USAstudent

I missed my favorite uncle's funeral because my supervisor(at a former job-don't work at that h#** hole anymore) would not give me the day off- I came in right after finding out he died and to tell them I need the day off for a funeral (four days in advance), only to be told "no you don't, no you don't". They told me if I just came in they would let me leave early enough to go to the funeral-of course after I came in they said it wouldn't be possible to let me leave. I had a great record, I never called in and often worked overtime, but it didn't seen to matter. I still regret not calling in that day and going to his funeral. Luckily, I work at a much better hospital now. At least my supervisor pretends to give a crap....

I had a patient leave her third floor room with IV and chest tube in place (she clamped it off and unhooked it from pluravac first)-she was at the end of the hall and left during evening shift change. Police were called and found her drinking ETOH a couple blocks away with a homeless guy. She also had hx of iv drug use. Definitely call police. I've also accidentally discharged someone from ED with IV in place-had to call him at home and get him to come back up and have it removed. Luckily, his family and him were good natured about it. Charge nurse said I would have to call police if we hadn't been able to get in touch with him.

I've been told by several of my ER docs at work that it takes over 10ml of air to actually cause any problems. Not that it isn't good practice to remove as much as possible, I always do. I take a needle without a syringe on it and stick it in one of the ports below the air-the fluid and air will flow out of the port via needle, then just pull out the needle when the air is removed. It saves the time and discomfort of untaping and disconnecting the tubing to the hub.

I went to USA nursing school for undergraduate only, so sorry I don't have a lot of info on their graduate programs. I know a lot of it is online, obviously, you still have to do clinicals on site, but I think almost all of the classroom stuff is online, so it is very flexible. Several people I work with are in the NP program and they work full time and have families at home. Sorry, I don't know about admission process or requirments. The undergrad program was good, very rigourous (also a LONG waiting list to get in). Their NCLEX pass rate is somewhere around 97-99% (which they are very proud of). They told us in school that it was in the top 50 nursing schools in the country, although I have never verified that. I work in a local hospital and I feel that the new grads that come from USA tend to be more preparded and knowledgable than those from other Nu schools in the area (always exceptions of course). Good luck! Hope some of that was helpful. :nuke:

I went to USA nursing school for undergraduate only, so sorry I don't have a lot of info on their graduate programs. I know a lot of it is online, obviously, you still have to do clinicals on site, but I think almost all of the classroom stuff is online, so it is very flexible. Several people I work with are in the NP program and they work full time and have families at home. Sorry, I don't know about admission process or requirments. The undergrad program was good, very rigourous (also a LONG waiting list to get in). Their NCLEX pass rate is somewhere around 97-99% (which they are very proud of). They told us in school that it was in the top 50 nursing schools in the country, although I have never verified that. I work in a local hospital and I feel that the new grads that come from USA tend to be more preparded and knowledgable than those from other Nu schools in the area (always exceptions of course). Good luck! Hope some of that was helpful. :nuke:

I work at USA Medical Center and love it! I make apprx $22/hr (plus diff) for almost 2yrs experience. Cost of living is very affordable compared to most metro areas, although it has been increasing a lot lately (we have had several major companies move here in the past year). I live in the Midtown area (historic district) and we bought our house last year for approx $125k (approx. 1500 sq ft). You can buy bigger, newer houses in the west part of the city in the suburbs. I love the area, Mobile has been expanding and growing a lot within the past few years! Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

Welcome to Alabama! I work in Mobile AL as a RN at the local University hospital. Starting pay here for a new graduate is approx. $19-20/hr, I have 1.5 years ex. and make about $22/hr base (plus differentials). I personally love working at a teaching institution-University of South Alabama (USA) has two hospitals here in Mobile-the Medical Center (adults) and Womens and Childrens. There are also several private hospitals in Mobile-Mobile Infirmary, Springhill Medical Center and Providence Hospital. Pay varies slightly (I think Mobile Infirmary started at the most), but are all in the same ball park. But like I said, I'm biased-I love my job at USA medical center, its a great organization to work for, also we have great benifits (the best is we're in the teachers retirment system). The cost of living in Mobile is very reasonable. We bought our house in Midtown area for less than $125K (1500 sq ft). Let me know if you have any other questions-I've lived in the area for years and know it well. Good luck!

I've been a RN for slightly over a year now. My 1st job on a tele/cardiac floor I had 2weeks of classroom orientation and 5weeks of floor orientation. This was pretty set in stone for that hospital-nobody got extended even if they needed it because they were always short-staffed (and they just didn't care that much). I recently started a new job in June (moved 2hrs away, plus the 1st was just a bad work environment-staffing and management issues) in the ER at a level 1 trauma center. I had 2weeks of classroom orientation and about 5weeks with a preceptor, but I've seen that time period extended according to the person and what their learning needs are. I think someone recently spent as long as 8weeks with a preceptor. I felt that my orientation was adaquate at both hospitals, but I wasn't having any issues during my orientation period either (eg. able to handle patient load that was expected of me, etc). Different people need different things. I think sounds like yours needs some more time, but I think it depends on the hospital if they allow that. My current job is at a teaching/university hospital which also helped the process alot. 1st job was a private hospital-that might make a difference also. I would ask about getting her precepting time extended, it would do her a favor.

I live and work in Alabama. RN cannot push Diprivan, only titrate gtt....must be CRNA or MD.

I wear my wedding band and engagement ring (with smallish stone) to work everyday. I just don't feel right without them nor am I comfortable taking them off freqently. I've never had problems with torn gloves or scratching patient, although I'm sure it could happen. Also, I'm young and work in the emergency department (lots of people coming through) and it fends off many unwanted advances (from patients and med students/residents) :) I get more comments about my ring from the guys..."so I see your married already" which I would much prefer to "want to go out sometime?" As long as you're within the dress code, its just a matter of preference.

Yeah, nobody at work suggested that I did something incorrectly. My charge nurse was very supportive-(30 years of telemetry experience and she said it never would have crossed her mind when she was giving the two together-said she'd never seen it actually happen-only knew that levaquin could theoretically cause dsythrmias, but had only seen it once). Anyways, two doctors were aware she was on both and our pharmacy supposedly also has an interaction/side effect check on non-emergent drugs-but I was never notified. Pharm actually called me early that day to tell me that some combinantion of drugs she was on could slightly increase her INR, but no warning on the possible torsades de pointe..... Again, I know it is my responsibility and I wish I had been the one to catch it-but all the checks failed also. FYI- the lady completly recovered with no neurological defiects, she spent less than 24hrs in the unit.

Just an FYI about private student loans-My husband took out about $12000 of these when he was right out of high school and not thinking about having to pay them back. The interest rates on most of them were variable, which means now they're 8.5-9.2% (compared to 5% with his federally backed loans) and they cannot be consolidated with his federal loans. This means more payments. The monthly payment for his federal consolidated loans (about $27,000) is $130/month. The monthly payment for his private loans is $150/month (and will increase when intrest rates increase). And you're talking about taking out at least twice that amount....just be carefull. Nursing is a great field and you will always have a job, but we don't make that much money.

Thanks for all the info! I know that a nurse should know if the medications they are giving interact and what to look for. But realisticly, if a patient is on ten medications, at least a couple will probably have some interaction on the books. How do you know when it actually will? When you look up a drug it has twenty other drugs that interact with it. I was just wondering if this was something that commonly happens and I had just never heard of it or if I just happened to see "a rare but serious side effect" as they say in the commericals. As far as it being torsades, it did not look like it at the bedside on our crash cart monitor, it looked like regular v-tach, but when I went back and looked at the telemetry strips in MCL it was torsades. Thanks to everybody for the advice!

I work on a busy telemetry unit. I just graduated last July, so I've been working about 7 months now. Just wondering if anyone had heard of something similar to what happened to one of my patients the other day, I was shocked. I admited a 70 yo lady-direct admit for a-fib with rvr late in the afternoon (I work days). She is alert and oriented, walkie-talkie, she feels slight palpitations, but she's basicly fine. Her rate was in the 150's, she was put on a Cardizem gtt right about shift change and the MD continued home meds (synthroid, fosamax and premarin) and began betapace. Next AM, I have patient again. MD d/c's cardizem, increases betapace and starts levaquin (CXR looked like pneunoia). I give her both betapace and levaquin about 1200. She is completly fine, she converted to SR in the 70's and wants to go home. About 1530, pt has 20sec run of v-tach on monitor. I run in, she's feeling a little dizzy, but is up on BSC and talking to me. BP is only 85/40 (she'd been 100's systolic). I call cardiologist, he says he'll she her on evening rounds. 20min later, monitor tech yells she v-tach again, I run and she's pulseless and unresponsive. Call a code, etc. We get her back transfer to unit etc... she okay (she's actually back on our floor walking around). But the Cardiologist says the reason she coded is because she went into torsades because of the combination of Levaquin, Betapace and Cardizem. I've looked extensively into Levaquin since then and it is listed as an interaction. I guess my question is, should I have questioned that combination of meds? or is that such a rare occurance that it's overlooked. Has this happened to anybody else? Would you think twice about giving betapace and levaquin in conjunction?:uhoh21:

About 15 states participate in a licence compact agreement, where you can practice in any of those states as long as you have a license in one of them. However, I don't think CA is one of them. Look at https://www.ncsbn.org/158.htm I think that is an accurate list.