Olli

are you serious? i would tell the DON to stick her/his finger in the MRSA wound and then stick it in her *** jk :chuckle She is insane... I am wearing gloves every time before I touch anyone, period. How many times the patient is on standard isolation one day and then you come next day and see it changed to a contact isolation after lab results come back positive? How can it be humiliating to a patient that you are protecting both the patient and yourself? I am sorry but your DON is uneducated and whatever she says sounds stupid. She is probably caring MRSA for a long time now...

It is up to you. Some people go right away and do it part time while working full time as an RN, some start in a year after working full time as an RN. I think it's good to start in 6mnth after you complete your BSN. For instance, start your job in the summer-fall and your MSN in the spring of the next year. That way you are done with your RN orientation at the hospital and in 6 month after you start the hospital will pay for your school. I applied right away for my MSN though because they offer the NP program I am interested in only in the fall... Otherwise I would wait till spring. Hope this helps!

I work at the surgical floor as an RN extern (graduating this May). One RN told me that she loves the outpatient setting and would like to get a job there. But the money they offered her at several interviews were ridiculous comparing to what she is making now at the hospital. I also noticed that they prefer LPNs in the private practices. I applied to few outpatient settings but only one MD called me back. He was asking how much would I like to be paid at the start and I said $25/hr. Afterwards I had doubts if it was not too little, but found out that the range was 21-25 for his practice ($25 for the most experienced)... so again he never called me back... I used to work for a private practice as an MA in the past and basically did vitals, drew blood, did EKGs, called pts with the results etc. We also had an LPN but no RNs. But keep looking!!!

If you say you don't like nursing, except of OB/GYN, your grades were not that good in college and you are bad at taking the standardized tests... Then I believe you should not go back to the school for RN BSN. Try to get a job with whatever education you have now.

Maybe you should think of nursing more as an RN, not PCT thing. Yes, we do have to do bed, bath, I&Os etc at the hospital many times but I believe that our job is MUCH more than just that. Try to get position in the MD's office... Maybe you can work your way through to the management position there. But I believe you are kidding yourself more thinking you will jump above your head and work in the administration before working as a regular RN.

Congrats! I am graduating in May too! I see that there is no choice for me but to do med surg for a least a year. I have worked in the medical field for 6 years now. I did 4 years in an outpatient setting as a medical assistant and then 2 years as a PCT and later as a student nurse extern in the inpatient setting. I decided that I love an outpatient setting much more. I also applied to the part time adult/geriatric NP program for fall 2008 and I was told I don't necessarily need a hospital experience while I am in the program, since after I am done I will be practicing in a non acute facility. That's why I decided to find a part time RN position in an outpatient clinic. Well, I did find few openings and applied. Even though my school is in the top ten nursing schools nationally and I have good grades, experience and great recommendations, no one ever called me back... I realized I am competing against people who have years of inpatient experience and do not want to work nights, weekends, holidays etc. Also all RN managers I know have years of inpatient/outpatient experience (depends on the setting they work at) and those who don't, just suck... You have to know the game before playing it... Maybe you should go part time for your MS (if you want to do administration) and work part time at the hospital? Anyway, good luck!

Or you can just say: "Hun, I don't want to upset you but few patients complained about your gum chewing" I just want to give you heads up so it does not happen in the future... Any other questions? I am the best when it comes to manipulation :)

Just tell her you can't enter any of her stuff on the computer when she is chewing the gum like that cause it distracts you... it will help right away, you'll see :)

Good for you, Olli! But I still maintain that it shouldn't be the hospitals responsibility to maintain equipment for each and every rare condition that there is. The gentleman that you spoke of - yes, I can see that, and with mine, well maybe some basic stuff, but I think it should still be my responsibility to bring any specilty things I need. By the way, I don't think the Dept. of Justice deals with disibilties - I think they're a criminal branch of the government? They suggest on their website that you can contact them if you have any questions about ADA. They can always redirect you too...

Are you serious? I would never ever allow to put myself in charge of 7 pts and do 3 admissions and delegate to a new LPN and a tech when I am in my second week of orientation. NEVER! No matter what kind of weather or family emergency or whatever... I would not consider a possibility of putting my patients and myself in a jeopardy.

I was thinking about moving to California too but they have the second largest RN shortage in the country + mandated minimum RN to pt ratios... so I am staying here :) At least Illinois forbid mandated overtime and our staffing accounts for acuity etc. anyway, good luck to you. hope everything works out well.

Just find out what makes them think they are going to die. My reaction would to patient's words would depend on the diagnosis, prognosis and etc. I mean I would have a different reaction if the person after appendectomy asked me that question vs a person with terminal illness.

Here's my bet: Your hospital does have all the devices you mentioned, it's just that no one on the floors knows where they are kept. The admin types are always very anal about making sure they buy that kind of stuff, but when it comes to actually storing it, you know how seldom-used equipment gets shunted off to odd places. I once worked in a hospital where there were exactly two TDY machines; unfortunately they were both in a cabinet in the ED med room. And I only knew about them because I used to stock it as a CNA. Exactly! I found everything I needed. I even discovered things I would never thought the hospital had. The problem is the lack of staffs' knowledge about where everything is located. It's a bit off the topic, but I found a bladder scanner at one of the units, so I can go there and borrow it when needed.

How about people have their full names on the badges when the work in banks or some other facilities? Should all people who have their full names on the badges be concerned about the safety? Even if he did not know her last name, he could have just waited till her shift was over and follow her to her car or her place...

Oh, also smth else. If I am at the hospital as a patient and am concerned about the RN taking care of me, I might want to check her license (using her first and last name and the state) and see if there were any disciplinary actions taken against her in the past. It's my right as a patient to be able to do this.

I would think so. I can't even imagine how you can only have your first name on the badge. I think I would be concerned why my last name was not there in the first place, not why it should be there. How about an MD with a badge "Derek"? I would never want to be just "Mary" or "Nancy" or "Ann" Also it makes you think that it was done for the liability purpose, so that the patient did not know you last name in case something happens... Weird.

I chose BSN and am very happy I did so. I feel I have learned a great deal from the classes that I had in my program and that usually are not offered in ADN: research and stats, community health, leadership, issues in nursing etc. It's gave me a totally different outlook on nursing. I now view BSN as a beginning of my education and hopefully will start graduate school this fall. I believe that it is easier to get a job at the better hospitals too. But I am young and don't have children. Also my school is a state university and I was eligible for some financial aid. You should look at your situation. My program, after I completed all of my prerequisites was 2 years. The college that I was taking my prerequisites at was also offering ADN and it would take me the same amount of time. The only difference was that I took more hrs every semester in BSN program than I would take in ADN

The way you worded your paragraph suggested you did not have the special utensils with you, which implies on some sort of emergency that brought you to the hospital or suggest you forgot them.. in any case I did mention that I would ask your family to bring it. So I don't think you should be saying "what you are not getting..." In case with the gentlemen I had, he did not have any family to bring it. Anyway, I located everything. It's in communication department.

I believe if your personal life is good, you have a strong family support and great friends and also some hobbies other than nursing (I enjoy traveling, reading, going out and doing new things) you always come to work with a positive attitude. It is also important to enjoy the place you work at and your colleagues (at lease there should be few you like)... With this nursing shortage, I never would stay at the place I really did not like.

I bet you are transferring to work for an infection control department :) I do know a lot about MRSA and handwashing: just last month a research poster I made with my colleges about increasing hand hygiene compliance among health care workers was awarded the first prise by Sigma Theta Tau... It's about proper hand washing and sanitation, using the gloves, etc... How do you wash your hands, for how long and so forth... If I know the rules and play by the rules (lets say take the watch off, clean my ring with the alcohol wipes etc) and you tell me and some of us we are unprofessional because we wear a ring, then how professional are you to be talking this way?

Also, its common for educated professionals to debate an issue: look at the research, argue and come to a conclusion. It often can't be just black and white like you said. I used to be annoyed with people whom you provide with research articles and they just say "this can't be argued" can it stems from a poor appearance too.

According to the most of infectious disease control articles simple engagement rings/weddings bands are permitted to be worn. You can put a watch really high up or just take it off when washing hands, it just shouldn't be interfering with hand washing. I also posted a research article about the rings. Besides, it is good to always put gloves on not only wash the hands. Not sure what you meant with the second paragraph. Taking stands?

The infectious control should be more concerned about health care workers not cleaning the stethoscopes between auscultating patients and puls ox machine... I have seen at some hospital RNs and PCTs using same BP cuff for different patients. Isn't this much more important that a ring? Think how many bacteria there is on the pen that you write with in the hospital? You also need to clean purses you take to work and cell phone regularly... I bet much more nasty stuff there than on the ring... How about your shoes, scrubs, etc? Many of us walk around in it, drive back home, go shopping (!)... but a big concerns is still A RING!

I have seen many people saying they will not wear a ring but they still wear watches... they should get rid of watches then too...

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/520739 pretty much not difference between Conclusions: Wearing a single plain finger ring did not increase the total bacterial load on the hands, nor was it associated with an increased rate of carriage of S. aureus or nonfermentative gram-negative rods. However, plain rings were associated with an increased rate of Enterobacteriaceae carriage but paired comparison of the ring-bearing and ring-free hands of these HCWs did not show significant differences ( ). Carriage of nonfermentative gram-negative rods did not differ between the 2 groups, by either paired or nonpaired analysis.