NursesPTO Making our time off, pay off.

This post is more of a question to you, the readers, than it is a definitive statement.  My question is this: what is a nurse to do when there’s a conflict between her clinical suspicion and a doctor’s orders?

I vividly remember an incident that occurred on a surgical floor when I first started in practice.  A nurse I’d gotten to know (over shared cups of coffee while charting) was clearly distressed about something.  When I asked her what was wrong, she reluctantly relayed the following situation:

A patient had been admitted to the floor to a surgeon with a diagnosis of abdominal pain.  Read More

Most of us have been in the situation where things happen beyond our control. Well….when a patient gets the bright idea to rip out some tube or line or other very important and most often not easily reinserted piece of medical equipment….who gets the blame most often? NURSES. Now, I really do not find this to be fair. While we are the ones that are responsible for those that we care for, we cannot be at the patient’s bedside at all times. We have meds to gather, physicians to round with, charting to do, and yes every now and then we have to use the restroom or eat. Though I can say that there have been days I have not entered the bathroom door at work and I was lucky to shove in a bite or two of whatever happened to be lying on the break room table for lunch. Most of us have more than one patient as well which makes it impossible to watch each one at all times.

Anyway I say all of this because we as nurses get blamed for crazy patients pulling out their chest tubes, central lines, endotracheal tubes, and yes even ventriculostomy drains….NO nurse wants to make that call to the neurosurgeon and tell him such news. I have seen nurses in tears over this. I realize that taking a patient back to the OR on a Sunday afternoon is not fun, but it truly isn’t always OUR fault that these things happen. Most often it is that the patient is not sedated enough (per your orders), has Houdini powers and managed to wiggle out of restraints, or had been perfectly with it until they started seeing the bugs on the ceiling and decided to rip out that chest tube to use as a weapon….It really wasn’t my fault….I’m just sayin…

(This is guest post by Sandra Stevens, a Career Blogger. For more information on Certified nursing assistant Training you can visit her blog over at http://cnatraininghelp.com)

Have you been thinking about a career as a nurse?  Are you looking into nursing schools for your new career or to attend upon graduating from high school?  If so, you might want to consider training to become and working as a certified nursing assistant first.  You might even have noticed that some nursing schools require applicants to have the CNA Certification.

A CNA certification does not take long to obtain.  In fact, you can find many courses that only run for 3 to 6 weeks.  During that time you will have classroom instruction, demonstrations and clinical lessons.  You will learn to perform a variety of nursing assistant skills.  The duties of a CNA depend on the setting in which they work.

Nursing assistants often help to teach patients range of motion exercises.  A nursing assistant will take and record vital signs.  A CNA will help patients with their activities of daily living.  Nursing assistants are often asked to help bathe and groom patients.  A nursing aide can help patients to use the toilet or to change patients who are unable to use the restroom on their own.

If you decide that you want to or need CNA Training, you will want to find a nursing assistant training course that is fully accredited to provide you with the credentials you need to take the examination for certification.  You must attend your classes and make good grades on your exams to prepare for the certification exam.

When it comes time to take the certification exam, you will need to answer a series of multiple choice questions.  After that portion of the test, you will need to demonstrate nursing assistant skills to the person administering the examination.  Once you pass the exam, you will be eligible for your certification.

Consider working as a CNA for a few months before applying to enter into a nursing school.  This will give you time to work as part of the nursing team.  You will learn to provide kind and compassionate care for patients.  The time you work as a CNA will prepare you to move on to a career in nursing with more responsibilities and challenges.

Working as a CNA, will give you time to practice your bedside manner.  You will learn a great deal about how to work with patients who are scared and sick.  Of course, you will also learn how to work with and interact with other members of the healthcare team.  This will benefit you when the time comes to do your clinical rounds when you do attend nursing school.

It will be easier for you to gain acceptance to a nursing school if you have your nursing assistant certification.  In fact, you will find some schools for which this will be a requirement.  You will even find that some of your coursework in nursing school as a result of what you already learned during your training and work as a certified nursing assistant.