Ok, so here's the deal. I am jobless right now. I have been jobless since last New Year's Eve when the temp agency I was working for so kindly let me know the position was over. With no notice. On New Years. THANKS GUYS! If you ever need a temp job, stay far away from Sparks Personnel Services. Anyway, with that out of the way.........
As a nursing student, you can apply for your CNA after you complete your first semester. Which I have. After that, you can work as a nurse's assistant pretty much anywhere. Here's the rub though. To work in a HOSPITAL as a CNA, I am finding, you have to have experience. Nursing homes usually not so much. BUT many (if not most) nursing homes require you to have a GNA (Geriatric Nursing Assistant) which requires you to take an additional test and whatnot. But here's the REAL kicker. With my program, I can't APPLY for a GNA. Yes, that's right, I would have to take an additional 6-12 month course, WITH more clinical time to learn skills that I have already been taught and have used umpteen million times already. Its MADDENING! Same thing for anything clerical. EVERYONE wants 1-2 years of experience in a doctor's office. WELL HOW THE FRIKITY FRAK do you get the experience when NO ONE WILL HIRE YOU? Bottom line is, I need a job. I'd LIKE to get a job somewhat healthcare related, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards for me.
Who knows, I might be unemployed until graduation. My primary field is insurance, and God knows THAT isn't hiring right now. Plus I've been out of the industry so long...................so yeah. Huge vent. But at least you were warned!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving break, weird dreams and such
Well normally I would have lecture tonight and be able to come back here and post scintillating information about whatever diseases we learned about that night, but alas, that is not to be! Its the day before Thanksgiving, so no class tonight! Whee!!!!!!!! And clinicals are over for this semester too, so my weekends are my own once again until the end of Jan.
Anyway, what I really wanted to post up about tonight is this really crazy dream I had last night. I dreamed that I was in the hospital, during clinical. I was on the same unit that I have been on all semester, except that it wasn't that unit. You know how in dreams you might be at your friend's house but the actual building around you is NOT your friend's house? That type of deal. I was also with my same instructor from this semester, as well as all of the same group members I was with. Anyway, I was in my patient's room getting ready for the day. Now in real life, we are assigned to one patient for both Saturday and Sunday, and we are expected to attend to all of their needs, including bathing, helping them eat, helping them walk around, etc, and we also administer medications one of those days. In this dream the patient that I had in the beginning was a woman I had never seen before, and she was what we in the nursing community call a "walkie-talkie". A "walkie-talkie" is a patient that is alert and oriented (ie not confused), can walk around without worry that they will fall on you, and is independant with all their self care needs (ie bathing, eating, toileting). Basically a nursing student's dream patient.
So, getting back to the dream. I was in this patient's room, and my instructor walks in with a few other students, including one of my friends that was in my group in the dream, but not in the program anymore in real life. My instructor tells me there is a patient on the unit that is dying, and she wants me in there with this patient today because all of my other classmates have already seen someone die. (Which is not the case at all, only one person in my group was actually with someone when they died this semester). I started FREAKING OUT that I did not want to see anyone die, and that I was afraid to touch a dead person. I really am terrified of touching dead people. I am scared I'm going to touch them and they'll pop up and be like, "BLLLAARRRRGGGGHHH" or something. I guess I have watched one too many zombie movies.
In the dream, my friend demonstrates to me how a person screams just before they die, and that made me get even more upset, but my instructor told me it was just something I would have to do.
So I get to the patient's room and the room is HUGE, probably close to 5 regular hospital rooms put together, but its what you would imagine a 1950's hospital room would look like. There are 3 CNA's in there taking care of this woman who is elderly and morbidly, morbidly obese. She was wearing an oxygen mask, breathing very fast. The CNA's keep trying to raise the head of her bed, and end up raising it to the point where the bed is perpendicular to the floor and the woman slides down the bed onto the floor, so they pick her up and put her back in the bed and lower it so she is laying flat on her back. At this point she starts seizing, so they raise the head of the bed to about a 45 degree angle and she takes off her mask, looks at me, and asks me to please pray with her. There is a rosary on her side table and she hands it to me and I start saying the rosary. After a while, it looks like she's not going to die yet, so my instructor has me leave the room. Finally, another of my classmates comes running in the room saying it looks like she's going to die at any minute. I walk back in and instead of this morbidly obese elderly woman in the bed, it is the same woman, but she now she is very thin and fragile looking. There is a priest in the room and everyone is singing, "Amazing Grace." For some reason, only the priest and I know the words because we are the only two Catholics in the room, but I know that's ridiculous because pretty much all Christian denominations sing that song. Anyway, that's how the dream ended. I never actually saw her die.
So now I'm wondering what does this mean? I mean, I know that actually seeing someone die is probably one of my biggest fears. So is having to touch a dead body. Nurses do BOTH of those things on a pretty regular basis, so I'm going to have to get over that. I don't know. Any ideas?
Anyway, what I really wanted to post up about tonight is this really crazy dream I had last night. I dreamed that I was in the hospital, during clinical. I was on the same unit that I have been on all semester, except that it wasn't that unit. You know how in dreams you might be at your friend's house but the actual building around you is NOT your friend's house? That type of deal. I was also with my same instructor from this semester, as well as all of the same group members I was with. Anyway, I was in my patient's room getting ready for the day. Now in real life, we are assigned to one patient for both Saturday and Sunday, and we are expected to attend to all of their needs, including bathing, helping them eat, helping them walk around, etc, and we also administer medications one of those days. In this dream the patient that I had in the beginning was a woman I had never seen before, and she was what we in the nursing community call a "walkie-talkie". A "walkie-talkie" is a patient that is alert and oriented (ie not confused), can walk around without worry that they will fall on you, and is independant with all their self care needs (ie bathing, eating, toileting). Basically a nursing student's dream patient.
So, getting back to the dream. I was in this patient's room, and my instructor walks in with a few other students, including one of my friends that was in my group in the dream, but not in the program anymore in real life. My instructor tells me there is a patient on the unit that is dying, and she wants me in there with this patient today because all of my other classmates have already seen someone die. (Which is not the case at all, only one person in my group was actually with someone when they died this semester). I started FREAKING OUT that I did not want to see anyone die, and that I was afraid to touch a dead person. I really am terrified of touching dead people. I am scared I'm going to touch them and they'll pop up and be like, "BLLLAARRRRGGGGHHH" or something. I guess I have watched one too many zombie movies.
In the dream, my friend demonstrates to me how a person screams just before they die, and that made me get even more upset, but my instructor told me it was just something I would have to do.
So I get to the patient's room and the room is HUGE, probably close to 5 regular hospital rooms put together, but its what you would imagine a 1950's hospital room would look like. There are 3 CNA's in there taking care of this woman who is elderly and morbidly, morbidly obese. She was wearing an oxygen mask, breathing very fast. The CNA's keep trying to raise the head of her bed, and end up raising it to the point where the bed is perpendicular to the floor and the woman slides down the bed onto the floor, so they pick her up and put her back in the bed and lower it so she is laying flat on her back. At this point she starts seizing, so they raise the head of the bed to about a 45 degree angle and she takes off her mask, looks at me, and asks me to please pray with her. There is a rosary on her side table and she hands it to me and I start saying the rosary. After a while, it looks like she's not going to die yet, so my instructor has me leave the room. Finally, another of my classmates comes running in the room saying it looks like she's going to die at any minute. I walk back in and instead of this morbidly obese elderly woman in the bed, it is the same woman, but she now she is very thin and fragile looking. There is a priest in the room and everyone is singing, "Amazing Grace." For some reason, only the priest and I know the words because we are the only two Catholics in the room, but I know that's ridiculous because pretty much all Christian denominations sing that song. Anyway, that's how the dream ended. I never actually saw her die.
So now I'm wondering what does this mean? I mean, I know that actually seeing someone die is probably one of my biggest fears. So is having to touch a dead body. Nurses do BOTH of those things on a pretty regular basis, so I'm going to have to get over that. I don't know. Any ideas?
Monday, November 22, 2010
Hello world!
Good evening, my name is Sashimistat, and this is my first foray into blogging. So I am guessing your first question is why I don't put my real name or picture up here. Well, there's a good answer for that. I am a nursing student. And I am going to be writing about what its like to be in nursing school. See, we have these fancy laws nowadays called privacy laws, and while I would NEVER mention anyone by name, its safer if I don't use my own name either, capice?
So, a little about me. I live on the east coast. I'll give ya a hint but just one. We do have winter where I live, but its not like negative three hundred below in winter here either. I like it here on the east coast, but I'm not sure I want to stay in this state forever. I've been here all my life. I'd like to go either south or west one day. I am married, no children (human children, that is). I do have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I love, LOVE sushi/sashimi hence the name. Unfortuantely right now we are too broke to enjoy either, but thems the breaks right?
I am a nursing student. I go to a community college and when I finish I will have an Associates and be able to sit for my NCLEX-RN (the licensing exam for RNs). I already have a Bachelors from another school in an ENTIRELY different discipline. It took me 2 years of classes before I could even apply for the program I am in now, but I did, and I got in. I am almost through with my first year of 2. It has NOT been easy at all, and my self confidence has been sorely tested along the way, but I have managed to maintain a 4.0 this whole time. Go ahead, talk behind my back, I don't care LOL! I worked hard for those grades and I am proud of them! I have done things in the past year that I never thought I would EVER be able to do. Namely give shots. I have a HUGE needle issue and used to not be able to even WATCH someone else get a shot, but now I give 'em like a champ. Clinicals are over for this semester, and I have heard that next semester is the hardest yet, so strap yourselves in and get ready for the ride!
So, a little about me. I live on the east coast. I'll give ya a hint but just one. We do have winter where I live, but its not like negative three hundred below in winter here either. I like it here on the east coast, but I'm not sure I want to stay in this state forever. I've been here all my life. I'd like to go either south or west one day. I am married, no children (human children, that is). I do have 2 dogs and 2 cats. I love, LOVE sushi/sashimi hence the name. Unfortuantely right now we are too broke to enjoy either, but thems the breaks right?
I am a nursing student. I go to a community college and when I finish I will have an Associates and be able to sit for my NCLEX-RN (the licensing exam for RNs). I already have a Bachelors from another school in an ENTIRELY different discipline. It took me 2 years of classes before I could even apply for the program I am in now, but I did, and I got in. I am almost through with my first year of 2. It has NOT been easy at all, and my self confidence has been sorely tested along the way, but I have managed to maintain a 4.0 this whole time. Go ahead, talk behind my back, I don't care LOL! I worked hard for those grades and I am proud of them! I have done things in the past year that I never thought I would EVER be able to do. Namely give shots. I have a HUGE needle issue and used to not be able to even WATCH someone else get a shot, but now I give 'em like a champ. Clinicals are over for this semester, and I have heard that next semester is the hardest yet, so strap yourselves in and get ready for the ride!
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