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CommunityRNBSN

CommunityRNBSN BSN, RN

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CommunityRNBSN's Latest Activity

  1. CommunityRNBSN
    I attended an accelerated one-year program. Obviously we spent time before starting getting our prerequisites, which were the Microbiology, genetics, Chemistry, etc. But the thing I remember clearly is that early on, our professor said “When you graduate from here, will you be prepared to walk in and take an assignment of four or five med-surge patients? NO. We are only teaching you the basics. You will need a lot of teaching once you get a job; that is why many hospitals have residency programs.” Which makes sense of course— it’s a one year program, there’s a practical limit to what they could teach us in that amount of time. But it was sort of striking to realize that this is the system that is being envisioned these days: Nursing school is for some overarching basic concepts, and for a license, but not really to prepare you for practice. And it does create gaps. For example, many of us do not enter residencies! I went straight into FQHC work. I like to study and I’m a self-motivated person, so I actually feel like I’ve become pretty competent in my niche. But it still doesn’t seem like a great system.
  2. CommunityRNBSN

    Not digging outpatient

    CommunityRNBSN replied to novemberpromise's topic in General Nursing

    Just my two cents because I know that not everyone will be happy in outpatient. But— if you want to use your brain, there are a million things to learn in outpatient. If you are lazy, you can definitely sit in a chair and just do what is absolutely required. At my job, we only have one lazy nurse, but yes, she’s losing whatever skills she may have had in the past. Because she just waits until someone says “go give a flu shot”, and then she does it. I and the other nurses really like to know what is going on with our patients. I am a valuable and trusted nurse because I take the initiative to say “Dr So and so, when this patient came in for his nursing visit, he mentioned to me that he had XYZ symptom. It made me wonder if he could have ABC. Do you want to go look at him?” The doctors are so busy that they fly through the visits and miss a million things. I, OTOH, have quite a lot of time (some days at least) to talk to patients, examine them, and put pieces together. I definitely couldn’t run a ventilator, and you wouldn’t want me trying to start an IV on your grandmother, but I know a LOT about the million oral meds for T2DM, and about the local resources for outpatient addiction treatment.
  3. CommunityRNBSN
    Quit and get a different nursing job. You are miserable and this focus on “getting a year in” is insane when you are barely functioning. I understand it is hard to think clearly when you’re trying to survive but listen to yourself! Go work in a doctor’s office, a clinic, even at an insurance company. There are non-hospital jobs available (I have one). You are so focused on getting hospital experience, why? So that after your year, you can get a different hospital job?
  4. CommunityRNBSN

    Frazzled New Nurse Stuck on Rotating Shifts

    CommunityRNBSN replied to JustAnotherNewGrad24's topic in General Nursing

    I wouldn’t be TOO worried about quitting before a year. Although you said you were desperate for a job to begin with, so your mileage may vary. I attended an ABSN program graduating in December 2018. I haven’t kept up with very many of my classmates, but I know of 3 who took hospital jobs and then quit pretty quickly. All of them were able to find other work (they found other jobs before they quit the hospital jobs), and did not feel it was too much of a “black mark” to jump ship so early. Quitting two jobs in quick succession would be more of a red flag to employers. But I think “I have loved my current role but I’ve also just realized that I can not work nights” would be considered very valid in an interview. At least, I know it would at my work, which is an FQHC (and thus, only open until 8pm so they never need night staff).
  5. CommunityRNBSN

    What is your minimum base pay on Covid-19 unit???

    CommunityRNBSN replied to NewRN'16's topic in Disasters

    I work Covid testing at my FQHC. Swabbing noses outside. We did not get “hazard pay” or anything like that. However, your wage is super low for an RN. I don’t think we are necessarily entitled to hazard pay (because at this point, everyone is exposed due to community spread, including dental hygienists and CVS employees and optometrists and McDonalds workers). But you just need a raise overall, aside from Covid.
  6. CommunityRNBSN

    Study: Immunity To Coronavirus May Fade Away Within Weeks

    CommunityRNBSN replied to NurseBlaq's topic in Disasters

    We have had many patients at our FQHC test positive long after they’re well. Some had a series of tests like this: positive, positive, negative, positive. Did they get reinfected? Is the virus just staying in their system for a long time, and they had one false negative? I don’t know. Notable though is the fact that no one has gotten SICK again. Not from my anecdotal experience nor, as far as I am aware, in any reliable data. The test is picking up viral particles, but are these people infectious? That’s a different question. The studies I’ve seen from Korea suggest they are not, but then who knows at this point.
  7. CommunityRNBSN
    This story has essentially been revealed as an urban legend. It was the NyTimes who first reported it, and check back to see their most recent updates. “Can’t actually confirm this” “nobody at the hospital says this happened” “unsure where this info came from.” Undoubtedly people are behaving foolishly in this pandemic, and undoubtedly there have been victims who formerly thought it was a hoax. But for the Times to publish this story the way they published it this week shows a drastic lack of journalistic integrity. https://www.wired.com/story/the-latest-covid-party-story-gets-a-twist/
  8. CommunityRNBSN

    SNF Residents Dying of Broken Hearts Due to Visitation Restrictions?

    CommunityRNBSN replied to tnbutterfly - Mary's topic in Disasters

    I live in New England. I don't have contact with any SNFs but I live across the street from one. They’ve started having outdoor visits, which is nice... in Summer. Winters in Connecticut are brutal and very long. Are these elderly people to stay jailed from September to next April? I have no solution but this seems absolutely inhumane. Especially when people who have offered solutions for their own families (the commenter who offered to quarantine and move in to the facility) are turned down.
  9. CommunityRNBSN

    Paid minimum wage for quitting

    CommunityRNBSN replied to Saraliz's topic in General Nursing

    Drop the money discussion. It really sucks and it isn’t fair, but sometimes that is how life is. Do NOT drop the “missing narcotics” thing. Go there in person, tomorrow, and ask to sit down with the manager or whomever it is that has info on that. Go over every paper until you are satisfied. Because otherwise you’re right— a future employer is going to call them for a reference and they’ll say “Well she quit rather suddenly and we noticed narcotics were missing at the same time.”
  10. CommunityRNBSN
    Also one more thing— in the best organizations I’ve worked for (I’ve never worked in a hospital)— the people at the very top will pitch in too. I’ve definitely seen the Director of Nursing or the CMO pushing a broom. In my opinion, that is what a strong leader does. If they see a problem, and they have a spare moment to handle it, they handle it. It is not “beneath me” to do any work that needs to be done. There are times when there is a dirty floor and I am busy, so I have to ask a member of cleaning staff to handle it, of course. But if I have a second, I will pitch in and do whatever.
  11. CommunityRNBSN

    Covid is Airborne- Surprised? Nope....

    CommunityRNBSN replied to MeganMN's topic in Disasters

    I do not know how a hospital administrator is supposed to address this news— it seems like game over from a management perspective. Nobody has enough supplies and isolation rooms for a virus that is officially airborne and may also be asymptomatic. For example, my work is an FQHC. We are a huge building; we have two negative pressure exam rooms. How are they going to handle the enormous flood of lawsuits from staff and patients who say they weren’t adequately protected from this airborne disease? Every incoming patient identifies himself as having been “possibly exposed to Covid” because, (as the prior commentor posted) with high levels of community spread, everyone has been exposed and everyone is suspected of having it. Where exactly are we supposed to put people who are “under investigation” for Covid, when that is half the people who walk in the door?
  12. CommunityRNBSN
    Since they said “it may only be possible to work part-time”, could you at least do that? If you worked part time for several years while in school, you could have some real experience by the time you graduated.
  13. CommunityRNBSN

    Shift Work Disorder is Eating My Brain

    CommunityRNBSN replied to A.M. Wolf's topic in General Nursing

    I can’t believe that rotating shifts is a thing. When I first graduated, I wanted to work in our city’s psychiatric hospital. I applied, and they called me to set up an interview. She said it was for a rotating days/nights schedule. I honestly didn’t think I could do that, physically (and I’m a healthy 30-something) so I declined the interview. I know some people are more resilient than me, but it’s just so unnatural to mess with your sleep like that.
  14. CommunityRNBSN

    Doctor Denies Giving Lortab Order, Nurse Facing Discipline

    CommunityRNBSN replied to Nurse Beth's topic in Nurse Beth

    I work in an FQHC and we refill 30 days worth of medications all the time. Non-controlled substances, and only those for chronic medical conditions. The nurses have repeatedly asked for a written policy on this— one of the nurses wrote one and hand carried it to our compliance department— but are told things like “We only review policies once every calendar year” and “We will look at it and get back to you.” We are a small staff, and none of the nurses, including me, has the time to make this a huge battle. The providers are under the impression that this protocol is written down somewhere. They say things like “Go ahead and refill that, per protocol.” But it isn’t written anywhere. What should we do about this?
  15. CommunityRNBSN
    Mine have Coronaviruses. I love my nail tech— she indulges my crazy ideas.
  16. CommunityRNBSN
    I live in a state that probably you’d categorize as “dystopian nightmare”. Connecticut. Can I tell you my view from here on the ground? It is business as usual here, except that everyone is masked and standing a few feet apart. Perhaps you’ve been imagining North Korea, but I regret to inform you that you’d be quite underwhelmed if you visited here. Ninety-five percent of businesses are open today (that’s an actual statistic from WFSB, not my estimate). I got my nails done yesterday (Phase 2 reopening) and my massage is scheduled for tomorrow. But— BUT— our hospitalizations have dropped to very near zero. And therefore my son will be going to his recently re-opened day camp, and then in August, sleepaway camp in Maine. Because the “dystopian” methods (such as wearing a mask at the salon— what horrors!) have worked.
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