MsBruiser

I always got by with printing out out a copy and using that.

No direct experience in that hospital. I am more familiar with Phoenix Indian Hospital - which sucks. A lot. Challenging population (all that you mention above) with a horrible bureacracy layered into that milieu. Also, they are offering extensive re...

Your salary is a mere rounding error for one day's revenue. Just quit.

Just quit. They have nothing to come after you for other than a $50.00 drug test. Small fries.

I think you need a new job.

Oh. Wow. CV surgeons doing heart transplants do not make that where I work. Take that one with a grain of salt.

Well. I once programmed an IV pump wrong and dumped an entire bag of medicine into a patient in 10 minutes. In an ICU. Thank god it was 100 ml of insulin and not Levophed. The patient could have died. I felt so awful I wanted to kill myself. It happe...

You should be terrified as a new nurse doing home health. But that is water under the bridge - where you are is where you are. Some advice: 1) Use your common sense - always. If something doesn't look right - wound, med, patient symptom - it isn't. E...

I don't know what to make of this post. I have 8 years experience and make more than that as a nurse working an overtime shift.

I feel your pain. I flipped in and out of clinical and more business-type jobs for the health system where I work. In fact, I took a $20,000 pay cut going back to clinical work, though overtime has more than made up for that. Believe it or not, I wo...

Good question and good answer.

Cardiac device nurse here. I will give you a simple answer. Generally, anything less than 10 beats does not really get my attention. That is a very simple rule of thumb. The most important way to look at this is by looking at the patient's clinical h...

I am a cardiac device nurse. I took me until I was 44 to find my dream job. Better late then never, huh? EP is like learning a foreign language - very complex and abstract. I love knowing that I work with some of the best and brightest people in my f...

Beyond programmed ATP therapies, a skilled pacemaker RN or Electrophysiologist can do manual overdrive pacing. It is pretty nerve racking and I always carry a calculator in my pocket so I can do rapid VT cycle length calculations. There is always the...

I am a cardiac device RN. First, you have to work at a facility that has cardiac device nurses. These places are kind of few and far between. I live in the 6th biggest city in the US (metro area of 3.5 million people) and we are the only hospital wit...

The most challenging part of nursing school for a lot of folks is getting your personal life in order. Pick whichever program puts the least amount of stress on your family. I would seriously consider a more intense year rather than a lingering 2 yea...

At this point you should be doing foolish things like pushing meds in a clamped line. Good god! You are human...give it a chance and find another teacher if it does not work. Trust me - this is nothing new for a unit manager. You will learn. You will...

I would take some of this advice with a grain of salt. Thousands of PA(s) graduate without any inpatient / floor experience beyond maybe shadowing or volunteering. You do not need to work as a floor nurse to be an effective NP. That said, you will ha...

Yes. Yes. YES. YES. Best money I ever spent. I could hear all lung sounds clear as day in both inpatient and field (transport) environments. I can't go back to the old way. Worth every dime but BE VERY CAREFUL OR IT CAN WALK. I keep mine on my person...

I actually did something similar to what you did. Found myself working ambulatory and then taking a detour into administration. After 3.5 years, I was bored to tears. I managed to talk my way into a PRN job doing critical care transports (my backgrou...

Interesting older thread. Nursing school was like a goofy summer camp. The academics are pretty easy. You will be given a very intimidating reading list, and then learn within 15 minutes that you cannot read 10 chapters per night and possibly retain ...

First name, last name: "Susan Smith."

I came to nursing as a second career, and I notice something that many RN(s) don't - nurses have an unerring ability to make their lives difficult. Many times what they perceive as a "mandate" can be solved with a small checkbox - but they will creat...

Cut them every way and in every way. You cannot constantly heap more work on someone's plate without taking something away. "Managers" like yourself are the easiest to deal with. Make the charting nice and neat, the patients happy - and the corners w...

It is not academically difficult but very time consuming. Make sure you have a supportive partner and rock solid daycare plans. Reread previous sentence. No one will give you much sympathy if either home/childcare hits the rocks. Most people dropped ...