Kgpayne

Thanks for your reply! Been very happy with my new position!

I just accepted a job offer as an RN in an occupational health clinic (not employee health) - very excited to have the chance to specialize AND work during the day! (I have worked as a hospital nurse in both med-surg and a nursery for 2.5 years). I will be starting around the first week of December. I'm the type that likes to prepare ahead of time, if at all possible. However, most of the information/textbooks I see about occupational health nursing pertains to nurses working at companies. I don't think a lot of this information would apply to a hospital clinic (e.g., responding to emergencies, triage, OSHA recordkeeping, wellness programs, etc). From my interview, it sounds like they do a lot of DOT medical exams. The urinalysis tests are handled by technicians. So my questions for other clinical occ. health nurses: -What kind of procedures/tests/assessments do you do? -Any helpful courses/articles/books to help prepare for the job? -What skills should I brush up on/review? Any and all advice is appreciated!

I am relatively new to a special care nursery (6 mos). At times, we need to be the baby nurse in deliveries. Under NRP(and our hospital policy), babies that have good term, tone, and are breathing or crying stay with mother on abdomen for drying, stimulating, AGPAR and initial assessment. My problem is that I have a difficult time auscultating heart rate and assessing breathing when the baby is belly-to-belly with mother. Obviously, a crying baby is breathing - but what about the quiet ones? How do others deal with this? Put baby on its back or side while on mother? Any tips are appreciated!

Thanks for your response! Our post surgical unit pretty much combines all post-surgical patients, except for cardiac.

I am starting as a new grad RN nurse on the post-surgical unit. Can anyone recommend any good resources/books to review in preparation? I have my Med-Surge textbook, but it doesn't really address post-surgical care except in a very rudimentary way. By way of example, there is nothing in it that addresses post-surgical hip precautions or mobilization. I've seen some Peri-anaesthesia books, but since the patients go through PACU before they come to us, I'm not sure that would be helpful. Thanks in advance for any tips!!

Got an email today that I've been accepted into the Fall 2018 class :0 ! Seems like the boards are much quieter this year than in the past. Anyone else out there going to WSU-TC? Any nontraditional (in my case, older) students?