jlambirt

I took a psych RN job at a hospital affiliated with an Ivy League school. Hourly pay is on the low end, but shift differentials and incentive pay bring it up to a agreeable level. The local VA only has openings for a psych home health program. You get 10-15 patients and deal with medical, psych, social work, prescriptions, transport, and insurance. Anyway, I emailed HR about being disqualified with an OTH. I got a generic answer, "the position is open to all U.S. Citizens." Thanks. I setup a job alert for inpatient positions. The pay was $67,000-112,000. Using the pay grade descriptions in the posting, I'd be in the middle which is great.

I did the same thing and paid for my own fingerprint background check. It shows my two charges from the military. I've never had anything show on an online search that employers perform. Since your fingerprint search came back clean, you're good. This isn't my opinion, it's fact. There's only a few databases that could've listed your charges and you've already checked them. Lawyers and the military call this the idiot test. If it's impossible to to verify your record, don't disclose it. People will try to appeal to your sense of ethics or morals, but everyone lies on these. Think about it...what's the benefit of getting charges dropped, expunged, or sealed if you plan on telling everyone about them?

There's also malingering. The teenagers disappear in the summer and the homeless go up in the winter. For a teenager, suicidal comments get them a few weeks out of school and freedom from any responsibilities. For the homeless, it's a free room with meals and safer than a shelter. Of course, there's noncompliance with treatment and substance abuse too.

I'm curious. Did anybody listen to the podcast, lol? Hearing your opinions was really the point of the thread.

Awesome post! We just had a pizza party last weekend, lol. I haven't heard the phrase "subject-matter expert" since I was in the Navy. I'm considered the expert as an overnight supervisor, but I don't have that much experience. In my environment, it's a mixture of personality, leadership, critical-thinking skills, and delegation. Anxiety and micromanaging is the downfall of our supervisors and makes it a high turnover position. Here's a common scenario that supervisors quickly get tired of handling: Me: "Tina, I need to mandate you for 8hrs on 5 South." Tina: (complains for 5min about our staffing shortages, questions if it's her turn to be mandated)"Why 5 South? I'm on 2 North, can I just stay here?" Me: "Fine, you're mandated so you get preference. I'll put you on 2 North." Tina: "Thanks. Sorry for venting. I know it's not your fault. I don't know how much more of this I can take." (she's been saying this for 12 years) 10min before shift change I get a phone call: Amber: "It's Amber. WHY WAS I MOVED OFF MY UNIT!" Me: "Tina was mandated so she decided to stay on 2 North." Amber: (crying)"This isn't fair. I always get moved. I'll just go home if I can't be on 2 North." Me: "You're scheduled to work. I expect you to be on 5 South at 0700." Amber: "I'm going to call my manager. This is bullsh*t." Me: "See you at 0700." The other issue is dealing with angry psych patients. Restraining a patient and calling the doctor for a sedative injection, and telling a patient they're on a 3 day mental health hold are daily occurrences. A lot of nurses can't handle those tasks so they call me to do it. You're right about the pay. A significant portion of my pay comes from night/weekend differentials and overtime. I work 80/hr in 2 weeks, but I split it up as 48 & 32. That way I get 8hr overtime while averaging 40hr/week.

For whatever reason, the military and VA seem to constantly put out contradictory policy statements. In my brief search I found this poster showing status definitions. It states, anything above "other than dishonorable discharge" qualifies you as a protected veteran. https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/posters/Infographics/files/ProtectedVet-2016-11x17_ENGESQA508c.pdf

We're in agreement on me not being a manager. That was a benefit and the entire point of the Podcast. Supervisor positions like mine DON'T have direct reports. Being hourly, not salary, was another benefit of the supervisor position. There's also the downside potential of all the work salaried managers should do off the clock.... they simply don't do it. They refuse to work for free and justify it as "knowing their value". I could make more money in upper management, but when would I get there? I'd have to take a $40,000 pay cut to be a manager. Stay there for 5-7 years for experience before making a move upward for incremental raises. Not to mention wearing a suit to work everyday.

Thanks for the advice. I have 2 years in psych and have been a supervisor for 1.5 of those years. I have 2 misdemeanors on my record from 2016. A close friend in management combined with a desperate HR department got me my current job. Like both of you said, letting a hospital see my performance for 13 weeks could have a big impact on keeping me full time. I'm concerned my record and need to relocate will disqualify me for a lot of positions. I'm moving to Connecticut for my wife to be closer to her family, and because the BON doesn't care about misdemeanors.

If I finish my contract and sign on as perm, does the hospital still pay a fee to the agency? Something like a noncompete clause?

Bullshit Jobs | Hidden Brain : NPR I listened to this podcast and it changed my outlook for my nursing career. Apparently, I'm in the sweet spot of lower management that's not accountable to anyone and makes more money than their superiors. I actually stopped halfway in my MSN in Leadership/Administration program after listening to this. Currently, I'm the overnight house supervisor at 130 bed hospital. Basically, I keep the place from burning down overnight, do a lot of staffing, and collect a ton of paperwork/checklist that will never be reviewed. No meetings, policy reviews, TJC inspections, reports, evaluating staff, hiring/firing staff, etc. I'm very autonomous and quickly learned my most important job is to avoid calling the DON/CEO during my shift. I'll hit $110,000 this year averaging 45hrs/week. Manager salary is $74,000 and my DON makes $95,000. I started my MSN program because moving up to DON felt like something I was supposed to do to advance in my career. Now I realize it's a ton of responsibility for less pay. I highly recommend listening to this podcast. It's a funny, but serious look at the managerial waste produced in our bureaucratic organization.

I'm moving from the west coast to either Hartford or New Haven, CT. I work in a psych hospital and management begs every travel nurse to come onboard as staff after their contract. I'm considering taking a travel job at Yale, kicking ass, and hoping to be offered a permanent position, extended contract, or a job at another local facility. My current hospital is my only experience in psych, but there seems to be a ton of turnover. Apparently, it's really difficult to staff acute psych units. Even more so when there's no security, nurses do restraints, excessive paper charting, and 9 patients per nurse. Assuming I'm a great psych nurse (I became the overnight supervisor in 6 months), are staff job offers pretty common?

I have spoken to a few lawyers and they've said there's a myth that a simple request will get your discharge upgraded. You need new evidence and a rationale for why your discharge status is incorrect. A lot guys take bad deals because they think it's easy to fix afterward. I've actually had more trouble with VA benefits. They denied my benefits by claiming my one incident in 4.5 years of service was "willful and persistent misconduct". Oh well.

Just some random numbers if this helps. I'm a psych RN in Fargo, ND. We had a travel nurse completing his PMHNP while working for us. As a new grad, they gave him $110,000 salary. About 4 months later, he moved to Washington state when a place out there offered $150,000 salary. Not sure about details beyond that.

I got an OTH discharge from the Navy after 4.5 years for possession of steroids and attempting to obstruct justice. 60 days in the brig was also part of the deal. That ended in September 2016. I've been a Psych RN on overnights since then and was quickly promoted to House Charge/Supervisor within 6 months. I'm moving to another state next summer and would love to apply at the VA. They have psych openings, but I'm wondering if the OTH excludes me from consideration. On the other hand, there's never a lot of competition for acute psych jobs. Anybody have any experience with this?

I don't plan on moving until July of 2019 so I haven't applied anywhere. I'm terrified I'll get an ethical warrior in HR that decides they need to report me to my current state BON and I'll lose everything. I'm currently in contact with a PA nursing lawyer. I asked for advice on telling the PA BON about my record (I already have a PA license), and he's implying they'll destroy me. I'm leaning toward just applying for work in CT, although they'll see my license is clean in my current state proving I haven't been honest with my current job/BON. Ugh.