ddoosier

I have been present during a code when we were slamming a Liter of epi. It was the 1st time I saw this during a code and of course I asked the rationale. The recorder charted on the code sheet the dosage/bolus. Pt was middle age and family was there. We did get a rhythm, but not for long...he passed. BTW, pharmacist was there and made the bag. Rather than criticizing, use some of your critical thinking skills and ask WHY would this be done. There is a rational. :) We see many things in a level 1 facility.

There is a traveler in the MICU that is canceling her contract. It is a very hard place to work. Short staffing is chronic and most importantly, unsafe assignments. Remember that you are the protector of your patients and your license. I will never work there again. More importantly, I would NEVER allow a family member to be cared for there. Unsafe, unsafe.

I have an ADN and work at MD Anderson. They have an awesome tuition reimbursement and all RN's must have their BSN by a certain time frame after hiring. Many of my co workers and myself are enrolled in the UT RN-BSN program online and MD pays for tuition and books upfront. Our text book are even delivered to our dept. Also we must be certified in our field. High standard=Great Nurses=optimal patient care. Hope this helps. Really cool place to work. They have their choice of the "best of the best".

UCD hands down. I regret leaving there and moving to TX.

You must negotiate your salary with Hermann. It is well known that if you leave, they will hire you back at a higher wage.

BSN educationally speaking, is more advanced in quantitive thinking (research), management and a Public Health certificate (CA). Bedside, we receive the same training and exposure. I have not experienced any "hierarchy" as far as ADN vs BSN. We are given patients according to our skills and abilities. Quite frankly, it is mainly discussed on a new grad level. JMO and experience. :) That being said, I completely support the BSN. I will be obtaining mine.

I bought a home in the 290 Hwy 6 in Copper Lakes.

I am moving to Houston in a couple of weeks and will begin work at TMC. I intend to take the Park in Ride. I will be working the 7p-7am shift. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks

Thanks LabCat. I'm looking forward to starting my new position and moving back home close to family. I am very impressed with the CyFair school district and the school my daughter is attending is an exemplary one.

Ten dollars an hour cut in pay, No earthquakes here in Sac, much better enviroment for my daughter in TX and better schools there. I think I am more concerned about my work enviroment.

I have several positive comments to make about being unionized and for myself, it is worth the 40 bucks that I pay each month. But I am not about to cram CNA down into anyones throat. I just simply encourage those who are interested to visit the CNA website. We benefit greatly as members and I am a content member. I'm getting ready to move to TX from CA and it is going to be different. Starting with the ratios and cut in pay. But all is good. I can adapt and I am looking forward to my new position. Being around family is more important.:wink2:

What does Memorial pay a SICU RN with 3 yrs experience?

All of us feel that way ever so often. Do I feel bad? Sometimes. But we should take care of ourselves and ours before we can take care of others. Everyone in our profession can relate to "mental health days". Even management.

We do. I pay apprx 40.00/mth

UC Bargaining Alert # 7, 10-8-08 Sorry, guys for some reason it is not showing the full document. I'll try later. But please visit the website. I feel that the CNA represents us well and we have certainly benefited from their efforts on our behalf.

I currently live in CA and enjoy the benefits that the CNA as afforded us. We just received a new contract last fall and I received back pay, our retirement remains protected, the ratios are awesome and I make a decent wage. The CNA is contiuously bargaining on our part and here is an example. GO CNA. I really hope that Texas RN's pull together and unionize. The info that I received from someone that was at the conference, is that TX has strong and determined RN's and unionization is inevitable. Here is the current email that I have received from my union. Most of the time, we do not have a dedicated break RN in my unit and if we do, it is a float from an outside unit. I feel that the dedicated RN should be a member of our unit. The are many other bargaining points. This is just one of them. UC Bargaining Alert # 7, 10-8-08

Are you assigned the stable patients or are you able to care for the really sick ones that are on drips, ventilated, dialysis, on CCO and have central lines. Can you draw off the central lines? Are you ACLS certified and able to push emergency meds? Are you able to push narcotics, benzos ect.? Are you able to travel with your patient? Just curious. I'm just being honest, but the limitations that you mentioned above is reason enough not to work in the ICU. If your scope does not include any of what I mentioned, then even more so. Your experience probably surpasses many RN's that you work with but your scope of practice is limited. No disrespect to you and all of your years of practice. But I stand by my belief that a LPN should not work on the unit and for more reasons other than what is mentioned on this post.

Geez! After reading your initial post, I can tell you that you are over doing it....which is allowing your anxiety to have an effect on your overall success. Find a group of students that are as dedicated as you are. You are in the second semester, so this should have ocurred by now. In the first semester, we initiated a small study group and carpool together and quiz each other on the way to school. Everyone in our group had a different and valued prospective and we were very loyal to one another. If one passed; we all passed. We had special study times if someone was struggling. Our study group (four of us... becareful of too many people) was recognized by the faculty as being the most successful. We had similar grades ect. That was four years ago. All of us work at the same hospital, two of us in the ICU sister units; the other two on the floor. We still keep in touch and care about our successes. We were very loyal to one another and spent more time with one another than we did with our own families. THEY got me through nursing school and brought out the best in me. I care for them and their families deeply and I will never forget the sacrafices that we all made for one another.

Our med center does not hire LPN's. Kaiser is phasing them out and hopefully offering assistance to help them obtain their RN's. We need them!!

I started out as a new grad in the SICU. Listen to yourself and what you want to do. There are many RN's that feel that Med surg is the first place to go to earn your wings and pay your dues. I disagree completley. Although my first year was painful, as mentioned, critical care is a complete different approach. It really depends on the orientation. There is a different approach to time management and everything else such as hemodynamics and learning how to critical think and being able to see around the corner and having a plan of action. We have RN's that have come to our unit from the Med surg who have commented that they have felt like waitresses on the floor and it was nice to get back to pathophys and critical thinking. I'm sure not all floor nurses feel this way and it was not made out to be a negative comment. They all transitioned well, and felt the uncertainty in orientation that I felt as a new grad. The one advantage that you have, is that you are fresh and that was a huge advantage for me. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be an ICU trauma nurse. So why start somewhere else if I had the opportunity to begin my career in the ICU? Another thing, ask what the success rate for new grads are in the unit that you are considering. I believe that the success of new grads is a direct reflection of the unit itself. We have strong and very knowlegible preceptors. Our new grads are respected and protected. We don't expect from you to know everything, but it is expected that you know when something is wrong. Hope this gives you some insight.:)

You need the experience. Since you are unsure of your time frame; take the job.

I am relocating back to Houston and I recently accepted a position at Memorial Hermann in the Med Center. We are buying a home in the Copperfield area. Hwy 6 and 290. I will be working nocs. What is the easiest commute? Thanks!

Did you redraw?

I feel very sad that you endure this and this practice exists everywhere. I stay out of it. Every once in a great while we'll get a difficult person that I can't tolerate and I work opposite shifts. This has happenend twice during my career. Cliques exist. My first year, I was very aware and was never invited. Which was fine. Never made a big deal of it. It takes time to be accepted. Once I was, I did make a point to mention that this practice has a negative effect on morale. Especially new grads. As a result, everyone was invited to get togethers and book clubs ect. We have our differences but we accept that about one another. It is important to have a cohesive team and we all wanted that. Afterall, we spend more time with each other than we do our families. It really does start with one person making an example or making a friendly comment on a simple observance. If you are being gossiped about, pull the person aside and let them know that you don't appreciate it and it is hurtful. Or better yet, if you hear something negative about another co-worker that is disturbing to you, turn it around with a positive comment. I have done that several times. Stay neutral. It works for me.

I keep a positive attitude. Help out and accept assignments without ********. We have a very close group and we all realize that while crappy assignments exist, we just take our lumps. Afterall, if you don't except the assignment, then you are passing on a potential bad night to your co worker. We are all aware of this, and we look out for one another. I.E. if I had a crazy and difficult double, someone else on the team will take it on the next shift to give me a break. This practice goes along way to building a good morale. We have each others back. Deb