deann52

This is an older thread but at Kaiser, I (RN) do advise calls, telephone triage, NST's, all teaching, and then fill in anywhere else. LVN's do injections and procedures. MA's do all the rooming, routine appointment booking, small in room procedure assists and simple calls. Hope that helps.

Relax! This unit is fun, most L&D nurses dread going to MB but I like it too :) Enjoy your patients, have fun teaching the men how to change diapers, pain meds should never be considered PRN, offer them round the clock, try to avoid waking a sleeping mom or baby for an assessment unless really needed just because she is next on your list, it can wait an hour, position the O2 sat monitor on C/S moms so you can see it by the door, if their sats are 100% awesome, I had a nurse that would wake them up to count RR at 4 am, not all babies are natural breast feeders or their mommies don't have size appropriate nipples, that is what the lactation nurses are for!, these are patients that will have to go home on their own in 24-48 hours, treat them as such, meaning, don't change the baby for them, show them, don't console a screaming baby, show them how to do it, don't always help the baby to the breast, she needs to be able to do it on her own. This is a unit where discharge planning starts the moment she is on the unit, don't wait til the end to check off your discharge list! :)

We have 2 male techs on our L&D and the patient's have no issues. They work in the labor room, OR and we have never had any issues. Go for it :) NICU is totally open as well!

Usually we get condescension more than "yelling". I had one of my OBs tell me to go find her a real nurse since I was obviously not able to do her silly request. But she is just a b(*^^ and I feel sorry for her. But most docs are fine. Just stand up to them and they back down. Usually. :)

Haha of course she SHOULDN'T have to but when has that ever been the way of bedside nursing politics? :) OP: I used to have a nurse do that to me, ignore report, not look, annoying? Yes. So I just gave my report when I knew she could hear and I made myself very visible. Then left and charted reported off to so and so. I also made it a point to HELP her with her patients, complimant her on whatever. Eventually it worked. We are very cordial now and I enjoy her company. All work situations have a culture, you can go the strict hard line of "she has to listen, go to the boss, she should step down" but that makes you the bad guy against the charge. Or you can go in sneaky and soft and it usually works out. :)

Original post: She did not have "dispoable income" as a CNA. She was getting handouts from the govenment. Now she has a job that gives her enough to pay her own bills so I don't have too. Sorry, but that whole paragraph with the income breakdown is a big fat welcome to the real world and grow up. No your conclusion is wrong. I was implying that her thinking that we make all this awesome money and we can flaunt it and roll in the dough is a child's ways of thinking. She got the grow up part when she realized that "wow, as a nurse I really DON'T make all that great money because the government no longer helps me out, maybe I should have researched and looked into that first." People who get offended easily probably don't think through a statement and jump to conclusions that aren't there.

No I was implying that her thinking that we make all this awesome money and we can flaunt it and roll in the dough is a child's ways of thinking. She got the grow up part when she realized that "wow, as a nurse I really DON'T make all that great money because the government no longer helps me out, maybe I should have reseraced and looked into that first." People who get offended easily probably don't think through a statement and jump to conclusions that aren't there.

She did not have "dispoable income" as a CNA. She was getting handouts from the govenment. Now she has a job that gives her enough to pay her own bills so I don't have too. Sorry, but that whole paragraph with the income breakdown is a big fat welcome to the real world and grow up.

There are no couplet care clinic jobs. In clinic as an OB RN I do NST's, injections and advice. This is almost always in relation to the mother while pregnant or mom problems (such as bleeding) after pregnancy. All baby questions go to the RN in the pedi office, but that clinic is for kiddos 0-18. The only clinic/day hour postion that could fit would be the lactation nurses. They see both mom and baby post partum to work on breastfeeding only. That might be a spot for you, but you have to have the patience of Mother Theresa

In L&D we used IV phenergan all the time, good patent vein, highest port over 2 min. In Kaiser it would take a whole lot more than a documented, reported, followed up medication error. We can't even be written up for med errors unless it is obvious neglect or intent. A reporting form is done that does not have your name on it and you may be given a QA questionairre to fill out (why did it happen, how could you prevent it in the future, etc.) They did this to get nurse to admit the mistake so we could fix it. If you are so worried about getting fired then no one would admit the mistake. The OP didn't have to tell anyone about the mistake. Think about it, IV vs IM? With no witnesses? She didn't have to admit it, but she thought the process would protect her and it didn't. Shame on them.

What is it you would like to do? You mentioned your current job is as far away as you can get. What is the other side?

If you work for a company like Kaiser under a union the clinic nurses are paid the same as everybody else. I am at $60/hr.

She wasn't saying it was an issue, she was saying that it is unfortunate that there are seemingly less people for you to learn from in the workforce and outside of school. You learn a knowledge set in school that is great. You learn a completely different skill set when you actual start working. I guarantee you will want nurses who have been doing it for years there to help you out when your text books fail you. Age seems to be a big issue but to me it is time spent on the floor. My best charge nurse was "young" at the age of 32. She only had an ADN at the time but she was good and had been a nurse for almost 11 years! Actual age isn't what she, I think, meant to point out lacking, it is age in nursing years...

I understand where the OP was coming from but I also understand why her comments could be taken...wrong. I have been a nurse for 4 years, that makes me young in nurse years but I come with other experience that is useful to me. I have older nurses to look up to and greatly appreciate them but I am the one people come to for relief charge, computer training, new policies making etc... Some of the older nurses I know do nothing but sit their bottoms all day/night while we run around doing their jobs. Some of the younger ones do stupid stuff like call the doctor all night and give water to NPO patients. Age does not make a better nurse, it is all about who the person is that is your nurse. :)

How'd ya guess Grew up in Seattle, work in the Bay Area.

I work in L&D and an OBGYN clinic. We do medical TABS and

Are you unable to take the test for med school again? With doing well in med school perhaps you just need a better study and test taking strategy for your chosen career. You got into med school, a shame to not finish if there is a way... I did an ABSN. They are fast and expensive but they get you to the NCLEX. Good luck!

I have friends covered in tattoos who are nurses, midwives, etc. I myself have a tongue ring and large, albiet, coverable tattoos. It all depends on your culture. Get hired first, then most people won't say anything :) Also different departments are a little different...ER and L&D I have found are a little younger and more flexible, night shift is usually younger as well. It all depends.

I got hired directly into L&D so no a year of med/surg is not required. The OB floor will look much better than med/surg 100 times over. You may not float to L&D from Mom/baby but we float there. So if you know the pattern of post partum that is one more thing you have than another med/surg nurse doesn't. Also once you get going in OB you can ask to get trained in L&D from inside. Our big complaint in L&D was that NO ONE was trained from mom/baby to cover us for our lunches. I bet the manager would love to have someone volunteer to learn L&D. Hope that helps :)

Are you standing up for yourself? You don't have to sign the write up and can take the issue above her head if you truly feel the write up is unwarrented. The other thing to do is become chummy with the chronic complainer. I had that happen to me too in my first year. Now she is my friend. Hang in there :)

Just like the Bay Area nursing jobs for new grads are almost impossible to find. It sounds like you don't have any ties holding you to Ontario besides friends etc.? Have you thought about moving? That is never fun (or actually maybe it could be!) but there are jobs somewhere...

My MD's are pretty good, never had them refuse for a bad baby, anesthesia was a gem most of the time. I get the most push back from clinic questions!

What they said above are things you need to know but if they know you do not have experience there is no way they will expect you to have all that memorized. I did L&D for 3 years and clinic for the last and I still learn everyday adn have to look things up everyday. Interview just like you would for any othe RN position. Also OBGYN tends to be 30% OB, 60% GYN and 10% everything under the sun. Good Luck!

I am NOT a night owl and when I worked night shift I had to do it a bit differently. I slept in 2 shift of 3-4 hours and then stayed up til bedtime on my days off. I found that if I tried to force 6-8 hours in one stress I was more tired than getting up and going back to sleep later. I also have a family with day shift schedules so staying in a night shift pattern was too hard and I have to say I LOVE sleeping at night :) Either way you do it it takes some trying different things until you find something that works for you. Oh, and don't snack all night, messes with weight and digestion. I ate a dinner like meal right when I got on shift and then at lunch time and then sometime right before I went to sleep in the morning. Good luck! I do agree that at times I miss the freedom of night shift of making appointments, beating traffic etc. It has its benefits!

In outpatient surgery they use it along with Versed to calm patients before using propofol. I have had it for surgery, good stuff