Dialysis RNs?

This is just a personal opinion, don't know if current dialysis nurses feel this way or not, but here goes....I worked in dialysis about 5 years (a while back). I started in an outpatient facility with a great training period. The hours were great, but I hated it. I toughed it out a year, then went to work in a hospital dialysis unit that did only acute care patients.

The outpatient facility was well staffed, good pay and benefits, safe environment, etc., BUT, I did not like the patients! They, of course are all suffering from chronic illnesses, sometimes multiple illnesses. Many were brittle diabetics, and of course all had chronic renal failure. Most, I found were terribly non compliant (not that I would be much better), which only made their situation worse. They were angry at the world, and took it out on the staff. I won't go much further than that, but that was the nutshell.

I did however, enjoy the acute care part. We were a small 5 bed unit with the ability to go to ICU, Peds or OR if we need to. We would dialyze patients having open heart surgery who had renal problems to clear the potassium they use to stop the heart for surgery. We would dialyze critical patients where you had to monitor every BP, lab result, etc very closely.

I got to see some of my old chronic patients get transplants, and they came by to see us. We of course would dialyze chronics when they were hospitalized for something, so we all knew each other well.

I would never go back to a chronic unit, but would consider an acute unit if I wanted a change.

For now, I am happy with ER.

I'm an LPN ( and as such have never worked in med-surg as our local hospitals don't hire LPNs in that area). I worked in Hemodialysis for 4 years, peritoneal dialysis for a year. Hemodialysis is very fast-paced; much of the weight I lost was through perspiration! Patients are very challenging--I did not like many of them either due to their noncompliance, anger at the whole world, distrust of any "new" dialysis tech or "new" nurse. It was an outpt clinic(chronic)setting in which the pts are there for a long time(unless they get a transplant or pass) so you build relationships with them. That's a GOOD thing as one RN used to say all the time.

The hours are long(12-hr days) but pass quickly due to the fast pace. Usually you work Mon-Wed-Fri or Tues-Thurs-Sat. I enjoyed it until management changed then moved on. I imagine that there is quite a need for RNs in that field---I know if I had the RN I would have obtained a few years of acute dialysis experience and then worked on a cruise ship---that would be fascinating!

My mother has been a dialysis nurse for over 15 years. She is an LPN. Anyway, dialysis is a very hard and demanding job. You are constantly on your feet and stay bent over a lot helping patients. You are required to lift/carry 50 plus pounds of jugs with bicarb, etc to the machines. Nurses for this field are in a HUGE demand because of the growing concern with diabetes and other major health issues. You will find no shortage. The pay is usually excellent, with great benefits and a 3 day work week(full-time). You are off on MOST holidays but vacations are not allowed around major holidays because a lot of patients are non compliant even more during holidays so sometimes you have more patients scheduled(this is what mom says). If you are looking into something "easier" than med-surg then I would say NO to dialysis. Mom says patients can be a pain in the butt however you do form good relationships with some patients since some come for years on end-either waiting for a kidney or they don't get one and die. Another aspect that is so demanding is that the dialysis centers don't want a "cold" chair. So if a patients particular treatment is for 3 hours management wants them up and out of there FAST so the next patient can get on. Some days it's assembly line type of work.

Mom likes it OK. She works for Davita and I think they are a HUGE company(not sure) but her pay and benefits are good and are BETTER than the hospitals in this area.

Hope this helps. Mom laughs because everyone thinks dialysis is easy. People say "The nurses are just sitting around waiting for the patient to get off." Dialysis patients usually receive lots of medications during/after dialysis and many get blood..so they are quite busy.

Do you (anyone) know what Davita pays in the socal (orange county) area? I'm interested in doing dialysis, but only if the salary is comparable to a hospital staff RN - I have bills to pay!

I'm a dialysis nurse for an acute service and I love it.

I worked in a chronic unit for a couple of years and I prefer working for the acute service. The patients are difficult but after a while you get a thick skin and learn to not let it bother you. Yes, many of them are noncompliant but I don't waste my breath. They know the deal.

Yes, many of them are angry but you learn to deal with that too. If I'm having a good day and have the time and energy, I can focus in on something that will get them talking. If I can get them to vent about what's going on in their lives, it makes them feel better to have a safe place to talk about what's going on in their lives. It doesn't always help, but I have noticed that most of the time they get it out of their system for a while before their anger builds up again.

Working in a clinic is fast paced but the good thing about that is the day goes by fast. Plus you don't work evenings and you have every Sunday off. Acutes is just the opposite. It's a very slow pace, you only have one patient and you can sit down most of the time. Our biggest concern is making sure we have enough to read to get us through the night. The down side is it seems we work around the clock all the time. Some days can stretch to 15 or 20 hours. You work nights, weekends and holidays. Depending on who you work for, you have to be on call quite a bit. Put this all together and it's kind of hard to have a personal life, but at least being at work is very pleasant and tolerable.

I would encourage you to give it a try. If you don't like it you can always go back to whatever you were doing before.

whats tyhe starting pay??

For the most part I agree with Natkat, but each unit is different, and each company is different. For instance, I work 7 days on/7 days off (actually Thur/Fri/Sat, Sun off unless on call, Mon/Tue/Wed). We carry call at night (one night every 3 weeks) and Sunday call once every 4 months. There is more downtime than chronic, that's for sure, but there's not an outrageous amount of it... with the high acuity of the patients there's a lot to monitor and something going on with someone every day to turn your schedule upside down. Just gotta be flexible.

As far as pay, all I can suggest is searching for listings. Some units are hard up for help (due to the long learning curve - at least 6 months to a comfort level) and the love-it-or-hate it aspect of the work. These units may offer sign-on bonuses and higher base pay, but for some units the pay may be less than a standard hospital job. In my location (East Texas), my pay is comparable to the hospital in which we work (it's a contract service), but our benefits are WAY better.

Sorry I can't give you more information than that.

Best advice: do some interviews, and maybe observe a bit in a unit or two... some folks just flat out HATE the work and no amount of money is enough. But for folks like me who really enjoy it, I would have been willing to accept less.

Good luck!

In my area, the pay for dialysis RNs is higher than hospital pay. I asked for (and got) 2$h more that what I was offered at the hospital. There are some places where you will find people saying that dialysis pays less. Maybe it just depends on the area, your experience, etc..

I'm just starting out, so my opinion is only of limited use, but so far I really like it. Yes, the patients can be difficult. But really only if you allow it to get to you. They can be demanding (telling you what they want the machine set at, how much to take off, where to stick, etc) but, the way I see it, it's their body, their life. Their lives are pretty restricted, and everybody tells them what to do, what to eat, etc. Yes, for many of them their own noncompliance led to their kidney failure, but that's water under the bridge. The nurses just document everything, advise the pts for or against certain things whenever they get the opportunity, and go with the flow. It's actually not about us, it's about making sure they have the opportunity to get adequate dialysis . If they want to be non compliant, drink gallons over the weekend, then complain bitterly when they cramp as their 6Kg are coming off, so be it.

I find the pace to be steady, but not chaotic and crazy like the hospital. It's not easier or harder, just different, which is just what I wanted!

It also helps that my boss is awesome, and my co-workers are the best!

It also helps that my boss is awesome, and my co-workers are the best!

Mine too. That's why I hang in there. Both bosses I've had since working in dialysis are fabulous and both teams I've worked for have been very supportive and fun to work with. I have worked so many toxic jobs in my life that I know I've struck gold with this. Yeah maybe I could find a better job with better pay, but having workplace harmony is so rare that I'd rather stick around and ride this out.

Hmmm... well I searched for jobs on the Davita website, but it shows that there are no openings in the SoCal area. I hope that's just an error as I hear they are hard up for nurses!

natcat! isn't it great working w/a good team? i feel so lucky. i just hope my bubble doesn't burst!

uscstu4lfe - try calling directly to clinics in the area. i work for fresenius, whom i know is hard up in certain places, but you wouldn't know that from doing a job search. it's very strange.