Nov 28 - Dec 4 Hottest New Topics
Success Stories in Nursing
I just wanted to share that with you. Not as a bragging story, but as a real important step in my nursing journey. I really felt this night was special, and the fact that it made a world of difference to so many others is truly amazing. I really love my career and the opportunity I've been given to touch people's lives.
Clinical News
Depression or other serious psychological distress (SPD) is present in a substantial proportion of women of reproductive age, and a large proportion of these women go untreated, according to research published in the December issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Nursing Articles
Sometimes a special person comes into our lives for a moment and reminds us that what really matters is not how much we have, but how much we care for one another. Mr. J was that special person for me. He showed me that Christmas is not in our wallets, but in our hearts. This happened a long time ago. The story is true but the patient's name is completely fictitious.
No matter where you are at your nursing career. Whether you are a nursing student struggles to survive another lecture in school or a veteran nurse of 30 years, I feel that you should keep the reasons why you started your journey as a nurse close to you each day. If you don't, nursing may feel like a long laundry list of tasks you have complete. With this comes job dissatisfaction and lack of passion for the your profession and most of all your patients.
Topics
Should we - the tax paying public-- have to pay for the cost of non-compliant obese patients and all their problems (htn, chf, dm, metabolic syndrome, depression)? Recently we had a 40 something female patient in with a celluliitis and she was totally non compliant with her care, meds and diet. Her 'boyfriend' was seen several times bringing large quantities of fast food from the outside.
So my question to you reader is should we pay? Would she have become this aberrancy if we (society) hadn't supported it in the form of welfare and social security disability? And should we withdrawl her benefits if she remains non-compliant?
I work in a medical surgical floor and sometimes the requests that A&O3, independent, adult pts ask/make just floor me. No sense of shame and responsibility.
- Pass me that cup of water. The table is literally inches away.
- Fix my pillow.
- Pull up my blankets.
- Hold up my urinal. *ugh, I don't think so*
- Wipe me. 'What's wrong with your hands?'. 'I can't seem to get everything, it's better if you do it'. 'Well, try and let's see how much you can do'. *he wipes* 'Guess what, you got everything'.
- I give them their pills and they lay there expecting me to put in their mouths and hold the water while they drink through the straw like little kings/queens.
Student Discussions
I'm a Freshman I student in an ADN program. I'm getting really frusterated with what I feel are some poorly written test questions. I get the idea that the test questions are supposed to mimic the NCLEX by having the 'critical thinking', judgement-based questions, but I think some of the questions that I've gotten wrong this semester have logical fallacies that make the question invalid. I want opinions from you guys: are these really bad questions, or am I just 'over-thinking' them, as my instructors tell me?
Question #1:
Your client tells you he is feeling pain in a location different from where it started. You know his type of pain is....
Do you have to "as evidenced by" in your diagnosis or is that optional? My instructor made it sound like that was optional?? or at least that is how I interpreted her comment on that. Also are you supposed to include medical diagnoses in the objective data? ie. can you put osteoporosis or should I put something about bone demineralization? If they don't go in the care plan, then is it just expected that everyone following the care plan has looked over their diagnoses in their chart?
EC can lead you to some places you might never expect! Here's my timeline ...
2003: Associates degree in Emergency Management Technology (paramedic), NREMT-P
2008: EC ADN
2010: BSN, Chamberlain College
2011: Army Nurse Corps!
Yep, that's right ... I've been given the honor of being selected for active duty in the Army Nurse Corps. It's very competitive right now, with fewer nurses getting out of the military and more seeking to enter. I started working on this in January, getting paperwork together, in preparation for the one selection board for this fiscal year, which occurred in November. Out of 300+ applicants, about 50 were selected, nationwide, for the Army Nurse Corps. And I'm one of them! So awesome.
So hang in there, distance learning peeps ... this is all worth it!!
Regional Discussion - Virginia
I am wondering if anyone can offer information regarding RN license renewal. I took the NCLEX last year and got my license but have not been able to find any jobs in this field. My license is valid for 1 more year. This means that if I don't find an RN position within the year and start working I'll have to go back and re-take the NCLEX. My question is this: once hired, what kind of training or continued education hours would one have to do to make sure that RN license stays valid? Is there a certain amount of hours that must be completed?
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