mh356

Just wanted to introduce myself, I was accepted into the Fall 2014 Adult-gero ACNP program. Very excited to finally get started on my master's!

Thanks everyone for the replies. Always helpful to get different POVs. I'm sure administration has thought of everything.

So I want to get out of bedside nursing bad. But I also like the steady paycheck. I work in an understaffed ICU. We use travelers but they leave as soon as their contract ends. I keep getting phone calls from recruiters about certain ICU positions paying nearly double what I make now. So would it be that bad to quit working for the hospital and just take the agency job and work on the same unit? (assuming it is the same hospital/unit)

University of Md Medical Center in Baltimore has a lot of nursing positions open. I know they have a med-surg/tele position open that is a great first job for new grad RNs (I know because that was my first job there!). And the commute at 6.30am takes about 20minutes on 95.

If you have worked ER/Trauma and been an EMT then you should be fine on a neuro floor (just my 2 cents). I also worked as a tech in an ER as an EMT-loved that adrenalin rush, and I really enjoy the variety neuro provides me. The best advice I could give you is to just keep checking on your patients. Sometimes when they are quiet its not a good thing-I had a pt once that used her hemerrhoid cream as chapstick and another that loved to be naked (in front of her visiting son-in-law!) When I first started on my unit I bought a used Hickey book (Neurological and Neurosurgical Nursing) on Amazon and would look up diseases of my patients every night after work. That way I could apply what I was seeing to what I was reading and made such a difference.

Share time is when you go to visit a unit and follow a nurse around and see what its really like to work there. Try to notice the non-verbal communication-does the nurse look annoyed that she has to show you around? How well do the doctors and nurses communicate? Ask about lunch and potty breaks. How do they handle lunch breaks? Are they assigned coverage or is it a free for all (which means you most likely won't get one)? Most of all listen to your gut reaction. Do you get a good vibe from the staff and you enjoy being there? The units I visited (and worked on) I enjoyed visiting and could have stayed all day. They made me feel at ease right away.

I would try Craig's List as there are many neighborhoods nearby the University such as Federal Hill, Fell's Point and Canton that have rowhouses for rent with multiple bedrooms. You can find a room in a house with other young professionals (grad students, teachers, etc) or find other people looking for housing. Good luck!

If you can buy Joanne Hickey's Guide to Neuroscience and Neurosurgical Nursing, you can buy an older version on Amazon for less. It has everything you ever wanted to know about neuro and will give you a good foundation. Good Luck!

No extra pay, Almost always have an assignment (we try to give them the least number of patients/less acute, but that leaves them open to taking the first admission so some would rather have a full assignment of 3 pts.) During day shift Charge is expected to go to rounds with the teams, bed meetings and help other staff-a third of our staff has less than a year of experience. Plus assign beds, check the equipment/crash cart, make phone calls to ensure adequate staffing for next shift, etc. We are a neuro step down unit with an epilepsy monitoring unit, 1:3 ratio 14beds Mid-Atlantic

You'd be surprised how many patients are fine all day, no pain, no nausea, never need anything every time you check on them and then the family comes and they become a hysterical crying mess. Suddenly the family is out there following you around the unit, asking the nurse for pain meds for this patient and all other kinds of things. I wonder if the friend put some idea in her head...

UMD no longer offers the dependent tuition benefit I believe. Howard County (part of the Hopkins system) does offer some type of tuition benefit to dependents but I don't know how much.

We recently had a patient that had a reaction to ketamine after surgery. She was transferred to us for care. I thought it was odd too since I never hear of it being used but I guess some hospitals still do use it. The patient was young-18 y.o.; don't know if that makes a difference in choosing which drug to go with.

We use PTT on all our Heparin gtt patients. Do you use a nomogram-something that tells you how to run the gtt depending on how high or low the PTT is? Our facility says PTT; we don't even check the anti-xa.

We have this problem too. We were told to fill out an incident report every time it occurs so that it gets the attention of upper management. Do you guys clean the equipment yourselves with any wipes? We were wiping them with Cavicide and it seemed to be messing up the channels.

Thanks for all the responses. I went back to work today and my manager seemed to be laying low today-hung out mostly in her office. Just to answer a few questions...the feedback I got from the first tracer I did a few months ago in the beginning of the summer was that I should relax, try to answer just the question asked and not using phrases like "I think" which is my version of like. I say it without even realizing it. I have to say this-I am reserved when I first meet people. But during this tracer I was accused of making a sarcastic remark. I asked the other nurse if she heard me say anything like that. She said no. But I don't think my manager really cares and it would just be a he said/she said sort of thing so I didn't protest. I understand the message she was trying to deliver but the way she delivered it was uncalled for. Yes she was yelling and the last people that yelled at me like that were my parents.