JoeMacERRN

email [email protected]

[color=#1111cc]hypodermic highway

Check out Talemed.com. I'm traveling with them and things are pretty cool so for first month of my travel career.

I did sign with TaleMed. They are flying me out and paying for rental car for my 13 week assignment. I am excited about my first travel job. As soon as all the details were worked out, and signed the contract, I got my Alaska RN license, shoot! The dream job will have to wait. I jump off in 5 days!! Ready to get to work again!!

I actually passionately hate nurse killers. I never would spend a dime reading a book about one. I've devoted most of my life to helping others, EMT-P to RN, and because of these freaks, we now need FBI backround checks, fingerprints cards, adult and child abuse screenigs, all that and more, as a basline to qualify, to get a nursing job. Nope, forget these guys.

if the physician truly believes that he/she is right and the policy is wrong, we need to try to change the policy rather than just ignore it. i'm having that problem where i work right n do some research on joint commission standards on what policy your having problems with. if a medication order is contraindicated, you have the right, under jaco to refuse to give it. hospital medication errors is at the tops of jaco"s to fix list.

BTW, your question about honor...you should say accountability!! Accountability is a trait that seperates good nurse's from great nurse's. Anyone can be trained to watch a monitor, start and IV. But when a mistake is made, it takes alot of character to pony up. If you haven't made a mistake, you haven't been a nurse very long. What you do when you make that mistake will define YOU!

Over my 23 yrs of ER nursing have been to court once, but I've been deposed in discovery hearing by shifty lawyers many times. Alot of stuff never makes it to court. If you are asked to go to a discovery hearing, that doesn't mean you'll end up in court. It's just each side showing their cards by questions asked. A hospital attorney told me once he thinks nurse's talk too much. We want to explain things that really don't need to be explained, or rationalized. Keep to the facts. Short answers. And wait at least 10 seconds to think about your respose before saying anything. This is a freaking game, need to learn the rules. In the mean time, I'd become an expert on chemical restrant, JACO standards regarding chemical restraints, your hospitals policy on use of chemical restraint. And hope to hell the proper procedure's were done. Usually includes a specific doctors order for the restrants used. I assume you had some limb restrants also. Need to check the policy and be able to recite it without notes if you want to be act like you know what's up. Which I'm sure you do. You should have a briefing with the hospital's lawyer before you talk to the dude you sedated lawyer's. My response, once you've talked with the lawyer, " I was following doctor's orders, and there was no indication that there was any contraindication of the orders. Dude was at risk to harm himself."Don't saw anything without consulting counsel. If you have malpractive insurance...call them. Don't let the hospital hang you out there. They'll be going for the hospital's insurance carrier, and you may end up being a witness for the guy you sedated.

Well, all the hoop jumping, ( and I'm still jumping), I interviewed with 3 hospitals and got 1 offer. Heading to Maine in 10 days for 13 weeks. It's $44/hr but that includes the housing stipend, travel expense, rental car. I put an ad on Craig's list for the town I will be working at and got several responses. Found an fully furnished apt at a Lakeside home, above a garage with kicka$$ deck, view, on a Lake known for Lake trout. I'm an avid outdoorsman so I would work for free to be in a setup this way. Well, almost free!! i also just received my Alaska License. Folks it was so much hoop jumping to get that license by endorsement. I had a arrest for public intox 30 yrs ago. They wanted court records, not just an explanation for which I've given after background checks showed the hit. Well the county where I got busted has no records dating back that far. Alaska still wanted a letter from the clerk of courts saying that there was no records. This all takes phone calls, letters, etc. Then, after I sent in the letter from the clerk of courts saying there was no record, I get the FBI fingerprint results back. They, FBI, sent Alaska and me a copy of the report. It had that arrest, just as I had described. Goes to show that you can't fib on the applications...period. So I'm ready to rock, but it hasn't been an fun experience yet. Hope the fish are biting!!

Yes I'm really tired of hearing the same pitch, and then spending 2 days filling out applications, sending reference requests, faxing ACLS, TNCC certifications.I went thru 2 agencies with no solid offers in 2 weeks. Then signed up with 2 more, I haven't even had a solid offer from anyone, 4 weeks and i'm tired of it already. I've come to the conclusion that Hospitals can be very picky, and the agencies are trying to get as many signed up as possible, hoping that 1 out of ??5, 7, 10 ?? applicants will get picked. This is just my opinion, and I'm in for now, but I may be a short time traveler if things don't start happening.

Folks, I just received a list of ER openings and the hourly wage was between $29/hr to 32/hr. Also only offered $500 relocation money. This is pretty close to the top of a Staff RN wage scale at a decent hospital anywhere. Is this the sign of the times, or is this company trying to keep the pay low, hoping a desparate traveler will take them up?. I just can't see traveling at that low of pay. Might as well try for permanent job and take the 4-6 week standard orientation. Any thoughts?

Fellow nurse's, M or F, old or young, pretty or not, please lets work together. Don't give up on this profession. Not only is it a decent wage earning job, but it's the most righteous job you could be involved with. We are on this earth to help one another. By being a nurse, it implies that you/we care obout other humans. We will always struggle to pay bills, struggle with interactions with other humans who are going thru stressful situations. Whether it's that rude trauma resident who hasn't slept in 36hrs, or a new mother who presents at 03:00 with a sick kid...we are health care professionals that CAN make a difference in someone's life. What other profession has multiple oppurtunites, as we do, to do good? Don't let those oppurtunitues to impact a pt., family memeber, co-workers, go by. I feel so blessed that I'm an RN. I couldn't be happier with my choice of professions!!

The same thing happens with overflow if your doing triage, or not. You put people in hallways, you do EKG's ASAP, and use your critical thinking skills to match wits with obstacles. Once all the rooms are full you go back to your basic triage. So the "new" system defaults to the "old." Happens eveyday, somedays sooner than others. It's crazy, healthcare is crazy, ER nursing is crazy, but that's why i dig it so!! BTW at a local hospital the head nurse of the ER came in with her H who was having C.P. and the ER was full, waiting for triage he coded in waiting room. So that happens regardless of what type of triage your doing.

yes, I know of 2 hospitals in Iowa that "meet and greet," and pt's go straight back to a room if available. The bases for it is all about pt satifaction. Pt's don't want to be triaged .They want to see a doctor. So to keep them happy, you try to get the pt back to a room, doctor and nurse come in at the same time, so there is only one question period, and the treatment regimine started. It works as long as you have enough room, and staff that are multi-task oriented. There has been research done regarding this type of "through put" and the pt's like it. What they haven't studied is the impact it has on the staff. It can be tough to process 4 pts in 20 min. Some folks just can't drop what they're doing to go see the new pt that was just put back into a room. And the system is as strong as the weakest link. More of the future of healthcare.

I'm just getting ready for a travel assignment also. I have 23 yrs ER experience. Done the busy Level 1, and currently in a small community level 4. Our census is dead. I don't know how they can afford to keep the doors open. One pt on the floor and 6-8 a 12 hr shift thru the ER. I"m bored to death. I'm afraid my skills are dulling. I need some juice. So I'm looking to travel. Wading thru all the compaines is kind of a trip. Everyone has the highest pay, best benefits in the industry, treat their nurse the best...blah, blah. Show me the money!!!