AnneS

I just wish I could start an IV with confidence. Lately, I haven't been able to stick anything. I am a fairly new nurse and always try, but I am thinking I will never get it.

I got my first RN job at 50 and work on a busy med surg floor. I love it and I would say I am in better shape then 50% of the nurses here already (knock on wood). Take care of yourself, stay strong with exercise and eating right. From day 1 I felt welcomed and I always felt I could keep up. Sure I am tired at the end of a 12 hour shift, but so is everyone else. You can do it.

I would suggest volunteering at your local hospitals. This will put your face out there and hopefully get you in contact with the people that make the decisions or can give you recommendations. Good luck.

Changed careers after 20+ years as a CPA. I absolutely love being an RN. I loved being a CPA too, but after so many years I think everyone gets a bit bored. Anyways, I had always wanted to be a nurse, so went back to school part time at the community college where I got my ADN. I do not regret it for a second. Sure, nursing is hard work, but so are lots of other jobs that I have had, but no other job I have had has been so rewarding.

We loop and do not cap saline locks. When we loop, we swab the port with alcohol and connect, and when we connect to the patient, we swab the patients iv port with alcohol and connect. My hospital doesn't even carry these red caps, although that sounds like a good idea. It would be interesting to see a study on this as apparently its not an issue at all where I work.

I'm a fairly new RN and I have found that its helpful for me to make a task sidebar on my brain for each patient. For example, i need to assess, i need to make a care plan, document education...etc.. Through out my shift i will try and knock off one of the charting tasks. I don't try and do it all at once, because I find there is too much other stuff going on, but my checking off one charting task every 30 min or hour or so, I get it all done. Also, if I am calling a doctor or performing another task that should be documented, I try and do it then and there and not wait until the end of my shift to reenact what happened.

I'm a CPA with a bachelors degree and an ADN RN. My advice is get your bachelors degree. If you want that to be in business administration, go for it. Not sure you can get one in accounting, I know mine was a minor in accounting, major in business administration. Accounting and nursing are very different fields....perhaps it would be best to settle on one for now. I found nursing school to be very challenging and time consuming, what with classroom, prep time and clinicals. Accounting is no walk in the park either, but I didn't find it too demanding, until I started studying for the CPA exam, which is about 100 times harder than the NCLEX. Whatever field you decide, I would strongly encourage you to get a bachelors degree.

Seems this has gotten off track. Its not about a nurse that becomes pregnant after being hired. Its about a woman that is already, what, in her 7th month of pregnancy and she is not sure if the person that hired her is aware she is pregnant? You guys gotta look at this from the other side. What if you were that manager that believed you had just hired a competent new grad who the hospital is going to spend a fair chunk of money on training, only to find out that the woman you thought would be able to put in the time is pregnant and will be leaving shortly on maternity leave? I'm sorry. I feel for the new grad that needs to get any job she can, any way she can. I was there too, not too long ago and I realize its a tough market. But you need to be honest about certain things. I think it speaks to the integrity of the person. I surely hope it works out for you, but you need to come clean about your pregnancy immediately. I don't think the hospital owes you the job just because they said you were hired. You still have a few hoops to jump thru and personally, I would feel that not mentioning your pregnancy was omitting a very important fact, that I, as hiring manager would have really wanted to know before I offered you a job. Its not an invasion of privacy. It directly affects your ability to perform your job in the coming year. You will be taking time off that you haven't accumulated. You will probably need additional training because of the lapse in training. Shame on you for hiding behind a coat, notebook and purse.

carolmaccas66 is a bit melodramatic and suffers from the 'grass is greener' disease. Any career you choose is what you make it, and although there seems to be a lot of RN's like carol with pisspoor attitudes and long held grudges, I believe you would find that in any field...its just that we all hang around this nursing forum. Having worked many years in corporate America, where I was lucky enough to sit at a desk all day and tap on a keyboard with my manicured nails and high heeled pumps, I can vouch, its not what you perceive Carol. Not sure what company your friends worked at that allowed them endless time to take lunches and frequent breaks while reading personal email! I suspect that company is either bankrupt or has decided it really didn't need 3 gabby women to do the job of one. Probably didn't pay what an RN makes. Bet they worked 5 days a week too. I love being an RN. Yes, its hard work, but my day flies by and I know I am helping people. I am extremely grateful I have this job, and at the risk of sounding overly sappy, I am so very glad I made the decision to trade the world of business for the world of medicine.

I read it somewhere here I believe, and its probably the best advice I have seen. In short it was, " Just keep showing up". I am 50, nursing is a second career and I too just started in July. A few weeks on in class lecture, then on the floor with my preceptor. I had and still do have some incredibly difficult days where I question my decision to become a nurse. I would badge out at the end of the day, and be consumed with disappointment in myself and doubt in my abilities. But, everyday, especially on the awful days, I learned something. I have been on my own now about 4 weeks. I do not hesitate to ask for help or run something by a more experienced nurse or my lead. I am no where the nurse I want to be, but I know that if I continue to 'just show up' I will eventually feel confident, relaxed and like an experienced nurse. So that is my advice to you as well. Yes, you have had a rather crappy orientation. I was in a group of about 40 new hires, some of us had great orientations, some of us did not. We all still became independent nurses at the end of the program, and so will you. Its extremely uncomfortable to be in the position we are in - a lot older than the average new grad nurse, but just as clueless. It took a lot of guts for us to go back to school and subject ourselves to starting all over and looking stupid. But we did, and I promise you, you will feel a lot better just getting off orientation. Its still difficult, but you will be your own nurse soon. Just keep showing up.

Congratulations! Sounds like a dream job too! Good luck.

I was in your shoes last June when I applied for a Versant program. Best of luck.

I am a CPA and an RN. My first career was accounting and I loved it, but after 20 or so years I decided I wanted to try something different that was more rewarding so I went into nursing. Yes, nursing is way more physical and a way less professional. Money wise...I dunno...I know some CPAs that make half a milion a year, but their lives are a mess, but starting out, you will be making less then a new grad RN. How little free time do you want? As a CPA you work a lot, esp during tax season. Also its a LOT harder to become a CPA. You read here about people freaking out over the NCLEX. It does not compare to the CPA exam. The CPA exam was about 100 times harder, no exaggeration. You will find many folk in accounting have gone into nursing.

I am currently at the end of a versant program. I applied after I graduated from nursing school. It was highly competitive. Once in, you are an employee of the hospital. You get paid a fair salary, you get benefits, you earn time off. You receive a combination of classroom instruction and floor nursing. For the first few weeks its mostly classroom orientation, but as the program progresses you are doing more and more floor nursing with your preceptor. The program lasts 18 weeks but can be extended a couple of weeks at the program director's discretion. It is not a trial. Once you get accepted into the Versant program, you are considered hired. The hospital invests an incredible amount of money in you and will try everything possible to make sure there is a positive outcome. My hospital hired 39 new grad versants in July, we will all succeed. The versant program follows a formula and although it may have variances depending on the hospital, the core education and expectations are pretty much equivalent across the nation. If you get a chance to be a part of this program, I highly encourage it. I have nothing but positive things to say about it and I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to be a part of this.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have heard another nurse tell me in training "you need to cover your ass, your license is at stake". What a load of crap. I need to do my job and I need to have someone back me up so mistakes aren't made, but I do not need to fear for my license every time I make a mistake. I don't know any other professional career where your license is on the line for everything like it is for nursing. Hell, I was (and still am) a CPA for over 25 years. NOT ONCE did anyone ever tell me my license was at stake if I made a mistake. Ever. Not when I was learning, not after I was supervising others. Never. Yet, in nursing, you walk on eggshells. Not only do I have to make sure everything I do is absolutely perfect, I have to make sure the doctor wrote the right order, the secretary put it in the computer right, the pharmacy got the dosage right and that the patient gets it when he's supposed to. I see now why so many quit this job. Why do nurses let others put such fear into their lives? What other professional career are you trained to 'fear for your license' if you make a mistake? Hogwash.