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Marketable Nurse
read more »I am an LVN that currently markets for a DME (durable medial equipment company). One of the great things about being a rep is all of the people you get to mee...
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Become an RNFA: Make $$ for yourself and save money for surgeons
read more »[This is a guest post by Heather Pennington.] I have been a RN for 16 years with experience as an office nurse (cardiology, oncology, general surgery), emergen...
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7 things you need to know about nursing school.
read more »7) Not everyone gets in. This means you have to be better than other people. Yes this includes better grades. There are numerous pre-requisite classes and the m...
Become a CNA, Then a Nurse
(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.
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Changing your name
When a girl gets married, it is expected that she will take her husband’s name. This may seem romantic to some, like ownership to others. The process though can be quite complicated. The level of complication has a lot to do with where you are in life at the time of your marriage. A young girl just out of high school maybe has to change her driver’s license and social security card and that is it. A woman that is older may have a bit more trouble.
My first marriage was right after high school and I had no problem changing my name…7 years later I was divorced and everything I had accomplished, college, nursing degree and license, certifications, maybe a few credit cards, numerous bills, my four children…well they were all attached to that name. I did not change my name back to my maiden name after divorce for that reason. Then 6 more years passed…and I was married again. I have been married about a month and a half…and still not everything is changed over to my new name. Every week I try to change my name with one of the various agencies that knows me. It has begun to seem like it will never end. I couldn’t change my name at work until my nursing license was changed….so I had to use my old name there, my new name on checks, my old name at school, and my new name somewhere else…it was confusing! Many times at work I signed a medication record with two different initials. I finally changed my name at work, but all my logins to the med pyxis and supply pyxis and computers all still use my old last name…yet another thing to change…
All the while, my new husband has no similar distress to worry about. His name is his name. Some women decide not to change their name with marriage and I think that is understandable, and some men are accepting of that. Though I do know of a woman that kept her ex husband’s name even after 20 years of marriage to someone else…I have already told my new husband that he cant have his name back! This is the last time I am changing my name….not just because I love him with all my heart and am so happy to be with him, but well….it is just too much trouble! 
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Are nursing unions necessary?
Are nursing unions really necessary? I am trying to look at this from all angles of medicine. The first point of view I am going to take is that of being a patient. I have been very fortunate in my times as a patient to be surrounded by amazing, educated and capable nurses. A good nurse is worth their weight in gold. Nurses are not only the number one patient advocates but, they are the eyes and ears of the physicians. Most of the nurses I have come across in the past 11 years are great but, there are those few that made me wonder how they kept their license but, they did lose their jobs. So, as a patient, does a union make it harder for hospitals/clinics/etc. to fire bad nurses? The reason I ask this is because I was married to a union guy. Read More
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Are more nursing degrees too much?
In October, at the Blogworld Expo I had the privilege of hearing “Nurse Ratched” who blogs at her site Nurse Ratched’s Place speak on a panel. The most fascinating thing she discussed (at least to me) was a phenomenon she noted of nurses always undercutting other nurses. She had written a blog post about it entitled “nurses eat their young” and she felt it was the most pressing issue facing the nursing community today.
Her main focus was the ever-increasing pressure to further your nursing degree. Read More
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I’ve had 3 colonoscopies. The insurance company was more painful.
I have now had two experiences with colonoscopies….I am only almost 32 but I have a very extensive family history of colon cancer and would like to stay healthy. My father died when he was 50, and he had a brother that died at 40 of colon cancer. His other brothers also had cancer and I believe a couple sisters that were diagnosed with different forms of cancer…I never knew this side of my family so I am not that well informed.
But I try to stay healthy by exercising, not smoking or drinking (too much) and eating….well a semi balanced diet. Colon cancer has always been a fear for me though. I had my first colonoscopy at 24 because of symptoms which I thought were concerning but it turned out normal. I remembered everything and could feel the scope inside of me. They said I fought terribly and was not a good patient. That experience was absolutely horrible though and I waited almost 8 more years to have another one done. This last one at 31 was much better. I remember nothing and everything turned out fine. I do wish there was a way to make the prep a bit more pleasant….
I was upset though that this time for my colonoscopy the insurance company didn’t want to pay for it because they do not pay for screening colonoscopies until the age of 50. I guess they would rather pay for colon surgery and chemo for me when I am 40 than a screening colonoscopy. My dad was dead at 50, and his brother had been for 10 years by that time…so I am thinking that 50 would probably be just a bit late for me….but the insurance companies do not care about such things. My doctor recommends I have another one in 3 years…and every 3 years…that is about 6 more by the time I am 50. Luckily I have a good job and can pay for procedures, but those that can’t like my father are just at the will of the insurance companies…
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7 reasons I loved being an operating room nurse
1) I could go to work in my pajamas because the hospital provides the scrubs, so I got to change when I got there. I could take a cute outfit to put on after work for any about town errands or about town bar hopping afterwards.
2) I did not have to fix my hair because I would be wearing a surgical hat. A ponytail knot and I was out the door. There was an ample supply of hair essentials in my locker such as: hair dryer, curling iron, hairspray etc.
3) I did not have to put on make up, my patients only saw my eyeballs. I would usually put on mascara but there was no reason to put on my full face only to be in a mask all day. Now, if I woke up a little earlier I would put my face on as not to scare my co-workers but, as far as my patients went, they didn’t see my face.
4) I didn’t have to buy scrubs. The hospital requires that surgical scrubs be processed in a certain way, therefore they provided them and we put on a new pair each morning. If we had a patient that had any type of infection, the scrubs were changed in-between cases. Tell me that does not save some major cash!
5) A guarantee in the operating room is a fast paced atmosphere and almost always an adrenaline rush. Even if the surgical case was an elective, scheduled case, trying to turn the room for the next case in a quick manner is a must. If you are slow at turnaround, not only does your boss yell at you, your surgeon will not make your life easy. If you bust your butt then not only do your supervisors notice but surgeons will start requesting you personally.
6) You make some awesome friends because, the operating room is it’s own universe. We may bicker amongst ourselves but let an outsider try and jack with one of us and we would stick together. There are no float nurses in this field because it is such a specialty. The benefit of that is you are with the same herd most of the time. It’s like a family, a dysfunctional family per say but, still a family.
7) A guarantee you would do something different, every day. You never know what traumas will roll in. You never know what surgeon is going to throw a fit and you never know what new drama has arisen since last shift. The operating room is notorious for some good drama, hehee.
The operating room is a fun place to be, I think it’s a pre-requisite that you be a little off your rocker to work in this environment, I obviously fit in just fine. One thing you better have is, a skin made of steel because; you will be yelled at on numerous occasions by different surgeons (most of them apologize after their sphincters relax). I always enjoyed yelling back, there’s just something that makes you feel good about standing your ground. Actually, we didn’t yell at each other all that much, only days that end in Y. Then we would go drink a beer an laugh (if we were not on call of course).
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Thankful for modern medicine
Before diving into yet another dry, overcooked holiday fowl this week, I am going to give thanks for getting to attend an old fashioned, rockstar-worthy, hotel-room-destroying party last Sunday night.
We arrived kind of late and the two other party goers with me kept staring out the car window pouting because they thought we’d arrive too late to join in the fun. But after pushing my mommy-mobile close to the speed of sound, we finally made it to the parking lot of the hotel. The girls composed themselves admirably as they walked past the front desk trying to affect a bored, nonchalant look. “Who us? No, we’re not yet another group going up to room 213. Please don’t call the police or the fire marshal……”
Through the hotel room door, I could hear muffled screams and giggles which were quickly squelched when we knocked. The door was slowly opened a crack as the hostess peeked out to see who was in the hall. She swung it open wide when she saw us saying, “oh, good it’s you guys! I thought it was the hotel manager, telling us to be quiet….again.”
We walked in to chaos. There were empty pizza boxes littering the tables, half eaten and abandoned pieces of pizza and drinks lying on every other available space in the two bedroom suite. TVs were blaring, ignored, while the guests ran around jumping on the furniture, acting like they were wired for sound.
Despite being late, we arrived just in time to catch the chauffeured car over to the hotel next door, where the management, in deference to the star of the gig, let our group swim in their heated indoor pool, since it was about 40F outside. After the pool takeover, the ensemble then headed back to the room, where the party continued late into the night with everybody eventually crashing on the floor.
You may well ask why I’m thankful for such a wild bacchanal at the almost rocking-chair worthy age of 41. Didn’t I get the memo that drugs and wild parties were sooooo 1980’s? Yeah, I did, but when the drug of choice is leftover Halloween candy and all the crazy party people in the house are under 4 feet tall, I’ll make an exception to the rule.
You see, this party was to celebrate my five year old daughter’s best friend finally being finished with treatment for a scary tumor her mom, a doctor just finishing her training, found accidentally back in February. Both of the girls had a little cold, but when our little friend had some nausea in addition to her headache, her mom took an x-ray of her stomach and found an advance-stage cancer in her four year old little girl. Nine months later her chemo/surgery/radiation are completed and her blonde hair’s just starting to grow back in. She describes her scalp as feeling like a horse’s nose, soft and a little fuzzy.
So this Thanksgiving I want to pause and appreciate the miracle of a little life saved by modern medicine. I am thankful for all the people who slave away doing unheralded bench-work in basement labs to create medications that heal us. I am thankful for specialized hospitals that have the knowledge and trained professionals to support us when the bottom falls out from under what we thought- just that morning!- was an otherwise normal life. I am thankful to have friends like the moms in our little group, who have never thought twice about doing many special things, big and small, for a family faced with the ultimate horror. And last, I am thankful for my two daughters and the reminder not to take them for granted. Every smile, every pout, every lost tooth, every trip to the principal’s office, every dance recital, all the trips to the overpriced doll store, the long car rides with 50 potty breaks, the weekday mornings filled with frantic searches for books and folders. I am thankful for each and every one.
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