So I’m at work and it’s quarter to four in the morning, yes I mean 4am.  A time when most people are sound asleep in warm, cozy beds, I’m rounding on patients to make sure they are clean, dry and have everything they need.  If they’re awake of course.  It has been very quiet so I suppose I should be greatful, but I really prefer to be busy, so I’ve been finding things to do.  The occasional call light has been going off of course, especially now that I’m trying to squeeze in a post.  This weekend night shift thing is a very strange, it really throws off your schedule for a day before and a day after.  Almost time to draw blood, gotta’ run.

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: CNA, night shift, PCT, rounding

It has been a crazy week of training, that’s for sure.  I’m in a group of about seven health care professionals of various levels, all taking the class to learn the correct technique for blood draws.  I’ve had two days of classroom style instruction, with some clinical observation, followed by 3 days of clinical practice on various units.  The clinical practice is exactly that, we practice our blood draws on real patients with the supervision of the Phlebotomy instructor.  The lecture information was interesting and the instructor certainly knows her stuff, which helps to keep us engaged.  The clinical days start at 4am and runs until 12pm, and I’ve been waking up at 2am just to make sure I’m out the door by 3am!  It’s a rough schedule to get used to.  I got a nice treat on Wednesday morning with a serenade by a local pack of coyote’s, perhaps after a kill.  That’ll wake you up at 2am.  Thankfully Friday is the last day of the phlebotomy training and the following week I’ll move to my unit where I get to shadow another employee during her shift.  I’m somewhat familiar with the unit since we had our last Nursing school clinical rotation there, but it will be good to learn more about the job from an actual PCT.

The blood draws on my unit will happen during my shift, so I will have ample opportunity to practice my technique.  Some patients have great veins and it’s real easy, others have impossible veins and you have to rely on your knowledge of human anatomy to find the vein.  With experience and practice I will become proficient at the skill and I look forward to the challenge.

Off to bed now, I have to wake up early for tomorrow!

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: CNA, healthcare job, PCT, phlebotomy, training

This past week I have been attending orientation for my new hospital job in Berwyn IL.  Everything leading up to this week happened in a rush as I was a last minute hire.  Apparently I was only given some of the pre-orientation paperwork so I got a call to go back and collect the stuff HR forgot about.  Then I got an email and a follow up phone call.  All of the paperwork, the email and phone call contradicted one another to some extent.  I also lost the darn offer letter which had some info included in the body of the letter I was supposed to reference.  Ugh.  Why couldn’t it be simpler?  I believe the HR department has been doing the hiring work for so long, they sometimes forget that new hires really have no clue.  I know I sure didn’t.  To them it was very clear what my schedule was, to me I had two start dates and at least two schedules.  Huh?  Needless to say I missed my first day of orientation which was the day you get your ID badge and super secret codes.  Without the badge, the rest of my orientation week had some limitations.  Since I won’t be able to attend one of those first day sessions until January, it looks like I’ll be badge-less until that time.  Hopefully that doesn’t keep me from working, as I’m supposed to badge in for work each day on one of these little computer terminals.  During orientation we heard a lot about being pro-active and bringing issues up to supervisors.  I know I will be spending a few minutes to jot down my experiences during the hiring process, hopefully someone will take notice and streamline it just a little.

On a positive note, I start my phlebotomy training Monday and I am really looking forward to it.  It will be a full week of classroom and hands on instruction.  What a great perk to learn a skill that not everyone typically gets a chance to do as a Tech or even as an RN.  I’ve been gearing up for the new job with some new clothes, including a new pair of shoes and a few sets of uniforms, important stuff.  More about that later.

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: healthcare job, new job, orientation, PCT, Tech

It has been tough to get back on schedule with my posting here.  Juggling school, family, and work can really eat up my free time.  Work?!?  That’s right, I said work!  My recent attempt to land a job at the major hospital in Berwyn IL was successful, and I’ve been hired as a Patient Care Technician II.  They’re called tech’s or PCT’s for short.  From my understanding of the job description, it is very similar to a CNA position with some additional responsibilities that I will be trained for.  Orientation started during these last two weeks of school which made it difficult for me to get in the necessary amount of studying for my last exam.  I had a poor showing, well below my normal range, but at least I didn’t fail it.  I have one more week of orientation where I will be trained on phlebotomy, a pretty cool bonus certification for my new position.  I’ll be working the night shift so that someone will always be home with the kids.  Not so thrilled about doing that shift, but I’m happy to have found a job where I can gain some valuable experience.  Hopefully working at the hospital will make it easier to move into an LPN and then RN position, once I have passed those respective licensing exams of course.  Wish me luck!

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: CNA, exams, healthcare job, PCT

So last night I’m doing my clinical rotation at a major hospital in Berwyn IL.  It’s late and things are a little slow, so I’m thinking about my job situation, or lack of one. This particular hospital has lots of jobs posted online and I’ve applied for many but it never seems to go any further than that. I’m certainly qualified for a CNA position, I have some experience and I have good people skills.  For whatever reason, landing that first healthcare job has been very elusive.

What to do? Ask the unit secretary. I’ve known her for a few months and have always been polite, I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. I just came right out and said, “Miss Stephanie, who do I need to know to get a PCT job at this hospital?” She proceeded to walk me right down to the floor administrators office, introduced me to the administrator and told her that I needed a job.  She gave me a nice review and told the admin I was worth hiring.   That was it.   Next thing I know I’m being told to submit my application online again and then give the administrator a call so she could watch out for it. I hoping for an interview this week.

Finding a job in today’s economy is tough, knowing the right person can make all the difference.  Network, network, network. Make new friends, talk to people, get out and get yourself noticed. Online networking is great but it’s hard to beat the person to person interaction.  I’ve been hunting for months online and this brief introduction only took 20 minutes.  Who you know really does matter, get out there and meet them!

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: CNA, healthcare job, new job, PCT

It wasn’t too long ago that I found myself under the oppressive scrutinty of the Man.  In my case, the legal department of a major nursing care facility chain.  They didn’t care for my honesty and approached my instructor.  Apparently honesty is bad for business.  I didn’t want to cause any problems for my fellow classmates or disrupt the CNA program I was enrolled in, so I opted to pull the content and shut down until the problem passed. It sure did tick me off that I had to squelch my freedom of speech to passify some greedy corporate types, but what could I do?  It has been about a year since that little incident and I’m ready to start being honest again.

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: CNA, honesty, nursing care facility

Today was my first day of clinical at the assisted living facility.  I was dressed in the CNA white requirement.  White scrubs, socks, shoes and under wear that won’t be seen through the white…harder than it sounds!  I actually wore light grey and you couldn’t see it.  Watch with second hand, note pad, black pen and gait belt were also required.  Woke up at 3:45am and got ready, headed over to school to meet a few classmates at about 5:15am.  We did the car pool thing and made our way over to the facility.  Arrived in plenty of time and got checked in by the instructor.  After the instructor picked our assignments, we were off!

I shadowed the CNA and did whatever I could to help her out.  Mostly I made beds, changed diapers and helped with feeding.  I got to use a Hoyer lift and a few other lift devices, as the facility has a “no lift, no restraint” policy.  I was impressed with this approach.  I did some manual lifting anyway, mostly moving from the bed to the wheel chair from a sitting position.  The resident was not heavy and was able to help a little bit.  I needed the practice.  So with one down and four more to go, I’m looking forward to the next rotation.

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: certified nursing assistant, clinical, CNA, school

Even armed with new information about Mr. Smith, I’ve found it difficult to make any type of connection with him.  Each time I came to visit he would get tense or visibly agitated.  He wouldn’t want to talk and didn’t like me bothering him during meal time.  I did my best to initiate communication but found myself doing the majority of the talking with little to no input from Mr. Smith.  For a patient that was alert and communicative, this seemed odd.

I called the coordinator and explained the situation.  She was surprised about Mr. Smith’s reaction and laughed about him being a ladies man.  She guessed that he might be viewing me as a threatening figure.  Perhaps a doctor, or specialist there to check up on him, or someone he had a bad experience with before.  She agreed that I needed a new assignment and would let me know.  I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t make a connection with Mr. Smith, but at least I was able to learn a few things about body language and non verbal communication.  A great experience overall.

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: hospice, hospice care, palliative care, volunteer

Wow, its been awhile since I’ve had a chance to post and a lot has happened.  This will be brief for now, but in a nutshell, I got A’s over the summer and I’m doing well in BIO 104 (the second anatomy class).  However, the CNA class is brutal!  Completely unexpected, but I’m in week 2 of an 8 week program that runs M-Th 12pm until 5:30pm.  Tons of homework, reading, skills practice and 2 to 4 exams per week.  Yikes!  So far I’m pulling a B and not real happy about it.  The class is an 8 hour course and a B would really dent my GPA.  Stay tuned as I get adjusted to my schedule and post more juicy details.

written by Nurseman Chicago

I’ve been doing the volunteer work with hospice for a few weeks now and have done my best to get to know my client.  He never seems to want to talk to me and I always get the impression that he takes a defensive posture when I’m around.  I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong, so I contacted the main office and asked for help.  The put me in contact with one of the other volunteers that visits with the same client.  We talked for awhile about him and she gave me some great ideas and tips on how to get him to warm up and talk.

One big obstacle though, I’m not a woman.  Apparently my 100+ year old client fancies himself a ladies man and really likes to socialize and flirt with the ladies.  Having a female volunteer come to visit with just him for an hour or more is the highlight of his day, so why would he want to talk to me?  Yeesh, too funny.  I’m not giving up yet and I’m sure I can make a connection.  My plan is to approach his preference for the ladies in a new way.  Maybe I can’t be a woman, but we can sure talk about them.  Perhaps I can grab his attention that way.  Stay tuned!

written by Nurseman Chicago \\ tags: hospice care, hospice volunteer, volunteer