erinp88

Hi Everyone! I completed my ADN a few years ago and unfortunately the hospitals were all on a hiring freeze and requiring BSN's which left me feeling quite defeated. I remained in my current position as an Intake Nurse (paid $8/more an hour going from LPN/RN!) until the birth of my first son. That corporation offered me a part-time RN Educator job when my son was 10 weeks old. I returned and absolutely loved it. Super flexible - 2 days a week and I pretty much made my own hours. Well, big surprise and I ended up pregnant with #2 when #1 was only 7 months old. I was told right away my job wouldn't be held for me since I didn't fall under FMLA guidelines and there were no pregnancies protecting me. My caseload cranked up as my very UNCOMFORTABLE pregnancy progressed and I ended up leaving the job in January prior to #2's arrival in March. Currently I am working as a Team Beachbody coach which I absolutely love. Completely flexible, from home and I love supporting/helping other people reach their fitness/nutrition goals. However, there's this little itch in me that wants to get actual hospital experience. On the other hand, my husband hates having me work weekends/holidays and then dealing with day care is a complete logistical nightmare. How bad is it going to be fore my resume if I stay out too long?? Will I be marketable and 'trainable?' Ah, so many concerns...looking for advice and input! Thank you!

Stay home! Sorry, I was new RN and wounded up pregnant unexpectedly. I tried until I was ~6 months pregnant landing a stable job in a clinical setting. No one wants to hire a preggo nurse. I was working per diem with my current company in an Intake (clerical) position and was not going to be able to return to that due inconsistent scheduling and day care issues. Miraculously about 2 months after I had the baby my company contacted me with a 2/day a week job. My husband and I were delighted and thought the situation would be perfect. Approximately 50% of my pay goes to covering day care cost. It's a constant battle not to mention a HORRENDOUS disruption if you'd like to have any routine at home. If money isn't an issue, maybe you can afford to have someone come into your home - that may be easier. But still, I have found no one takes as good as care as my baby as I do. They don't sleep right, they don't eat right and it's just plan frustrating. So sorry I can't put too much emphasis on your clinical portion, but I can definitely comment on the new mom portion and I am constantly battling to keep my son on a consistent schedule.

Yikes, I am in a bit of a pickle and haven't worked in an acute care setting for years. I've been trying to research my situation but have stumbled across multiple conflicting posts - many of them outdated. My aunt is terminally ill and I had a big part in having her transferred to a hospice facility affiliated with my work. She had a bone marrow transplant 2 years ago due to a chronic form of leukemia. Her immune system is non-existent and she now has pneumonia, MRSA, VRE, C-Diff and 3 large masses on her lungs that are infectious (unsure of the microbe and it's too risky to determine). She coughs constantly. I have a fairly good understanding as to how things are transmitted, but am finding conflicting information as to how I should protect myself and it varies amongst the staff members that have been encountered as well. To further complicate the situation I found out I was pregnant last week - it's a little too early for me to disclose this information to my family. When I visited my aunt this past weekend at a University hospital, isolation precautions were being followed by the staff. Family was not required to do anything. After I had been in the room, I read the sign on the door that said 'no pregnant visitors.' I wasn't too terribly worried since I wasn't coming into contact, but was kind of nervous about any possible airborne/droplet issues. I think a further along pregnant person may be more at risk due to immunity dropping/blood counts going off? I'm literally 5 1/2 weeks along..so very, very new. My aunt transferred to the hospice center last night where they are freaking out about the VRE and requiring family to gown/mask/glove. I was somewhat relieved because now I can at least put a mask on without making up some story. Unfortunately it's resulting in my aunt being treated poorly because no one wants to contact her because of this VRE (I am beyond furious). Here she is dying and and trying to come to the acceptance stage, but is being horribly isolated. I understand isolation precautions no problem, I don't understand not taking the time with your HOSPICE patient to perform assessments and helping her cope. Ugh, that's an entire different rant post. By the time my family was leaving, someone had decided masks were no longer necessary. So this all seems messed up to me and I know policy/procedures are individual to facilities. Can anyone please provide me with what's the correct for myself and how I should proceed with protection? I know I will probably end up helping my aunt and possibly coming into contact with things..it's just too hard to sit back and especially if she's not being addressed by the staff (which I plan on speaking to the director about too). Most of what I've read has said if isolation precautions are followed, there shouldn't be an issue. On the other hand, I keep coming across random things stating that pregnant people shouldn't have any contact at all. So, if anyone can help this emotional chick out, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I obtained my LPN degree in 2002 at my local community college. Of course the program wasn't laddered so me being the 21 year old I was, decided to have 'fun' and chased the dollar signs from my hospital ER tech job to the local LTC facilities. Eventually I met my husband who is an engineer and works Monday-Friday and I became fixated with finding a Monday-Friday job too. I landed a position with our local school district doing CNA training. The schedule was AMAZING, but the position itself was not challenging and it wasn't long before I realized I needed to return to school for my RN. I opted to do Excelsior's transition program so I could maintain my employment. I eventually chose to leave my laid back job at the school to finish up some pre-requisitions in person. Fortunately, my LTC company hired me back and I went into staffing resources until I completed my RN degree in March of last year. (yes, it took FOREVER!) I was incredibly anxious to get out of the LTC floor setting and when a per diem Intake position became open for an LPN/RN, I opted to cross-train to the position. What a flipping mistake! Yes, the $8/hr increase in my rate of pay was nice once I got that magical RN license, but holy cow have I doomed myself as a nurse. There is no critical thinking, no clinical assessment needed and each day I am finding myself farther away from feeling like a nurse. It is all about insurance benefits, scheduling appointments and taking information. I swear a robot could do it! I knew this was happening and interviewed as much as possible and made several attempts to get into the hospital. Of course the hospitals in my area have all gone BSN's and with several local colleges cranking them out, the field has been flooded. I finally had a recruiter helping me in March and I ended up pregnant with our first child. I was too nervous to proceed with the recruiter since I had no idea what pregnancy would do to me and am thankful I made that decision as I was incredibly sick for months. Since then, the hospitals have gotten even more strict with only accepting applications for BSN's and being almost 7 months pregnant, looking for a job is nearly impossible. I know I cannot be discriminated against, but whatever, it happens. My current LTC company also provides home care and hospice services. When a vacant position opens up I am told I'm not qualified because I don't have recent acute care experiences. I can tell you it's very frustrating being with a company that is not supportive of my professional growth. My HR person always tells me that I am more than welcome to apply for the position, but anyone with recent hospital experience will be looked at first. Do yourselves a favor if you're a new grad - get whatever hands on and clinical experience you can! I have always proceeded with caution when it has come to my license and it's just sad that responsible people are not given the opportunity to prove themselves within well established organizations. Had I taken a position with an agency that provided me with minimal training to go and do things like trach/vents and whatever they have you do, I'd be in a much better position. I'm not sure if this is meant to help anyone specifically or not! Feeling quite down after reflecting on my 1st year as an RN. Thankful that I'm working, but it's quite saddening to me that it's not helping me become the nurse I want to be. Sometimes chasing the 'cushion' jobs don't help you get farther ahead in life!

So, I've read through the forum 'getting started with MDS' but it hasn't been active in a while. I have had my LPN license since 2003 and most of my experience has been in the LTC setting. I got my RN license in 2010 and have been working in an intake office which consists mostly of checking benefits and finding appropriate placement for patients. There is a MDS Coordinator position that is located with a different company that I'm kind of interested in. On paper, I think it looks 'ok.' The ad states it's stricly an MDS position and not a MDS/Unit Manager position which is what my company uses. The managers are always saying "If I was just doing MDS's "or "if I could just manage the unit." The ad is also not requiring any experience for the position. Obviously, I still have to apply, interview and receive a job offer. My concern is I have "kind of" an idea of what the MDS entails. Can it be learned if taught appropriately in the right environment from starting at ground zero?

Hi - I'm an RN with limited experience in administering IV fluids. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as to how I could gain experience with IV's and somehow become comfortable with them? I don't work in a hospital so I have minimal resources there. I always hear about IV certification classes but my google searches lead me to no credible links. Any advice or information would be most helpful!

I won't even go into my rant, but it took 10 weeks for my application to be processed for a new license.

Yikes! Well, I went to the interview and it honestly didn't feel like a good fit. What the HR rep told me and what the actual director wanted was quite different. He was looking for someone with hospital experience, which I don't have. There will be weekends and an on-call requirement. Not that that's bad, it just sounded unorganized how it was being done. The case load was 17-18 and he told me that was low! We're expected to do 5-6 visits a day. There are no separate admission nurses either. However, it did sound like the MSW did the sign on and informational. No electronic documentation as of yet and they're not planning on it until 2013. I didn't think to ask about paperwork being dropped off. It did sound like people have to turn it in everyday. The office was also dirty and the staff I encountered seemed somewhat unprofessional. I already work at the company with one of the biggest Hospices in West Michigan. I think I might see if I can cross train as per diem for right now and I submitted my resume to Hospice of Michigan for consideration. Thanks for the reply!!

Hi everyone! I have an interview later today for a Hospice Case Coordinator position. I was told over the phone that most of their patients are in nursing homes which is a big reason they called me. The majority of my experience has been in a long-term care setting. I have what I would consider 'moderate' experience with Hospice patients. I'm familiar with the dying process and what I need to do to make people comfortable. I'm not familiar with some of the more advanced treatments such as the SQ lines, TPN, and IV things. The position is Monday-Friday and there are no weekend, holiday or on-call requirements. Right now this is the biggest selling point. The wage is $23-$28 and I'm in West Michigan. That seems to be the going rate. I make $26.01 in my per diem position at an Intake office right now, but I'm obviously not guaranteed hours. I don't care about health benefits as I get those through my husband. Can you give me an idea of what questions I should ask during the interview? Obviously I'm going to ask about their orientation process, case load and how many visits will be required per day. They have a significantly smaller territory than any home care or hospice company in my area... which is nice, because I interviewed for a home care position last week and was told I could plan on driving 100-120 miles a day because the territory was so freakin big. Any ideas on questions would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks for your help!

Thanks for the replies!! Definitely both posts were quite helpful! @christy78: Which Algebra CLEP book did you use? I know REA has one? Ok, well I am off to email this Katie person to hopefully get my transcript!! This is getting so ridiculous!!

Hey everyone! I hope you all are doing well and testing away...........Congrats to those of you who have had recently been successful in your accomplishments. Ok, any Penn Foster Info Lit people have problems with getting official transcripts sent out? I know they sent me one shortly after I completed the course and I packaged it up and sent it to Excelsior. Now I am trying to get into an RN-BSN program and it's the LAST stupid transcript that is needed. It's so frustrating as I know it won't transfer in as anything. I left two voice mails and sent an email with no response on what or how I need to go about requesting it. They don't offer an 'online transcript request' option. New college will not do an official review of what I need until they have this thing. In a nut shell, my college saga continues!! Nothing will ever be easy about this experience! Does anyone have a more direct contact and/or option that they used to get a transcript from these people? Question #2: College Algebra CLEP. Yup, I'm the girl who only went to "Algebra I" in high school and I'm wondering if I could self teach myself to CLEP this course. I obviously will need to do some major back tracking and review. My husband is not supportive of me to sign up for any classes at this point and I'm thinking this may be something I can work on and scratch off my list. Just curious if anyone on this thread has any experience with this and/or recommendations? I don't want to waste two semesters taking remedial classes and then sign up for the actual College Algebra.

Sorry, I don't lack 'research'. This is recent and personal experience from just a few months ago. I understand medication errors occur amongst everyone. However, if a medication error occurs on my license, it had better be done by me. Where I worked, the medication class WAS 2 hours. I was mystified when I happened to be double checking an RCA's meds that was passing on another cart UNDER MY LICENSE. She had mixed up doses and had no idea what an oral hypoglycemic was. They had no clue what normal pulse or blood pressure ranges were. I don't feel that it was their fault because they didn't have the knowledge. I worked hard for my nursing licenses and I would prefer to not have to worry about others administering medications for me. Yes, insulin is an easy thing to administer. As an emergency room physician told me once, the easiest way to kill someone is to mess up their insulin type and dose. Sure it's easy to give a poke to someone. It's not fair to ask unlicensed personnel to administer this when they have no idea about insulin peaks or normal blood glucose ranges.

Assisted living centers often train "Resident Care Aides" and/or "CNA's" to pass medications. It's a scary thing! They train them for about 2 hours and there's no information given on specific drugs or adverse reactions. They are not allowed to give insulin or any other injections. These facilities are subject to state surveys and the RCA's continue to pass medications during this time and it never seems to be a problem.

So glad eveyrone who followed this thread had good outcomes with their NCLEX too! I got my license 1 day in the mail after it had been posted!

Getting my ATT was a longer process for me than scheduling, studying and taking the NCLEX! I went to an out of state school too and michigan would not accept anything but the official transcript. Of course my transcripts weren't released until May 21 and I had finished in March!! It was a LONG 4 months!!