|
Space Harrier posted:Many community colleges don't factor in grades at all as long as you pass your pre-reqs with at least a C, I've never heard of a program so uncompetitive e: Nurse Ratched snipe RICKON WALNUTSBANE fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Oct 19, 2010 |
# ? Oct 19, 2010 19:31 |
|
|
# ? May 22, 2024 07:57 |
|
^^ Christ, don't do that! I don't know if things have changed, but I was on a waiting list for the Maricopa County Community Colleges in Phoenix and it really was that uncompetitive. All you had to do was pass Psych 101, English 101, and A&P courses with a C and you were on the list. They also used a time-stamp system. It's bullshit, really. The most dedicated student could be stuck waiting for years while a C student could get in after two semesters in the name of "fairness".
|
# ? Oct 19, 2010 21:50 |
|
Space Harrier posted:This, too. What kind of program are you trying to get into HollowYears? Many community colleges don't factor in grades at all as long as you pass your pre-reqs with at least a C, but other schools can be very competitive. I have two options. I'm going through EI in Canada to get my LPN schooling paid for, from what I've read you need a minimum of C in all of your prereq high school classes which I have along with university courses which take priority over high school. or The BN program at the University of Manitoba. You basically need a 2.5 average across your pre-reqs which I'm sure I'll have no problem getting. I have to wait at least two years to get into either, so I'm seeing which one I get into first. I would rather get into the BN program, although it would be nice making $23 an hour through school.
|
# ? Oct 19, 2010 23:32 |
|
Space Harrier posted:This stuff may not present itself too often in your day to day work, but nursing school is going to get much, much harder. Prepare accordingly. Space Harrier knows what's up. I'll answer from the nursing student side. Example: you'll get cell replication again when you study pharm and have to remember mechanisms of action. They don't go over it again, they'll go, 'You should know this, X works here.' Plus if you don't have A&P down (at least where/what it is and how it works) it'll come back and bite you in the rear end when you study patho.
|
# ? Oct 20, 2010 00:47 |
|
I'm not trying to pick on you or anything HollowYears, but I've got to make one more point about A&P. Regardless of what your program requires, make it a point to do well in the course. Go for an A if you still can. If you're struggling in the course, this is a good time to develop study habits that will help you throughout nursing school. You'll be thankful you did once you get to Pathophysiology and Pharmacology.
|
# ? Oct 20, 2010 02:47 |
|
I understand cell replication fine, just some of the other topics are super dry. We're getting into inheritance and actual body structures(stuff that I actually enjoy) in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll pick it up better. I just can't STAND cell biology.
|
# ? Oct 20, 2010 12:37 |
|
(Sorry guys,) I have another "how does this stack up?" type of question. I've already received a B.A. in Psychology with a Biology minor from the University of MN. Unfortunately I can't afford to keep going to the school for an entry level Masters or a new BSN so I am going to a local community college for their AS-Nursing (1/3 the price!) and testing for my RN after I complete the 2 years of nursing programming. I've heard/found through hospital job applications that many places require a B.S.N. instead of a 2 year nursing degree because of the "critical thinking skills" that 4-year students receive. My question is, is this because there are specific nursing skills learned during a B.S.N. education that aren't feasible during a 2-year nursing degree, or just because of the critical thinking skills that someone in a B.A./B.S. position learns? By that I mean, are they really saying "we want someone with a 4-year education" instead of necessarily "a 4-year nursing education"? I guess this harks back to the RN/BSN debate, but I'm very curious to hear, especially from people who may be in a hiring position for a variety of arenas (CNA/HHAs, LPNs, RNs, etc). I think it's an important distinction that could help simplify decisions for many entry-level MSN/post-Bac students to decide the most appropriate course of schooling for them.
|
# ? Oct 21, 2010 08:12 |
|
I have not read this whole thread but I just wanted to say that a ICU nurse is an amazing type of nurse. You all are truely dedicated to your job and care about your patients. My husband was in ICU intubated for 14 days. The staff there was AMAZING. I hope your patients appreciate you as much as I appreciated my husbands nurses. I can name every single one of them that took care of him. The male nirse spent a half an hour shaving him, it was just unbelieveable how much they cared.
|
# ? Oct 21, 2010 21:01 |
|
Mrs. Orgasmo posted:I have not read this whole thread but I just wanted to say that a ICU nurse is an amazing type of nurse. You all are truely dedicated to your job and care about your patients. My husband was in ICU intubated for 14 days. The staff there was AMAZING. 14 days? Jesus that's about the time we trach some one. Did he go into ARDS? And no it's not that we care about our patients, we just care about doing a good job. Trust me we'll talk poo poo about the ventilated jerk who won't stop bucking the vent that we can't sedate enough or crazy grandma who we need to get the gently caress out of SICU and over to MICU or stepdown the second you leave. But drat we'll fake it though.
|
# ? Oct 21, 2010 22:57 |
|
Bum the Sad posted:14 days? Jesus that's about the time we trach some one. Did he go into ARDS? And no it's not that we care about our patients, we just care about doing a good job. Trust me we'll talk poo poo about the ventilated jerk who won't stop bucking the vent that we can't sedate enough or crazy grandma who we need to get the gently caress out of SICU and over to MICU or stepdown the second you leave. But drat we'll fake it though. Heh, I was going to say she definitely must have skipped a few posts in this thread. Yet I'd argue we do care, in our twisted and sociopathic way. After all, we went into this for the warm and fuzzies and it isn't our fault that we're now neurotic adrenaline junkies entirely devoid of empathy. We're no more malicious than paramedics or contract killers. It's just the job that does it to you. But yes, he's mostly right Mrs. Orgasmo. ICU nurses are pretty terrible people. We do care, and every now and then a patient or a family does get through and remind us of that. It's just that if you filmed us chatting at two thirty in the morning most Americans would vote to have us incarcerated. Ohthehugemanatee fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Oct 22, 2010 |
# ? Oct 22, 2010 00:32 |
|
Ohthehugemanatee posted:Heh, I was going to say she definitely must have skipped a few posts in this thread. I mean for the past few nights and then a night before that I have had a woman who gave birth to her first child, had an MI 5 days later, got treated medically, went home a few days later had some syncope, EMS'd to the hospital, went to cath lab, taken to an ICU post cath lab ruptured her LAD and Left Circumflex shortly after, coded, went to CVOR emergently, had a triple bypass, landed on our unit, coded before the OR team and surgeon even left, back to OR she had ruptured her RCA, had that bypassed, and is now day 7 post op, on a balloon pump, and not responding to commands moving wildly non-purposefully, we even had her extubated for a few hours two days ago she still thrashed about crazily and then developed laryngeal stridor and had to be reintubated(probably from trauma from her thrashing while on the vent.) Her pressures look better, her ABG's look great, but still no following commands and I'm guessing anoxic brain injury. Her husband is there often, he has a new baby at home with a wife/new mother in a world of poo poo and it's a sad sad horrible scenario. But have I left depressed? No. I leave work thinking god damnit I wish she would stop bucking the loving vent and setting off peak pressure alarms and trying to bend your legs to gently caress up my balloon pump, and stop forcing urine around your foley when you gag/cough on the ETT. And being pissed that her pressures weren't high enough to give enough morphine and versed to slam her. Now does that mean I haven't worked my hardest? Hell no I have worked my rear end off to keep her alive and grasp at any chance to get her better, have not slacked in the slightest, I have my eyes and ears tuned to where I know what her waveforms looks like when she farts. I have poured my sweat into this case and given nothing but 100%. But when I am driving home I am thinking about that bitch who dinged my Caddy and what questionable pornography I will download. Ohthehugemanatee posted:It's just that if you filmed us chatting at two thirty in the morning most Americans would vote to have us incarcerated. But I do get warm fuzzies every now and then when you get a CABGx4 with a valve, get extubated in a timely manner and they turn out to be an awesome likable person, you wean them off pressors, ship them off to tele in a couple days and say get out and don't come back with a smile. Bum the Sad fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Oct 22, 2010 |
# ? Oct 22, 2010 16:10 |
|
Informal poll to help me decide where to specialize: ED nurses: How often are you assaulted by patients? OR nurses: How often are you assaulted by surgeons? If you haven't already, go read the "Surgeon threw something at me" (or whatever it was called) megathread in the OR section of allnurses.com. It's ridiculous what some hospitals are willing to put up with.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 16:37 |
|
mboger posted:Informal poll to help me decide where to specialize:
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 17:07 |
|
Bum the Sad posted:Surgeons don't assault people, they just assault walls and equipment with other pieces of equipment usually. Or if they hit you you have bad reflexes. I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, so here's the link: http://allnurses.com/operating-room-nursing/has-surgeon-ever-16747.html A few of those posts are definitely accidents, but "bad reflexes" doesn't explain getting squirt gunned with a blood-filled syringe.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 17:16 |
|
mboger posted:I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, so here's the link: http://allnurses.com/operating-room-nursing/has-surgeon-ever-16747.html
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 17:19 |
|
I forgot, best part about nursing Free shot glasses
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 18:04 |
|
Bum the Sad posted:You know those days are mostly over. Docs get their privileges revoked over poo poo like that and I have seen it happen. That's good to hear. I was mostly shocked by the number of nurses in that thread who let it slide. I realize beating the poo poo out of a surgeon mid-procedure is frowned upon in the medical community, but I can't imagine just putting up with that kind of work environment. Although, in other stuff I've read, it's been alluded that speaking up against doctor abuse is a good way to get yourself downsized. Are hospital admins coming around on that or is it still heavy on the "Docs are gods, screw everyone else" mentality? Even ignoring just simple human decency, you'd think the potential lawsuits surrounding a scalpel-flinging surgeon would be enough for administration to have the nurse's back.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 18:11 |
|
Bum the Sad posted:14 days? Jesus that's about the time we trach some one. Did he go into ARDS? And no it's not that we care about our patients, we just care about doing a good job. Trust me we'll talk poo poo about the ventilated jerk who won't stop bucking the vent that we can't sedate enough or crazy grandma who we need to get the gently caress out of SICU and over to MICU or stepdown the second you leave. But drat we'll fake it though. What is ARDS? I can only imagine the poo poo you have to go through on a daily bases. I can't even fathom doing the jobs you all do. Listen every job you bullshit and talk poo poo about the patients and their annoying families. But the way my family was treated and my husband I could not have asked for better nurses (may have been all the platters of cookies, and snacks and cakes we brought them) but regardless you all have a special kind of heart. I could not work in the conditions you all do in ICU. The rush you guys get when someone has a code blue put us weaklings at shame. I was shaking watching that take place.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 18:41 |
|
Bum the Sad posted:It's not our fault we just have to deal with terrible poo poo some times and if we were the face we put up we'd be loving neurotic depressed messes(although at least half of us are anyway despite the job.) But anyway at the end of the day it's still a job, we're still showing up those three 12-13 hour shifts a week to pay the bills. I totally get it. The day they reduced his sedation to wein him off the tube they wouldn't restrain him through the night. Instead I was instructed to keep him calm. That was the longest night of my life. He was such a pain in the rear end. He kept trying to take the tube out. At one put I had to call the nurse in (male) and asked him to please yell at my pain in the rear end husband. I learned that it wasn't really his fault. He was under sedation for so long that even though they had reduced it to almost nothing he still could not remember what I told him 2 mins ago. I have to tell you though that when they finally did remove the tube which he was fully awake for and now does not remember, he was so loving out of it. The poo poo that spewed out of his mouth was hilarious. The nurses assured me it was normal.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 18:50 |
|
XausF1 posted:All this job market talk about the U.S. situation has me curious: what's the reality of the situation in Canada? Specifically Ontario if there's anyone there. All I ever see is 'We need nurses NOW! Everyone is hiring! Mass nursing shortage!'. How realistic is that? Sorry if this has been answered, but the job situation in Ontario is really horrible. Nobody is hiring and there have been cuts to nursing positions constantly.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 19:24 |
|
ICU is brilliant, but its really sad when its the only place in the hospital that is staffed properly and patients / relatives get unrealistic expectations about how the ward is going to be. Especially when someone is fit to be discharged but they cant get a bed - and therefore stay on ICU getting more attention than they need Its usually only little things but, its hard to find 15minutes to describe all the care provided today to the family, get cups of tea on demand or shave someone when you have eight patients as opposed to one. Im off to an acute/continuing medical ward next, after spending most of my time in surgical nursing. Im expecting a lot of COPD and cardiac problems. Oh and its going to be really busy as well.
|
# ? Oct 22, 2010 22:13 |
|
The job situation in West Canada is likewise terrible - with the exception of mental health positions. However, if your a student, you can apply to work as an Employed Student Nurse (ESN). You are able to pick the days or nights that you can work and get paid reasonably well for it. I highly recommend anyone studying nursing in Canada to apply for a position as an ESN, as most hospitals presently aren't hiring people without some experience. I'm working as a student on the Burn unit btw if anyone is interested.
|
# ? Oct 23, 2010 00:23 |
|
Mrs. Orgasmo posted:What is ARDS? ARDS is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Given any sort of insult to the lungs it's always a risk. Pneumonia, drowning, vomit in the lungs, simply being on a ventilator or almost anything else you can think of can trigger it. Something gets into your lungs and your immune system freaks out and decides to kill it. That's all well and good, but your body's immune system tends to fight infection by sending in suicide bombers. They wipe out the intruder, any of your cells that were nearby and any cells that happened to look funny at them on the way in. It's a fine system when you're dealing with replaceable tissue. Not so good with things like lungs. The lining of the lungs gets absolutely shredded to the point that the lungs inflate with air but the cells that shuffle oxygen to the blood are toast. The few functioning parts of these patients' lungs are rapidly overwhelmed or flooded with debris. You can hook these patients up to ventilators and give them 100% oxygen but only a trickle of it will get into their blood stream. The things that you'd think might help these patients don't. We suppress the immune system but it doesn't make any difference. We used to crank up the ventilator pressure to over-ventilate the good areas of the lungs but it turns out that did more damage than good. Same thing for upping the oxygen levels. Since nothing works very well and mortality is sky-high, we end up throwing a whole bunch of pseudo-science interventions at these people. We even sedate them, paralyze them and flip them upside down and rotate them for days until they either get better or die. True ARDS patients look like this. If you squint you might see the patient. Even the patients who live often end up with scar tissue in their lungs and a nasty predisposition to go into ARDS over and over again. It all looks very technical and awesome until you look at the research and realize there's no evidence for anything beyond keeping ventilator volumes low. I'm guessing Bum asked about it because it's one of the few reasons to keep someone ventilated for that long.
|
# ? Oct 23, 2010 00:57 |
|
Mrs. Orgasmo posted:I totally get it. The day they reduced his sedation to wein him off the tube they wouldn't restrain him through the night. Instead I was instructed to keep him calm. That was the longest night of my life. He was such a pain in the rear end. He kept trying to take the tube out. At one put I had to call the nurse in (male) and asked him to please yell at my pain in the rear end husband. Edit: Oh Mrs Orgasmo I have a funny loving story. I recently had a bypass patient who was a paramedic and he was a loving wild rear end in a top hat while intubated, I mean just thrashing, he was a big guy, I mean he followed commands momentarily, nodded, did what you asked, responded appropriately, but then went right back to thrashing. Anyway due to my experience I got the feeling that he would do fine extubated and was just pissed off he was tubed. Anyway I called Anesthesia and said hey this guy is acting like a crazy rear end in a top hat, his blood gas results are marginal but he is strong as hell and just looks pissed off and I want to extubate. Anyway anesthesia asked if I wanted to sleep him over night or extubate, I said extubate and he said go ahead, I pulled the tube and he was fine and instantly normal anyway later he said to me about the whole being intubated experience "Is that what I've been doing to people? that was loving horrible." McFlurry Fan #1 posted:The things that you'd think might help these patients don't. We suppress the immune system but it doesn't make any difference. We used to crank up the ventilator pressure to over-ventilate the good areas of the lungs but it turns out that did more damage than good. Same thing for upping the oxygen levels. Since nothing works very well and mortality is sky-high, we end up throwing a whole bunch of pseudo-science interventions at these people. We even sedate them, paralyze them and flip them upside down and rotate them for days until they either get better or die. Bum the Sad fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Oct 23, 2010 |
# ? Oct 23, 2010 05:19 |
|
Thanks for clarifying that. I don't think my husband had that, because no one told me he did. He did however come into the hospital with his right lung full with pnuemonia. They later told me that they initially thought his lung exploaded. So maybe he did? They did not tell us that he had any scar tissue when we left though. McFlurry Fan #1: I guess I was a realistic and knew when they moved him out of ICU he wasn't going to get that great of care. A lot of people like my mother in law don't understand this and end up annoying the nurses. I learned from also being in the hospital that different departments can give different care. Bum the Sad: Luckily the drugs he was under allowed him in a few hours to forget even having a tube down his throat. Which is crazy because I saw him completely coherant. On a side note, the hospital my husband was in had a camera in every ICU room. I was told that in a headquarters was a nurse and doctor monitoring every hospital. I got to experience the camera a few times, they come on the speaker and say hi to the families and when there is a code blue the help out. Is this now the normal?
|
# ? Oct 25, 2010 15:15 |
|
Prospective nursing student doing my pre-reqs now at Purdue Calumet. This is such a huge change for me, because I never really studied or did any work in high school (still managed to graduate with academic honors. still not sure about that one), and now I'm trying for at least a 3.8 GPA to get in. I've heard over and over how brutal the BSN program is, well, anywhere. Did any of you find time to pursue a minor in anything? I was thinking about minoring in Spanish, but I don't know if that's feasible with the courseload.
|
# ? Oct 25, 2010 16:01 |
|
dissin department posted:Prospective nursing student doing my pre-reqs now at Purdue Calumet. This is such a huge change for me, because I never really studied or did any work in high school (still managed to graduate with academic honors. still not sure about that one), and now I'm trying for at least a 3.8 GPA to get in. I know the BN program at the university I'm looking at is 30+ credit hours a year. Unless you were part-time I doubt you could do that. http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/nursing/media/curriculum.pdf
|
# ? Oct 25, 2010 16:05 |
|
Bum the Sad posted:Anyway just to anybody reading this, if any family is ever on a paralytic drip; they are going to die. Whoa. Are you talking about stuff like sux?
|
# ? Oct 25, 2010 18:54 |
|
Chillmatic posted:Whoa. Are you talking about stuff like sux?
|
# ? Oct 25, 2010 20:20 |
|
dissin department posted:Prospective nursing student doing my pre-reqs now at Purdue Calumet. This is such a huge change for me, because I never really studied or did any work in high school (still managed to graduate with academic honors. still not sure about that one), and now I'm trying for at least a 3.8 GPA to get in. In just my class of 48 students I'm not aware of anyone pursuing a minor. The course load is very overwhelming and with most semesters featuring about 13-15 credit hours, I really don't see when they would have the time.
|
# ? Oct 25, 2010 22:03 |
|
I can't speak for anyone else's program but a few of my friends managed to pull off a minor. It's totally doable if your scheduling allows it, and/or you're willing to take summer classes.
|
# ? Oct 26, 2010 01:03 |
|
Really bummed out that most of my LVN clinicals are going to be CNA asswiping.
|
# ? Oct 27, 2010 02:45 |
|
Iron Squid posted:Really bummed out that most of my LVN clinicals are going to be CNA asswiping. That surprises me. My initial first semester clinicals were in a LTC facility and I did my fair share of rear end wiping and feedings. My second rotation that semester was in med-surg 1 and I did tons of poo poo. Foleys, Sub-cute's, IM's, NG's watched a couple of surgeries, notably a cabg. I just finished my med-surg 2 rotation and was doing more or less everything my RN would do except for starting IV's. Hang in there, especially if you're doing LTC right now. It'll hopefully/probably get better
|
# ? Oct 27, 2010 06:54 |
|
Lycanthropic Howl posted:That surprises me. My initial first semester clinicals were in a LTC facility and I did my fair share of rear end wiping and feedings. My second rotation that semester was in med-surg 1 and I did tons of poo poo. Foleys, Sub-cute's, IM's, NG's watched a couple of surgeries, notably a cabg. I just finished my med-surg 2 rotation and was doing more or less everything my RN would do except for starting IV's. Nope, nothing like that for us. We're at a really decent nursing home. No one there has any major wounds and there's only one or two patients with Foley's. So we just get them up and dressed in the morning, feed them, then stand around bored for a few more hours. Next semester we're going to spend a little more time passing meds, but its at the same boring facility and our instructor has already said we're going to be doing the same a.m. care that we're doing now. Everyone is feeling dejected about this.
|
# ? Oct 27, 2010 13:28 |
|
Iron Squid posted:Nope, nothing like that for us. We're at a really decent nursing home. No one there has any major wounds and there's only one or two patients with Foley's. So we just get them up and dressed in the morning, feed them, then stand around bored for a few more hours. I remember my first semester, when I was in a nursing home and bored out of my mind. (And nothing against nursing homes--I still work in one as a CNA. The clinicals were just mind-numbing.) It gets better. How long is your program? Will you have a clinical that takes place in a hospital? Doing a.m. care and such is important, though. I'm doing clinicals on a busy hospital floor, and we're still washing up our patients ourselves. It's a great way to do a skin assessment, actually. I have never seen a nurse do an a.m. care though, not even in a nursing home, so after school you can relax.
|
# ? Oct 27, 2010 20:30 |
|
leb388 posted:I remember my first semester, when I was in a nursing home and bored out of my mind. (And nothing against nursing homes--I still work in one as a CNA. The clinicals were just mind-numbing.) It gets better. How long is your program? Will you have a clinical that takes place in a hospital? Our program goes until the end of July. I know a third of our class is doing their rotations at a V.A. hospital. My section, though, is stuck at a senior care facility. I agree that doing morning care is very important, and we should be skilled at doing so. It just seems that for the next semester we're going to be doing a lot of that as well, instead of more advanced stuff. Everyone is kinda frustrated with it.
|
# ? Oct 27, 2010 21:05 |
|
Iron Squid posted:Our program goes until the end of July. I know a third of our class is doing their rotations at a V.A. hospital. My section, though, is stuck at a senior care facility. So for the length of your entire program you're stuck in a nursing home? That's very odd. My program rotates us every semester, sometimes twice a semester to different floors. First semester was a nursing home, second was a psych floor and then a rehab unit. Right now I'm doing med/surg, and in fourth I have OB/Peds. I dont understand how you're going to get a good knowledge base if you're only stuck in one health-care setting.
|
# ? Oct 28, 2010 02:15 |
|
Senor Panda posted:So for the length of your entire program you're stuck in a nursing home? That's very odd. My program rotates us every semester, sometimes twice a semester to different floors. First semester was a nursing home, second was a psych floor and then a rehab unit. Right now I'm doing med/surg, and in fourth I have OB/Peds. Yeah, this has become very apparent to our part of the class. I guess in our third semester we have a small med/surg and ob/gyn rotation. Suffice to say I'm really unhappy about this. I think a few of my classmates are going to find the head of the program soon and get some clarification on what we're going to be doing. If its all elder care, I'm going to advise them to send me elsewhere because, gently caress that.
|
# ? Oct 28, 2010 03:17 |
|
Hughmoris posted:Do we have any traveling nurses in here? If so, could you share some of your experiences with it? I'd like to hear some stories about this as well.
|
# ? Oct 28, 2010 11:32 |
|
|
# ? May 22, 2024 07:57 |
|
Senor Panda posted:So for the length of your entire program you're stuck in a nursing home? That's very odd. My program rotates us every semester, sometimes twice a semester to different floors. First semester was a nursing home, second was a psych floor and then a rehab unit. Right now I'm doing med/surg, and in fourth I have OB/Peds. This seems really weird to me too. I did like 5 weeks on campus in a skills lab. Then did my first LTC rotation which sucked and was boring for like 5 weeks, then went on to a med surg rotaion at a hospital for the remaining 5. This semester I did a 6 week med surg which is the one I mentioned before and now I have two weeks left of the three week OB/PEDS, and I finish the semester and program with a final LTC rotation for 3 weeks. I would be seriously dejected at this point if I'd only been in a nursing home. In my own experience I never learned much of anything from being in a nursing home. I feel for you, I really do. Well good luck with it and I hope it gets better.
|
# ? Nov 1, 2010 07:11 |