I am a pre nursing student....starting nursing school in fall of 08.....I have been thinking about several avenues I want to take in my career as a nurse. I was thinking about Home Health as one field.....the main reason is because of the hours worked (schedule)....I have 2 young children and it is impossible for me to work midnights right now....So I was kinda thinking that working at a hospital may be out of the questiond due to the midnight work schedule. I have worked as a CNA at rest home and I have went partially through surgical tech. school. So I know a little about what to expect in these settings. Does anyone have any suggestions on what avenues I can take for a day turn schedule....and.....what is your nurse speicalty? What is your hours that you work....Throw anything at me:wink2:

I work Monday through Friday 8ish to 5ish. I am on-call to take calls from patients 2 weeks a month, I get about 4 calls a week. I run an outpatient AIDS clinic and all my nurses are public health nurses. We do long-term nursing case management of patients and their families. It is great work, I have done it for 14 years (I started the clinic) and I have long relationships with patients. It is stressful, many patients are difficult and very complex. It is challenging to try to anticipate needs and prepare patients. We work with an Infectious Disease doc that does not tolerate fools so we try to provide the best information and assessment that we can. I love it. Have you considered ambulatory care medicine. That can be quite standard in work week. Good luck in your career.

I work Monday through Friday 8ish to 5ish. I am on-call to take calls from patients 2 weeks a month, I get about 4 calls a week. I run an outpatient AIDS clinic and all my nurses are public health nurses. We do long-term nursing case management of patients and their families. It is great work, I have done it for 14 years (I started the clinic) and I have long relationships with patients. It is stressful, many patients are difficult and very complex. It is challenging to try to anticipate needs and prepare patients. We work with an Infectious Disease doc that does not tolerate fools so we try to provide the best information and assessment that we can. I love it. Have you considered ambulatory care medicine. That can be quite standard in work week. Good luck in your career.

Thanks for the comment.....I haven't considered ambulatory care...but I may do some research.....I just want a job where I can spend time with my family....I just quit a job making probably more money than what most nurses in my area make......this job required me to be at work 7 days per week....seriously.....I only recieved 4 days off per month....unless I had to work vactions for people...then I would go in 45 day stretches without a day off.....Pretty much mandatory overtime....I finally have the chance to go back to college, so here I am....:smilecoffeecup:

hey, paul...

a great resource on this website is all the different forums. i suggest that you look at the nicu, picu, emegency, dialysis, etc specialties on this board to see what the issues with each area seems to be. that's what i did when i wondered who did what and how.

i'm in the picu. new grad. i have one to two patients, usually of the neuro, respiratory or post-op variety. i do assessments every 2 hours, total care, gastric feedings, blood gas, and watch monitors. we document everything on several flowsheets, to let the intensivist and other nurses following know what is changing and when with our patients. my kids range from 1 week to 18-20 years old. some are abuse, some have been in traumatic accidents, and some needed specific surgeries (i.e. crani, brain tumor resection or what have you). we titrate drugs. figure out dosages (mcg/kg/hour type calculations), we have a good team dynamic and other nurses are willing to help with your kid who's crumping, or your fresh post-op liver biopsy kid. we (the picu...not me yet) run all the codes at our hospital. we have pals, acls training and work with the intensivists to do the code blues. there are always resources at our disposal--an intensivist in ear shot if needed, nps, nutritionists, child-life specialists, respiratory techs. the picu is intense, but a lot of kids DO get better...that's one of the nice things about working with kids. i wouldn't want to be anywhere else.