Tell me why you love/hate it.........

Specialties Emergency

Published

Specializes in ICU/CCU/MICU/SICU/CTICU.

Hi everyone. I am asking this because I am at the point in my nursing career that if I dont have a change, I might leave nursing altogether. I have experience in ICU (adult, peds, and heart transplant), but the majority of my experience has been in home care. I am currently working as a supervisor, and have gotten to the point of burn out. The mon-fri is ok, but sometimes I feel that I am missing something in nursing. I miss the hands on, but dont particularly want to drive all over 3-4 counties for it. I miss the continuous learning that happens inside the hospital. I would like ER because it is a variety of things. I know that you have the people who use it for an all night clinic that could have gone to the MD or waited til the next day. But you also have traumas, cva's, mi's, broken bones etc. When I worked in heart transplant icu, a comment was made that home care nurses couldnt survive in the hospital, thats why they went to home care. I would always tell them, in home care you are it, no one to yell at for help for anything. Is that the general concensus?? Any suggestions, advice, or anything at this moment would be greatly appreciated.

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I have heard acute care nurses make the comment that home health nurses lack competency. That is ludicrous because HH nurses work independently. As for advice, I have none. It sounds like you would fit in on most hospital units. Consider nursing management too. Or education.(believe me, you really have to stay up on things if you are educating others). I would check out what jobs are posted for the hospitals in your area. How about clinical nursing in MD office? Lots of avenues. Good luck on whatever you decide.

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Specializes in LTC, office, home health.

I reached the burn out phase as an LPN working in LTC, didn't want to leave nursing so went back to school for RN (graduated last Friday!!!). I heard the same thing from acute care nurses about LTC nurses not being as competent as other areas of nursing. I approached the clinical rotations with an open mind, put my past experiences behind me and became a sponge in the clinicals. Every area I did clinicals in had something I loved about nursing to offer and things I hate also. Next week I start my new job as an acute care nurse, will be working with some of the same nurses that looked down on me in the past. I'm not going to let that bother me and going to be the best hospital nurse I can be!! Of course several of the ED nurses (my dream job) called me the day after graduation to tell me there is an opening coming up very soon in the ED (same hospital I will be working in) and they are talking to the ED manager to get her to pull my application and possible work in that department. The nurse manager is also aware from previous conversations we have had that I'm interested in that type of nursing.

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Any suggestions, advice, or anything at this moment would be greatly appreciated.

ER? Love it becasue it ISN'T the floor...

I suffer from "PADD" - Patient Attention Deficit Disorder - I can't spend more than a few minutes with a patient before I'm ready to deal with something else - that's why the ER is the best for me...caffeine is my "SOC" - Stimulant Of Choice - keeps me mellow enough to suffer through the complaining - "When's my bed going to be ready?" "Where is the doctooorr?" "Where's my luuunnncchhh" "Where's my dinnnerrrrrrr" "You forgot my medication that I haven't taken in 3 daaaayyyysss...I need it NOOWWWWW"

Don't get me wrong, I do truly care and wish the best for ALL patients, I just prefer to help them on their way to the floor as quickly as possible.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Welcome to the wonderfull world of ER nursing

eeeehhhaaawwwwww

ride em cowboy

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/MICU/SICU/CTICU.

I just need a serious change. I have been looking at websites for hospitals close to me for most of the day. Several have ER positions open. Alot of them have "great opportunity for new grads". Im not a new grad however. Some have some strange hours, one is 4p-2a. Which is actually kind of interesting. Others 7-3, 11-7, no 12 hr shifts though I noticed. I have updated my resume, however looking at it... really shows home care. Im just tired of home care. Need to spread my wings some. The one thing that I have going for me on there is the ICU exp. maybe a good thing, maybe not. I dunno. I told a friend of mine that Im ready to venture out of my comfort zone and utilize my skills that I learned, instead of how many times can you move a piece of paper around or how many times can you redo the schedules for the week. Am I out of my element?? Am I losing my mind??

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Specializes in Emergency Room/corrections.

why do I love the ER? I love it Because, as nurses, we can function fairly independantly. We dont need a doc to tell us what to do, we are trained and should respond before the doc gets to the bedside. If I want to put in a line, a foley, do an ekg, etc. I do it. If my patient goes into cardiac arrest I begin the resuscitation..... I remember working med surg when we had to get an order for oxygen... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I also love it because I feel like I can help people, often you can see the results immediately, sometimes you arent so lucky. I love the ER because I dont have to really deal that much with the families. When I worked CCU, it was pretty much 50/50. We treated the family as much as we treated the patient.

And even though we keep em for 6 hours, our patients GO SOMEWHERE!!!! (well usually) Its not like coming to work and finding that Mr Jones who is on his 4th week of hospitalization and uses his call bell every 15 minutes is your patient again!!

What do I hate about the ER? I hate the BS people who run around all weekend and then come in on sunday evening complaining about their "emergent" sore throat. Or those who find some bogus thing to come in for so they can call in sick the next day and go to the beach....

I hate seeing extremely ill children of extremely stupid parents, who should have been brought in 2 days ago before they became so dehydrated that they are semi responsive and we have to dig to get a line. And on the other hand I hate the stupid parents who drag their kids out of bed at 3:00am because they had a 105 degree temp!!! And when they get to the er they havent had tylenol. oh and by the way the temp is 100.5 not 105 :angryfire

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/MICU/SICU/CTICU.

I actually broke down and called the hospital that I used to work at. It just so happens, that they never actually ended my employment, they left me PRN, and the HR person and the unit manager both said that they would love to have me back full time. So it would be like a transfer, instead of a new hire. Thats kind of nice. AND the rate of pay is almost $4/hr more than what Im making now as a supervisor. (I took almost a $3/hr paycut when I left). Thats also nice. yeah the drive is longer, but hey. If Im miserable at what I do, then why do it? Hubby and I talked about it, and he said that if I could work less, have every other week off, and still make more money, then to go for it. So I guess Im lucky to have someone who supports me in what I want to do. Its 7/7 10hr shifts, but get paid for 80 hrs. The way I look at it, i work half the yr, get a vacation every other week, and will be making more than I am now. No brainer?????

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I start RN school in the fall, and I just have a strong feeling the ER is what I'll like. I'm not sure why, other than I have a law enforcement background, and thats hectic and fast paced as well. Plus I'll be dealing with a lot of the same type of people.

I like the comment about Patient attention deficit disorder.. I"m a CNA in an LTC facilty now. Normally I work the unit where no one can talk and every one is pretty un-alert, but when I do work a normal unit, and get a patient who wants to tell me all about his Dr. visit, I find myself in a big hurry to get out of his room as soon as possible LOL

Tim

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Specializes in ICU, CM, Geriatrics, Management.

Good luck, Cardio!

Sounds like things have worked out.

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