seanymph

Like stated previously we have ratios here and do 4:1 and if have a Mag mom then it is 3:1 and your other 2 are usually over 24hrs and may be NICU Moms. It is not save any other way for you or the patient and is not even close to AWOHNN guidelines, which you should make a copy of take to your manager. I can't even imagine going back to work in a Sate (which I did up until 4yrs ago) that didn't have legal staffing ratios. It should me mandated in all 50 states for both patient and nurse safety.

I will be at Oakwood. Just looking for an alternative way to work so my husband can have the car for work, since we only have one.

Hi, I will starting there on 12/01 and will be housed in Mountain View. Is there a train system that runs from Mt. View to Lucille Packard?

Due to a number of reasons I need to find a job that I can do from home. I read a suggestion recently about doing home medical transcription. Does anyone know where I can inquire about this or getting work? Thank you

I just finished traveling for almost 4yrs. and had 10yrs OB eperience when I started. I could do my own SVEs, but have never done FSE or IUPCs and when asked in interviews for the travel position I just told the mgr that I was not trained to do them and they were all fine with it.

I can believe it. I was sick with pneumonia and pleurisy, was under doctor's care, told my manager that pulmonary function test showed my lungs were working at 60%. On top of that everytime I talked to her I couldn't finish a whole sentence without stopping to catch my breath. Yet she said I either had to resign or be terminated!! Since I had been sick for 2 weeks. Such a compassionate field we work in when we don't take care of our own.

I'll help out. :)

Did an assignment with RNDemand and they treated me great. Pay was great, always on time and someone was always there to answer my questions or return calls in a timely manner. Would definitly travel with them again.

I traveled with RNDemand and was very happy with them. My pay was always on time, correct and when I needed something I called and either talked with someone or got a call back in a timely manner. They worked very hard to get me an assignment in an area that was not known for taken travelers or very few of them.

There are PP and antepartum positions out there, but few and far between. I just saw some posted on Travel Nurse Across America. Call and ask for Crystal Lovato. I have done alot of assignments with her and she is great. Here is the link: http://www.nurse.tv

I have traveled for 3yrs as a L&D nurse and the ACLS is something all my assignments required. I think because there was the potential for recovering C/S patients. I had taken it with my home hospital before I started traveling and found this much easier. It has not always been easy to find a place to renew my BLS, ACLS and NRP. Good luck with your travels. I had been doing L&D, Mother/Baby and nursery for 7yrs before I started traveling.

Thank you for the reply. I guess having been so focused on OB for so long I could not think of other options. Didn't even realize we could work for insurance companies. Any idea on how to go about it? Thank you again.

I do not want medical advice on what to do. I just want to know if this is similar to what others have gone through. If I thought there was something seriously wrong or wanted help with my hot flashes I would consult a physican. I have already read numerous articles on hormaone replacement therapy vs. natural ways to help and have made up my own mind in regards to this. Like i said I just want others insight into their own personal experience with perimenopause and menopause.

I have been really down about my nursing career lately. Not sure if I am becoming disenchanted with nursing or if its that i haven't had a vacation since 2002. I do L&D, mother/baby and newborn nursery. I knew when I went to nursing school 12 yrs ago that I wanted to work OB. At first I thought that L&D was my first love. Then I discovered the joys of working in the nursery. I like working with the newborns and "stabilizing bad babies" until the transport tem arrives. I also enjoy working with the new Moms on mother/baby, I love doing the teaching. I liked the fact that I could jump between all 3 areas for a change of pace. Then 3 years ago I started doing travel nursing and have done mainly L&D as that is in higher demand than the other 2. I find that I dread going to work, have a hard time dealing with the labor patient, even though I still strive to do my best by the patient and give them a good labor experience. I am not enjoying the high risk of doing labor especially after being named in a lawsuit where I was not the primary nurse, but was named as I was the other nurse on that night and had signed the "chart" as going in and assisting the primary nurse when the patient was first admitted. I just don't feel like taking the risk anymore that labor involves. If I could think of another career that would pay me similar income and I would enjoy I would jump at it. Does this sound like burn-out or disenchantment or someone who needs a vacation. I have taken a permanent position back home as I miss my family and friends, but is L&D, which I am not looking forward to. Thank you for any advice or insight.

Hi all, Would appreciate any insight you can give about personal experience or knowledge about menopause. I think I have started per-menopause, but not sure and have questions. In January of 2005 i started having hot flashes and night sweats that were absolutely terrible. I was 41yrs old then, know it can be young for menopause, but not sure when my Mom when through it. She never talked about those kind of things and she has since passed away. Have continued to have the hot flashes and night sweats off and on, but started to take a product I found at GNC and it sems to have helped alot. My cylces have gone from being spot on every month to maybe skipping a month or two. This recent cycle I had I thought I was getting my period after not having one since June, but it is not like my normal period (heavy flow where I use 1 1/2 packs of the overnight pads per period) to more like spotting. This has been going on for 3 days now. I feel silly asking these questions, but have no older woman in my life to ask these questions of and since i have been doing travel nursing I don't have a regular physician I see to ask, only see one if i need refills on meds. So is this normal for perimenopause? Is this what happens? I know I am not pregnant, no chance of that. Stress has never effected my cycles, always have had them no matter if my life was in total disaster. Thank you in advance for your insight and patience.

I got hurt on one of my assignments when a labor patient grabbed me and yanked me down over her and twisted my back. I couldn't move. All I could do was lay on the couch fo 4 weeks, except when I had to see the doctor or go to physical therapy. I was lucky that my company let me stay in the apartment until the end of my assignment. Of course i could barely tolerate the trips in the car to the doctor's office. Thank god my boyfriend was with me.

I have traveled for over 3 years and up until this assignment always drove to my assignments. I utilized a car top carrier for the things that wouldn't fit. Like the previous poster stated you really have to stop and think of what is totally necessary. I bought alot things at dollar stores when I arrived, even pots and pans, figured they only had to last 13 weeks and I did alot of cooking in the microwave. This assignment I flew to as I am only going to be here 8 weeks and it is on the other side of the country. I hate it as my company wouldn't provide a rental car and due to the fact I don't have a credit card I can't get one. So get back and forth to work using a taxi and am pretty much stuck in the apartment on my days off which really stinks. If you fly, make sure it is with a company that will provide you with a car, but i don't know as if their are many out there. Good luck.

Ok, I feel totally stupid. About a week and half ago (yes, I should have known better ) I was standing on a bar stool to get a vent open. In the process of getting down, guess what...I fell. Bruised the left knee, hurt the left shoulder and elbow from the fall, the stool coming down on it and the TV falling over on it. Didn't have it checked out, marked it down to my stupidity. Well, later that week I proceeded to fall 2 more times and land on the same side. Now all most 2 weeks later my elbow is still swollen as is my collar bone. My shoulder and upper arm are sore and it hurts to use them, but I do have full ROM. The smallest thing, such as reaching for the car door to close it once you are in causes pain. I'm wondering at this late date (2 weeks later) if I should go have it looked at or just give it more healing time? Thanks for the opinions. And no I'm not a drinker or on drugs...the first fall was due to my own stupidity and laziness, just didn't want to go get the ladder and the other 2 were slips on ice.

We had one last week that insisted at 35 weeks to be induced and the phyisician did it! Unbelievable. Then we had one come in from out of area who said she was 37 weeks and contracting and needed to have her repeat c/s done that night. Well, Doc got an US and baby was 32 weeks and under 5lbs. We were going to keep her over night and observe her. She signed out AMA. We got a call from one of the neighboring hospitals and the same Doc was o/c there and said she was there! He wanted us to call all the hospitals in the area and warn them she was "hospital shopping." I think I am getting too old for this stuff.

Hi, Thank you for starting this forum. It will give me a reason to to retrun to allnurses.com. i had stopped coming since they made so many things (ie: break room) for premium members only. I am not Native, but my S.O. and "sons" are and I take a very special interest in their culture and health issues, so I am looking forward to your forum. Seanymph

Thank you, Meghan. I got online and ordered this book.

I started out as a LPN 11yrs ago and was working just every other weekend on a Med/surg floor while I finished up my RN. I was working nights with 2 other RNs who were great. I offered to make rounds on the patients, just to make sure everyone was all right. Well, I walked into this one room where the gentleman was a DNR and I could tell that "something wasn't right" when I got to the first bed (he was in the window bed. I stood there watching to for any chest rise and fall and didn't see a thing. I slowly backed out of the room....scared to death. Mind you I had never been around any who had died before so this was all new to me and very unsettling. I went to get the RN who was taking care of him and I said "I think Mr. so and so has died." She went down to the room with the other RN, as it took 2 RNs to check hearbeat to verify. I stood in the doorway. The RNs were very nice and understanding. I felt so bad that i couldn't approach this gentlman when I first walked in the room.

Hi, I will be taking my ACLS renewal class the end of this month, not my favorite thing to do. i am no good at reading heart monitor strips and get nervous about this everytime. Does anyone know of a good book or card that would help with identifying these? I need one of these as opposed to a website as I will be reviewing not only in my spare time, but in my travel to my next assignment where I will be taking the class, so I will not have access to the internet. Thanks for any help.

Hi, What part of Michigan are you from? I am from a small town near the Jackson area. If you are considering going to the U.K. next year you might want to start the process of getting your license now as it can take a while. I had checked into it a couple of years ago and it was going to be alot of paperwork and take some time. I know when I got my Australian license it took me something like 6-9 months to obtain. Good luck.

I'm not sure what type of shunt they would, thats one of the reasons I was looking for an article. I was wondering if it was down in the pelvis somewhere. I, too, am on the Topamax and have been for 2 yrs. Once you get through the intial sleepy stage, for me it was the first month, it has been a wonderful medication. My neurologist added Elavil to the medication regime and I don't feel sleepy at all. That being said I just spent the last 3 weeks with varying levels of a headache and tried everything from Relpax, Zomig, Frova, Ibuprofen, Naprosen, Benadryl, a new medication that started with an "M", my Tylenol #3's, to nothing at all. Went to get a shot of Morphone with companzine. Went back to my doctor and she prescribed Firocet w/ codiene and that finally knocked it out. I have had migraines since age 18 and have learned my triggers are lack of sleep (been told to quit working night shift, like that is going to happen anytim soon), to stress to my cycles. Unfortuantely I was lucky enough to inherit them from both my MOm's side of the family and my Dad's. Have also found people who don't live with them or live with a person who does is very non-sympathic and doesn't understand the impact they can have on your life.