3rdcareerRN

3rdcareerRN

Mostly: Occup Health; ER; Informatics

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About 3rdcareerRN

3rdcareerRN specializes in Mostly: Occup Health; ER; Informatics.


Latest Activity

  1. Have interview Friday...

    Hurrah! Occ health can vary more than many specialties, depending on what the client needs -- anything from urgent care to OSHA-regulated medical surveillance to wellness programs to safety programs, or a mix of these and more. I really like it -- ...
  2. Time management?

    Try systems analysis, instead of educating: Determine the highest-value person or job role, whether it is by salary or impact on the rest of the clinic. Sometimes fixing reception/check-in -- the lowest paid position -- has the highest effect on the ...
  3. Adding more letters?

    I agree with prior post, that COHN is a must-have and in many positions, the spiro/fit-test/audio training and certificates are a must-have/must-get-upon-hiring. Coming from the ER, I looked at CEN before going into occ health. Iin an occ health jo...
  4. Utilization Review?

    " CCNs- certified cubicle nurses" -- that's great! I agree that doing the onsite chart reviews (such as for HEDIS QI/QA) is a good intro to seeing medical records and the patient encounter in a broader way.
  5. Blood draws

    A phlebotomist can successfully use a 23- or even 25-gauge needle. I myself often use a 23-gauge butterfly and have never had lab reject my specimens due to hemolysis. If there is evidence-based guidelines about hemolysis when using small-gauge nee...
  6. Which specialties have 3 pts/nurse or less?

    Occupational health. Most often 1:1 or sometimes 1:2, with time to actually do teaching and focused care. Although... there was that chemical exposure incident, when it was 1:45. One then learns the true meaning of "field triage". But just try to f...
  7. Wildest lab values you've ever seen?

    Ambulatory clinic patient w/ triglycerides of >2500. Blood looked like thick milk.
  8. New grad occupational health help

    A key problem I see with a new grad choosing occ health is the lack of preceptorship for learning those common hands-on skills that are needed in all clinical nursing positions. Whatever you learned in school, it is not enough to do it as the sole n...
  9. Nursing the old fashioned way

    Gosh, I worked in 2006 at a Midwestern US hospital where we used all these: - Gerichair with locking tray - Posey vests - Gomco suction - Kardexes (in addition to Meditech online charting -and- paper charting...!) - Taping drips for timing because th...
  10. I called in today, no I mean ..I called Out! / huh??

    South Midwest: "Call in" / "pop" / "peaCAHn" (pecan) Fond memories of my grandfather asking "Y'all want a sodee pop?"
  11. Truth behind lifting patients

    Let me introduce a little bit of science into the discussion, by quoting a research representative: "...The risk of musculoskeletal disorders resulting from patient handling results from the high internal forces created in the spine when a person lif...
  12. Eye splash

    They will not mind...in fact, they are required to provide them to affected employees free of charge by Federal regulation! (OSHA Standard: http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=standards&p_id=10051 Personal Protective Eq...
  13. Coding visitors?

    Kudos for thinking! What I like to see nurses here and at work do is recognize what might happen, because then they can plan a better response than whatever their immediate reaction would be. Spending an hour looking at the policy manual exposes ...
  14. Happier With Your Second Career?

    I have very similar responses to this other poster, except #8 (I have much worse benefits/security as a nurse, a worse work schedule, less than half the pay as my prior two careers, but am usually satisfied or even happy daily now.)
  15. Do RN's need special training to read PPD tests?

    Whether RNs need special training appears to be an entity-specific or geography-specific policy. However, the Centers for Disease Control offers free training here: http://www.cdcnpin.org/scripts/tb/kit.asp In that training, the CDC states "There ar...