Natkat

Oh man, I just said something like that. Why can't nurse informatics bridge this gap more effectively? I envision the development of EHRs goes something like this. Developer: Okay, so let's sit down and develop an EHR for nurses. So tell me what you nurses need to do your job. Nurse: We need to chart our assessments and progress notes, look at test results and communicate with the doctor. Developer: *develops something* How's this? Nurse: No, not like that. Developer: Okay what doesn't work for you? How can we make it work better? Nurse: I have no idea. Just do whatever. Developer: Okay. I'll just come up with something.

I started my career in medical records when everything was paper based. I took my first computer class right about the time things were starting to go electronic, so I was able to live in both worlds comfortably for a long time. I am the rare person who does okay when the system goes down and we have to do paper charting. I was a big advocate for digitized medical records. I thought it was a great idea. What I didn't count on was how badly they could mangle the execution. EHRs are a disaster I could not have imagined.

This is a similar problem to what I deal with constantly. I will get dinged by an auditor that says something like "you didn't complete the blah blah blah on page blah blah blah". They will give me a printed copy of the document and it looks nothing like the data entry screen where I'm supposed to do this. More often than not it'll be on page 16 of the data entry screen and go to that little icon in the lower left hand corner. I have to unclick the check box to get to the menu, then click on the radio button to open the data entry screen. But I can't just hit enter to get in there. No. I have to put my mouse pointer in there even though the cursor is already there and I should be able to type it. Then I have to click final, then submit, then save. Honestly. Who designs this stuff? If it's informatics nurses, you are letting us down.

Sad to say, I've used some that are way worse. And that's really saying something because Meditech is horrible.

This is not news as it is something we have all experienced for a long time. Dealing with EHR platforms that are complicated and not user friendly has made our jobs more difficult. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/nurses-give-ehr-usability-f-new-study

My current position does not align with my goals at all. My boss is insane. I’m never getting out of there without some kind of black mark on my record. No one does. If I stay there I’ll get fired for something. They both seem to offer a lot of support, but I’ve experienced being lied to before. They say the job is one thing, and then when I get there it’s really something else. As for the research position, I have a better gut feeling about it. The whole atmosphere is better. People who work there tend to stay. The plan they laid out for me is better structured than anyplace I’ve been so far. In other word, they aren’t just saying what they will do. They laid out a plan of action for how they will do it.

Thank you, I agree Whatever kind of Cade management I learn wouldn’t carry over to another position if I try to get a job doing case management someplace else, I wouldn’t have the eight kind of experience to be able to do my job, and it would be so embarrassing to not know what I’m doing They do lots of different things, which is another thing that appeals to me. For example they do rheumatoid arthritis, COPD, migraines, pertussis, diabetes and ulcerative colitis.

Thank you for that insight. Protecting my professional reputation is something I hadn’t considered. As for my partner, she is usually spot on with things. She is rarely wrong, and you best believe it drives me crazy! So that’s why I asked. I usually trust her judgement, but in this case, my gut is saying otherwise. I thought I’d ask since it is possible I’m not thinking clearly. Makes me feel better to know that I am.

Thank you. I cant stay at my job one more day. My boss is a crazy person, a non-medical person who hates nurses. He likes bragging about “going after a nurse’s license” and lots of way more evil stuff. He is petty and vindictive. Anyone who goes over his head to complain gets fired. He is the most incompetent supervisor I’ve ever had, and is very skilled at blaming his mistakes on nurses and getting them fired. I spend 18 hours a day on my feet, then spend my day off on the couch because I’m tired and I have a long commute. There isn’t a single thing about my job that could get me to stay. I do like research but I’m hopeful that I can grow into the leadership position. It might be a nice change from being thrown into a situation and having to figure it out - which has been my experience with most jobs I’ve had so far. Heck, I’m just glad to have job where I can sit down! I supposed I could stay for a year or two and then move on if it’s not working for me. At this point though I’d work at a Walmart greeter if it would get me away from my evil boss.

I am in a horrible job that I am desperate to leave. I have been looking for a job with no luck for about six months. Suddenly I started getting calls for interviews. I was offered two jobs. One is to be case manager for a company that treats addiction with vitamins. I would be the only case manager, have no case management experience and have no idea how I would train for this job. The director said they will teach me as we go, but it still makes me uncomfortable that I don’t really have a preceptor or a mentor to go to as a resource . Plus, I don’t advocate this kind of care. I feel like they will be taking people’s money and not giving them treatment in return. Something feels very wrong about this. It feels unethical . The pay is better and I would have my own office . The second job is working for a private company doing research They wanted me to be a site manager I was honest and said I don’t believe I have the skills for that position, but I would be very happy to work as a research coordinator. They met me in the middle and said they would bring me in as a senior coordinator and eventually team leader As I learn and grow they would then groom me to be a site manager . I said that I am thrilled to have an opportunity to be given the guidance I need to be a manager. We were all happy that between us all we came up with a solution that works for both me and them. The pay is not as much as the other job, but I don’t mind taking a pay cut to take a job I would enjoy. The work space is crowded and noisy, but people stick to their work. They don’t create distractions by goofing off. It’s noisy because it’s busy. Meanwhile my partner said I would be crazy to take the research position and that I should go for the case management position. She said that I would have a better chance of being able to change jobs with case management experience versus research experience. I said that developing management skills is more to the point of why I want the research job. Also I know this is what I want to do I know in my gut that that’s the right choice. I love research and I don’t want to do anything else. I’ve done it before and loved it, but gave it up because the commute was too much. Getting a research job closer to home is a dream come true. We are both wondering if I’m not thinking about this clearly because I desperately want to quit my job. Is my desperation making it difficult to focus on what’s best? I don’t think so. I’m very clear about what I want to do, but my partner thinks I’m just desperate. Care to weigh in?

Came here to ask the chart abstract position. That sounds awesome

Believe me, I have searched my soul and wish I knew what is going on. I do not have an NP degree. My degree is in management and leadership. Wish I had gone the NP route, but hindsight is 20/20. Anyway, since I have no experience in any other specialty besides dialysis, no one will hire me to be a manager in anything else - which logically makes sense. It could be the area I live in. I have had others tell me that the market in my area is saturated with nurses and the competition is tough - I live in Houston. Actually I did work for a time as a research nurse at MD Anderson, but the commute was 4 hours a day - 2 hours one way - and was not sustainable. I gave it up after a year, and after I resigned, I think I slept practically around the clock for two weeks. I could have moved but housing inside the loop is a million plus for a mid century home in need of numerous upgrades. I actually would like to get into something that would be more like auditing or billing. I realize now I should have gotten a degree in healthcare administration, because that is what holds my interest more than anything. But again, hindsight is 20/20. I like working with data more than people, but I don't know how to turn that into a career. I googled myself to see if anything negative showed up, and it all looks wholesome enough. I scrubbed my Facebook page of photos and posts that might come across as negative. So who knows?

I am not sure what it is that is hard to understand, but let me try again. I'll try and trim some of what I wrote before. My first job after nursing school was in dialysis. About a year after graduation I began looking for other jobs and got nothing. 11 years later I am still in dialysis and still no one will hire me. In those years I have gotten a BSN and MSN and that has not helped at all. I still cannot get another job. I have applied everywhere - outpatient clinics, radiology, med-surg, doctors offices, infusion centers, nurse navigator, case management to name a few. No luck. If I get a response it's always the same - I don't have enough experience. I want to get out of dialysis and get some other experience, but since no one will hire me I can't get any other experience.

You described my exact experience. Dialysis was the only place hiring, so did that. And actually acute dialysis is a great place to land if you want to go back to school. You can study while you dialyze a patient (but the on-call will kill you). But wait. I got the fancy BSN and exactly nothing changed. I even got a fancier MSN and still nothing changed. I took all those off my resume and can’t even get a job in a doctor’s office. Why won’t my fancy BSN work that kind of magic?

A piece of advice I got early on in my career - by my supervisor at the time - was “make it look good on paper”.

You are not lying. I would get a job doing anything else if I could. I watch people do their jobs all the time and think “I could do this”. I fantasize about being a delivery driver or stocking shelves or some kind of factory work - ANYTHING that doesn’t involve dealing with people. I found allnurses.com in 2005 as I was getting ready to start nursing school. I, too, thought that people were just being a negative and that my experience was going to be different. Boy was I wrong! Not only did I go through all of the things they said, but they didn’t even come close to describing how bad it really is. Now some 14 years later I came back here for advice on why I can’t find a job, and found this discussion It’s a relief to find out that I am not the problem The problem is that nursing has gotten even worse than before. Sure Go ahead with your sunny attitude and positive thinking. Just understand that we were you once. We were sunny and positive and had stars in our eyes. But this job will squeeze all of the joy right outta you. So please, don’t accuse us of being negative and having a bad attitude until you’ve been a nurse as long as we have. If you’re not a nurse yet and you dream of being the change that this field needs, I wish you all the best and I mean that. Just get off your high horse and leave us to our discussion. If you find a way to get through this experience with your sanity and belief in humanity intact, then by all means come back and tell us how you did it We’d really like to know .

Even though my experience hasn’t been all that great, I still think you should do it. Just take the advice of what others are saying - don’t spend a lot of money on your education. Go to a community college. Don’t be lured in to an expensive school by false promises. That’s what this discussion. Is about. The thing is, if you don’t do it, you’ll always wonder if it might have worked out for you. Maybe you’ll have a better experience. Who knows? As someone said, people who are happy with their jobs don’t come here to talk about it. We are talking about it because we are unhappy.

I know this was a while ago but I want to comment about ageism. It’s true they cannot ask your age, it they can ask you what year you graduated high school. Also I am always asked to fill out a background check - which asks die my date of birth. I’m sure that has turned off anyone looking to hire someone.

Uh oh. Ad hominem alert.

Critical thinking. Civility. Professionalism. Blah blah blah. Been there. Bought the T-shirt and coffee mug. Drank the Kool-Aid. I thought this was a discussion about the empty promise of an education. I didn't realize there was some other objective. If the point is to validate the opinions of people who haven’t been through this experience, I must have stumbled into the wrong discussion.

Says the CNA EMT.

Says the CNA EMT.

I also worked my behind off and learned plenty. All for nothing. It even an interview. Applied to a job fair. They emailed me and told me to. It bother coming since I don’t qualify for anything.

Can confirm. Got my BSN and MSN at Western Governors and yes, it was affordable. I graduated in March 2018 and made my last loan payment his month. But guess what? Still can’t find a job.

Says the person who doesn’t have a job.