RN_2_B_5/2004

Illinois is one of the states that makes it difficult for Excelsior grads, the following is directly form the IL Application for Endorsement: NOTE: Excelsior College a/k/a/ the University of the State of New York Regents External Degree Program is an unapproved nursing education program in the State of Illinois due to the fact that it does not have concurrent theory and clinical components as required by the Illinois Nursing and Advanced Practical Nursing Act. Therefore, it is considered to be a correspondence course which is identified by the Act as not meeting the requirements for licensure. There is a provision in the Act to allow for individual review of applications from applicants who are graduates of such programs provided the applicant is currently licensed in another U.S. jurisdiction and has been actively practicing in clinical nursing for a minimum of two (2) years. The applicant must have an employer complete a VE (Verification of Employment) form verifying two full years of clinical practice as a registered nurse. This must be submitted with the endorsement application. When the application is complete, it is reviewed by the Board of Nursing for a determination of eligibility to be rendered.

Another good suggestion is to go to roommates.com and do a search for rooms for rent in your immediate area, see what they are charging for a room by the month. Think of it as comparison shopping.

I am a traveler and I will be renting a room from a wonderful person in the area to which I'm traveling. I will only be there 3-4 nights a week and I am paying her a monthly rate of $350, which includes utilities. My contract is for 13 weeks and I will essentially be paying her for 3 months rent. Given the fact that she is a traveler, she is most likely collecting a housing stipend from the company she is traveling with. I'm not sure what area you are in, but I will be traveling to a large city (80,000+ in MN) Hope this helps.

Cross Country Travel Corps. is the company

HI! I am trying to find my first travel assignment. Just wondering how common it is that a travel company asks you to contact the perspective hospital for an interview? I have been given the phone numbers to contact the hospital for an interview. I thought this was kind of strange.

I wanted to congratulate you on your job!! I was a new grad last May and started on a Oncology/Hematology right out of school. My first suggestion to you is join ONS (Oncology Nursing Society- http://www.ons.org ) you will get loads of information from them and a few great cancer nursing journals. If you do decide to join please use my name as your referrer, Jennifer Peters. Big stuff to know in Onc nursing is management of side effects related to treatments, Nausea, Pain, radiation side effects, fatigue, infection, and don't forget coping and grieving. I wish you good luck, it is a very rewarding part of nursing!! Jenn

Zippy Girdlejuice!! :rotfl: Thanks for the laugh!!

Thank you for your input, the more I thought about it the more I want to quit. I wll be talking with the nurse manager on Monday morning and if I do not get a response that I feel is appropriate I will be asking HR for a transfer to another unit. Even when we are supposedly staffed correctly it is not unusual to have 8 patients at NOC on my unit. Thank you!

I could not believe my eyes when I showed up for work last noc and found that I had been assigned 10 patients. I work on a 36 bed Onc/Hem floor with many high acuity patients. For the whole unit we had 3 RN's for 29 patients with 3 aides. We are also a stem-cell transplant floor with many leukemia's and myeloma's. I did not feel safe at all. I am just so mad :angryfire and frustrated at this and need to vent. To top off m noc, I was giving an update to the nurse who was taking 2 of my patients, one of which is a relapsed leaukemic with VRE in his blood and stool, well while I was updating her, she noticed that the doc and three residents were going into the pos. pressure room, she said "Oh, you better make sure that they alll gown up" Well being the newer grad that I am, I did, and boy did the s__t hit the fan, the doc screamed at me and said that I had totally insulted him :imbar , well needless to say I looked back at the desk and she was laughing, she totally made a fool out f me...ON PURPOSE!! :angryfire Today I left the hospital in tears.. I am so frustrated with the unit I worl on, I want to quit right this second. The problems I mentioned are just a few of the many. Thanks for lettiing me vent!!

Recently had a patient receiving IVIG. Increments fo administration at our hospital are: start infusion at 54cc/hr x 15-30 minutes then if tolerating well (no side effects) increase to 108cc/hr x 15-30 minutes if still tolerating increase to 210cc/hr x 15-30 minutes then finally 320cc/hr Treated very much like blood as far as assessments go. Hope this helps.

Here is the website for the Z-coil shoes: http://www.zcoil.com/ They look comfy, anyone know how much they cost?

Just wondering if any of you might know the wording for passing the lamp of knowledge to the next class? Can't seem to find it anywhere, last years grads passed the lamp to us at their pinning. Thanks

I heard back from Brian the admin on the board and he said they will be putting up an NCLEX only area on the allnurses.com BB. Thanks for all the votes for this, I think it wil really help to separate all the nclex/new grad issues.

Took the test, and found out that my chosen specialty was ranked #3 on my results. Kind of fun to see where you fit.

I am hoping that the admin. Brian is watching this thread, check out those in favor of a NCLEX only thread. Please, post your opinions, I really think this would improve this area of allnurses.

I PM'd one of the administrator's of this board and habve not received a reply yet. But wouldn't it be nice to have an area on this BB for just NCLEX discussions?? That way the new grads who need to discuss and view issues relating to being a new nurse such as transition in to the world of nursing, how to manage patient care, how to get that first job, etc.... can be weeded out of the never-ending NCLEX discussion. Just a thought, would love to have opinions. Please vote for what you would like.

I am looking for the history of how and where the tradition of the nurses pin came to be. I have seen several theories and would really like to know exactly how this tradition started. Any help woluld be great, Thanks. Jenn

I have a dilemna...we recently had an exam and the question related to long-term corticosteroid therapy...It went like this: You have a patient who has been on long-term corticosteroid therapy, which of the following would you be most concerned with? A. Peptic Ulcer B. Osteomalacia I chose osteomalacia due to the evidence of many people with weakened bones, poor absorption of calcium and vitamin D. I was wrong....my instructor said it was peptic ulcer, and I can understand the significance of this, but....it is one of the more rare side effects according to my drug book. What do you think???

I have not graduated yet, but I will in May 2004. I accepted a $10,000 pre-employment loan in exchange for working at this facility for 3 years (paid up front before graduation, received half in January, then other half in May). Starting pay is $19.50/hr, $1.00 extra for PM, $1.50 for noc, and $3.50/hr extra if you pick up additional shift over 4 hours. I interviewed for their onc/hem floor and was offered the position, 32hrs/wk PM & NOC, I start 10 days after graduation. They also have a weekenders program, work 36hrs/wk, get paid for 54hrs/wk, not a bad deal!! New grads are not eligible for this until after 6 months. I did not go into nursing for the money, but it does help when trying to pay off fed loans and debt I have sunk myself into over the last 3 years. There are many hospitals desperate for nurses, many of the new grads now can expect starting salaries of $20+ per hour, plus perks. I just think it is so sad that the hospitals put all of their efforts into hiring new nurses instead of focusing in on what they already have and rewarding their experienced nurses. If they would honor their experienced nurses, maybe they would not have such a shortage. Without the veteran nurses out there to help bring up us newbies, where will nursing be in 10, 15, or 20 years from now.

I interviewed on the 3rd of February and it went so well, I felt so comfortable , like it was meant to be. They called me on the 6th and offered me the position, which I very happily accepted, 32hrs/wk pm & noc. I am still a nursing student and will not start my new job until May 24th. I have alot to learn still and welcome any suggestions on becoming better prepared for my new job on a 36 bed inpatient oncology/hematology unit, there is also a 5 chair outpatient infusion/chemo center that is staffed by the RN's on the inpatient unit. Are there any books out there that might help me prepare? Any other suggestions from those of you who have worked onc/hem? Thaks again!!

Hi there!! I am in the process of interviewing for a new grad position within a Oncology/Hematology Floor. My interview is with the nurse manager of that floor on February 3rd. I would like to request some help with what questions to ask during the interview. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I have had some recent experience with CA, my father currently has brain cancer, my step-mom had breast CA 3 years ago, and my grandmother died from pancreatic ca 5 years ago. I truly loved everything the oncology nurses have done for all three of them and could really see myself in that role as a nurse. Also, could you give me a picture of what your typical day in an inpatient oncology/hematology unit is like. Thank you and God Bless!! Jenn :) :)

I am a nursing studen with 4 months til graduation. My father was dx with a GBM IV located in his cerebellum in Dec. 2002 and has had the full gamet of surgery, radiation, chemo and now he seems to be deteriorating quickly. My question is...for those of you have seen and/or had experiences with end-stages of brain ca, what can we expect as far as s/s in the end stages. We have seen increased unsteady gait, and what appears to be tremors in his upper torso and extremities, short term memory loss, etc... Please help me find more info, I have done many searches to find the info and nobody wants to talk about it. I would much rather have an idea of what to expect than to go on blindly. Thank you and God Bless. Jennifer

I am a nursing student in my 2nd year of the adn program. We are starting our clinical rotation on a local med-surg floor, until now most of our clinical experience has been in LTC. We have a new clinical instructor this year, our class is broken up into two groups, AM's and PM's. The AM group receives their clinical patient assignment on Monday @ 1pm, they start clinical @ 7am the next day. The PM group gets their clinical assignment @1pm on Tuesday and clinical starts @ 3pm the same day. All of us on the PM clinical are quite upset about this, the AM group gets a whole evening to do their prep work, yet the PM group gets 2 hours, not fair in our opinion. We voiced our opinion to the instructors and were told, "well when you get to the real world you won't even have the two hours to prepare" We all understand this but we are students, not RN's yet, and that is not the point, still the other group is getting an advantage over us PM'ers by having a whole entire evening to review pathophys, meds, dx, h&p, etc.... Would you create this type of problem in your classroom?? Do you have any suggestions as to what us PM'ers should do?? I obviously hit a brick wall with the instructors.

I thought that when these state specified boards came out they would be great to get know other nurses working within the state you live in. So far............very few WI nurses have shown up?? Where are you all at??? Please use this board, it would provide a great network and may make some great new friendships.