austin heart

It will be VERY difficult for you to find work as an LVN in Austin. Like you said the job market is pretty tough for RNs let alone LVNs. The hospital that I work for does not hire LVNs period. I believe that there are some of the other hospitals may hire LVNs in their Adult Acute Care units which is the inpt equivalent of a nursing home. You would also be able to find a job in an actual nursing home, a doctor's office or at the State (mental) Hospital. I honestly do not know what the pay would be as I am an RN but when I was an LVN I could have made more money working at the mall full time than what I was making as an LVN. As far as the stress goes all you have to do is read some of the posts on this forum to tell how stressful our jobs are. Nursing is more than "taking care of people". My husband, an IT guy, is always coming home saying "you just don't understand how stressful my job is" and I am like I am sure it is stressful but the worst you can do is screw up someones computer. I can kill somebody if I screw up. You just have to remeber that someone's life is in your hands everytime you clock in.

Ha, in my many years as a nurse I have never been on duty for a JCAHO inspection, lol. I work weekends now but before I always scheduled myself off when we knew they where coming. It is not that I don't feel confident in myself if they where to interview me, I just don't want to deal with the hassle and pressure from my employer. We had our visit last week (did VERY well) and inspectors interviewed nurses for HOURS at a time. Kinda a hassle to deal with even if you do pass your full load off to another nurse while you are gone, you still gatta catch up when you get back. Consider yourself lucky.

LOL, We actually do this.

I work in a private hospital where the doctors have a financial intrest. No problems with that in my opinion. It is other nursing issues that cause problems. We also have a similar hospital like this in Austin...... The Hospital at Westlake Medical Center : Marble floors, granite counter tops and flat screen plasma TVs in all rooms, consierge service, etc.

No, don't you know that it always happens as they are wheeling them back into the unit not during the case. Same with radiology, they never poop there either just in the hallway on the way back from radiology, lol. As far as OP, I think that you need to find another profession to look into if this is one of your major concerns. If you are afraid of a little butt wiping then nursing is not for you. Hey the way I look at it is, everybody has got to take a dump sometimes and everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. If I have to be that helping hand so be it.

Only child and neither parent drinks.

"changing diapers: is a healthcare providers job. That includes we RNs as well. :) LVN responsabilities vary from state to state and even from facility to facility. The hospital in which I work does not even employ LVNs. My sugestion is to check with your states Board of Nurse Examiners and see what the scope of practice is for an LVN in the state in which you choose to practice.

For one thing, you are in Texas. If you look at the rules and regulations set forth by the Texas BNE pushing Diprivan for sedation on a non-intubated patiant is out of the scope of practice of a RN. That alone is enough to keep me from doing it. Why would you want to risk going before the BNE and loosing your license just because your ER doc says that it is safe to be doing what your doing. Doctors could give a flip about what we can and can not do if it suits their purpose and there is a good chance they don't even know that it is against the nurse practice act for us to be doing it. I went and found my post in the last propofol thread that was going on and I am ganna copy and paste it because is sums it up for me.............. Quoted word for word from the Propofol Injectable Emulsion package insert located in the Pyxis of my ED, in BOLD letters....."Warning, for general anesthesia or monitored anesthesia care (MAC), propofol should be administered only by persons trained in administration of general anesthesia and not not involved in the conduct of the surgical/diagnostic procedure." I guess I was sick the day they gave the lecture that trained us RN's to administer general anesthesia. If we are expected to do that they should be paying me more.

HCA hospitals in Austin don't use Group 1.

I agree! Dallas/Fort Worth is not the only place to nurse in Texas either. It's a big state with lots of sick people, lol

I don't think that this is quite the same...........

Very good post with a few exceptions, lol........ 1. As a bedside critical care nurse I am fully aware that sedation does not control pain. I don't know how many times though I have seen a co-worker crank up the diprivan on a moaning, wincing patient when I personally felt that the sedation level was adequate that the patient would relax and be more comfortable with proper pain control. Above scenario is on an intubated patient but could just as easily be a non-intubated ER patient. Even though I am good with my drugs and I feel that I can hang in a crisis situation I feel it prudent to bow to the expertise of the CRNA or anesthesiologist, after all that is what THEY went to school for. I agree with you that the person pushing the propofol then can not monitor the vitals and assist the MD by handing over supplies etc. The sedated patient needs the FULL attention of the person supplying the drugs. 2. It is SO MUCH easier to handle a sedated INTUBATED patient. It is a whole different ball game than pushing propofol on a non-intubated patient. I think that it is like comparing apples and oranges. 3. I really agree that many cases are more than likely going un-reported, especially if there is a fair to good outcome. I think that care providers have a "phew, that was close" attitude but figure that they are safe and all is good if the person doesn't die or suffer serious harm. I don't understand why these RN feels like that need to be pushing the envelope with their licenses, it's not like they are getting paid more money for that service. It is all too risky for me. I would rather leave it up to the trained aesthesis. Just my opinion.

Hey and while they are at it they can have the RNs from the propofol thread come over and provide their anesthesia, lol.

Hey Corvette Guy! How are yall likeing your new place? Tell that wonderful wife of yours to e-mail me and let me know how she is doing and if she likes her new job, lol. Hope things are going great for the both of you!