I'm working as a QMA (qualified medication aide) right now while I finish nursing school. In Indiana to become a QMA you must have worked as a CNA or certified psychiatric technician for 1000 hours, pass a pharmacology course with an 82% or above, complete a QMA training program with 200 hours of clinical time, and then pass a state licensure test administered by the BON to become licensed. I really doubt that the STNAs in Ohio only get 24 hours of training before being allowed to pass meds. If that is actually true, then it is extremely sad the level of care those patients are receiving. You are right it does take more knowledge to pass meds than your basic CNA would have.

Thanks guys for all your replies. I've been stressing myself out over this whole thing for over a year. I'll just be glad to KNOW one way or the other so I can finally relax. My fiance will be glad too. I'm sure he is tired of having to hear me gripping and obsessing about every B+ I get. Studty2beanurse, I wouldn't worry too much about the TEAS. Refresh your self with geometry, there was a lot more of that than I thought there would be, thank god I studied it beforehand. Knowing the formulas for diameter and area of the various shapes will be helpful. There was hardly any anatomy or biology or any life sciece on the test, which I was disappointed about since that is the kind of science I am comfortable with. There was, on the other hand, tons of physics and quite a few questions about the scientific method, of all the crazy things. I personally didn't find the study guide I bought to be much help, I got the Cliff Notes version. Hopefully yours will be much more helpful. Good luck on your test. ~Crystle~

I work for a not for profit psych facility and it is sooooo wonderful. I don't know if it just my facility, but they really listen to the employee needs. There are no dangerous cost cutting measures or cutting hours. Plus, as an added perk, since it is a not for profit facility, all extra money at the end of the year is divided up and given back to the employee's as a bonus. It usually is about 1,000 to 2,000 dollars for me a year. I've never worked at a place that values the needs of it's staff as much as this facility does.

Hi, just wondering if anybody out there will be applying for or have completed the ASN program in Terre Haute. I'm applying this month for the fall semester and I am sooooo nervous I won't make it in. I have an A in all my pre-reqs, but I haven't been able to take Advanced A&P yet because I ran out of semesters before the applicaiton deadline:rolleyes: Oh well. I scored in the 99th percentile on my TEAS test and all my other grades are A's but I'm terrified not having that class done will screw me on my points. Does anybody know the average amount of points needed to make it into the program? Thanks!

We do have a two week orientation period where the new nurses follow another nurses around and learn the basics of the unit. After that period a case manager or therapist is assingned to the nurse to help them acclimate to the psych side of things, like thereapeutic rapport or psychosocial asssesments. Since she started evenings, I'm her assingned case manager to give her advice. Sorry I guess I shoud have mentioned that in the OP, just trying to get too many thoughts out at once.

I work in a 18 bed psychiatric facility. I was a case manager there, but now that I'm in my 2nd semester of nursing school I've switched posistions to a QMA. Recently a new RN was hired to work the 2 days the regular evening nurse is off. While she is a nice person and seems to know her basic nurising stuff, she has NO psych experience. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but she is also very resistant to learning how to deal with psych patients from the staff with experience. While I must admit it is hard form me to be working "under" someone with so little psych knowledge when I have my BA in psychology, I really have been trying hard to help her cope with her surroundings, (because I know how disorienting working the the severly psychotic can be at first) but she doesn't want to hear it. I'm not sure if it is an ego thing or if she is afriad of looking insecure but she won't take any advice that is offered. She is very overeager to medicate pts. whose perodic outbursts can be controlled with talking and quiet time. I honestly feel that she is afraid of the pts. and would rather overmedicate them till they drool, rather than take the time to redirect their behaviors. The final straw for me has been the admission of a paranoid schizophrenic patient that we often treat. When he comes in he is always very psychotic and believes he is being held in a prisoner of war camp. Because he is commited to our facility so we have the right to force him to take medicaitions. For the last few admissions we have been mixing his Haldol, Ativan, and Clozaril in with his food because he is VERY resistant to taking medicaiontions when he is on this level. Once he clears he is a completley different person and is usually med compliant. The new RN refuses to "hide" his medications in his food. She thinks that it is unethical, despite the fact that it is perfectly legal. This means that every two or three times a shift we have to forcibly restrain him and she injects his medications. This poor man truly believes that we are killing him chemical injections and he cries and shakes after every episode. And of course this destroys all therapeutic rapport that has been developed with him. I don't think I can do that to him again. The past two shifts have been terrible and I want to cry everytime we have to hurt him that way when there is a much less invasive and traumatic way to get meds in to him. I've spoken with our unit manager about it and she has recommended that the regular evening nurse and I talk with her about her about this since our DON is on a three week vacation. My question to you guys is what is the best way to approach this discussion? I don't want to hurt her feelings or put her on the offensive. How can we help her see that sometime psych patients have to be treated with a little bit more understanding and compassion than other types of patients. Thanks for any words of advice.

Thank you for proving my point about prejudice without knowing the facts. I got my QMA to help pay for my nursing school and I have several years of pre-pharmacy under my belt. It seems the nurses on here think that you just walk in to a room and sign up for you certification without any training. In my state you take a full pharmacology course that you have to pass with a B or above. Then you spend 150 hours in training with a RN. After that you take a state certification test that must be passed with a 90%. 150 hours spent in training is more than most of the LPN's I work with recieved in clinicals. I am in no way saying a QMA is qualified to carry out all of a RN's duties, but I am saying that putting down QMA abilities is the exact same as a MD putting down a CRNA. They don't understand what that person went through to get to the point, and neither do you. And don't you think the arguments you just posted are exactly the same as the arguments that MD's have against CRNA's. CRNA have not had as much training as they have. CRNA's are not doctors and QMA's are not nurses. But that doesn't mean that CRNA's can't do their job just as well as an MD. And that doesn't mean a QMA can't pass meds just a well as a nurse. P.S. Just so you can get your facts straight, Med error rates are 30% higher for RN's and LPN's than they are for QMA's in the State of Indiana in a study conducted by the Indiana State Board of Nursing. Mabye you should keep quiet until you know what you are talking about.

I'm just pointing out some of the hypocrisy I've read in these forums, Marie.

Our forms are printed up on night shift ready for the day with the pt. name, age, diagnosis, MD, and legal status(ie. commitment, has gaurdian), and V\S from the 0600 rounds. Throughout the day we add new orders, and bx comments and happenings.

My facility has a "daily report sheet". It is actually more of a booklet because there are two pts. on each page. Throughout the day the secretary write all new orders on it as well as the MAR's and the tech's and nurses all write the basic of the clients behavior and any problems or complaints that need to be passed on to the next shift. I works great at our facility to keep everything in one place and anyone who missed report can easily catch up. I work on a psych floor though so it might be different for a medical floor.

I work in a psych facility too. The thing that makes me so mad is the poor treatment that our patient recieve when at the emergency room. We are a free standing facility, so we have no access to medical supplies or diagnostic equipment. When we have a client with a medical concern like chest pains or shortness of breath we have to take them to the ER to be evaluated. I've accompanied these patients on several occassions and they are treated so poorly. These are humans and their bodies break down just like everyone elses. I don't care if you don't like psych patients and you have no desire to learn about their mental illness, please please please at least give them the physcial care that they need. A few months ago we had a gentlemen with severe heart problems on our unit. After sending him twice to the ER in one shift, the ER doc called and informed us he would not be seeing this man again. This doc felt his chest pains were "psychosomatic". Three hours that he was in CHF and died long before the ambulance got there. It was tragic and senseless. Psych patients get sick too, please help everyone remember that.

I don't see any difference between the two. It is still prejudice against a person's ability to do their assigned job based soley on their job title or the letters behind their name. All I am trying to say is that everyone deserves respect no matter what your job title is. From CNA to RN to MD, as long as you have the required training to perform the job, you deserve to be treated as a professional and respected as such. Am I wrong?

A qualified medication aide

I seems to me that mabye the MD's feel the same way about CRNA's that nurses feel about QMA's. I'm not say that this prejudice is right but as a QMA, I been suject to more than my share of "talking down to", especially on this website. Before everyone starts making generalized statements about other groups, let's take a min. and look at ourselves. :)

It is an order to test blood sugar every 6 hours and cover with insulin, usually on a sliding scale. :)

Hi, I was a pharmacy technician for two years in a retail setting. I recently got my QMA (qualified medication aide) certification and my expereience as a pharmacy tech helped tremendously in passing the Pharmacology portion. I already knew almost all of the durgs and their generics because our pharmacy was set up alphabetically by generic name. I think it would be a very worthwhile experience for you. Good luck!

You know, a nursing student friend of mine told me that allnurses was a placed where opinions could be discussed and I could recieve some good advice form nurses. I posted a completlely neutral message and the only responses I recieved back were full of negative "tone". I think I realize now this is not a place to discuss individual situations but mearly a soapbox for people to preach about ther personal agendas. Do not blame me if you feel threatened by QMA's. I happen to be very good at what I do. I take care of my patients and I make my working atmosphere easier for those around, as I am sure most, if not all, other QMAs do. Someday in the near future I will be an equally good nurse, but unlike some of the other posters on this forum, I will be open and nonjungmental to other individuals in the health care system. Really though I solved my problem my self. I went to the nurse manager, explained the situation, and she talked to the LPN. I guess she gave her 3 options: 1. Learn to work with me in a respectful manner, 2. Move to the night shift, or 3. Quit. Well I came in today and her schedule had been changed to all nights. So problem solved. I really don't need anyone else's biased advice.

I'm not sure what kind of facility you work at, but where I work, the RN's would much rather keep a hardworking and dependable "stupid" aide, than error prone and self important LPN. Mabye I just work at a better place than most.

I'm not really sure what you were trying to imply with that comment but I only meant that if she refuses to work with me, for what ever reason, then she'll have to be moved to a shift that I don't work. Since there is already a fully staffed day shift and I work evenings, then the only other shift left is nights.

Marie, I know she used the term "stupid" because she unknowingly was talking to a personal friend of my mine that happens to be one of the RN's. She used it like " That stupid girl shouldn't be allowed to pass meds, I'm the nurse here not her." My friend politly told her that she had no idea what he was talking about and that I was perfectly qualified to pass those meds and she needed to let me do my job. As for the med error, I did report it to the RN. That is why she is so mad at me. She ended up having an incident report written up on her. It's her third in the two months she has worked there. I don't know what she hopes to accomplish by bad mouthing me. I've worked there for several years and we are a very tight knit group. We don't tolerate gossip or talking behind others backs. I'm feel sorry for her but if he keeps this up, I'm going to have to talk to someone about having her moved to the night shift.

I recieved my QMA (qualified medicaiton aide) certification and my employeer created a posistion for me on our psych floor. I love the new posistion ( and pay increase:chuckle) and I love the challenge of working with meds. I was a pharmacy student for a couple of years before changing my major to nursing and I am currently taking my pre-reqs for nursing school. All but one of the LPN's I work with love having me around and we have devolped a great system, thay do all the med teaching and SQ meds and I pass all the PO meds. The problem is a certain new-grad LPN has a complete attitude about this. She feels like she is superior to me and that I am too "stupid" to pass meds because I don't have those 3 letter behind my name yet. It got worse when I caught her pulling up 5 mg of Haldol for someone when the correct dose was 0.5 mg. Now she won't even let me in the med room with her! She has also been going around telling the RNs that I am trying to tell her how to do her job. All I was trying to do was prevent a med error. I have never been anything but kind and professional to this person. Any ideas how to get her off my back? Thanks!

I work in a psych facility that attracts TONS of drug seekers, and they know the system well enought to realize that once they get admitted for being "suicidal" our hospital foots the bill for their "backpain" visit to the ER to get the morphine and demerol our docs would not perscribe. When these people start b****ing, I simply remind them that they are a voluntary patient and that they can check themselves out at any time and walk their little drug seeking hiney across the street to the ER by themselves, and pay for it by themselves too. I absolutly detest abuse of the system!