Latest Comments by Jackishi

Ah, thank you! What do house visits usually entail, or what have you seen in your experience? I've found I can never be too prepared for anything.

Whoops, double post

Hi! Haven't discussed what census is like with them just yet, we're still in the interview process (or should I say "should we send this candidate's profile over" process). I do know I'll be getting backup and rotating weekends and weeknights, though I'll be expected to work at least one weekend a month. What do the responsibilities usually entail? A lot of admissions and troubleshooting with patients?

Hi all! Had a question for people who are or have ever worked as an on-call hospice nurse.

I currently work at an LTAC, and I'm on the back end of a major burn-out - I enjoy working with my team there and I enjoy caring for our patients, but our workload tends to be through the roof. Recently, I was called by a company that was staffing for a hospice that just opened up near our area. The opportunity is pretty lucrative - besides a hefty benefits package and mileage compensation (plus a company car after a transitionary period), they're offering to pay nearly triple of what I currently make as an annual salary, and even folks I know are telling me it's something I should seriously consider. What concerns me, though, is both my level of experience and how badly I've been burning out in the field.

I've only been a nurse for about a year and a half, and I've only worked at my current facility for about 9 months. I have had experience with hospice patients, their families, and managing the death of a patient, and honestly those cases were some of the more rewarding ones I can remember, and the facility did say they were willing to extensively train me.

On my burnout however, even 12 hour shifts at my work have taken a toll on me (I recently went to the emergency room for a stress-related issue from work), and I worry how being an on-call nurse would affect me. I'd be expected to be on call 24 hours through the weekend, and then during weekdays from 5pm to 8am and work 7 days on, 7 days off - that's definitely a big lifestyle change, and I worry if I'll burn out worse even more.


To be quite fair, I've been losing a lot of the fulfillment I had for being an RN at this LTAC, but I wanted to stay for a full year so it would be a bit easier to find a better career opportunity. There was an opening in an Orthopedics department at a local hospital, but it doesn't pay nearly as much as this hospice opportunity. Personally my real passion has always been Nursery and pediatrics, but jobs are hard to find at the moment as well. Not to mention a great chunk of the reason I'm in nursing is to help support my family at the moment - it's not a great reason, I know, especially since you should work with something you enjoy, but it keeps me focused on what needs to be done and I do derive pleasure from my work where I can.

All in all in a nutshell, for you nurses who've worked as on-call, did you find your experience worth it? Do you think a fledgling RN like myself could handle the obligation, especially if the benefits it provides are lucrative enough? Any insights would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

Hey all, how's it going?

So I've surfed around these forums but never posted until now. The information I've gleaned from these forums helped me graduate and pass the NCLEX the first time, which is awesome. By a big stroke of luck and a lot of patience, I was accepted into the graduate nurse intern program at the NICU department at my local children's hospital, and I'm both excited and terrified at the prospect, because it's always been my dream job in nursing school and I definitely want to be ahead of the game when I start.

Now from what I recall, there's going to be a didactic portion for the first few weeks of the year, but I want to know what there is I can do to help prepare and study for this part? I'm actually a US-born foreign grad, so my academic knowledge was always a little hazy and I definitely don't want this to hinder me now. For you NICU nurses, what textbooks helped you out, and what other ways of studying did you find that helped prepare you for the NICU?