Medical Training

Have you heard about first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign Let’s Move to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation?  The Let’s Move website states, “…only a third of high school students get the recommended levels of physical activity.” According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention, “Aerobic activity should make up most of your child’s 60 or more minutes of physical activity each day. This can include either moderate-intensity aerobic activity, such as brisk walking, or vigorous-intensity activity, such as running [at least 3 times per week].”  One of the ways to make exercise a part of your life at any age is to sign up for the Active Lifestyle Program.

This program site is located at www.presidentschallenge.org and is a part of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN). The PCFSN’s mission is to engage, educate and empower all Americans across the lifespan to adopt a healthy lifestyle that includes both regular physical activity and good nutrition.  The Active Lifestyle Program can be a helpful tool for nurses, especially since the LVN / LPN already assists with setting realistic goals and encouraging fitness in their patient’s lifestyle plan.

Nursing students learn about the importance of movement at any age, including the curriculum taught in LPN programs.  Nursing schools, such as a LPN school addresses the concerns for physical movement with their patients to facilitate the body to heal and prevent further complications, such as blood clots and respiratory infections.  Check out www.letsmove.gov for more information about the importance of exercise and how to promote exercise toward a healthier life.

The “dummy” is not so dumb when it is a high-fidelity simulator equipped with computer simulations and can respond as if it were a real patient.  As technology advances, so do clinical opportunities for students at Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts VN Program.  High-fidelity simulators include life-like and life-size mannequins that can be programmed to be both interactive and responsive to the student nurse’s care.  Simulated clinical scenarios provide not only a safe setting to teach students in  LVN / LPN schools how to perform different nursing tasks, but, surprisingly, are stimulating much more than critical thinking skills. Leighsa Sahroff, EdD, RN, NPP is the Coordinator of Simulation at Hunter College School of Nursing, City University of New York.  During a presentation entitled High Fidelity Simulators and Holistic Nursing Communication: 21st Century Technology meets Holistic Nursing Concepts, Sahroff offered examples of the unexpected lessons that student nurses are gleaning from the high-fidelity simulation process.

Instead of student nurses witnessing their first death experience in the hospital, they are afforded the opportunity to process their emotions within the simulation lab.  At times, there is so much happening at a real clinical site that the student misses certain cues, especially communication cues that are vital in both preventative care and in developing the nurse/patient caring-relationship.  The advantage of learning from simulated scenarios in an LPN program is that they can be repeated, video-taped, and slowed down to foster processing and awareness.

The learning possibilities are vast, especially in areas that stimulate student emotions around labor/delivery, fetal demise, pediatric illness, heart attack, seizure, anaphylactic shock, and psychiatric illness. By allowing students the freedom to make mistakes within the four walls of their school, where the simulated patient can recover from anything by the flip of a switch,  students can learn how do deal with real-life situations and, at the same time, explore their own strengths and weaknesses without any harm to a real patient.n

Surely you have read ads from people wanting to find the best caretaker for their loved one, but have you ever seen an ad requesting a caretaker for a nurse?  During a recent bout of food poisoning I found myself asking, “Who would I call if I needed a caretaker?”  Fortunately my husband was there to assist me until he realized that maybe it was time to call 911.  In my delirium I pleaded to “tough it out” at home.  Looking back I realize that just because I have the title of a nurse doesn’t mean I can always take care of myself or make wise decisions about my illness.

As the students in a LVN and LPN school train to become a LPN or LVN the focus is on the care of others more than self.  The LVN or LPN job requires that they be prepared for the ultimate “code.” When it comes to you as the nurse, prospective or attending nursing student, who would you call to make decisions about your care?  To prepare in advance, you can fill out a type of Advanced Directive, known as a Living Will or Health Care Directive.  For ease you can fill one out online at legacywriter.com, and make sure you check the current laws about these directives in the state you live in.

These directives pertain more to whether you want artificial life support and some other treatments when you are unable to make those decisions.  I recommend making your own “care plan of action” in advance that lists the people, who you both trust and have medical knowledge when you can not get a hold of your own healthcare provider.  These people might just be in your own neighborhood to assist you before you are on your death-bed.  For myself, I was able to remember my former neighbor’s name, who used to have her own medical practice.  She was able to give us much needed advice, which contributed to my fast recovery and a happy ending.

While attending and celebrating the 30th American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) annual conference with 500 nurses, we also acknowledged both the International Year of the Nurse and the Centennial of Florence Nightingale’s death.  The setting for this momentous occasion was in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which offered views of both flat land to the east and rugged mountains to the west.  This approprié location enhanced the messages from our keynote speakers, Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN and Janet Quinn, PhD, RN, FAAN as they increased our awareness of how far nurses have come since Nightingale’s influence on nursing.

This year with the coming together of nurses, whether they are a LVN, LPN or RN, we have the support to emerge forward in our profession.  Quinn displayed the stages of the butterfly metamorphosis to depict the stages of our nursing profession.  For years nursing programs, including LVN and LPN programs facilitate the transformation from nursing student to nurse.  Today the veteran-nurses, as well as the new-graduate nurses, are encouraged to transform from the struggle of a 100-year chrysalis stage to unite as emerging butterflies.  Janet used the analogy of butterflies to symbolize nurses, and gardens to symbolize hospitals that support the nurse.

Quinn suggests that instead of buying or transporting more nurses to fill nursing positions in hospitals, build healing habitats within a hospital, similar to building a garden to attract and sustain the life of butterflies.  This is an exciting time to be a nurse, and especially for those entering RN, LVN, or LPN schools to become a part of this year’s AHNA conference theme, “Re-Visioning Environment: Creating a Habitat for Healing.”For more information about the AHNA conference refer to www.ahna.org

What would you do if you were asked to change the way you look at things, not just for a day, but for one whole month?  Would you do it? Today the Modesto faculty at Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts did just that – they took on the challenge to change. Their quest consists of wearing a purple bracelet made by Complaint Free World to remind them that when they gossip or are part of a triangulation, they are to move their bracelet from one wrist to the other.  This bracelet is much more than something colorful; hopefully this new attire will bring more awareness and allow time to change the way they want to look at things.  Awareness is the first step to change.  When we force ourselves to change, we usually meet resistance.

The thirty-day challenge allows for time to integrate this transition.  According to Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”  I challenge all faculty of LVN and LPN schools to become models to their LVN/LPN students.  LVN/LPN programs can be the foundation for creating this transformation.  Together we can become a positive contagion to the nursing profession by being a living example of respectful teamwork.

Nursing jobs relate to patient care in many ways, including care for people who are disabled, convalescent, sick or injured.LPN’s, like all nurses, work with patients who may be anxious, so an effective nurse usually has an empathetic , caring attitude.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an LPN needs to have an even temperament so that he or she can stay calm in stressful situations.  In addition, LPN’s must be observant and have strong communication and decision making skills.If you are considering a career in nursing, but you wish you could be working right now?  Training to be a licensed practical nurse is the closest you can get and still be a nurse.  Most LPN training programs take 1 to 2 years to complete.   After that, you take a national licensing exam and get a license in your state.  You are then ready to get a job as a real nurse.

LPN’s are the most hands on nurses.  They work closely with patients, implementing plans the doctors and registered nurses have made.  LPN’s carry out orders, but will also watch their patients closely, and write down and report everything about their patients condition.  It is the is the licensed practical nurse who bathes the patient, changes their surgical dressings, help thme to the bathroom, and help feed them if needed, as well as making sure oxygen therapy is working and intravenous lines are running.  They have been called “angels in confortable shoes.”