Jasel

It depends on a lot of things. What type of jobs you're applying for, the area, the demand for specialties, etc. If you're in the Chicago area I'd recommend just applying and re-applying. If you're in an area where there's not as much demand you might have to be a bit flexible in terms of where and when you're willing to work. Also have you gotten any feedback from the jobs you've applied to??

So I was in Triage the other night and there was a pretty bad MVC. I think there were 6 accident victims total and we got the 3 least injured. Since triage was slow, there were two of us and we had 4 empty beds in our triage waiting area so we took the patient's from EMS. All of them had stable vitals, were ambulatory, no LOC, wore seat belts. None of them had been driving and all had been drinking (they were all 22 or 23 so legal age). The police were on scene. They had some slight abrasions we put bacitracin on and that was basically it. Now here is my concern. I could tell these guys wanted to leave because one of them had a brother (the driver I think) who went to another hospital. Charge nurse was a bit adamant that they couldn't leave (to me and the other nurse, not the patients). So not a huge shock they abscond when we were basically expected to watch them and she gets upset, but turns out they stepped out for a smoke and security basically brings them back in and watches them. She gets the attending back there to assess the patients after a couple of minutes, two of whom he discharges immediately. One he decides to draw an alcohol level on and move her to the main after it comes back positive. I'm not sure what the plan was after that since my shift was over at that point and my mind clocked out about the same time. The only thing I can think of them doing was running more tests, treating her as an ETOH and keeping her until she sobered up or got a ride, or a combination. Or maybe getting her etoh as an excuse to keep her to run more tests?? Because before he ordered the alc on her he had to have seen she was ambulatory and cognizant. And why just her and not the other two?? The whole situation just seemed weird to me. Where I am once the girl's blood alcohol came back he couldn't just discharge her. (Blood alcohol was like 250). Now once security brought them back after they went outside, they stayed with no problems, at least not by the time I left. But earlier they had clearly wanted to leave to check on their friend. Even if the doctor had seen them and wanted to run tests they would have signed out AMA. I guess I'm wondering if we had any type of legal basis to hold them to begin with? If they had been more adamant about leaving after security brought them back, I don't know how comfortable I'd have felt keeping them there. And I'm usually pretty aware of which patients just can't up and leave and which ones can. Just looking for some feedback. Maybe there's something obvious I'm missing.

The only hospitals I would avoid are Jackson Park and Roseland but I'm not even sure they have NICUs. With 3 years experience it depends on the hospital but I imagine you'd be making $32-$35. If you do agency you can make around $45 - $52. I'd recommend finding what area you think you'd like to live in and then looking at the job opportunities from there on out. Figure out if you can walk, need to commute, or if you have a car can drive. And as for a car it's really up to you. I've lived in the suburbs most of my life and just don't feel comfortable not having one. I could also take the bus to my job, get a Lyft/Uber, or walk for 35 minutes if I wanted (I don't, and probably never will lol). So again the car is up to you, but make sure wherever you live has most of what you need in walking distance (grocery store, public transportation, pharmacy, etc). Most places you want to go you can use public transportation. But also keep in mind public transportation doesn't all run 24/7 here and sometimes certain routes are only on certain days so do your research in that area too. Hope the move goes smoothly :)

If the situation had escalated and they wanted to leave I would have spoken up, or at least asked the MD why we needed to keep them. But once they brought them back he assessed and discharged two of them within 10 minutes (one was a female the other a male btw) and ran the etoh on the other female patient. Never heard them complain and once the Blood alcohol level came back I saw a note for her on the tracking board "move to the main" and the MD came back to speak with her. That's when I left. Next time I see him I'm going to ask him about it. He's a pretty laid back and approachable MD.

Thanks for the responses and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thought that whole thing seemed off. I could try asking the MD next time I see him.

I didn't work while I was working on my ADN. Fortunately I had my LPN and had been working for a few years. I was able to live off the money I had saved up, plus I lived with my parents rent free, no wife/kids, etc.

I've gone to nursing school with people in their 40's, 50's, and even 60's. I've also worked with plenty of nurses who started later as a second career in their 50s. I worked with one nurse in her 50s who had recently become a nurse after being a bus driver for 3 decades. Your age doesn't really matter.

Honestly it depends on a variety of things. What state you're in, your specialty, how many facilities in your area utilize agency, what are their staffing needs, your budget, savings, etc. And shifts are not guaranteed in agency nursing and you can always be cancelled. I'd do some research on how agency nurses fare in your area if you can. A quick way to get started is to read reviews for agencies located in your area and see what people have to say.

So a bit of background info, I'm currently on my first assignment out in CA. I'm from Chicago and drove 3 days here in my car to reach it. While I enjoyed the scenery and the experience it's not one I'm eager to repeat (driving across the country). My contract is up in late Sept and I'll be driving back home to Chi-town. Afterwards I plan to stick around my home for a bit and do agency for a couple of months so I'm home for the holidays. I plan on traveling again early-mid January (I'm thinking Colorado, Denver area). So I have no interest in actually driving out there. I have a car but the lease on it is up in late April and I'd prefer not renewing. I'm just interested to know what other travelers do. Do you drive everywhere you go? Or do you take planes and deal with rental cars in your assignment area? Or do you travel in an RV etc??? Just really trying to brainstorm ideas and see what I can work with and where I'd have to compromise.

Well I'm single, no girlfriend, no kids, and most of my friends are either moving off or getting married/starting families so I'm afraid I can't offer any wisdom in that regard lol. Balancing my life isn't a problem so much as getting one

Well I'm not L&D but I know it's a pretty in-demand specialty, especially for travelers. I imagine wherever you go people will be used to dealing with travel and agency nurses anyway. I've been treated fine at any hospital I've done agency, contract, or per diem with with (I'm ER). Once you start working and getting used to a new environment it will be like any other place with small differences. And if you don't like it a particular place, it's only for a few months.

You weren't wrong to make her a 1, you wouldn't have been wrong to make her a 2 either. There are perfectly logical rationales for using one or the other. What is pretty clear is your charge nurse's approach as well as her rationale wasn't appropriate and obviously isn't based on ESI criteria. Being a frequent flyer shouldn't affect ESI level when the patient is clearly critical.

So did they get rid of those 5 tasks you have to do??? All that drawing and having to build models???

That sucks. Have to admit though I laughed so hard when I read all of that I nearly chocked on my recess peanut butter cup.

Ya that happened to me back when I was getting my LPN. Got all 205 questions. Freaked me out for two days lol. I passed though.

Biochemistry was rough for me too at first. I procrastinated because the tasks seemed overwhelming. I panicked when my first attempt at turning it in was rejected. Then I went through the feedback provided for every single problem I was required to fix which helped alot. I turned in the re-corrected work and it was rejected again. But this time the feedback provided showed I just had to make one or two minor corrections/changes and the third turn in was accepted. The best advice I can give regarding biochemistry is to dive in doing the tasks, finish them ASAP, and turn them in so you can get feedback on what to fix. Don't bother reading through the recommended material, chapters, etc. Just start the tasks. If there's something you feel you need to know in order to do a task or part of a task just look it up in the text, although I'm pretty sure I used google far more than the text (throughout the program as well). I'd give that same advice for the rest of the classes, especially your last few classes. Some of them seem overwhelming until you start them and just dive in. Then once you're done you realize they weren't so bad.

Been ER for about 3 and a half years now. Before that I did some LTC as an LPN. Have been a nurse for 7 years. I originally wanted to be an ICU nurse and had wanted to get some tele experience first. Unfortunately the only tele job I could get would have been in a horrible hospital. Got a call for an ER interview at another one and at this point I just wanted to get into acute care period. Worked out for the best. I think I would have hated floor nursing and wouldn't have been as effective as I am in the ER anyway.

7 years later it doesn't happen as frequently but now I work in the ER and I usually have an RN badge buddy which I didn't have back then, even as an LPN. Still happens every now and then though even with the badge.

Not quite sure what to tell you. Chicago doesn't use travelers as much as other major cities but I've seen a few. And yes local agency nurses are far more prevalent here than travel nurses. You might want to look into some of the local agencies if your housing situation is alright. Some of them offer benefits although I'm not sure how great they are. I'm an agency nurse myself but I handle my own insurance,etc. But besides that I'd just recommend reaching out to recruiters 2 - 3 months prior to you wanting to come out here so they have enough time to look. Not saying the recruiters were lying, but like I said I don't see too many travel nurses out here.

It really depends on what you can get into. Your end goal should be to get a Bachelor's in Nursing (BSN). But there's nothing wrong with getting an Associate's Degree in Nursing (ADN) first. That's what I did. And honestly it was a much cheaper option. I went to my local community college, which wasn't expensive. And once I got my ADN I worked for about 18 months, made some money and got some experience and then I started an online ADN-BSN program which took 18 months and cost about $10k. Now there are programs out there that you can get into where you go straight for your BSN but they are generally MUCH more expensive. There are BSN progams that can set you back $30,000 - $80,000. I spent probably $14 - 15k total on both my ADN and my BSN through an online program. But if you're dead set on getting a BSN and get into a program whose tuition you can live with than go for it. Oh and I should add, although I think someone mentioned it earlier, in Illinois especially Chicago, some hospitals require their RNs to be BSNs. This is a requirement that is becoming more and more common in hospitals across the country and in some states entirely. You can always find work as an ADN but you have many more options as a BSN.

The only thing you have to do is pay your renewal fee every two years as far as I know.

It sounds like she's being required to do ALOT more than I ever had to in nursing school for clinical and I went through 3 separate programs. But that still doesn't excuse poor work ethic, laziness, and purposeful ignorance. Once I had a not so great evaluation from a nurse I was shadowing for a clinical day, which I disagreed with as I wasn't impressed with her either throughout the day. But I made sure the nurse I was assigned to the following day would have a glowing report about my performance which she did. It just sounds like this student is trying to skate by. I went to school with an RN like that and guess what? She's been called before the BON, fired at least twice, has switched jobs multiple times because she's never able to handle the job wherever she's at, etc. And that's just in the last 4 years. I doubt anything you say is going to derail the student from the program. If this is how she's been behaving with you and she's nearing the end then her instructors are most likely aware of what she's like by now. If she does graduate and passes the NCLEX, she's not going to make it wherever she goes if her attitude stays the same. Most nurses I work with are mediocre to amazing. But every now and then I run into nurses who are lazy or just outright bad. Sounds like your student is going to be part of the latter. Not your fault or responsibility. The best thing you can do for her or any future patients who are unfortunate enough to be under her care is to be honest in your evaluation. But besides that, not much else you can do.

Really just depends on your preference. Personally I can't stand 11a - 11p. It's going to be busy when you get there and busy when you leave. Might make the time go by faster though. And like others said you have to deal with lunch breaks and dealing with multiple teams, etc. But obviously some people like it. And some people choose it for lifestyle reasons (kids, school, etc).

Not sure which version you're using but I used a DOS version during a travel assignment this summer. If it's anything similar it's not a hard system to use, it's just not user friendly. But it's not confusing, and wasn't hard to pick up. Are you getting any type of training with the program?

I did RN to BSN.