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This is a great website for info. Thanks Fred_Ide for your info. One more question though, I got my BSN in the Philippines and have worked here in the US for 18 years. Did a masteral level as a nurse anesthesia student but with 3 hrs of sleep Monday to Friday (& I had to stop working from my job with no income for 18 months and moved to Connecticut) and with small children, I lasted for 18 months out of the 29 months program and moved back to the SF bay area. I was wondering if I will get a UK license if they will give me an RN license in France or probably go to nurse anesthesia school (but I doubt if they will let me do that either, huh?) but my biggest hurdle would be to speak francaise. I am working in the 2 of the top 10 best hospitals in the US (on the west coast) and my clinical skills are excellent - patients with continuous hemo-hemo filtration (CVVH), intra-aortic balloon pump, ventricular assist devices and ECMO (external end-organ machine similar to bypass but continuous). Free education for your kids, good health insurance and good retirement would be better to high pay. :wink2:

Hi, I am an experienced nurse in the California. Though we are one of the highest paid nurses in the US, most of us still have to work 2 jobs to keep up the standard of living here in the bay area. I have extensive cardiothoracic experience including heart & lung transplants. I am interested to work in France? How are the working conditions there in France and how is the pay? Thank you for your time.

Hi Lilcajunnurse, Unfortunately, this is the world we live in. These "junkies" have a level of tolerance of pain meds as they are used to having the drug in their system until we have to increase their doses for them to get relief. PO pain meds actually give a longer duration of action rather than IV meds. As a fifth vital sign, pain is now to be addressed. Believe it or not, I have actually given Fentanyl 1000 mcg IV over 1 hr and pt was still even screaming of pain (pt was not at all intubated). I guess pain, we should not judge our pts sometimes because people have different tolerance to pain and some people just have a large supply of natural opiates in their system, that is why they have higher tolerance to pain as compared to others. Thanks.

Hi Kanani, Just like you, I am a nurse of a different color other than white and I have been a nurse here in the US for 18 yrs. Here's my advice for you: You should tell your pts this, just as nurses are not allowed to choose our pt assignments, pts should not be allowed to choose who they have as their nurses and if they give you hard time. let your charge nurse know. Thank you.

PS In a code situation, epi is to be given IV for rapid onset of action (and actually you have to flush w/ NS right after) rather than SQ as fat absorbtion via SQ is acutally very slow. Thanks.

Hi LilDKessler, Sounds like you work in a 3rd world country. Epi should be in the code cart as it is part of the ACLS protocol and if you don't have it, you should go to the director of pharmacy and make a big deal about it. It is not the nurse's job to procure meds but rather the hospital where we work should provide it for us. The Department of Health can actually ding you if you have personal epi stocks in your own pocket. Who knows if it is really epi and they will actually check for expiration dates too. Good luck.