buttercup9

As a per diem RN with 10 years experience, in SF I can get somewhat close to 200K IF I work 36 hours a week. I would have to do a lot of OT and pick up shifts to cover that difference. However I work days, but I don't think the differentials would quite get me there either. You also need to consider what Federal tax bracket you will fall into (are you single/ married) and how will that affect your overall income.

you should be much more specific in your question. Put something of your actual question in the headline.

Have you spoken with admissions counselors regarding what you need to do to get in?

I don't think this is true. While those grades will be on a transcript forever, it does not necessarily reflect your current ability. I would ask some admission counselors about retaking some of the courses (ones especially relevant to nursing) to prove your ability to handle the coursework. Some schools take into account growth and maturity. They may see it as good sign of work ethic and dedication that you were willing to retake classes, do well in them and prove your worth. My original non nursing BS was not great, not terrible but certainly not exceptional. About 6 years after my original BS I went through an ASN program and my grades were substantially better at 28 years old than at 20. I then finished an online RN- BSN program with a 3.9. I was terrified that my original GPA of 2.9 overall (chemistry really did me in) and 3.3 for my major, would keep me out of grad school. It did not.

Ahhh, but she is a slayer, so mere mortal rules don't apply. What bothered me more about Faith being in a coma, was that she was in a coma in the 1st place... with all the slayer healing superpowers an all.

You don't need to apologize!!! I had (and sometimes still do) have a difficult time with boundaries. Maybe it is because both sides of my family avoid conflict at all costs (and often to their cost) and it is difficult conditioning to shake. However, I learned about personal space in healthcare before I was an RN. After college, I worked per diem as a counselor in a locked psych facility with kids and adults. I learned very quickly to adopt a very firm and inflexible no hug policy. This made it much easier when I became an RN (not psych!) to extend that policy. Its usually patients that want to hug me, but I simply say some variation of "I don't do hugs". You don't have to explain your boundaries to anyone. Ever.

Absolutely true

Not a school nurse, but if you are required to have clothing available, can you: 1. Get the same model shirt/ pants/ gloves in whatever sizes needed 2. Make sure it is the ugliest thing you can find. 3. As for undies... maybe get pullups instead--- that may be a motivator not to need new underwear. I work in the ED so I clearly have no soul.

They fired you for reporting a med error? Isn't that what admin keeps telling us they WANT us to do??? I thought that was the whole thing with trying ti minimize "systems errors"

Utility of scripts like AIDET

I got married about 1.5 years after becoming an RN. Changing my name was not a big deal (other than the tedious process of making sure every single document was changed). It had no bearing on any professional connections I made.

So, I recently had an NG, not for suction, but for outpatient manometry and then 24 hr pH testing. I knew it would be bad, terrible in fact. What I did not expect (and I am not being hyperbolic) was that I basically found the testing to be torture. I will spare the details, (while placing the 1st tube for manometry, she just hung out at my gag reflex so I could vomit 4 times) but honestly, placing the tube was so much worse than I expected. My NGT was much thinner and softer than the ones placed for suction so I cannot imagine how much worse that is. Also, once placed, I could barely turn my head, which was great because I had to drive 40 minutes home. Even hours after placement, it was awful. I had such a bad headache, throat ache and nose ache that I seriously considered pulling it out. I know we often place these with little to no anesthetic and after having this done I will never do that again (unless it is a code). Please ask your Doc's/NP's/PA's for something better to make this less painful!!!

1. being able to get a difficult IV 2. Patient / family member finally understanding the education that everyone has been trying to provide them with 3. Seeing a transplant patient come back (to visit) and not being able to recognize them because they look so good. 4. Combing someones hair who has bed bound and getting all the tangles out. 5. I love wound care (except when there are maggots-- not as a treatment, but when someone comes into the ED with 4 pairs of socks on to keep the flesh and maggots from falling out. I don't live that) 6. when people say thank you

ohmygod...... nightmare. I'd rather give an enema

I have cried a few times in my career, all but one have been in response to a death, the other was when an MD doing a paracentesis took off a significant amount of fluid, wrote a written order for albumin and the went off to do another procedure down the hall. Neither I, the unit pharmacist, charge RN and multiple other nurses nor the RN that assisted him with procedures could read it. When he found out the albumin hadn't been given (both the pharmacist and I left him a message to clarify the order) he called my phone. I answered while pushing a med (in the room next to where the para had been done and she had watched the pharmacist and I struggle with reading the order). He screamed so loud at me that the patient heard every word he said. He said that both the pharmacist and I must be idiots, questioned how we ever got through school and if we were even literate at all. It was a long time ago and I forget the rest. I know my eyes welled up, and then the patients indignation on my behalf made the tears come. I got out of the room and sat in the bathroom for a while. I was still a relatively new RN at the time and as this was so unexpected, I was unable to control my emotions. I didn't advertise it ( I was also ashamed and embarrassed) and stayed in the BR until I could collect myself. I do tend to be a crier, but not just to negative things. Sometimes it is just an overload of emotion and it just has to come out. I was just driving and listening to Beethoven's 9th symphony.... cried a bit while laughing at myself. I think of it like sneezing. However, I have never come across the type of crying that the OP and others are talking about.