UKRNinUSA

5 years later I can answer my own question: To get through the door, become a superuser. Lots of RN informatics jobs are coming up due to the Medicare/Medicaid EHR Incentive Program which provides incentive payments to hospitals that demonstrate meaningful use of the electronic health record. More opportunities exist with large organizations that have multiple facilities. An informatics certificate would be icing on the cake of an already great resume -you can find one online. Good luck!

I am precepting a senior student at the moment (for the first time) and it has been helpful to read your comments. I have been wondering if it is possible to teach "multitasking" or does this just come as you feel more comfortable in your new role?

It seems a bit soon to leave you in triage all by yourself -in the facility where I work, you have to be an ER nurse for a year before you are even precepted to triage. Let your preceptor know that you do not feel safe being left on your own so much, and take a deep breath. You are there to learn right now, not run the show. As far as I'm concerned, ER is about judging whether the patient is sick or not sick, compensating or not, prioritizing what needs to be done now and what can wait, and ABC's. Good luck, hang in there, 4 shifts is just getting your feet wet.

Amen to that, speaking as a CNA member and a parent of a child with a deadly disease -the last thing you need/want to do when your child is sick, is fight with your insurance company. I would violate the TOS if I told AN what I really thought of this despicable corporation.

Not a personal attack, an observation ( I admit the comment was a little satirical) Originally Posted by lamazeteacher "Well, "whodat1986", you have a typical American educated person's understanding of our health care," I would disagree with Lamazeteacher's use of the word "educated". To be educated, one has to acquire factual knowledge about a subject. Your postings do not give evidence that you have acquired factual knowledge regarding healthcare reform. However you do seem to have an opinion. Closely mirroring the opinion of Glenn Beck - who is not a journalist but a political commentator who presents his opinion on a TV show. The Antidefamation League statement on Glenn Beck: "The most important mainstream media figure who has repeatedly helped to stoke the fires of anti-government anger is right-wing media host Glenn Beck, who has a TV show on FOX News and a popular syndicated radio show. While other conservative media hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, routinely attack Obama and his administration, typically on partisan grounds, they have usually dismissed or refused to give a platform to the conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists. This has not been the case with Glenn Beck. Beck and his guests have made a habit of demonizing President Obama and promoting conspiracy theories about his administration. On a number of his TV and radio programs, Beck has even gone so far as to make comparisons between Hitler and Obama and to promote the idea that the president is dangerous." http://www.adl.org/special_reports/rage-grows-in-America/mainstream-media.asp Just so you know. You might also want to check out the website http://www.politifact.com It has a special section for Glenn Beck where you can fact-check the "truthiness" of his statements. http://www.politifact.com/personalities/glenn-beck/statements/ I found a reference to one of your statements on the list of his statements: "Have you seen the number of doctors who have said they will quit if a government takeover of healthcare occurs?" http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/oct/15/glenn-beck/beck-says-45-percent-physicians-would-quit-if-heal/ The truthometer rates Glenn Beck's assertion that 45% of doctors would quit as false. An informative read. "I refuse to watch any documentaries made by Michael Moore. I think he is far too radical and, to be honest, I think he's downright crazy." It's a shame because you will miss a very informative movie. I included a segment of the "Rolling Stone " movie review FYI "Moore shows us how France, England, Canada and - yikes! - Cuba actually help sick people instead of letting them wither and die for lack of health insurance. Then he instructs us to loot those places for ideas. Anti-American? Hell, no. Moore argues that if another country builds a better car, we buy it. If it crafts a better wine, we drink it. Why not free universal health care? Look for the reform spirit of Sicko to spark fresh attacks from haters who smear Moore as a fat, shambling, condescending grandstander eager to shade the truth to force a laugh or simplify an issue..............Moore brings a blunt clarity to the table. ......... To prep for the film, Moore used the Internet to solicit health-care horror stories, not just from the 47 million Americans who don't have insurance but from those who do. It's hair-raising, especially when we watch an L.A. hospital dump a dazed patient at a homeless shelter because her insurance has reached its cap. In France, no resident is denied care; that's why the World Health Organization ranks it number one (the U.S. is thirty-seventh).............. the weight of evidence Moore marshals for taking the profit motive out of medicine is overwhelming..........Moore delivers a movie of robust mind and heart. You'll laugh till it hurts." I'm sure you can still rent the DVD -that is, if you dare! Another website I would recommend for you in your quest to acquire factual knowledge on the subject is Health Care Reform Myths http://www.healthcarereformmyths.org/HealthcareReformMyths.php#A28 Happy reading/viewing -then we'll debate!

re UK nursing salaries -I believe they have more to do with what I remember to be pathetic nursing union representation than the "demon" universal healthcare

you are too kind Lamaze teacher

I wonder if any of the folks in Haiti are wondering where they can get help for their FSD, RLS, ED or balding eyelashes?

"Foreign-trained (although I prefer the word educated) nurse" here. I came over in the early 90's when there was a nursing shortage, but had to pass the NCLEX first. I was underpaid, compared to American nurses, until I finished my initial contract. I was recruited through a nursing registry, who wined and dined us and tried to get us to sign our employment contracts after we had consumed large amounts of alcohol. I came over here because I needed a change and had itchy feet and stayed because I couldn't bear to leave the CA weather. Nursing is one of the few jobs that gives you a passport to the world and I took advantage of that.

I am against futile care and believe that hospice care is very much underutilized in the USA. Yes I have seen patients in the states that you describe above, and I don't like it either. I have had ethical dilemnas frequently in my many years of practice as a nurse. But, onekidneynurse you missed my point. This young girl was someone's someone not a "sob story". Perhaps I should have said that you lack empathy. Which leads me to my next point. If our representatives and senators had more empathy for the common man than they do health insurance companies and big pharma, we wouldn't be having this debate. We would already have a single payor system. The objections to single payor are not based upon fear of lack of competition or lack of choice or government interference. Its all about money and power and brainwashing the common man into believing the hype just so they can retain their power and their money, at his expense. No amount of verbage can convince me otherwise.

Where is your compassion? I find your flippancy offensive. I hope that none of the nurses currently caring for my daughter with leukemia have that kind of attitude. Oh and don't worry. We have insurance. An HMO (not Cigna). I sure hope we don't get denied any care like Nataline did.

I do not like your hostile tone. Why I came to the United States is none of your concern and irrelevant to the discussion.

Nursing job mobility is the solution to nursing burnout. I have worked in many different specialties over the years and have found that skills/experience gained in one job/specialty leads to opportunities in another. I agree with you -one specialty over 30 years would be BORING!!!

with profits of $315 billion in 2007, I believe that is quite possible

I took an inventory of work activities I enjoyed - they all seemed to point to ER nursing. I had already been an RN for 18 years when I switched and had always thought that it would be too stressful, so I had avoided it. But I feel like it is a good fit for me. I don't know how confident I would have been doing it straight after graduating - it might be an idea to do some med surg first -you can get some pretty critical/difficult patients to look after. But then if they have a new grad program available then why not - just make sure you get a really good preceptor. Good luck.