BIGBLOCK472

In my opinion this is the path to take. My advice is to volunteer to be a Super User or equivalent position for an IT initiative to get your feet wet and go from there. I can't count the number of nurses I've seen working at the bedside who get an MSN/informatics degree or a Health Informatics degree that have difficulty getting a job in informatics due to lack of experience or who get one and find that the field is not a good fit for them. Planning your career path based on the growth of the field is a risky proposition from a job satisfaction standpoint. The vast majority of nurses I am in contact with get into informatics and then pursue the degree. As far as a dual FNP/Informatics degrees... I can appreciate education in all forms but I'm not sure why anyone would choose to do both simultaneously. There is not very much overlap in the two areas unless one wanted to work in informatics and be an FNP in a clinical setting on the weekends. Additionally the field of informatics is highly competitive and one's success and marketability is generally commensurate with experience and there aren't many part-time informatics positions... at least in the departments that I have worked in.

I introduce myself as, "Hi, I'm Matt, I'll be your nurse tonight." Since the nursing assistant on my rotation is named Matt as well, I invite them to call me anything they want, as long as it's not Slim, Big'un, or Son. Upon leaving, if the mood in the room suits it, I say, "If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask... we're open all night."

I cry at work when I need to... it's nothing to be ashamed of.

Oh no, sorry, I wasn't being sarcastic. Actually, I made my post not considering that not everyone had nurse aide/ward clerk experience like I did going into nursing school. I hadn't considered that some people graduate nursing school without ever having worked in a hospital before... if that's the case, perhaps working as a NA/WC wouldn't be such a bad idea if just for a few months.

Hmm... a changed perspective you have granted me :) I originally said no to working as an aide because all through school I worked as an aide and unit secretary. Had my hospital wanted to continue to pay me as a CNA/unit secretary (at 6.50/hr) after obtaining RN licensure I would've told them to kiss it. That's still my stance, however, but with one exception: If you have absolutely no nurse aide or unit clerk experience then that would be the route to go if you had your heart set on that particular hospital. Otherwise, I'd find another employer willing to pay you what you're worth to their team, brand new or not.

oh my gosh! that's dr. lansdell's slideshow on therapeutic communication! her lectures were amazing.

I'm a new grad ortho nurse (though I've been working ortho for 2 1/2 years now) and we routinely have 6-8 patients nightly. There's usually me and a CNA, but sometimes I'm coupled with an LPN. Our census is rarely high. Here lately, though, ortho has gotten quite a bit of overflow (including some severe COPDers that scare me to death-I don't like breathing problems) and I've been assigned to 8 patients (many fresh post-op) with a CNA who states, "I'm not a ward clerk...I can only get vitals." I always laugh out loud and tell them it's their night to learn what to do in the absence of a ward clerk! Really, though, it's been nice to finally be able to wave the nursing stick when it comes to staff that doesn't want to pull weight.

Absolutely not! RN licensure is way too hard to come by to be a nursing assistant...even just for a few months until a job comes open. If a hospital has dozens of jobs posted but won't hire a licensed RN for the position--new or not--then that hospital has its priorities screwed up and it's best to run in the other direction.

I'm a new grad (5/2006 from NEMCC) and I started out at $19.20 per hour plus $2/hr from 7p-11p and $3/hr from 11p-7a at a privately owned hospital near the TN state line.