Graduate Student seeking RN outside us to correspond with

SpelaD · Aug 29, 2009

hi! i've been working as an RN in Slovenia (Europe) for a year now, so i'd be happy to hear from you!

jlnoel · Aug 30, 2009

That would be great if you woul be interested in chatting! Since I am new to allnurses.com, is there any way that we can exchange email addresses to talk? What area of nursing do you work in? what was your application/orientation process like? How is the patient population that you work with? Do you work closely with doctors or residents? Now that I actually have someone interested, I am excited to hear about things! Hope to hear back soon!

SpelaD · Aug 30, 2009

you can give me your email...i should be going to bed. i work a morning shift tomorrow 7am - 3pm

I work at th Infectious disease clinic. Our patient population varies. we have 3 children wards and 3 adult ones. i work with adult patients. this time of the year many of them come because of different sorts of meningitis, young and older, people with sepsis, or just unexplained fever, HIV, hep C patients, many intravenous drug users, pneumonias (lots of them!), flu's... We monstly use antibiotics and lots and lots of iv fluids. we work pretty close with doctors, i think. we assist in different procedures such as inserting central venous catheter... we set I.v's, draw blood, prepare iv antibiotics... nursing asistants they bathe, measure temperature, insert feeding tubes, urine catheters to women, aspirate...

Im not a graduate yet, but i should be by the end of the year, but ive been working as an RN (student job) for a year.

What about you?

Silverdragon102, BSN · Aug 30, 2009

Just a reminder that you can not post email addresses on the main forums but to exchange them via the email or pm system which once you have 15 or more posts will be able to access

SpelaD · Aug 31, 2009

thank you

jlnoel · Aug 31, 2009

That sounds really interesting and totally different from what i do. I work at an all childrens hospital in chicago illinois in the pediatric oncology/hematology/bone marrow transplant unit. We are the first place pts go when they are diagnosed (we have patients as young as 25 days old up to about 19 years old), so we become close with the families and pts as we will be seeing them lots over the next few years for chemo, surgeries and possible bone marrow transplants. We do a lot of teaching because they will be going home with central lines, be immunocompromised and jsut reassuring families that it will be ok to try and maintain a somewhat normal lifestyle. We do have some happy endings, but the past few months we have had a lot of tough stories with sick kids not necessarily making it. We are a teaching hospital, so we have the attendings and 4 to 5 residents each month that get rotated to different units in the hospital. I have had to float to different units 2x since i started working there, and of course it was to the NICU and PICU, two areas where i have since decided i could never work at. I work a rotating schedule doing 6 weeks of 12 hour days and then 6 weeks of 12 hour nights. I am actually just getting ready for class, so i thought i would write you back. I think that after we correspond enough, we should get access to one anothers emails. Have a good day at work!

SpelaD · Aug 31, 2009

what about days off? do you get weekends off? or any of the week days? 6 weeks of night shift...thats tough

jlnoel · Aug 31, 2009

I work three 12 hour days a week and have to work every other weekend...with senority i might get every third weekend.. what about you...yeah i feel like a zombie when i work nights, and i make the switch this week....

what about you

SpelaD · Aug 31, 2009

i usually work 5 days a week 7am - 3pm. last week i worked 5 days 2pm-10pm, and saturday 7am-7pm. i work a 12 hour weekend (sept 5 and 6). graduate nurse also work 7am - 2pm the next day (so 32 hour shift) approximately 4 times a month, but this is about to change...oh yeah...tomorrow, when they'll be working 7am - 7am also about 4 times a month. we have nurses working night shifts only on friday, sat and sunday.

canadiangradschoolrn · Aug 31, 2009

Im also a PhD student in Canada. I work Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

jlnoel · Sep 8, 2009

Hello:

Where in Canada are you working? I am just starting my masters program for my FNP and I think it would be interesting to see who nurses in another country work in the same field as me. What type of setting do you work in (clinic, hospital, etc)? Do you do primary diagnosis and treatment or do you work in a place where children have mostly relapsed or are not responding to the traditional treatment? For the first year i worked in a hospital in new york where we had only the sickest of the sick and people came there from all over the world for treatment (dubai, chile, australia, russia, etc) and were on pretty much made up protocols. Its interesting and can be a really fulfilling field but also have been times where you come home just emotionally drained and just wnat to cry. What about you?