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Zombie Defiler posted:So I've started down the road to becoming an LPN. Do not do this. This is not a good plan. LPNs are almost exclusively in SNFs now. Doctor's offices want MAs. You will be setting yourself up for failure. Either get the RN now or find another way to get your foot in the medical field. Don't do it. Oxford Comma posted:So, uh, any other new nurses feel overwhelmed on their first job? Have you had a fall yet? loopsheloop fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Dec 17, 2012 |
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Dec 17, 2012 07:13
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I feel overwhelmed when I realize that there's so much that I don't know.  My preceptor is great though and I'm in a super structured orientation where I'll get a solid 3-4 months before flying solo. Still, how can I teach my patients or anticipate problems when I'm still on the level of trying to just carry out tasks? The ICU rocks though and I like the level of control and monitoring I can have on my patients. Having most of the crap I need in the room helps too, cuts down on the running around. Maybe I'm more of a control freak then I thought. 
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Dec 18, 2012 01:09
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Hellacopter posted:I feel overwhelmed when I realize that there's so much that I don't know. How's it been, practicing out of California? I'm excited (and nervous!) to be leaving this godforsaken state in the very near future! 
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Dec 18, 2012 01:27
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TheShrike fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Nov 18, 2016 |
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Dec 18, 2012 04:50
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Kontradaz posted:So what's the general plan for a person who grades with a B.S in Biology and wants to go into Nursing. Assume required classes are taken (i.e anatomy and physiology). A Master's in Nursing? And what GPA is acceptable? Several places have accelerated BSN programs; I have a friend from undergrad (who IIRC had a BA Biology) who is doing one in Philadelphia. They're really fast and only do the nursing part, because they assume you've had all the pre-reqs. A MSN will put you in a nurse practitioner program, but you'd have to find one that has an additional 1-2 year nursing diploma attached for non-traditional (eg non-BSN) students. That's what I did, but that's because I was debating between NP and PA after I was out in the real world - post-academia, I worked in a hospital in a non-clinical role for several years. Most of these programs are also ungodly expensive. The NP and the RN are very different roles, and you'd have to look into whether you'd want to go straight to a licensed independent provider role or wait to consider that after some in-hospital experience, or not at all. Apkallu fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Dec 18, 2012 |
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Dec 18, 2012 16:41
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Apkallu posted:
Some NP programs require 1 year hospital experience as a RN as well.
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Dec 18, 2012 17:14
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Kontradaz posted:So what's the general plan for a person who grades with a B.S in Biology and wants to go into Nursing. Assume required classes are taken (i.e anatomy and physiology). A Master's in Nursing? And what GPA is acceptable? I had a BS in molecular bio with all the nursing prereq's so I did an accelerated BSN. It's demanding, but to get it finished in a year is great.
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Dec 18, 2012 21:25
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loopsheloop posted:Have you had a fall yet? We have one lady who is a huge fall risk. She her bed is literally a mattress on the floor, with a bunch of other mattresses around it. Any time she is found on the floor, its to be treated as a fall. The big problem with this is that she likes to scoot around the floor on her butt. She will slip off her mattress under her own power and zip around her room. But its still to be treated like a fall.
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Dec 20, 2012 07:43
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I was wondering if you guys had any advice for my situation. Basically, I had previously attended a community college for an x-ray tech program. I didn't get in because I got a D in my Anatomy 1 class because I was being a moron and didn't know how to study for a college level science course. Now I tried to retake the A&P class at the same school to get a A, but I withdrew from it because I found out I would be ineligible for entry into the x-ray program because of a personal situation. Now I've gotten the personal situation taken care of so I can do any health program. I'm at another community college retaking a bunch of classes to get A's so I can get into a RN program. I got A's in anatomy, chem, psych, etc. so I should be able to get into the program. My question is when I apply to a BSN program how bad will those previous grades look for me? At my current school I have basically a 3.7 GPA. Even at the old school with the D grade I still had a 3.2 GPA. Any suggestions to where I could do my BSN at? I would preferably like to be working while going for it too. Basically I'm looking for a location and school where I can get into a BSN program and find a job as a RN in the nearby area.
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Dec 20, 2012 16:22
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First semester of nursing school over. That was fast. Pretty sure I'm gonna end up with 3 A's and a B which is cool. Now to apply for externships.
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Dec 21, 2012 04:09
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I need to vent about something. I basically got someone fired yesterday and I feel awful about it. Let's call this guy Al, he's a man in his 50s who has been an aide for like three years, has a wife and two teenage girls at home. He went to school to get his RN while he was an aide, and somehow graduated and passed his boards. I precepted him on his last extended week of orientation, and it was exhausting (normally I love orienting and teaching). I had him for three days. By the time I oriented him, he had already had eight weeks of training, and normally new float pool RNs get six weeks (our hospital usually runs about 180 beds, at max we can run 250). In the three days that I had him, long story short, he almost killed two people. In one instance, he tried to administer ten times the normal dose of a blood pressure medication, and in the other, he wanted to give a large dose of morphine to someone with a dangerously low blood pressure. Good thing I was watching over his shoulder and intervened, otherwise who knows what would have happened. Not to mention his time management skills were poo poo and he felt totally overwhelmed on an extremely easy shift, even after several weeks of orientation. My manager wanted to talk about how it went with Al, and I broke down crying in his office. Al is really the nicest person you will ever meet, but he is nice to the point of having no backbone and coming across as super weird. He also has no ability to look at things in the big picture, and will only look at one thing at a time. For instance, I had a relatively simple patient who had low urinary output and +3 edema in her lower extremities, and I asked Al, "why do you think this is?" He looked at her critically high Vanco level and said "Obviously someone has been giving her too much Vanco." My manager then told me that this was his probation period, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to fire him at the end of the week, or wait until the Christmas season was over. I thought it would be the kindest gesture to wait until Christmas was over, as I'm pretty sure Al has no idea that this was a long time coming. My manager then told me he would wait until December 27th to fire him, and then he made a point to tell me that although people had reflected that Al was not the best RN, nobody had been this honest with him about his performance. I feel like the nail in the coffin at this point. While I was crying, my manager told me that while this is hard, it's easier to fire an incompetent RN rather than deal with him accidentally killing someone due to knowledge deficit. It's easier to let someone go from a job instead of knowing that your silence resulted in a death... While I agree, it's still lovely.
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Dec 21, 2012 11:38
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Koivunen posted:stuff That is lovely. I had to play a part in something similar, giving an honest eval working with a guy who had very questionable judgment--and nearly gave someone a large, extra dose of warfarin based on totally overlooking some pretty obvious charting, and at no time getting a doctor involved. It was the last thing in a long string of bizarre calls. He was easily the most interesting, cool nurse I've ever worked with and it tore me up to have to say that about him knowing it was all they needed to hear to finalize a decision to terminate. I still feel sorta crappy about it, but it's better than trying to live with not calling attention to something before someone got hurt. I would not feel like I deserved to keep working as a nurse if I let that happen.
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Dec 21, 2012 18:09
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I'm a recent college graduate looking for some healthcare related employment between now and my admission (hopefully) to med school. I'm looking at either becoming a pharmacy technician or CNA, but both sound pretty interesting and would offer me some valuable clinical and practical experience. If anyone here is a CNA or familiar with the kind of work involved, I would love to hear some stories. All I know is that I'll potentially be monitoring (cleaning too?) a lot of "input and output." More specifically, I'm a North Carolina resident, and I want to know if it's possible to study for the state NA I written and skills assessments entirely by yourself. Would I have to buy a study book, or are there free online resources available?
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Dec 22, 2012 02:14
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I'm at work now but later tonight when it slows down I can write up a few things about CNA stuff.
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Dec 22, 2012 04:44
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I'm an RN in North Carolina. It looks like roboshit is going to have the CNA duties covered. I can say that while the book stuff is easy to learn, there are clinical requirements for the CNA license that I really doubt you could get satisfied on your own.
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Dec 22, 2012 05:26
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Donald Kimball posted:I'm a recent college graduate looking for some healthcare related employment between now and my admission (hopefully) to med school. I'm looking at either becoming a pharmacy technician or CNA, but both sound pretty interesting and would offer me some valuable clinical and practical experience. This is awesome. I hope you go for a CNA. Being an aide is tough work, it's extremely hands-on and dirty and you get to know your patients very intimately as all you do is deal with the stuff that comes out of them. You would also get to work closely with nurses, assuming you landed a job in a hospital. When you move up the ranks in med school, you will have an appreciation for your aide and nurse coworkers that few other med school students will get to experience. Getting your aide certification isn't difficult, you basically have to know how to measure stuff, how to take blood pressure, how to give a bed bath, etc. It definitely take practice to be efficient at aide work and there are a lot of tricks that you pick up on the job, but actually becoming an aide isn't hard and doesn't take long. I worked as an aide before I became an RN, and you can tell which RNs were aides before they went to nursing school. Basically, it's a lot of butt wiping, lots of heavy lifting and bending, lots of accidentally getting pee/poo/puke/mucus/spit/pus/blood on you and not freaking out, lots of smelling things you could never imagine... It's definitely a great way to know if you want to go into the medical field or not. Like I said, being an aide is tough work, and it makes you really appreciate your coworkers.
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Dec 22, 2012 16:45
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How are you guys paying for school? Straight out loans or scholarships or what?
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Dec 24, 2012 12:26
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I recently graduated from a second degree program and I've been applying to positions for the past month. A neuro ICU call me back and I had a phone interview, an in-person interview, and then they asked me to shadow someone on the unit, which I did - but they didn't offer me the job yet. After they asked me to shadow I was anticipating an offer and it will be a week on Thursday and I haven't heard anything. All of my credentials are excellent and I interview well. When I left shadowing, they said that they would need to talk with all of the supervisors for the unit and then they would decide and let me know. I anticipated that everything will be slow with the holiday and new year but with each day that goes by I wonder a little more. All right, I'm done whining. Has anyone gone through all of these and not been offered a position? I've got ants (and loans) in my pants and I want to start work asap - which doesn't help. ThirstyBuck fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Dec 27, 2012 |
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Dec 25, 2012 03:16
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b0nes posted:How are you guys paying for school? Straight out loans or scholarships or what? Scholarships and out of pocket for my pre-reqs (community college), then once I got accepted, loans since my school is in another town.
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Dec 25, 2012 03:51
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b0nes posted:How are you guys paying for school? Straight out loans or scholarships or what? Basically loans and grants cover my bills, and I work maybe 15-20 hours a week for some extra spending cash.
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Dec 25, 2012 04:34
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So after I apply for a fafsa what happens, how do I get money for living expenses. I said I wasn't going to do nursing but 2 of my friends recently changed from teaching to nursing. The husband has 3 degrees already, a Bachelors, Masters and a doctorate, now he is going for his Bachelors and Masters in Nursing, the wife is doing the same program as well. Then another friend is a security guard and is going into nursing. But the biggest motivator is that i finally picked a specialty I want to go into, Nursing Informatics. Just need to keep negative people out of my head and not let the science classes intimidate me.
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Dec 25, 2012 17:28
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Yarbald posted:Basically loans and grants cover my bills, and I work maybe 15-20 hours a week for some extra spending cash. Are you finding general grants or nursing specific grants?
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Dec 25, 2012 17:33
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b0nes posted:So after I apply for a fafsa what happens, how do I get money for living expenses. You will fill out the FAFSA and they will determine the amount that you will be awarded. That amount will be sent directly to the school that you declare on the FAFSA as the school that you plan on attending. Once this has been done, the school will apply it to your account. You may have to do something through the school to make this happen. I have to get on the schools student portal and tell the university how much of my award offer I would like to accept. On mine it shows the PELL grant, state grants, and any loans that I qualify for. Once I have declared what I want to accept (and you can accept all, none or partial amount of each) it is applied to my account. Tuition, fees, bookstore charges ECT. are taken out and if there is any leftover it is sent to me as a residual check.
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Dec 26, 2012 04:34
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b0nes posted:Are you finding general grants or nursing specific grants? Just Pell grants and Stafford loans (subsidized and unsubsidized because there's no way I can work enough to support myself).
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Dec 26, 2012 08:46
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Is the whole nursing job security thing dead nowadays? I've seen plenty of remarks saying that the status quo has changed and that most recent grads are having issues finding nursing jobs. True? Not True? Will this get better in a few years if true?
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Dec 28, 2012 03:38
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Thanks all for the advice. I think I'm going to try and challenge my state (NC) Nurse Aide I exam by teaching myself. It looks like the written portion is common sense, so I'll just slam practice tests out. I am worried about the skills portion; on the other hand, I'm not so worried as to want to spend 250 - 450 dollars for a couple of review sessions. Finally, what's a decent and cheap stethoscope/blood pressure cuff that I could use to practice taking BP?
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Dec 28, 2012 21:11
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Just pick up a cheap Littman stethoscope, and any adult sized sphygmomanometer. Or if you just want something even more cheaper (you get what you pay for mind you) there's this combo for $20 http://www.amazon.com/Lumiscope-Bla...rds=stethoscope
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Dec 28, 2012 21:31
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Kontradaz posted:Is the whole nursing job security thing dead nowadays? I've seen plenty of remarks saying that the status quo has changed and that most recent grads are having issues finding nursing jobs. True? Not True? Will this get better in a few years if true? There are nursing jobs out there, it's just hard to find ideal nursing jobs.
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Dec 28, 2012 21:34
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Kontradaz posted:Is the whole nursing job security thing dead nowadays? I've seen plenty of remarks saying that the status quo has changed and that most recent grads are having issues finding nursing jobs. True? Not True? Will this get better in a few years if true? I graduated with a BSN, very qualified history, and a good resume, and it took me five months and 70ish applications before I got an interview. With that one interview, I landed a job. Like /\ said, there are jobs out there, but you need to be extremely flexible if you hope to land one immediately after graduating. It's hard to say what the job market will be like in a few years, it depends on several factors. If you want to be a nurse, go to nursing school, don't let the economy scare you off. If you want to be a nurse for job security and not so much for nursing, look into a different field. Donald Kimball posted:Thanks all for the advice. I think I'm going to try and challenge my state (NC) Nurse Aide I exam by teaching myself. It looks like the written portion is common sense, so I'll just slam practice tests out. I am worried about the skills portion; on the other hand, I'm not so worried as to want to spend 250 - 450 dollars for a couple of review sessions. I would be very hesitant about trying to get your certification without ever attending a class. Although aide work does seem pretty basic, there are lots of things that you need to be taught in person to get a hang of before you apply for a job. In the hospital I work at, new nursing assistants get one week of orientation. If you show up never having practiced these skills, your coworkers will not be happy with you. It's not up to them to teach you skills, you need to enter the workforce prepared. While the written portion does seem like common sense, nursing assistant work does not involve much writing besides vital signs and I&Os. It's all hands-on. If you don't gain experience with the hands-on stuff, you very well could lose your first job as a NA. For example, if you walked into a room right now and had to assist with doing a full bed change and a complete bed bath on a quad with a massive code brown, how would you do it? If you had to feed and dress a recent stroke patient, how would you do it? If your patient is being rolled into the room on a stretcher and needs to be transferred into the bed, how would you do it? It's one thing to read this stuff out of a book and entirely different to do it in real life, even if it means practicing with mannequins or other NA students. On the first day of your job, you are expected to know all this stuff. If the cost might seem like a lot right now, once you get a job, that's a portion of one paycheck. It will be well worth the money so that you are actually prepared. Also, whoever ends up interviewing you will not be impressed if you say you earned your certification by yourself, and it will come up. While I think it's really great that you are actively pursuing it, and it would be awesome if it all worked out for you, please just pay the money and take the course. You won't regret it. Edit: Roki B posted:North Dakota still has ICU out of new-grad positions. That's the thing about being flexible. I went to Uni in North Dakota (with the mindset "It will be nice to go to school in a small town") and it is pure hell. While I received excellent education, living in North Dakota was the absolute worst 4.5 years of my entire life. I specifically remember a moment when I trudged through two feet of fresh snow, and after de-icing my car, discovered that the engine wouldn't start since it was -40. I was sitting in my car, the last one in the lot since I was there so late studying, and the orange glow from the street lamp was shining through my window. It was completely silent, and as I watched my breath rise in the air, I thought to myself, "What the gently caress have I done with my life?" But if you don't mind living in hell if it means getting a job, more power to you. Koivunen fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Dec 29, 2012 |
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Dec 29, 2012 05:31
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halokiller posted:There are nursing jobs out there, it's just hard to find ideal nursing jobs. North Dakota still has ICU out of new-grad positions. Two years and no medsurg. Never learn bad habits, spend two years in hell to be a travel nurse in heaven. Edit: My wife and I are now living the dream in Las Vegas. Roki B fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Dec 29, 2012 |
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Dec 29, 2012 06:48
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Koivunen posted:
This! So many times this! I am nursing student and I graduate in May. I was looking for a job and was considering getting certified as a CNA. I got the study materials and was speaking to a new instructor at my school. He said that it is even hard for nursing students to challenge the exam because we are not taught the absolute correct way that will be tested on. Granted its "just a bed bath" in my state, you have to do the skill by the book and cannot miss any steps or do them out of order
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Dec 29, 2012 17:52
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Kontradaz posted:Is the whole nursing job security thing dead nowadays? I've seen plenty of remarks saying that the status quo has changed and that most recent grads are having issues finding nursing jobs. True? Not True? Will this get better in a few years if true? I worked as a Tech at a hospital while going through nursing school, so I had a position waiting for me when I graduated. From what I've seen and heard, it can be very difficult for a new-grad RN to find a job. However, if you browse any major hospital's career page, it seems that there are a million positions open that are looking for the the magical "one year of experience". I hope that this holds true because in six months I'll hit my one-year point and I'll be looking to get off my med-surg floor.
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Dec 30, 2012 03:09
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Kontradaz posted:Is the whole nursing job security thing dead nowadays? I've seen plenty of remarks saying that the status quo has changed and that most recent grads are having issues finding nursing jobs. True? Not True? Will this get better in a few years if true? The RN job market is very saturated in major cities. I think if you are willing to relocate, it may be "easier" to find a job. However, I was unable to move (moved with my husbands new job) and looking in a city that is full of nursing schools just hemorrhaging new graduates. I also did an accelerated entry RN masters program and it took me three months to find job after graduation. They keep saying that in the next few years, it will reverse again and nurses will be in demand, but honestly, I don't see that happening. There is no incentive for employers to create more jobs, or at least enough to accommodate all the new graduates and existing unemployed RNs.
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Dec 30, 2012 23:42
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Hughmoris posted:I worked as a Tech at a hospital while going through nursing school, so I had a position waiting for me when I graduated. From what I've seen and heard, it can be very difficult for a new-grad RN to find a job. However, if you browse any major hospital's career page, it seems that there are a million positions open that are looking for the the magical "one year of experience".
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Jan 2, 2013 20:04
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I would advise anyone interested in nursing to just get their RN and BSN and not bother with LPN. I've been an LPN for 12 years. I used to enjoy working in SNFs, but not anymore. I moved to NC from WA, and the job market for LPNs is very different here. I found one SNF hiring, and it is a hell hole. The SNF I worked at for 7 years in WA was a really nice place, the residents were well cared for, and the employees were there for years. The place I am at now is poorly managed, has a high employee turnover, and a patient load about twice the size of what I am used to. I am looking for a different job, and willing to take a substantial cut in pay to be somewhere else. I need to go back to school and get my RN, BSN, and Master's. I'd like to be a nursing instructor, or hospice nurse.
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Jan 5, 2013 00:10
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How long did everyone study for the NCLEX? I'm thinking about an hour per day for just over a month should be fine, but then I reconsider and worry it won't be enough.
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Jan 5, 2013 02:21
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Nrapture posted:How long did everyone study for the NCLEX? I'm thinking about an hour per day for just over a month should be fine, but then I reconsider and worry it won't be enough. I will be taking it in February and I plan on spending my mornings studying for the last two weeks of January.
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Jan 5, 2013 04:27
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Nrapture posted:How long did everyone study for the NCLEX? I'm thinking about an hour per day for just over a month should be fine, but then I reconsider and worry it won't be enough. I took a very comprehensive, three day review course with about twenty of my classmates the week after graduation and then took it the following Tuesday. I really don't understand these NCLEX review books that set up a six month plan for studying.  Also I had a good idea of how ready I was and what I needed to study from the ATI test that we took earlier that May.
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Jan 5, 2013 19:34
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Nrapture posted:How long did everyone study for the NCLEX? I'm thinking about an hour per day for just over a month should be fine, but then I reconsider and worry it won't be enough. I took the one-week Kaplan course, and I wanted to take the exam within a few weeks of graduating, but I couldn't get a test date for six weeks. You're not going to be learning anything new after you graduate, it's just a matter of practicing the questions. In the six week period I was actually really bad at studying, and I put in MAYBE 50 hours total, and only taking practice tests with Kaplan's online question bank. I passed on my first try with 75 questions. Don't study yourself sick for the NCLEX. Practice taking questions, but don't exhaust yourself or over-study. The most important thing is, whatever you do, don't do anything NCLEX-related the day before or the day of your NCLEX. Take a day to fully relax, give your brain some time to de-stress, and when you go in to take the exam, you'll feel a lot more fresh than you would if you wore out your mind the day before. The further you put off taking the NCLEX, the further you put off getting hired for a job. Places of employment don't want to wait for you to pass your boards, they want to hire someone who is ready to work.
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Jan 6, 2013 16:22
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Can anyone correlate their exit HESI score with how well they did on the NCLEX? It's supposed to be an indicator of how well you've prepared, isn't it? I know that to graduate, most if not all of the nursing schools in Florida require you to pass it.
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Jan 6, 2013 16:58
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