RNMommy2

I do not blame you one bit for looking. I quit soon after I sat down and figured up my pay for the week and was making $14 an hour. I went to a hospital and can make in 2- 12 hour shifts a week what It was taking me all week to make in Home Health. LOVE the visits but would only do it now if it was paid by the hour. Good Luck to you. I do not know how the home health companies get away with this.

Where I "worked" the CRNA always pushed the IV conscious sedation because they were available. Prior to my leaving I had an incident that made me uncomfortable regarding this same subject. Because the CRNA is always there none of the RN's have been trained or oriented at all on pushing the IV CS. My supervisor and one other nurse have experience from other jobs doing this. Recently my supervisor and myself were the only nurses there and since we just had one pt the sup did not want to call in CRNA because she herself knew how to do this. Well, we go to get the pt and she asks me to do it because she has paperwork she needs to do since she was an hour and a half late to work that morning. I told her I would not mind at all going in with her but I had never been checked off and never oriented. She told me the MD would tell me what to push. I again refused to go in alone as I had no idea about dosages for meds to reverse and just overall no experience doing this. She got very huffy but did it and I went it with her. Just curious how much training those of you pushing CS got before being asked to do it yourself?

Just an update....I am no longer in surgical nursing. I am now in another specialty but wanted to let you know I did heed to the advice and got out of a bad situation. Thanks for all of your feedback.

The specialty unit I am going to be doing prn's for offers $30 hr during the week and several dollars more for the weekend/night shift. All of their weekends are staffed by prn's so I was going to ask if they would be willing to do the 24 for 32. I was just wondering if the norm would be $30 times 32 hours when you are working 24 or if it would be the actual weekend hourly rate times 32.

:monkeydance: My husband and I have been talking about me doing the weekend option where I work 2 12's and get paid for 32. That would allow me to be home with our kids M-F and he could keep the kids S & S. He is off one day during the week so we would still have a day off together. My question is when I negotiate for pay do I ask for the base pay plus shift diff to calculate the pay for my extra 8 hours or do most places just pay base pay when paying you more like this for the weekend option? Any input from those who have done it or know the ropes where you work on it would be greatly appreciated!

How about an every other week-end RN at a nursing home? These ads are constantly in our local paper and from what I hear they usually involve supervision only and maybe the treatments.

I am the first born and my Father is an alcoholic.

Polly, I can't think of any reason a you could not do PACU while pregant. You are on your feet a great deal but that is the case with most jobs in nursing. If you need to help move a pt after surgery I would just round up a couple of coworkers. Most fellow nurses don't like to see a pregant nurse pulling on a pt anyway! Aside from that you are mainly assessing, administering IVP drugs, and going over dc instructions if outpatient. I say go for it and good luck!

Thanks for the info. I guess I should clarify I don't really hate the oasis. I just hated the oasis and packet that came with it because after I was finished with the visit and packet I usually averaged about $15 hour. The paperwork itself did not bother me. Boy, Karen. It sounds like your office is really hopping!

I am interviewing and am negotiating salary for an intake RN position. I have over 9 years of home health experience but have never worked at an agency that needed this position. This is a large agency that receives 7 to 10 referrals a day. This nurse would take the referrals from the corporate office, log them into the computer, assign them out etc. There is no call, no weekends and no holidays. Have any of you ever done this kind of position? If so did you like it? I love patient care but don't want to be out in the field, I hate the oasis, and I can't work 12 hour shifts due to family responsibilities. If any of you are doing this how is your salary? Thanks in advance for any replies!

Jolie, The things you have said are true. I have worked very hard to get my license and don't want to do anything to risk losing it. It may not even be an issue in a few weeks but there are other things that make me consider obtaining alternate employment that have nothing to do with what I have posted here.

I guess to a certain extent I am. The tech does not go in the OR and she does not give meds. She will be leaving to go back to school in a few weeks. At that point they may not even have a tech. Like I said I am interviewing and I can not quit without another job or I will not be able to pay my mortgage and other bills.

I am looking but can not just quit or we would not be able to pay our bills. I can not just take any job out there because my children would not be picked up in time. The location of my home prevents me from having multiple choices for childcare and changing jobs will cause me to drive two hours a day. Believe me I have been thinking long and hard about this and am doing my best to find an alternative. In the meantime I am just trying to do my job and not have my name on anyting I have not done personally.

So, do any of you think that keeping my name on my own charts and not being a part of it is enough to keep me from sinking if anything comes of it? Or do you think the entire dept will be in trouble? It does not happen on a daily basis but when we have a full schedule. I interviewed and was offered another position but he is going higher up to see about more money. That is another issue. I am paid very well right now and will have to work an extra day somewhere else to make up for it. But, if something were to happen to my license then I would not be making anything at all! Thanks for all your replies so far!

We just started computers too. I find it takes about twice as long as paper charting. We are only allowed to be logged into one computer at a time so in order to work on two patients (such as in recovery) you have to exit out of about 5 screens in order to get to the screen where you can switch to the other patient. When checking vitals every 5 min we have not figured out a way to do this without having to catch up with the second one later. Major pain in the you know what!! So far I have been writing things down on scratch paper and filling it in later. Would love to have my paper back!!!!

That is exactly what I told the tech over lunch! I am considering going back into my previous field of nursing (home health). I never had to worry about things like that there!

This is my first time to post but I would love to hear the response of other surgical nurses to find out if this is typical. Frequently I am the only nurse scheduled for preop and recovery. Recently a tech was hired who has a lot of knowledge but has not finished school. Yesterday we had 5 surgeries. When the first one comes out of surgery with a general anesthetic I am busy in preop pushing 3 preop meds for the next scheduled pt. I also have a pt to work up in the next bay including all history, consents, orders and starting his IV. The tech can't push the meds and is not supposed to work up the next pt or recover. I went to my supervisor who had just walked in the door and she said she would sign the tech on in her name so she could recover. This child is screaming and trying to get out of the bed. Later on that morning we brought an add on to the holding area. The patient told everyone she was npo but in fact she was not. Again, the tech had been working her up because I was recovering 2 pts. I hate to even think what would have happened had she aspirated and a nurse was not even preoping her but it was logged in as though one was. Is this typical?