TopazLPN

I have the dream - living in NYC - but I'm still not sure how to make it a reality. I'm a new grad nurse, just finished with my associates!! :) I worked as an LPN for a year during my last year of nursing school, but have no hospital experience. I realize that I may not be the best candidate on paper - especially considering nyc jobs are more competitive - but I'm determined. How realistic is it, to think that I can get a job and relocate to NYC as a new grad ADN? What do I need to plan for? I'm also accepted to a BSN program here at home that would only take a year to finish. I realize I would probly be a better candidate with a BSN and a year of experience, but life is calling me.

- I'm a nursing student currently enrolled in an ADN program that I expect to graduate from in December. I have no job experience. Once I have my license, I'm considering moving out of state to San Francisco. I know there will be a lot of paper work to do - applying for a CA license, etc.. - but at this point what I really want to know is how other people have made big out of state moves successfully. Are any of you planning to relocate to CA?? What are your plans? Where are you going? How are you making it happen? Have any of you already done this and relocated to CA from somewhere else? How did you do it? Where & why did you go? How were you able to find a job? What advice can you give me about relocating out of state? :redpinkhe

I'm considering relocating out of state after I graduate from my ADN program and pass NCLEX. I've lived in the same place my whole life and I'm feeling restless. I really want to be in a big city like San Francisco, New York, Chicago, or Boston. I've looked into travel nursing, but I won't qualify for that because I don't have any experience. So I figure I could just move - get experience and live in a new place. Are any of you planning to relocate after you graduate?? What are your plans? Where are you going? How are you making it happen? Have any of you already done this and relocated after you graduated? How did you do it? Where & why did you go? How were you able to find a job? What advice can you give me about relocating out of state? :1luvu:

What's it like being a Navy Nurse? How much control do you have over your work schedule? How many shifts a week/month do you work? 12 hour shifts only? Do you alternate between night and day shifts? Is your pay hourly or salary? Do you have to work overtime or on-call? How much down-time do you have as a Navy nurse? How long are you stationed in one place/what is a typical length of tour/billet? When do you get to travel overseas? Does the work compare to civilian jobs or are you a vaccination machine? What kind of opportunities to advance your career do you have? Can you change units or specialties? How competitive is it to become a critical care Navy nurse? Will the Navy pay for you to get your Masters as an NP or a CRNA? As a new nurse entering the Navy, what kind of additional support/mentoring/training will be available to me while I am still new and learning? Are new nurses welcomed by other navy nurses?

You won't have to wait to get into Block 3. I am an LPN continuing to RN - once I finished my pre-reqs, I was accepted immediately into my 1st choice college. I will be in Block 4 in the fall and I have worked as an LPN up until this point.. which has given me experience and insight that many of my fellow students do not have.

Grrr....!! I've heard so many people say the same thing! As a new nurse myself, I went thru a tough reality check. Yes, there is an element in nursing where you are providing care and helping people get better... but then you also have to realize it is a job and you have to get the job done. Do they prepare to be a nurse in nursing school? No. Learning how to manage your time, pass meds, do treatments, deal with docs, and fill out paper work comes from on the job experience. But you have to give nursing a chance. LTC is an area of nursing where you are taking care of the declining and dying, no one is there to get "better".. LTC nursing is all about maintaining pts until they pass away. Not exactly the happiest area, but it can be rewarding to get to know your residents. It will always be "12 hours of hard work"... you are completely normal to be feeling the way you do. Most new nurses I've talked to have had a period of time when they questioned what they got themselves into... I think this is because there is such a huge disconnect between the public's idea of a nurse and the reality of what nurses do.. which causes a lot of good-hearted "I want to make a difference" types get into the profession, only to be very surprised by the work. Good Luck & try to hang in there...!!

Waiting time to get into an RN program can be long.. but, I got in right away.. applied to PC in December, started in January. How did I do this? I went and got my LPN 1st... thru an LPN program with no pre-reqs... but worked on my pre-reqs for the RN program while I went to LPN school. By the time I graduated, I was ready to apply to the RN program.. and was accepted without waiting.. as an advanced placement student. However, it was a lot of work.

I have been told all through nursing school that I should start off in a med/surg unit so that I can get a lot of experience in my first year as a nurse. However, I recently accepted an internship on an ortho unit... with the expectation that I will work as a nurse on that unit when I graduate. I am wondering, what kind of experience will I have as an ortho nurse compared to med/surg? Will working in a specialty area pigeon hole me as a nurse or will my skill set be applicable to other areas? :thankya:

I am an LPN in LTC with 8 months experience. I am seriously considering quitting my job - my first job as a nurse - and going to work for an agency. I am frustrated with work, but I would stay if there wasn't so much politics going on among the staff. I am beginning to feel out of place.. So I am thinking about joining an agency.. but have some reservations because my strong point is being able to rely on the familiar routine of my regular shifts. However - I think going to different places could give me good experiences to learn from. How tough is it to work a new routine every time you go to work? How do agency nurses organize their time? Would I be well received by agency even tho I only have 8 months experience?? Tell me why you like agency work! :flowersfo

I am an LPN in LTC with 8 months experience. I am seriously considering quitting my job - my first job as a nurse - and going to work for an agency. I am frustrated with work, but I would stay if there wasn't so much politics going on among the staff. I am beginning to feel out of place. I wonder what it is like to work as registry - is it tough to go to a different place every shift? How well received would I be by an agency, when I only have 8 months experience? At my job, registry are kind of looked down on because they are "outsiders" - even tho everyone is so happy to see them at shift change... anyway... I want to hear from registry nurses.. share your experiences!!

Working evening shift is great for me - I don't like early mornings as much as late nights - but when I worked last night the night nurse called off. I thought to myself, okay.. this happens... and got on the phone calling other staff to see if anyone could pick up the shift. No one wanted to work. So I called registry... all 10 registry agencies that I had numbers for.. and still got no one. This made me a little tense. So I called the DON and let her know what was going on... it was about 7pm at that point - 4 more hours until the end of shift. She told me to call everyone again. I did. And no one wanted to work.. which led me to call the DON back, at about 8 - only 3 more hours until shift change. She told me to call the nurse who originally called off. I called that nurse, but she didn't answer... so the DON calls the unit clerk, who is at home off duty, and the unit clerk comes to work.. its now 9.. and she calls everyone again, cracking jokes and laying on the charm to see if anyone will change their mind. Nope. By the time she's called every registry in the city and pleaded with every staff nurse who will pick up their phone, its 10... I am done with my med pass and charting, but all the time I have a knot in my stomach.. because I realize that if a NOC nurse doesn't come in, then I will have to stay. I've never worked a NOC shift and have no idea what the NOC nurse is responsible for... but nevertheless, the DON is now asking me to stay. I tell her no, that I can't do it because I don't know what to do.. and she gets this tone of voice like I'm being a difficult child.. and tells me how all I have to do is pass meds, it's easy. But I resist her irritated intonation and still say no. One of the other evening nurses from a different floor volunteers to stay, for a $100 bonus.. but the DON says no bonus. (Yet, she'd pay a registry agency $50 an hour for a nurse... much more than what a staff nurse with a $100 bonus would cost!) She knows that I don't want to work, but she's expecting me to stay because she knows I can't leave... !!! Fortunately, another nurse stepped in at the last moment (it was literally like 15 after 11)... But I'm thinking to myself, wow! They don't care who works or what happens, just as long as someone is there signing the papers.. So I ask you all - Was I unreasonable to say no? I know that I would of had to stay if that other nurse hadn't stepped in, but I'm still a new nurse and I've never worked a NOC shift!! What do you all LTC NOC nurses do anyway? I felt like...

Thank you everyone for your valuable responses - all of you are right. Thinking about it now, I can't believe that I didn't do the documentation myself instead of turning it over to her. That was really dumb. Her dishonesty gets worse though. When I looked back at the narcotics MAR to see when she had given the sleeping pill, I noticed she had crossed out 2000 and written in 2200 by scribbling a two over the first zero - but the resident fell at about 2130.. and since the other nurse admitted verbally to me that she had given the pill before the fall, I just wonder if she lied about giving the pill or if she changed the time to cover herself to make it look like the fall and the medication were unrelated. I am now scared because I didn't document what happened... and I didn't explain my side of the story very well when the charge nurse confronted me with the other nurse, it was only later that I realized how serious the situation was, so I am wondering if they will even believe me at this point... but I will have to go back and document.

Nursing has a strange professional culture. We have to work together to get the job done, but ultimately I feel very alone. No one wants to be responsible when something goes wrong and people are quick to point the finger at some one else. The most experienced nurses seem to have a special talent for interpreting potentially bad situations into something more benign. As a new nurse I look up to my co-workers, but I am learning to keep my distance. Recently, I was horrified when another nurse blamed me for a mistake she had made. I was involved in the situation, but I did what I was supposed to do. I have heard the saying, "Nurses eat their young," but never encountered that kind of attitude. I have been welcomed and supported. Now I feel betrayed by this other nurse. This is the situation - Evening shift, toward the end of the night. I was working, in the room of a resident passing meds, when a CNA called out for me in the hall. One of the other residents had fallen. I rushed to the scene, but I was calm because I knew what to do. Falls are a fairly common occurrence in nursing homes. Tho potentially very very bad because of the possibility of breaking a hip, people normally get back up with minimal damage - a bruise or a sore bottom. I assessed the resident, took vitals, (all normal, no c/o pain, ROM WNL, no bruising, able to bear weight) and had the CNA take the resident back to her room to lay down. So my next action would have been to call the Dr. and alert the family, and then fill out an incident report. However, the resident that fell was actually assigned to the other nurse that was working with me (we have two nurses per floor in my facility). When the resident fell, the other nurse was on break so of course I stepped in to assess. But the nurse came back from break just after the resident was put in bed, so I told her the situation and gave her report of my assessment. She then told me that she had given the resident a sleeping pill earlier, so that was probably why she was woosy. I went back and finished the med pass on my hall. Later that night, I noticed that the other nurse had not filled out an incident report and when she gave report she told the night nurse that the resident was kind of woosy and slumped over but didn't really fall. At the time, I was surprised, but said nothing because this other nurse has more experience than I (Tho she is a new nurse too, having worked only about a year and a half). Guess what ... The next day, the resident had an "unexplained" bruise on her hip that her family, who just happened to visit, noticed! The CNAs explained to the family that the resident had fallen. The family was angry because they were not notified. The same nurse I had worked with that night was working when the family came to visit, so she explained the situation... but GUESS what she said.. She told the family that no one told her the resident had fallen!! Lie! I had told her, the CNAs had told her. Why would I have given her my assessment and taken vitals on the resident if the resident had just been "woosy"? I went with her to the resident's room when she did her assessment of the resident. I know she didn't witness the fall, but neither did I. I would have gladly done the incident report and notified the family, but she took over and I went back to my med pass. She was done with her med pass. I had no idea that she wasn't going to fill out an incident report ... and I felt unsure what to say when I realized she hadn't done one. Then she comes to me with her friend the Charge RN from Day Shift - they're both looking at me like I'm the idiot who caused the problem - and I get politely chewed out. I tried to explain that it wasn't the way the other nurse said, that I had very clearly told her "_____ fell." and taken vitals and done an assessment and turned it over to her. But somehow the truth was twisted around and I got blamed. They were even very nice about it and acted like I was just a poor dumb new nurse. The Charge RN helped the other nurse to chart everything very specifically as an "unwitnessed fall" and the DON was notified... so that no one would get into trouble... officially, I am not even mentioned in the report. However, the more I think about it, the more it makes me angry. I really believe that the other nurse was tired, didn't want to talk to the resident's demanding family, and made a bad judgment call to not report the situation as a fall by justifying it in her head with the idea that the resident was just "woosy" from the sleeping pill. This other nurse is a really nice person - great with the residents and always going above and beyond to help other nurses... but she was scared for herself and used me to cover for her mistake! I felt like it was high school~! I couldn't believe the way she behaved. The worst part is that I think she acted the way she did because of the pressure she was under as a nurse and not because she is a totally evil person. Maybe it was easier for a person like me to be blamed - but I was used. Am I being naive or is this kind of thing truly caused by the pressure that nurses are under? It really disgusts me. In the future, how do I respond to/prevent a situation like this?

I am a new nurse. I've been working in a LTC/SNF for 6 months, part-time on the weekends while I take classes towards my RN during the week. I thought working as an LPN would be a great way to break into health care because I've never worked in any nursing position. I looked at it as a transition before I would have to "really work hard" as an RN in the hospital setting. I was so naive. I had no idea how hard I would have to work as an LPN. I am overwhelmed by the workload and constantly run behind, but my co-workers tell me I work the easiest hall (20-24 residents with only 3-5 Medicare). I am not a person who is afraid of hard work.. I have had many jobs that required hard work, physically and mentally, but being an LPN does not compare. I operate on a level of high-strung anxiety unknown to me in any other job I've ever had. Will I get the med pass done on time? Have I assessed all my patients on charting? Has there been a change in condition in any of my flock? What do I need to tell the Dr. about this situation? Have I received/reported the lab results? Does everyone have a clean brief and have baza on their coccyx? How do I fill out this paper work??? It is the strangest feeling to be responsible for a situation when I don't have any experience with it - but I learn as I go. My saving grace is having a routine that I know fairly well (because most of my residents are LTC). I can survive on-time if I work on my normal hall, but if I float to another hall or another shift I have to start from scratch again and the madness re-ignites.... I have a good heart and I want to be a good nurse, but I know that I'm not. I didn't expect to be Super Nurse on Day 1 of working, I just can't believe the level of insecurity that I feel. I have become more comfortable compared to the first few weeks/months of being an LPN - I now know what to do if someone falls, I know how to take a telephone order from the Dr, I can chart better - but I am still very unhappy with this job. I question whether or not I'll continue my career as a nurse! BUT I have almost 3 years of education invested in nursing!! Can I walk away from all that hard work?? It really frustrates me that I was so blind to what this job is all about - nursing school was a very poor preparation. I learned so much about disease and appropriate interventions, and they harped the mantra of quality care.. but I question how well my education applies to reality. What I really need to know is how to manage my time and get the work done. I know its possible - I watch registry nurses come into the facility all the time and breeze thru their work. If they can do it, when they have no prior knowledge of their residents, then I know it can be done! I am determined to stay at my current job for at least a year. I am stressed and it does affect my personal life in a negative way ... I have cried so many times ... but everyone says that the first year is the hardest, so I can't quit now. Even tho I think about quitting! :)