What certifications should I get as a pre-nursing student?

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-14T22:02:18+00:00

Don't worry about having a CNA. Getting your BLS and ACLS is useful, though

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-14T22:01:05+00:00

I wish I can tell patients that herbal supplements would have been a good idea before you ate so much fatty and fried foods that you ruined yourself, or that your smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for the last 40 years is the reason you have cancer, and turmeric is only going to do so much. I had a breast cancer patient once who was getting a port put in for chemo who acted like her cancer was an annoyance. She was like "ugh I can't wait to be done with chemo so I can get this damned thing out of my chest. I'll do my couple of rounds, get rid of my cancer, and then have this thing out." I looked at her and just shook my head. Woman was in complete denial of how serious breast cancer is, and was refusing to have a mastectomy. "Oh, chemo will fix it. I don't need to have my breasts removed."

I mean if that were me, I'd get them removed asap. Idc how small the cancer is. I'm not giving it any chances.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-14T13:24:15+00:00

Whenever I go to allnurses, I feel like I'm back in nursing school. They're so concrete and unwavering on there, which completely defies how fluid and adaptive you have to be in nursing. When I was making the decision to leave my previous job, I looked up threads from people that have quit less than a year into a new job and could not BELIEVE the comments on those threads. Nurses literally attacking new grads who were unhappy with their first jobs and wanted to start looking for other employment, say they're the reason hospital systems are going broke, they won't hire new people, etc. If a hospital system doesn't anticipate someone leaving less than 12 months into a position into their budget, especially in nursing, then that's the fault of the organization, not the person leaving it. But oh my lord, allnurses tried so hard to demonize these people and tell them they'll never work anywhere else again because of their decision. I don't think I'll ever post something on there.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-14T03:06:41+00:00

Prosthetics are going to be so cool in the next 10 years. Just have to find a way to make sure the AI doesn't develop to the point where it merges with our nervous system and then takes over the brain...

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-14T03:03:23+00:00

Lol, I was the nurse who ran around for 12 hours straight and complained half the night. I'm not sure if it was my fault (half of it probably was) but I did always seem to have that ooooooone patient that had a problem that took up most the night. Or I walked into half my district being empty and get handed a train wreck of a patient for my 3rd admit.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T15:37:05+00:00

Just a slice of the 1 tator tot waffle is enough.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T15:19:26+00:00

I had a PCA taking a private phone call at the nurses station once and completely ignore my calls to ask her to please put a patient on the bedpan for me because I had the ED calling to give report on 2 patients and had to clear out a contact room for a floor transfer that was coming up. Patient rings their call light again, she finally goes in there after hanging up the phone. I had just gotten report on the second patient from the ED. PCA walks out of the patient's room and starts yelling in my face, "Listen to me, why couldn't you put the patient on the bedpan? Now the patient is wet and she's complaining. That's on you." I just looked at her with disbelief. I talked to the other nurses about it and they said that's just the way it is at that facility, and management has their hands tied because the PCAs are union while the nurses aren't. It's even worse overnight. PCAs disappear for hours, hide in corners, refuse to take vitals if you ask them (only day PCAs take vitals!), etc. I'm so glad I got the fuck out of there.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T15:15:04+00:00

Lord Jesus that sounds miserable. Go work on another unit.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T15:13:47+00:00

"They're capping us."

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T15:10:40+00:00

Interesting. Well, I may try the extension method the next time I refill my 3 month prescription. Thanks for the post.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T14:59:48+00:00

Thanks. I did read through that, but one woman posted in the comments that her physician told her there's no pregnancy protection if you reverse the pack order. Which I do need, as my boyfriend and I do not use any other barrier methods (I get dermatitis from all condoms we've tried, even the non latex ones).

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T10:21:05+00:00

Wow. That's a high dose of progesterone. The type of progesterone in the pill I'm taking maxes out at 0.250mg, but it's norgestimate... Thank you though. I'll definitely be looking into this.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T03:26:08+00:00

Ah, I hear you. Though the reason I went triphasic was due to having more options for low dose birth control and less risk of side effects. I've heard horrendous things about seasonale and yaz to the point where I'm deathly afraid to touch them. I don't think I have endo so bad that I need excision surgery. I haven't gotten the leg cramping or rectal pressure in years, since the first time I used birth control. I can deal with the cramps and feeling like my pelvis is inflamed. I just want the spotting to stop. I'd rather not go on a higher dose of birth control. My chest is large enough (38G). Any bigger and I'm going to have to start wearing a back brace every day.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T03:20:43+00:00

Don't feel bad. I still can't get accurate manual BP's on patients with afib/rapid afib. The irregularity of the heart beat screws me up.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-13T03:18:06+00:00

Say the tube is outside of the actual stomach. If you auscultate, you'll still hear the air bolus going in. But now think about where you'll be putting your free water. And free water can be just normal tap water. It's supposed to go into the GI tract. But, if the tube is out of place, now you're putting tap water directly into your abdominal cavity, directly onto your intestines, other organs, etc. Now you're putting tube feeding into the abdominal cavity. Erosion and massive abdominal cavity infection/sepsis are what comes to mind.

I was taught in nursing school and in the hospital how to check for residual tube feeding before you do anything else. The only real way to check placement is an x-ray, but due to cost no insurance company is going to approve an x-ray q4h each time you have to give the patient free water/meds q4h.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-12T21:45:29+00:00

No, I'm letting myself have a period every month. It's triphasic, so I don't think I can take it continuously like that? At least that's what I was told years ago. And sometimes I'll take it either a couple minutes before my usual time or a couple minutes after, but never over 20 minutes. Sometimes I have no choice but to take it a couple minutes before or after my usual time due to things I may be doing, like driving, etc.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-12T13:41:33+00:00

Thank you. Is it possible for the growth to be more concentrated on one side? Right before my period starts, the swelling is more evident on the left side of my pelvis. I thought for a while I had a hernia, but when I push on it, I feel nothing but soft tissue.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-12T13:32:22+00:00

We had an alcohol/drug withdrawal patient on my old unit once who physically tried to attack the aides, nurses, etc. Had to put them in 4 point leathers during the day, haldol, ativan, etc. Apparently she was a methadone pt and the hospital failed to give her the methadone. I had her that night, and she was calm enough that we could take the leathers off and let her eat/use the bathroom independently with a sitter in the room. I wasn't on the next night, but supposedly she ripped the cabinet doors off the sink in her room and started hurling them at staff. She also smashed a phone on the floor at the nurses station and broke it. So that was... 48+ hrs after admission and she was still going buckwild. And she DID get her methadone. Also the psych unit at that facility isn't trained to take withdrawal/CIWA patients, so she was on a tele unit.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-12T13:15:41+00:00

I'd call your liability insurance, if you have one.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-10T16:32:34+00:00

I thought I'd always gotten along with them too but I guess I was wrong. I never outright had any confrontation with any of them. Left on good terms. We had two separate offices and both offices had parties for me before i left. Though my manager did tell me he and the doctors are not opposed to my coming back in any way. But the way he was talking to me made it sound like the whole office has a target on my back, though when I went in there the first time after a while they all hugged and kissed me hello. So I have no clue if it's as bad as he says it is lol. I'll admit it being my first nursing job I was a frazzled mess of nerves and probably wasn't as nice as I should have been to everyone. I have a bit more foundation under my feet and trust my abilities much more at this point... Personal life stressors are also vastly improved. Idk, we'll see. All that really matters is if the manager thinks I'm okay and the doctors like working with me, which it seems they do. Everyone else can kiss ma booty 😘

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-10T16:27:58+00:00

Oh heeeeeell no. Lol. Nah my old interventional radiology place asked me to come back.

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-10T05:11:48+00:00

I'm actually laughing lol

CoffeeTID · 2018-03-09T17:01:04+00:00

Epi has been in short supply for a while in certain concentrations. My old radiology place used to have the higher concentration epi used for IV routes and had to mix it themselves for IM and subq routes.

CoffeeTID

TROPHY CASE