nurse51rn

If you want to make it in Ca, you will. I moved here 3 years ago and lived in an apartment until I bought my house this year. I just started a new job at $10. an hour more than my old job. My old job still paid double what I was making in the midwest. And more importantly, NO SNOW!

Glass syringes and reusable needles that had to be filed (in CSR) to remove the burrs. Salem sump tubes. Do pre-op preps without gloves and using safety razors when doing them. The uniforms we had to wear were dresses or two-piece suits only - also clean caps (head nurses checked these daily). Girdles and hose (pantyhose had not been invented yet!). Bending over to do a dressing change, and your cap flipped forward. Metal dressing trays and glass medicine cups on them. All dressing changes were done with pick-up forceps - no gloves; sterile gloves were for the surgery department only. Peri lamps - 20 mins. 2 x/day. And yes, the clinitest and acitest - dipsticks and tablets. Circo-electric beds for back surgeries; then they were fitted for braces before discharge. Not be "allowed" to go shopping after work in your uniform. And everything else that has been written here. I just finished orientation at a new hospital yesterday, and we "older" nurses talked about these things. When we were talking about compartment syndrome, I mentioned wringer washers - only three of us knew what they were. LOL. This thread has brought back so many memories!

I moved out to Bakersfield about 7 mos. ago. There's a saying out here that "you're only 2 hours from anywhere". I know I'm about 2 hrs. from my brother in Ventura. The only hospital I'm familiar with is the Heart Hospital where I work. And yes, the ER's do get crazy around here, but I think that's the same anywhere. The roads are good and the weather is usually pretty good - but we do have a lot of air polution, especially when it is hot. There are loads of restaraunts for every dining taste and to fit every budget. The same for apartments. Bakersfield is like any city, it has both good and bad areas. There are many activities in Bakersfield, and they are published daily and monthly in the paper. I'm still learning my way around, but Bakersfield has a web site: http://www.bakersfield.com (I think). Good luck to you in your new job. :balloons: :balloons:

First off - thanks for this forum! The posted links are awesome. Now if I can just get into the one with the alogorhythm. I always tell my patients that they also need to let me know if the pain med is not working, so we can find something that will. Secondly, I also consider the ethnicity of a patient when it comes to rating pain. Their ethnicity and other belief systems also play a major role in how they rate/evaluate their pain.

Since I start my ED orienation Sun night, I want to get in one last "shot" at my old unit. I worked cardiac stepdown and had a direct admit last night> I got to the really important part: why did you come to the hospital tonight? Answer: chest pain! When did the CP start? 2-3 MONTHS ago. And are you having pain now? Yes, I'm hungry. Go get me something to eat. And this was on a night when we had very few beds in the hospital.

I chose to pay my own way through all my schools. I'm now part way through an MSN program, am the only income in a household of 4, and I am not beholden to anyone. If I choose to leave this hospital for another, I can do so without worrying about paying any of the money back. BY the way, this same institution offers a sign-on bonus that is really only a retention bonus (1/6th after 90 days, and the remainder is paid out at the end of the 1st and 2nd yrs.

Way to go RN-PA Now if I only had some of your courage.

And another one... My mom was dying of CA and I kept her here at home. She had lived with us for about 15 years before she died. Anyway, about 5 days before she died, (she was in a coma at this time), she was holding her arms up, pushing someone away, frowning the entire time and shaking her head 'no'. I kept saying something along the lines of, "it's all right, go to the light". But the more I said that, the more agitated she became. But, by Fri. night, she was smiling out and reaching for whoever came for her. She died peacefully early Sat. am. Yet still another one... When my mother-in-law was in ahospital dying, my hsband drove to the western side of the state to pick our dughter up at school, drove clear back across the state. then to sw PA. When they walked into m-i-l's room she sat up in bed, looked at my daughter and husband and said, "oh good, you're here, now I can die. She laid down and died. :eek:

I agree with all those wise nurses who posted a reply. I was 51 when I received my BSN and at 53 I am in my 2nd yr of grad school. Knowledge is worth it at any age!

I haven't heard of any of that where I work. With all the dicky tickers on my floor, it could get rather tricky. Can you say "code blue":chuckle :roll :chuckle

If staffing is up and census is down, we get offered a paid on call. If you don't take it when it's offered, you get pulled to cover the unit where the paid on call is. It doesn't seem to matter that our unit fills up every night from ED admits. Last night we had 10 admits (we were full staffed-thank heavens). But when we tried to transfer out a patient in sustained SVT, we were told that there were paid on calls in IMC, CCU, and ICU and they didn't have enough nurses to cover an "extra" patient. Hmmmm...I thought the whole idea of a POC was to call out a nurse when needed.

It's 2 tries at our place, too. Then I call the CRM. I've found that if I don't get it the 1st try, I won't get it the 2nd. :rolleyes:

Hehehehe...:roll ...thanks...I needed a good laugh