tara.danley

In about 40 years you'll have a bunch of Jennifers, Micheals, and Erins....

Got in to Umass RN in 2000 with 2.73....good god couldn't get near a nursing program with that today!!!! Remember not all 4.0 GPA's make good nurses....

Thank you all...I have some thinking to do. Funny thing is that my nursing school class of 2004 had drilled into us that we were expected to assume leadership roles as nurses. We are leaders...I need to decide if I want that accountability...and the possibility of failure as well. I have big city charge nurse experience and I understand that doesn't translate to leadership. (3 years in boston man, it aged me) Thanks a bunch...I keep you updated..

Hello all... I have 3 years nursing experience in acute care and just changed to nursing home. I've been there for 2 months and will just be off orientation this week. I was told last night that I am being considered for a nurse manager position on a sub acute floor. I'm told that I am qualified because I'm one of very few with a four year degree, the DON doesn't even have one. I'm intrigued at a challenge but have never managed before, and don't know the first thing about it. I dont' want to get in over my head...but I don't want to get bored passing meds. Long term care is its own animal with regs...I'm not naive in understanding that I could be overwhelmed. BUT its a new challenge and a new experience...advice please?

Thank you for that....I'm done with acute care after three years of that. I graduated in 2004. I quit my last job because a patient complained that I left a bedpan in the bathroom and that I didn't come back quick enough. That was after another patient, pissed that I couldn't give him bolus morphine on top of his PCA demand and continuous doses, lodged a complaint of unprofessional conduct. Needless to say I couldn't move fast enough or do enough no matter how hard I tried. You can only say your sorry so much before it eats away at you. I've moved to nursing home, on an Alzheimers unit, and can honestly say that I feel some sanity amidst the insanity that is the demented. I didn't want to leave nursing, I truly do love it. Life is what happens when you are making other plans!!! Please publish this so that other people can have an iota of what the day in the life of a nurse is....

Too bad....urbane scrubs have....ONLY ONE POCKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need at least two pockets to function

I was an aide for the last two years of nursing school. When I got to be RN orientee, I had the shock of my life. I think I spent an entire year in a state of panic. Now that I'm almost three years into nursing, when a patient yells at me for not bringing their pain med fast enough when I've been with a patient with POX of 58...I do sometimes wish I didn't have that responsibility. But then there are moments like when I advocated for my patient and patients family for CMO and morphine drip; The patient was in her late 80's with advanced cancer, the family was surrounding her bedside as she breathed noisily, and stirred in obvious pain and discomfort. The families pain at seeing her in pain also hurt me. The attending was nowhere, and the intern was too new to write orders for what the family had already agreed upon with the attending; After waiting for one hour for the attending and calling several times, the attending showed up, I told her the patient was in pain, distress and discomfort and reminded her of the family's request. She brushed me off to round with her intern. I followed her down the hall and reiterated that she please go see this patient now...respectfully and politely as I could. She walked in the room, and 3 minutes later walked out and verbally gave me the order for CMO and morphine. I walked directly to the overwhelmed fresh-out-of-med-school intern, and told her as firmly and politely as I could to write what I needed exactly as I stated...and she did. I apologized for making her day any harder and went and hung a drip for my patient. I spent the night before with this patient when she was alert and laughing with her family...I made the time to speak with her children and assure them that her care was the best I was able to give. I heard her stories and looked into her beautiful blue eyes as she told me what a bountiful life she had, and how wonderful it would be to be with her husband on the other side. When she started tachying away, I knew the next day would be different for her. I got a card a few weeks later thanking me for my care, and that is what makes me glad I'm not a CNA anymore.

:yeahthat: I'm not what you'd call a good student...but I don't doubt my own intelligence...I got into nursing school with a 2.73. That along with my writing skills, and a fabulous reference got me in...that was in 2000. I couldn't get into nursing school now with that. Gradepoint averages don't make the nurse!!! I'm a lazy studier but retain info ridiculously. There's so much that contributes to making you the competent and caring RN that you are! Life experience, socialization...blah blah blah.... Good topic!

I am a nurse, but I dream of simply being a wife and mother. Working on that actually...I'd love to be a stay at home mom...I've watched my best friends do it, and it is so rewarding to see what their children are accomplishing. Really my dream was to be a nurse, now that I am, I want to win the lottery, buy a simple house in my little seaside town, and live my life the best I can...well I am living life the best I can...but I digress... I WANT BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How sad is this truth? It is certainly not universally recognized...this is something that is not really talked about often...sometimes I think of my childhood as a dream, where the realities of life were blissfully ignorant to me. I can get that dream back when I play with my nieces...anyway... The loss of communities and connections to others is a huge force...it'd be interesting to know what changed in this country...but thats off topic.... To those who are struggling with addiction...keep up the fight...never surrender... To those who remind us to remember that it could be us, our family members...it's something that I do forget... 20 minutes until September 11....good god its been 5 years....

Thank you all so much....somehow I understand all of this deep down, but have doubts about how to keep my head...I'll keep this advice to heart and keep this site bookmarked at all times....:loveya:

The world will never be the same in so many ways...the war we are now fighting will never end...oh the human condition is a miserable thing to contemplate...

Hello all: I want to thank you all for your posts, they have educated me, entertained me, and helped me get through my first two years as a nurse....:thankya: This is my first post, and a question: How do I do this for the rest of my life? I'm 29 and understand that my generation probably wont have the social security net, so I'll be working until I'm 70. I love being a nurse but it is so exhausting! I really appreciate my days off, I really have come to appreciate my life and health and family. I understand what I bring to nursing, I also understand my flaws as a nurse. I think maybe I'm just at a point where I've changed a few things in my life so I'm questioning more. (Just moved back home to the country after working in a major city hospital, and am changing jobs) I'm going from a huge city hospital to a smaller one... Sorry its 0300, and I think maybe I just answered my own question...but advice is great as well.

you should go where you want to go if the job is offered with no regrets. regardless of your time away from the bedside, you are a hot commodity right now, a nurse who wants to return to nursing and the bedside as opposed to running away from nursing. there should be no lowball offers, there's a shortage of approx 100,000 nurses in this country. so if you take the first job but the second one that you really want comes through don't feel guilty. is salary an issue? would you not take the job you really want if it wasn't the pay you expected? are you taking the first job to get your feet wet again? good luck....

OMG the part about living in Montana is SOOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE!!!!