Need an AllNurses Nurse to Interview

Bug Out, BSN · Nov 14, 2009

How long did you go to school for? 2 year ADN program...actual amount of school is 4

Did you need a high school degree? Need one? No. A GED would have worked but I did have a HS diploma.

How many years of college? Repeat of question #1?

Do you need to take a test for licensure? All Nurses do...but to be honest I bought my license from a friend of a friend on the corner 35th and Greenfield.

What particular area of nursing is your focus? Saving lives. Work in MS Rehab.

Did that require additional certification? No.

What is your job title? What does that entail? Registered Nurse, Charge Nurse. Saving lives, paper work, supersiving monkeys, paper work.

How much did you make starting out? How much do you make now? $65k/year.

Do you find your work difficult? Fun? Rewarding? What makes your job difficult/fun/rewarding? It is very hard work but I have mastered the not peeing for a full shift technique, I call it the tuck and twist method. Fun? Sometimes...more interesting than fun. Rewarding? Sure, I go home knowing that I made a difference in someone's life. Very rewarding.

Paperwork, bureaucracy, stupidity, and the general dealing with the public make my job difficult. You do not get paid to nurse, your paid to deal with the BS.

See people recover is fun/interesting. Its like growing a garden, you see them grow from a weak state into a less weak state.

Though we are in a recession is it relatively difficult to find employment? Is there ample opportunity to advance into managerial positions? Yes, very few places are hiring new graduates. Most facilities prefer to higher from the ample supply of Nurses returning to the field due to financial hard times. You pretty much need a BSN or MSN to advance but a DON or Admin with an ADN is not unheard of.

How has the field of nursing changed since your first started? Not old enough to have seen the pre computer days...although I do hand write all my charts and hand pour my meds.

What do you think will be the most significant change in the nursing field over the next 10 years? Since everyone is going to be on Obamacare I would say the demand for RNs at first will dramatically increase, patient load increase, then the pay will dramatically decrease. I do not have bright hopes at this point with socialized medicine looming.

al7139, ASN, RN · Nov 19, 2009

Here are my answers (2 Cents):

I went to school (college) for 4 years.

I had a GED.

Again 4 years.

Of course you have to test for license...so does everyone!

I work in Cardiac Care (telemetry unit).

No additional certifications, but I am working on it to make myself more marketable.

I am a floor nurse at the bedside. My job is to do what I can during my shift to keep the patients stable and their families happy with the care recieved.

Starting pay: $19.60/hour+ $8.00/hour shift differential for evening shift ($27.60/hr). Now...21.40/hr +8.00 for diff (29.40/hr).

It's difficult when I have a heavy assignment, fun to joke with patients and coworkers and rewarding when I see the patient gets to go home and is compliant with aftercare.

I could not and don't want to advance to management (ADN), so who cares?

Hard (paper) charts when I first started to computer charting today.

In the next 10 years I predict a shift in scope of practice for nurses resulting in a significant shortage.