Oct 17 - Oct 23 Hottest New Topics

• U.S. Diabetes Prevalence Expected to Skyrocket
• Teacher turned Nurse
• Rant about ungrateful, demanding patients
• Really disappointed with the reality of nursing.
• What do you call your "greatest" compliment?
• 0.45% NS is Hypernatremia?
• How did you get through the waiting?
• What to expect for your Fundamentals & your first clinicals!
• Group one - Black list for nurses in Dallas

U.S. Diabetes Prevalence Expected to Skyrocket

By 2050, as many as one in three U.S. adults are expected to have diabetes if current trends continue, according to a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published Oct. 22 in Population Health Metrics.

Teacher turned Nurse

I miss teaching. I miss summer vacation. Christmas vacation, Easter break, President's day. I miss the bell that says "go home", or the one that signals the end of a horrible class. I miss teenagers, the chatter, the hang-dog looks, the laughter, the tons of long healthy hair.

Rant about ungrateful, demanding patients

I had a patient tonight in her late teens, had a C-section back in May and spent some time in ICU recently due to an abscess and came to our floor (med/surg) a few days ago. This patient is morbidly obese and obviously very spoiled or just a brat. Her call light was on literally every 10 minutes....you would go in her room and she would want ice, or graham crackers, or want you to rub lotion on her. You would spend a half hour in there and AS SOON AS you walked out...

Really disappointed with the reality of nursing.

What a joke! Don't get me wrong. I am grateful to have a degree. I am grateful to have a job in this bad economy, but nursing sure turned out to be a disappointment. I never thought that I would be worked to death the way nurses are. I never thought I would be talked to like a dog the way I am by patients, their families, people from other departments, and some doctors. I never thought bosses would be so quick to stab you in the back and try to get you in trouble. I thought I would be a valued employee...

Student Loan Scariness.....What can be done to make things easier?

I just passed NCLEX and am busy looking for employment. It is very hard to find jobs in NC right now for nurses. I have HUGE private student loans, at least $100,000. I attended a private college and nursing program that was very expensive. I just applied for a private loan consolidation.

My dad was my cosigner and that was a huge help. Are there any tips or advice you guys can give about working on paying these off?

0.45% NS is Hypernatremia?

So, I am trying to wrap my head around why we would use 1/2 NS in hypernatremia patients.

Here's what I have worked out so far:
1/2 NS is a hypotonic solution which would cause cells in the blood to swell with water...

How did you get through the waiting?

I applied to nursing school and now I am in the mist of the long wait... I feel like I am driving myself crazy. I can not seem to get my mind of worrying if I will get accepted. How can I make the time fly by?

What to expect for your Fundamentals & your first clinicals!

I'm about to start my nursing classes FINALLY! NO MORE pre-reqs for me! However, some people at my school are making me really nervous about what to expect for the next two terms. In a week I start Nursing Fundamentals & Pharmacology. What can I expect from these classes? Is it as horrible as I'm hearing?? Then, my next term is Med/Surg Class & Clinical along with some leadership class. What can I expect to do in my first clinical? What exactly do you do in Med/Surg? What units?

Group one - Black list for nurses in Dallas

Has anyone out there been reported as not rehireable? The Chapter One list in the Dallas area is a list of nurses who has been fired and not recommended for rehire. You are not supposed to be reported if you resign and you are supposed to notified if you are placed on the list. Neither of the two are true. I am wanting to know if anybody has fought it...