RunningWithScissors

top of scale is $30 in central MO

Be aware that being a lawyer may actually impede your prospects for nursing employment. Many nurse managers are fearful of their own jobs and see competent nurses as threats to their positions, thinking everyone else wants out of bedside nursing (they do) and are next in line for their jobs (they aren't). I have sat in many interviews with very bright prospects only to have the hiring manager diss them and hire the frail timid less experienced ones whom I have been told they prefer because they can "mold them" to what they want (and not be challenged.) Needless to say, these poor fodder don't last and we have a revolving door of never ending interviews and orientation.

I am on a cardiac progressive care unit where we start and monitor drips and patients who "minor code" on the general floors come here; we have 5-6 patients on days, 6-7 on nights with 1-2 patient care techs for 32 beds. Sucks but nobody is hiring out here. Been this way for a long time.

2 things: First, you got it wrong about the tax on employers' coverage; starting in 2013, you will see on your W2 a box with the employers' contribution to your health plan, and in 2014 (I believe this is the right year) YOU will be taxed on that contribution as income. Next, as far as extra testing and such added to those with "Cadillac Plans", I assume you mean that Medicare is a "Cadillac Plan" because I see ALL the Medicare recipients getting unnecessary testing just because they're in the hospital or the family requests that head CT because dad has chronic headaches and the patient was admissted for chest pain r/o.

That feeling of wanting to quit never goes away. Very few of the nurses I have worked with over the 30+ years have actually loved their job. Most are looking for something else to do and move on. Bedside nursing plain sucks, and it's only getting worse. If you're newly out of school my suggestion to you is to go back to school while you're still in "school mode" and choose something other than nursing. You will be much happier in the end I promise!

Our cardiac stepdown unit has a ratio of 1:6 on days, 1:7 on nights; if census drops someone goes home and gets called back in when admssions arrive. We start antiarrhythmic drips, admit patients from emergency codes on other floors, staff the code team, provided 1:1 staffing for combative patients. It's a war zone! But you know, those green fall risk bracelets will protect your patients!

Since when??? Employers have no reponsibility to train a new nurse, only to orient that person to the policies of that institution. They are spending lots of $$ to train you, and the salary reflect that. I applaud MSG for taking the initiative to do this. It looks like there is no shortage of takers, either. An intership at this institution is worth it.

I would not want to be beholden to any organization, certainly the government, for 10 years, for ANY benefit. I cherish my freedom to work/do what I want. I would PAY extra not to have to live by someone else's rules.

Trust your instincts. Forget that job. You have your license, you have achieved your goal. That doesn't mean you have to work in a hospital in a job you despise. You have learned what you have set out to. If you proceed with starting this job, it will suck you in and it will be even harder to quit. (Guilt over orientation, friends made on the job, etc.)

The way I see it, most if not all of nursing's mindless paperwork compliance problems rest with JCAHO, an organization which makes rules for bedside care, yet is comprised of a bunch of business people, not even healthcare people. (can you SHOW that you rated that pain relief within 1 hour? Pass all those meds within 30 minutes of scheduled time! etc..)

My guess is that if this lady's heart WAS to stop, the family would rescind the DNR and demand a code.

Wow. Sounds like this is going on everywhere. No wonder the new grads are having a hard time finding work, there are just so many positions that have been slashed, not the need for nurses like there used to be. And only the more experienced/older nurses willing to work in these conditions because 1. we have become very good at what we do and have the rhythm down, whereas new grads freak out at the workload and 2. we HAVE to do it because we have families that depend upon our income, and we can't afford to start at the bottom of any new profession.

Our staffing level last fall was decreased to where when we are full (30 beds) we can only staff with 5 nurses and 2 nursing assistants. Since then, we have had several instances of elderly people falling because the staff members are spread so thin, and when the out of bed alarms go off you just can't get to them in time. In every instance, the nurse and aide have been thrown under the bus for improper care. There is no longer a ward clerk to answer phone, so they ring incessantly. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone else, or is this a regional thing? This is an acute care hospital, medical telemetry/pulmonary floor.

Then stop reading it. Kudos to the OP who many months ago began this discussion. I am enjoying it, except for the occasional unintelligable ramblings of a few. (whatthef, if you have to get lost in your own verbage you are obviously trying too hard to make your point). Which leads back to the OP's point, some nurses think that because they can string big words together and hypothesize, they are somehow better than other skilled trades. We can't make any decisions not approved by administration or ordered by a doctor. If you even check a blood sugar on a patient without an order you risk reprimand. If you can't get an order on a patient who is nearing distress you're screwed. It's an illusion of autonomy. I think the term paramedics have for nurses is puppets, isn't it? As in we can only move if somebody else pulls our strings.

Is that the tunnel that has been under construction for like over a decade and still nowehere near completed?

I had a completely alert and oriented elderly man who came from home living alone ask both me and the tech to "wash my balls". Of coorifice if we didn't comply we would be admonished for not giving excellent care.....

I have long thought about how expensive it would be if electricians and plumbers had to document every wire or hose used and explain why they chose that particular item and diagnosis for the problem, but also needed an order from the company before they could actually perform the task, and then document retrospectively what they had just done. You know, for safety, and in case they get sued for malpractice if the place burns down or floods. Nothing would EVER get done. We, as nurses, are VERY good at getting **** done, jumping through the obstacles set by administration. This is as bad as it' s ever been, and I feel we are nearing the tipping point as far as how many tasks can you pile on before it collapses.

I saw an episode of "I shouldn't be alive" last week where they had a plane crash and some chick runs around saying "I'm a nurse I'm a nurse" tending to major gashes and head wounds and then she runs off into the jungle with 2 others leaving the injured people totally alone to fend for themselves. Funny.I also remember an Expedia commercial where some gal is browsing hotels for "some conference" she is being sent to by her employer...well, here in the nursing world, we have to BEG to use ETO in order to attend conferences paid for ourselves. Just what you would expect from burger-flippers...I mean granny-flippers.

If you have to punch a clock and wear a uniform, you ARE a laborer. Simple. Also, what "profession" do you know of has to leave the office early with a cut in pay for the day if work is slow?

I am tied of these same old excuses! I think people in general have become more disrespectful of each other and we not only take the brunt of it, but management tells us that we MUST take it to improve our customer service scores!!!

Wow. I always suspected this, though, but after so many years in nursing, there is little else one is qualified to do skill-wise, so you're kind of trapped. Sucks.

Icing on the cake, when the NM was off in a meeting, we were short 2 nurses, the **** was hitting the fan, she wasn't there to pitch in and help like she says she would if it got "overwhelming". Well, it was, and she was sitting on her butt in a meeting having snacks!

Yesterday my hospital "celebrated" nurses day. They had vendors from a local scrub store and jewelry outlet with tables in a tiny area off the side of the main conference room, where the managers got to sit at linen-covered tables and got served luncheon. Nurses got pieced of sub sandwich and a wal-mart veggie tray that had only leftover broccoli on it when I got there. Also, I was the only one there, getting "lunch" at 2pm. The people staffing the area were wondering where all the nurses were, duh, they can't get off the floor!! Later they announced "hors d'erves (spelling?) and an "awards" ceremony in the conference room. I stopped by about 45 min. later and the DON was still giving out certificates for all the new grads in the hospital. ***??? A co-worker went down after that and said there were NO nurses there, just educators and managemnet type people, and the DON walked right by her without making eye contact, THE ONLY ACTUALLY WORKING NURSE IN THE ROOM!!!! And the "hors d'erves" were dried up and burning in the warmers, apparantly they were served to the awards people and not made available to actual staff. Go figure. Oh, everybody gets a plastic mug, a pint sized version of the ones we give out free to patients. Yeah, crappy nurses day to you too.

Having people who are nurse wanna2bes expressing opinions about a career they have no idea about except as a patient is less than helpful here.

In my area, the nurses at the local VA hospital make the most anywhere in the region. Only problem is, the VA system makes you roate shifts. They also have THE BEST by far staffing ratios. And, there is no such thing as a "low census day". Only one patient one the unit? If all nurses scheduled want to stay and work, they can and do.