Ausculapius

In terms of money and lifestyle, I'd say stick with IT. I worked IT for a few years prior to becoming a nurse. I still keep in touch with a few people I knew through my interest in computers and IT stuff. Honestly, there are days where I wish I had stuck with IT. Unless you work help desk, or something to that effect, the opportunity to move up the ladder I feel is much greater in IT. Being a male, in a male dominated field, you generally have not run into problems. In nursing, you will have to prove yourself as a *male* in the profession, and this can and most likely will cause some problems. Ultimately, I chose nursing because I always felt that something was missing in IT, and ultimately the ability to help people recover in some fashion is valuable and noble.

Hmm... What can I say? Are you aware this facility is scheduled to close in the next few years? I can only say if you have other viable options I would avoid this one.

Yea, im a new grad RN 3 months in as a Psych nurse. My facility is weird though and didn't give me a preceptorship. I had a few weeks to orient on the unit with many different nurses and that was it. I have to say being a nurse in general is challenging. Some of the personalities are very difficult to work with (IE not supportive) and they look for mistakes to fire people over. I wanted to find a job in psych, but if I had to do it all over again instead of focusing on a certain field of nursing I would look for a place that would protect and support me as a new grad. I feel like these places are out there you just have to look for them.

I feel your pain. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little outside of traditional hospital nursing for a new grad. You can try hospice, although around here most only hire experienced nurses. You can also try getting a job in a doctor's office. That is about it I think.

Thanks for the replies. I found out that ill have anywhere from 6-10 patients and I will be writing care plans for each individual - they're not pre-printed ones as a poster above mentioned. I wrote one earlier after re-reading the chapter on substance abuse in my nursing book and it did take me a little while. Still pretty anxious about this and starting to regret taking this position. Hopefully I will make it though.

So I finally landed my first nursing job(graduated in may 2008) a week ago. It is a psych position on an acute floor. The only thing about the job that has me worried is there are no computers on this floor. I am fairly certain I will have to write individual nursing care plans for all my patients on the floor. Problem with this is I remember writing care plans in Nursing school and it was not easy - even with the book open in front of me. Now I will be expected to write care plans on the fly in minutes?! Honestly this has me pretty anxious because I have no idea how I could accomplish this. Most of my friends who work on normal medical units just follow clinical pathways on a computer. Is it me or do psych nurses have it particularly tough?

Thank you.

I've been offered a position with this company. I am curious how they treat their employees and what the working conditions are like. I am quite anxious as this will be my first nursing job. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

new grads at inova make 25 an hr with a few bucks extra for night/weekend.

I made the same decision about four years ago. Was working IT for a large corporation and decided to do something more people oriented. Was it worth it? Hmm... tough to say. A few things I was not aware of before I entered nursing school: Professional behavior of nurses and other health care staff is in some ways worse than people in IT(yes, even factoring in the weird linux admin with anime posters in his cubicle). The amount of work a nurse does, especially the physical aspects of moving/turning comatose/disabled patients every 20 mins for 12 hours. I'm a young, relatively strong man and this is still taxing. Nursing is not recession proof. As for the male nurse factor - I had a difficult L&D clinical rotation, but other than that no benefits or disadvantages in my opinion.

Im hard of hearing and bought a litmann 3000 stethoscope. Its expensive but money well spent in my opinion.

Its not much better around Northern Virgina for RN's right now. Ive been looking for a job at every major hospital in the area and have only received one phone call back. When I was in school, the instructors mentioned several times how many opportunities there were for RN's around this area. What they neglected to say was that everyone wants EXPERIENCED RN's. Nobody saw this crummy economy coming(except a few smart analysts), which is partly to blame. I have no idea what to do now as the new grad orientation programs seem to come in cycles and I cant really afford to wait until the next ones start in May.

The truth is.. not much. I used to worry about that too, then I just looked to my left and my right in class. Everyone is in the same boat so to speak. I had instructors who, god bless them, could talk all day about sickle cell anemia but could not speak with any authority on psychiatric illness. Ive been told that you learn what you need to on the floor. You will meet nurses in your travels that have a lot of general nursing knowledge, but not necessarily stuff you are expected to know right out of school. Perhaps others have a different take on things but this has been my experience.

Surprised here the police tried to question the original poster at work. Hopefully, the OP has seen this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4097602514885833865

Im also looking for this information! Let me know if you find out anything :wink2:

I had a very wise nursing instructor tell me once "a student, by nature, is very vulnerable - especially in a field such as nursing, which prides itself on weeding out weak candidates. If you find yourself at odds with an instructor, your best bet is to keep your head down and do your work. If it comes down to a situation where its your word against hers(or his), the school will always side with the instructor." I found this to be true. I know it sucks, but you really have three choices: 1. suck it up 2. complain to dean/assistant dean and risk retribution from faculty 3. quit school. Your best bet going forward is to talk to other students, preferably those a year or two ahead and try to get assigned to competent and caring clinical instructors.

The problem for your friend is not that he is necessarily unfit for med school. It's that there is no shortage of candidates with near perfect gpa's and high mcat scores. So all things being equal they will naturally take the younger person. If however he is absolutely intent on trying for med school, you can recommend he reasearch D.O. schools and Caribbean schools as an alternative to allopathic schools in the US. He can also research SMP programs, although they do usually run two to three years. He can also look into gaining experience in research(if he does not already have it). I hope this information helps.

Grats on the new job.

I was hit with a couple med questions along the lines of "so tell me what is the half life of a common aminoglycoside?" ........ Otherwise, it was common "so tell me about yourself" questions. Have not been hit yet with scenario questions.. thank god.

I'd say a good number of my clinical instructors were very hands off. About 50/50 as well. It honestly did not bother me at all if the instructor had a hands off approach. To be quite honest, I found the clinical experience was better w/o the nursing instructor there. I found 9 times out of 10 the staff nurses were better able to answer my questions regarding the specialty.

76k for a new grad in NY? yea, stay there. In va you are looking at around 50k to start.

The highest paid RN's will make around avg/below avg NP pay. Remember that NP's can practice independently in some health care settings.

It's interesting that you should mention this. I've been seriously considering going directly into a BSN program when I graduate. Everyone I've talked to, including instructors, have advised against it. Apparently there is some thought that clinical skills will be lost in the two years completing the BSN. Honestly at this point I don't have much to forget.

Except it's not just the "higher stakes" areas where med surg experience is needed or recommended. Public health nurse? Nope, need med surg. Psych? Med surg. Uh.. Home Health? Again, med surg first. etc. etc. My point is, if med surg experience after graduation is recommended by so many to strengthen skills, then clearly something is a bit off with the nursing education programs in this country.

As someone who will be graduating soon, I completely agree with this. I've been told by several people that "nursing school only teaches the basics" or "All you will learn is how to not kill a patient" and I've found this to be true. Yet the standards and practices from school to school vary so much that some will feel more prepared than others on graduation. This is evidenced by the daily threads on whether or not new grads should work in the ICU or ED. Imagine graduating from graduating from law school and being told you couldn't practice civil rights law unless you practiced family law first. Preposterous right? I understand nursing school cannot teach everything, but there needs to be not only improvement on "real" skills and clinical time, but greater uniformity among programs to ensure everyone graduates with roughly the same skill level.