Category: Online Classroom

One of the best days of your life is probably that day when you received a call telling you that you got the job. Snagging a job is a wonderful feeling. It makes you feel blessed and happy to have gotten what you really wanted.

But what should you expect on your first day on the job? What are some things that you need to do? Below are a few tips.

1. You will most likely be greeted by your boss and then taken around for a round of introductions. Also, a staff will probably be assigned to show you around the place and how some things work there. Because this is your first chance to meet your coworkers, make sure that you give a nice introduction and a smile to go with it. You are not expected to remember everyone’s names so don’t worry to much if you forget their names the second the conversation ends.

2. You will be given information on what tasks you will be assigned to at work. They will also be giving you directions and instructions regarding medicine administration, paperwork, dress code, and the like

3. You are expected to understand the hospital rules and regulations. If you have already worked in the healthcare or medical field before and have earned a nursing bridge program degree, like the paramedic to RN degree, you probably know what the rules are going to be like.

4. For proper identification, you will most likely be taking a photo for your ID. So, make sure that you look presentable on your first day.

5. You may have to listen to a lot of information on your first day. Remember the info and details as much as you can. Make notes of your tasks so you won’t forget your priority tasks.

6. Familiarize yourself with the place. Know where the toilets are, the supply room, the patient rooms, etc.

7. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your boss. It’s better to ask than to be left at a loss.

8. Learn more about your job and your workplace by observation. Listen well and open your eyes. If it’s your first job ever, make sure that you learn by watching how something is done in your facility.

9. Be professional. Follow the rules and regulations. Do not listen to gossips and stay away from drama queens.  Observe good manners and right conduct at all times.

Social media can be a form of stress reliever. We tweet when we’re stressed out. We post pictures of what we did over the weekend with friends. In a way, social media is a great outlet of our feelings.

As nurses, we get to learn so many things about life and death at work. Our job gives us a chance to appreciate life. Most people who have a different occupation may not have this kind of opportunity.  To give them a chance to celebrate life, why don’t you share a bit about your job through your posts?

 

Below are some tips on how to do it.

1. Share stories without stating people’s names and hospital names.

2. Focus on the situation and lesson in the end.

3. Never post pictures of patients and their conditions online.

4. Choose stories that are more positive and inspiring.

5. Avoid complaining about your job. Every job has its cons, so your complaint isn’t really something your friends want to know.

6. Do not talk about the specific location of your workplace

7. Make sure that you take time to contemplate whether your story is worth sharing. If it’s not, then don’t share it.

 

The nursing profession is wide-ranging in terms of opportunities, especially if you have been a nurse for some time now. For nurses who want to share their expertise to younger nurses or nurse hopefuls, being an educator is a great career choice.

What are needed to become a nurse educator?

1. Confidence and experience.

Confidence and experience go hand in hand. You cannot be confident with your job unless you don’t have enough expertise  to go with it. If you have been a nurse for ten years or more, then you certainly have learned a lot from your profession that you can share to students.

2. Know the requirements needed to become an educator.

Visit the right offices, schools or agencies that can assist you on your journey to becoming an educator. They can give you the proper requirements that you need to submit to the schools you want to apply in.

3. You need to be a registered nurse.

This is very elementary. You need to become a registered nurse first to qualify as a teacher. You will need to show your license. Make sure that the license is updated and in good standing.

4. Know what you specialize in.

Did you graduate from a paramedic to RN program or did you get a BSN degree? What facilities have you worked in? The answers to these questions can help you assess yourself and the areas, which you are good at. This will also help schools determine which subject or course you are suitable for.

5.  Gain a variety of nursing skills that can help you on your path to becoming a teacher.

Do not stick to one responsibility or task. Try to widen your knowledge by gaining more practical nursing skills in area you haven’t worked before.  Schools want to hire nurse educators who are knowledgeable in a variety of fields.

6.  Hone your speaking skills.

As a nurse educator, you will have to speak a big group of people. You want to look and sound professional. You also want to be heard clearly. If you think you aren’t a good speaker, try to practice speaking so as to improve how you speak.

While other jobs only require employees to work eight hours a day, working as a nurse demands more working hours. Nurses usually work up to ten hours a day, as the job is quite demanding and tasks have more tendencies of changing.

As a nurse, it is always best to manage one’s time. Through time management, your job gets done faster and you get to leave work earlier. Here are some very helpful tips to help you manage your time.

1. Have careful planning.

Many nurses would disagree with this first tip because they always think that their tasks are usually unpredictable. Regardless of having an unpredictable day or not, planning is always a good idea. Merely jotting your daily tasks down can help go through with work without the added stress. By planning your tasks, you get a clear idea of what you are supposed to do during your shift. You do not have to waste time thinking and remembering what you need to be doing.

The good thing with writing your tasks down is that it enables you to rank them by importance. This gives you a clearer idea of how much time is needed for each task and which to task to focus on first.

2. Learn the Art of Delegation

This is especially important if you are holding a managerial position. If you have so many tasks to do, make sure that you have all them done through proper delegation. It is also quite common to feel dissatisfied with your assigned person’s work. So, it is important that you choose the right people for the task. Choose them according to their strengths and abilities.

3. Do not let yourself get distracted.

Stay away from distractions. Everyone has his or her own distractions. If noise distracts you from working, choose a quieter space. If you can’t help yourself from staying connected on Facebook or Twitter, turn your notifications off. If you are working with a really close friend and you always seem to end up chatting more than working, it would be best to have different breaks and to ask less questions to one another, unless they are actually patient-related.

With the right management, you can have a less stressful day at work. The bottom line is, you have to know your priorities and learn to focus on them.

Come to work with a plan and stick to it as possibly as you can.

 

For anyone dreaming of becoming a nurse, going to a nursing school is the first step towards realizing that dream.  One needs to finish her nursing degree to finally get that license and work wherever they want to.

Finding the right nursing school then is essential as it is what fuels our minds with the necessary information in nursing. Below are the roles and duties that the school plays in enriching the minds of nursing students.

1. Record Keeping and Communication

To be able to communicate well with doctors, nursing students should be given a training for records maintenance. This training gives them the chance to realize the importance of tracking patient’s condition, such as their pain levels, medications and necessary procedures. These kinds of information need to be organized properly so doctors and fellow nurses can be aware of the patient’s condition. Schools should also teach students how to properly interpret the records and relay that to the doctors.

2. Care and Assistance

This is the most recognizable task or responsibility of nurses. Some people even assume that this is the only thing that nurses do, when in fact there is more to nursing than assistance. Nevertheless, it is important for schools to teach students hands-on care. This involves being able to gently assist patients, clean up after them, take their temperatures and administer their medication. Students must be taught to handle patients well.

3. Life Lesson Experiences

The school’s professors must also be able to inculcate or share their own experiences to the students. This will give the students an idea of what the real nursing world is like. If the nursing professor was a paramedic to RN program graduate, students could pretty much expect that that professor has interesting trauma nursing or emergency nursing stories to tell.

4. Emotional and Physical Support

Nursing students need to know that assisting patients also requires emotional assistance. Nursing schools are expected to teach students to communicate with patients and their family in the right manner. Nurses need to be sensitive to patients and their condition.

Nursing is hardly a bed of roses, but it is a very rewarding vocation. For most nurses who have been in the profession for many years, the experiences they have everyday at work gives them the opportunity to learn. And below are some things that most veteran nurses have learned about nurses over time.

1. Burnout among nurses is quite high. Those who tend to stay in the profession are those who have mastered the art of coping with stress and getting the right motivation. Many in the medical field, from paramedic to RN to respiratory therapists, feel exhausted. With the many patients to assist and the long working hours, relaxation is something that is rarely achieved. Unless of course, time management and organizational skills are applied.

2. Time management is key to lessening stress. It is important for nurses to prioritize their tasks. Big tasks must be done first and small tasks are made last. Veteran nurses know their tasks by heart. For younger nurses, they suggest that you keep a to-do list or a calendar where you can write your tasks and responsibilities on.

3. Life is short. Many nurses have seen patients clinging on to life and families praying for a longer life for their loved ones. They have also seen wonderful moments where the miracle of life unfolds itself. By being a witness to life and death, nurses know that life is too short to be wasted on silly, petty things.

4. You can’t please everyone. Just like any workplace, there will always be one or two staff members who like gossiping and backstabbing. Most veteran nurses know better than to keep away from them and their stories. New nurses shouldn’t be so preoccupied about the latest gossip at work. Instead, they should focus on their tasks and treat everyone fairly.

5. Not all patients are easy to assist. Every patient has their own way of coping with their ailments. Some are coping well, while others aren’t. Nurses must know how to approach patients and communicate with them well.

We always make our hectic schedule an excuse not to take care of our skin. We always say that we are too busy to even find ourselves the right skin care product or regimen. While it is true that work takes up most of our time, it is still not a good enough reason to neglect our skin. Working as a registered nurse or working and taking up a nursing bridge program like a Paramedic to RN course at the same time is definitely tiring. However, we should realize that it is essential that we take care of our body. Having skin that’s dry, oily or full of acne or pimples affects our self-esteem. If we are not happy about how we look, we tend to have low self-confidence.

So, feel better and look better, here are some tips on how to have healthier skin.

Know what type of skin you have. Some have oily skin while some have dry skin. Which one are you?  If you have dry skin, this means that you are most of the time, dehydrated. Remember to drink enough water to help rejuvenate your skin and keep it hydrated. In choosing toners, make sure to get something that are not alcohol-based, as these will only make your skin more dry. It is better to use a cream-based product, so your skin gets rejuvenated and hydrated. If you have oily skin, you are more prone to white heads, pimples and blackheads. Since your pores are slightly large, they attract more dirt. If left neglected or un-cleaned, dirt or makeup gets trapped inside the pores, which in turn becomes blackheads or whiteheads. It is therefore important to wash your face twice a day using a gentle non-foaming cleanser. Wash it off with warm water.

Cleanse, tone and moisturizer. Those are the simple rules to cleaning your face. Use products that match your skin type. If you do not know what products to get, you might want to go to a dermatologist. They can give you advice on what products are perfect for you.

Social networking is part of many people’s lives now. It’s how most of us connect with our friends anywhere in the world. This is where we share important highlights of our life. For some, it’s also a venue for sharing what we are going through, good or bad.

For those in the medical and healthcare field, Facebook or Twitter is where they can make announcements and big news about their career. For example, those who just graduated from paramedic to RN programs can share their experiences via social media. Sharing this kind of news and getting support and well wishes from family and friends allows them to feel special and well loved.

Social networking is also a way for patients to have a 24-hour support. By simply signing up in a social networking site, patients not only share about what they are going through, but they also get to know what their other friends or family are doing.  Having a support system made up of friends and family is very essential for those patients who are suffering from depression.

Another venue for support is to join online support groups. Patients can register at forums, which are relevant to them and their experiences. Of course, joining forums or online support groups need to use with caution. It is important for patients not to use their real name. Using a nickname is a safer idea. By using a nickname, patients lessen the possibility of becoming targets of online predators.

Before signing up for support groups, it is important for patients to do some background research on the site. This will give them a clear idea of what the site is like and how relevant and helpful it is to them. Patients should only choose highly recommended and reputable forums and support groups.

Facebook pages, for example, are another way for patients to know more about their depression and how they can overcome it. These pages have campaigns, motivational stories and photos that are truly helpful for patients. Also, the comments made by those who also like the page include stories of personal struggles and achievements by other people. This makes the experience more inspiring and motivational for patients and patients’ families and friends.

The bottom line is, depression can be overcome by a myriad of ways, including social networking. Whether it’s online or personal interaction, the important thing for patients is to connect with people and to know that there are people who are there for them.

If you have been working as a nurse for a while now, you have probably had days when you ask yourself what else you want to do in your career.  If you are content with being a professional nurse, perhaps you can have more job satisfaction if you advance your career.

To help you decide what you really want to do in your profession, you need to set some professional nursing goals. How do you start about deciding on your goals then? Well, here are some tips.

1. Do a self-assessment.

What are you good at? What are your talents and strengths?  What specialization would you rather choose? If you took a paramedic to RN program, perhaps you might want to work as a trauma nurse. Connect the dots from your past so you can have an idea of how you have become as a professional. This will also lead you in realizing what you want to be in the future. Nursing can open a lot of opportunities, you just have to know which area or field you fit.

2. Be specific about what you want.

There is no point to creating career goals if they are not specific. By specifying what you really want to do, you can create a clear to-do list. Make a list of the steps you need to take to reach your dream.

If you want to get a master’s degree in nursing, make a list of the schools you are choosing from, their location and the pros and cons of each school.

3. Contact the right people.

If you are still unsure of your professional goals, perhaps you need to talk to someone with experience. If you have a mentor, talk to her or him. Share your thoughts and ask for advice on what the best thing to do is. Of course, in the end, it is still going to be your decision. Do not create goals that other people want to impose on you.

If you are planning to advance your career by taking further studies, talk to people you know who have done the same thing. They can enlighten you on your goals and can give you some recommendations as to which schools or programs are perfect for you.

・@Being able to look at your list of career goals is like taking a step closer of being what you will become in the future.