The "Teach a Student Something-a-Day" thread!

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In an effort to not enter nursing school as a completely nieve individual, I was hoping that some 2nd years or RN's could share something beneficial with us students each day.

It can be anything little or totally meaningful. Whatever you contribute will be greatly appreciated and hopefully will help me to be a better student and nurse ;)

Thanks!

Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU,.

great thread, agent!

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I have said it before - love the thread. Thanks for starting it Agent - will be printing this out !

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Don't sit down in the cafeteria and discuss your patients..When I worked ER a couple of times a week all of the students would be down there eating and chatting about the people they were taking care of..It was not hard to hear what they were saying and the cafeteria was usually packed with not only employees but also family members....I heard way more than I should have..."big no no" esp with HIPPA. If you notice a classmate doing that also give them the hush hush...confidentiality needs to be maintained. :) Erin

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Good reminder, Erin. I had 2 incidents this semester alone when I overheard people giving out inappropriate confidential information about a patient and it turned out to be someone I knew personally. It's not fun to find out that the father of one of your daughter's classmates is dying of cancer when you overhear the nurses b*tching about what a demanding patient he is.

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Specializes in ED staff.

Although nurses aren't supposed to diagnose medical conditions, we all do. We all try to diagnose the undiagnosable patient. However, when you hear hoof beats don't go looking for zebras when horses are right there. In other words, if your patient complains of a stomach ache after eating the whole box of candy her visitor brought, she probably just overate and doesn't have an aortic aneurysm.

Emotional support is so incredibly important for patient's and their families. Be kind to your patients as much as time will allow you. If you can enlist help and you have a patient that is in need, spend time with them. They need to be heard, they need someone to listen to them.

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Great thread! Very valuable information!

I'm not sure if you will be allowed to do this, but it saves me in the back of a moving ambulance. Connect your IV tubing BEFORE you stick. This can only be done with certian needles, but it makes for a completely bloodless stick. My driver's love me for not making any messes.:)

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Originally posted by agent

Thanks to everyone so far!

My Last Question:

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What math formulas does one need to know???

Anyone else has a list of formulas needed?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Agent,

I don't use formulas, I never have. Formulas have to be memorized, so if you forget them you're in trouble. I just look at whatever problem I'm trying to solve, and mostly use simple crossmultipling. If you can convert you can do anything. You need to understand the metric system and know how to convert pounds to kg's. So this is probaly not much help to you, but I look at what I know then figure the unknowns. If you can do simple algebra you'll do fine.

Noney

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We learned to convert by using five conversion factors.

2.54 cm = 1 in

453.6 g = 1 lb

.9463 L = 1 qt

15.4 gr = 1 g

3.7 ml = 1 dr

For example, if you have 15 mg and want to convert it to ounces, you convert mg to grams then grams to lbs and them lbs to oz. It sounds complicated but once you do it a few times it's not. The good thing is that you only have to remember 5 numbers and you can convert anything.

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Originally posted by LauraLou

We learned to convert by using five conversion factors.

2.54 cm = 1 in

453.6 g = 1 lb

.9463 L = 1 qt

15.4 gr = 1 g

3.7 ml = 1 dr

For example, if you have 15 mg and want to convert it to ounces, you convert mg to grams then grams to lbs and them lbs to oz. It sounds complicated but once you do it a few times it's not. The good thing is that you only have to remember 5 numbers and you can convert anything.

Thank you. Thats exactly what I was looking for.

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Just graduated in May heres 2 lessons I learned:

1. Always give your instructors their "teaching moment" even if you know the answer they'll love you for it.

2. Get a good NCLEX review book organized by subject and a few days before each exam take as many practice questions as you can stand on the areas of study such as: OB, psyche, GI, cardiac questions you will be amazed at how well you do on exams, because there are only so many ways a question can be asked. Most instructors are too lazy to create their own questions and they pull the exam questions from a test bank. Practicing NCLEX style questions will help you thruout the nursing program and for state boards it keeps you in the test mode you will never forget your wrong answers (I did this as a pastime nightly) I got excellent grades in nursing school.

Good luck to all students reading this thread :) :) :)

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So the only things math related that one would tend to need to know is conversions?

Anyone else have some math related advice?

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