michelle95

I work in a 63 bed ICF and receive one day off for every week that I am on call.... which is twice a month (I share with the HSD). The only problem is that I cannot save them. So, if I don't use it within the month, I lose it.

These hospitals that are banning smoking on campus....are they banning those artery clogging burgers in the cafeteria? What about those krispy kremes? Double standards. I know that smoking is bad for you but if I do it away from others..what's the difference in my smoking and the other person that weighs 400 lbs going to the cafeteria for cholesterol laden food?

My oldest son was 11.4 at birth. I am 5'9" and had him naturally with no real problems. He was a little hypoglycemic and had to be on an O2 mask at first because he came out so fast (I pushed for 15 minutes). I did have a 3rd degree tear to contend with ... and that was NOT fun. My second son was 10.1 at birth...10 days early. I was only in labor with him for an hour and a half total. That sounds nice but I had NO time to get used to the pain getting worse. It was like BAM! I'm in transition. No screaming with either...and, like someone else said...I was made to have babies. Of course, I think I may turn out diabetic. I had an instructor once that said a lot of women that have big babies end up being diabetic even if they didn't have gestational diabetes (which I didn't).

I've never heard of it being a risk either. If it were, you would never change the dressing.

I just obtained my first needlestick last week (hopefully my last). It was a TB syringe that I had just injected lidocaine into a pt prepping for IV insertion. We both turned up neg for HIV, Hep B&C but man...it sure was scary. I will get checked in 6 weeks, 3 mos, 6 mos and a year. TO the OP, I am sorry that your employer is not handling this. I would be on the phone to OSHA if I were you.

1.Type of nurse? Periop RN 2. How many hours u work per week? 40 3. How many years of nursing? 6 years LPN, 1 year RN 4. What Shift: Day, Evening, nights, or weekend only? 0500-1330, no weekends or holidays 5. City and State: Pensacola, FL 6. Average 2 week gross pay: Almost 1600 gross and about 1200 after taxes, insurance, short term disability, foundation, etc.. I may not make as much as some...but, NOT having to work the horrid floor MORE than makes up for it. I worked a cardiac floor last year and almost got out of nursing because of it.

A couple of nursing homes that I applied at after getting my RN would not give me extra for having 6 years of LPN experience. However, the last hospital I worked at gave me gave me 3 years of RN experience for the 6 LPN years....and I worked on a telemetry floor....I had never worked "acute care" at that point. Worked on a rehab and a couple of nursing homes as an LPN but not acute care. You would think that since LTC was my thing that I would have gotten more. Go figure. The hospital that I currently work at also gave me extra for LPN experience....even though I have never worked on periop.

I will make sure not to make that same "mistake" twice. But, the way he acted...you would have thought I made a med error or put the IV in the wrong arm. He's just like that apparently. Physicians...sheesh.

Do you prep the whole arm on the side of the mastectomy? Just curious. I'm a new employee on a periop floor and this morning, I put armbands on the same side as the mastectomy so I could put an IV in the other arm. I asked another nurse if the whole arm was scrubbed...she thought it wasn't. Long story short, a call was made by the doc fussing about me putting armbands on the same side. He was supposed to have come up to the floor and b**** me out personally...but, he didn't. I was going to ask him if he had nothing better to do...if he did. Thinking about it now...(and also for the future), I should have put the armbands on the opposite side. Oh well. You live and learn.

I know that usually if a person leaves Baptist to go elsewhere, they end up coming back.

9.18 as a new LPN in Auburn, AL in 1999. Up to 14.00 an hour last year in Florida. Now 19.90 as a new RN but with LPN experience.

I'm with you. As soon as the kids are grown, it's on to something else. I like taking care of patients...but when your blood pressure starts to go up and you start to have stress related illnesses...it's time to think of something else to do.

Seriously, if nurses have nothing better to do with their time than to become up in arms because a former druggie rock star calls them "beautiful ladies"....they DO, indeed, need to get a life. It's not rude, it's the facts.

No flaming from me...I think some people need to get a life. Maybe it's cause I'm from the South, but, I took no offense to what he said. Sheesh, people.

Ours pays 2 classes worth of tuition per semeter for full timers going for a Bachelor's. No contract to work with the company after graduation needed. They do not pay for books, however. For part-timers, it's half of the tuition for 2 classes....don't know why it's not just "one" class. Master's level is one class a semester for FTE. But, you do have to sign either a year or 2 year contract (I can't remember). If you're willing to take a while...they will end up paying for all of your schooling. No PHD classes paid for.

Duh! You're right. Ikes. :uhoh21:

Yes, but there are a lot of things that I would do differently if I had the chance. I can say that nursing has allowed me to stair step and obtain degrees in a fashion that suited my family. Marrying at 18 and having a child at 19...I have never had time to go to school for years and only reap the bennies when I am finished. However, my attitude at work is not a poor one and my patients have no idea that I have any regrets. And, now it helps that I am working a peri-op floor. I work 0500-1330 with no weekends or holidays. And, I rarely have to worry about bedpans...except for the occasional post cardiac cath. If God would not have helped me get this job when I did....I think I would be loony right now. :trout: My BP has already dropped points since my stint on the cardiac floor. One day the kids will be grown...then, I can go back and do what I really WANT to do....become a vet. I will just patiently wait and take care of my family until then.

At my last job (a developmentally disabled home), one of my sweet ladies fell against a door frame. She slid down the frame and her neck caught the plate that the door knobbie thingy goes into when the door shuts (I have NO IDEA of the terminology) and was slit. The nurse that went to assess the situation (she was at a Pyramid day program) said that when he gently opened the wound to check the jugular vein...he could see it pulsating . Luckily, it wasn't slit either. She had internal and external sutures...but, I want you to know that the ER physician had the gall to send her home with no pain medication. I guess if you're brain damaged/autistic...you don't feel pain.

I was just recently offered a position at a hospital in Pensacola with pay at 19.50. For Pensacola, that is good. Moving back from Bradenton, I was NOT expecting that. I made 20.23 in Bradenton at an HCA facility. The reason I moved back to P'cola from Bradenton is the cost of homes in B'ton are 2-3 times the ones here in P'cola. So, I'm actually coming out wayyyy ahead. For once in my life, something is coming out right.

I start working on a pre-op floor next Monday. M-F 0500-1330. No major holidays. I'm not particularly thrilled about having to be at work at 0500 in the morning....but, after 13 years of working weekends and holidays...I'll get up and JUST DO IT. From what my new coworkers said....this floor may get stressful at times when the OR wants a patient NOW but generally, it's nothing like a regular floor.

Guess I don't have a reason to fuss. How do these hospitals get away with this?

It's worse when you are at a hospital that uses a computer system. The travellers I see get a total of 1 day orientation....that includes floor, computer system, hospital...all of it. I decided based on that...I don't think I would be a traveller. You work like a dog for that money. I'm not sure the instability and unknown are worth the money in my book. But, hey that's me. :rotfl:

At a neighboring hospital that I work in, the progressive care (medical telemetry) unit ratio is 5 to 1 and occasionally 6. Med surg is higher. Knew I should have gone to SMH...I just didn't want the drive. :rotfl:

How do hospitals get away with this crap? I can't believe some of your ratios. I've had an eye opener since I started telemetry. We have 5 patients 80% of the time...with 4 and 6 being the other 20%. I think 5 is too darn many. I had 4 last week and ALL 4 were train wrecks. I would leave one room and situation only to have to go to another room and situation. Then, at 3 that afternoon I got a direct admit. Of course, I didn't get to chart until shift change that night. I've decided I'm probably going back to LTC soon. It's hard work and yeah...you might have 30 patients..but, if they're sick...they get sent out to the hospital and they are not your problem anymore. A lot of days at work...I feel like I'm holding on to the edge of a waterfall...drowning because I can't keep up. Add that to the fact that while I was in RN school (I was an LPN first), I realized I didn't want to be a nurse anymore....and, well, burnout is going to come quickly.

Thanks guys. I had talked to someone at Jax U...they told me shadowing someone for a few hours was the only clinical hours. But, they are very expensive. I'm moving back to P'cola (housing is so high here) and thinking about either the "traditional" way through UWF or online through USA (South AL). I'm leaning towards USA. Are you happy with online education, Tweety?