Kittyfeet

I was quoted 20/hr for San Jose plus a housing stipend. I am new to travel nursing and California as well. I am wanting to work in Monterey.. if you feel comfortable with it, would you mind telling me which company you talked to that had offers in that town?

I want to bump this back up there... I just responded to an offer from this company I found online too. I can't really find any reviews. Anyone have any experience with Strategic Healthcare or know of any good agencies on the Central Coast in CA?

Has anyone ever done Travel nursing in or near Monterey, CA? I would love any info. Right now I have Tele and Intermediate Care experience but I'm open to other options.

I was one of those delusional people that didn't realize that my feelings wouldn't stop when I got my RN. I never thought about how much I might *not* like some of them. After working for years doing front desk customer service type things I should have been prepared that people would drive me crazy. I felt really guilty about it until I realized I was only human and that I treat everyone with respect and the best care I can give regardless of how kind or rude they are. I also felt even more guilty about getting annoyed by patients who really can't help it. We can't help having feelings. I think so far I have learned to grow a thicker skin and not take some people's behavior personally. Sometimes I have to remind myself but I'm working on it all the time :)

Yeah I think it's very unsafe to have a picc line when there is nobody to care for it... if it hasn't been touched in two days it's going to clot off! I don't know how the chain of command works in your hospital but if I were in that situation I would def. be trying to get this resolved. Good for you for being the patient's advocate!

I was scared to do it too, I always would ask my preceptor to come make sure I did it right, lol. I use Alaris pumps too and once you get the hang of them it's pretty easy. Your hospital probably has a clinical nurse educator that would be more than happy to do a one on one with you on the pumps, that's what they are there for! I went to a small group session on changing central line dressings and now I feel much better about it. Trust me though, before you know it you'll be hanging IV's left and right all shift long hardly thinking about it. :)

I grew up in Centennial/Englewood... very pretty, close enough to the mountains to easily take lots of weekend trips, and the schools were great. There was always a ton of community stuff going on too. Although I moved 10 years ago, I think it's grown a lot. I want to move back some day, I miss it!

Flag the drugs in your book that you most commonly see used at the hospital... for example, if it were me I would flag things like lopressor, lisinopril, darvocet, lovenox, rocephin, etc.. so it's quicker when you go to look them up. And be sure to get to the floor early, maybe you can look up labs and history while waiting for report?

Ask the pharmacy to put it on the mar so you can scan it? I have seen them put a bag of saline on there specifically labeled "for carrier". And also "for blood". I think it's just a matter of remembering to put it on there rather than just pulling it out when needed. It also depends on how your hospital's system works, I'm talking about a system with an electronic mar and an omnicell.

I completely agree... they just want to get a reaction and they get really amused when it's anger and they push and push. I have only been a nurse for 4 months but I experienced a lot of harassment while working in customer service type jobs. I usually try to brush it off and not acknowledge it at all (unless someone actually made a real pass or threat at me) because then they don't get their goal of making you upset and they have no point in doing it. It is hard too, to watch what you say when you are trying to be casually friendly and lighten the mood a little with your patients. Sometimes even having that attitude opens the door for them to walk all over you with requests and could be taken out of context.

Oh and in response to financial concerns (as I read through more of the posts) the vet clinic I worked for was corporately owned and no, they don't make as much as RN's but they did have good benefits and job security, and even my friend who works for a private practice clinic has just as good benefits. It's all about where you work, and if you really got into some advanced stuff there are some really high tech high acuity animal hospitals (that do chemotherapy and advanced radiology stuff... really amazing stuff, the one here treats zoo animals as well as pets). There's also the aspect of owning your own business and doing well financially.

I worked in a dog kennel and a vet clinic when I was studying nursing. Your schooling will not go to waste, trust me, ESPECIALLY the micro! Have you ever thought about becoming an RVT? I am frequently amused at how similar working in a "people" hospital is a lot like working at an animal hospital. Seeing a sick animal get well and taking care of them and talking to them and giving them TLC is really rewarding. Or seeing a happy family that their beloved pet is going to be ok, or being with them to comfort them when the pet passes away and making that time easier on them. And even if you don't work with sick pets, I always enjoyed playing with the dogs and making them feel happier while their families were gone and they were scared and confused. The ones that would come all the time would LOVE boarding and you knew they recognized you. Sometimes I miss it so much I consider volunteering at the local shelter! Good luck and I'm glad you realized you could be happier doing something else :)

I just came across that issue not too long ago.. my patient was having surgery in the morning and their HS blood sugar was in the 200's. I asked the charge nurse and she said to cover it. I would think 300 would be way too high to leave! Besides like someone else said most people don't eat after their HS dose anyway, and with the infection and stress I would think it could stay up and put more stress on their body while they are already having to have surgery. I talked to a nurse who said that they "new information that's out" is coverage is pretty much always needed and it's strongly recommended not to hold it but I don't remember what her source was.

When I hung albumin with my preceptor it came in the glass bottle and we hung it with the tubing the pharmacy sent and hung it to gravity directly to the patient's saline lock. I just watched the drips and made sure it wasn't going too fast and it went in a little over 30 minutes.

Thanks to everyone for all the support and words of encouragement. I just keep going in every night and hoping for the best. I've had smooth shifts and bumpy ones. I am noticing a little improvement though. And I've realized I don't mind being incredibly busy, I'm just grateful when everyone has stable vitals and labs! I'm going to keep trying for a year and build up my experience. Thank you again, so much for your kind words :) And good luck to all my fellow scared and idiotic feeling new grads!

I am yet another overwhelmed new grad and I have read the pages upon pages of people saying "stick it out a year" and "you'll feel better after 6 months! I have been out of a 10 week orientation for about a month now, working nights with 5 to 6 patients. I think I work on a great floor with nice people and a good manager, although it is still super busy and very challenging. There are days where people seem upset and overwhelmed but there are plenty where everyone seems fine. I have had mostly positive feedback and have never been called in to be told I made some huge mistake or anything. I guess I am more concerned about being fired/reported to the bored/sued for something I missed. I feel like I can't give anyone enough time with all the running around I do and we do get some fairly high acuity patients. I have had a code, a couple ICU transfers... heard of patients having a bad outcome a few days later.. I feel like I did all I knew to do with all of these people and I constantly am bugging the charge nurse with questions, but I'm so afraid something is going to come back to haunt me. We also have lots of nursing home, dementia or just plain confused patients who try to get out of bed, pull of their oxygen, pull out their IV, etc, and I know we can't just tie everyone down or have a sitter in every room! We have even had a couple people fall while family members were standing right there and just did nothing. It's scary! I wish I could just have one patient so I could sit there and stare at them and have their vitals constantly monitored like in the ICU. A lot of people tell me "you will get used to it, this stuff happens" so am I just being too sensitive.. people sometimes just decline or code or have bad outcomes and it's not my fault? I am scared that I suck at nursing and nobody is telling me or that I will get sued years from now for some mistake I made as a new nurse. I would think that if I was doing a bad job someone would have said something by now. Am I just being paranoid or do nurses just live with this level of fear all the time? I don't know if I can stay in this field if it feels like this forever, I'm always thinking about it at home. I have no problem with working hard and was looking forward to it, but I also want to feel good about the work that I'm doing!

There are 3 new grads working days right now at my job. I got hired for nights, but I like the extra pay and not having as many orders being written throughout my shift. I used to get up at 5am every morning and be totally exhausted by like 9:30 at night but I am used to nights now. My best suggestion would be get really good grades and apply to all the internships as early as possible and you might get your choice in unit/shift. There were a handful of people in my class who did get ICU and Post partum, which is really where I hear you should go if you wanna do L&D!

It drives me crazy when people say they had "lasix" on their eyes.

Maybe you could tell them that your start date will be 2 weeks from when you sign your papers then? That's what I did, I never got a letter.

Hi! I've been off orientation about the same amount of time and sometimes I feel like I really got screwed with my patients too, and wonder if med/surg is for me. I have noticed they try to give me 5 when they can. I think you should talk to your boss and maybe they can ask the charge nurses to watch the acuity level when assigning you, or give you 5 for a while. Let them know you feel like you need more time to catch up in speed and don't want to miss important things. You may also consider switching to nights too! It helped me a lot. There are rarely new orders so you kind of know what you are getting at the top of the shift. I think it's normal to feel overwhelmed at first but not to the point of feeling unsafe. Good luck!

12 hour shifts are rough for me too, but I also think I would be a lot more tired having only 2 days off a week and working at the pace that I do, than just getting it all over in 3 days and having 4 days off. Plus I feel like even 12 hours isn't enough time to get it all done, lol but I guess the work is never truly done.

I am pretty sure I couldn't be a CNA either. Of course I do bathing/assisting with toileting/bedmaking, etc at work and of course I did it all in school too but I think all night long with 15 or so patients it would drive me crazy. A lot of people go into nursing with the misconception that it is all starting IV's and passing pills. I think it's natural to be nervous about bathing people and helping them to the bathroom. I think in the back of our minds we are all afraid of being sick or elderly and dependent on others and of course it kind of goes beyond the boundaries of the relationships we usually have with strangers. I mean, before any of us were nurses did we really go around listening to people's chests and touching their feet? She might just be scared of CNA work but maybe when she is exposed to it in school, along with other people who are new, she might get over it. I know I did.

I really want to get insurance.. we purchased it through the school as students and I feel like if we had to do it then, there was probably good reason and we should still do it. However I heard someone say something like "if you have nothing to go after the lawyers won't try to go after you because it's not worth it to them, but if you have insurance they will know and they will go after it". Any thoughts on that? Regardless of that though, I think I would feel better with it, I already checked out a quote on NPO and it looked pretty good.

Honestly, I'm still a new nurse (3 months so far on Telemetry floor) and I'm still trying to work this out for myself. I am still kind of slow and I would also appreciate any advice on how to assess fast, but thoroughly. Right after I give report I go check on all my patients, cause I have realized you don't really know how long it has been since someone was in that room last to check on them. I try to check as much as I can right then and then if I missed something try to finish it up during the med pass. I try to see if they need more fluids, a new IV or any prn meds during that initial visit so I'm not running back and forth. The things I make sure I get for my assessment are pain, orientation level, lung/heart/bowel sounds, Tele box #, ankles/feet circulation, I check IV and hands/arms/nailbeds/skin quality all pretty much at the same time and I try to get each patient to squeeze my hands and press against my hands with their feet because we seem to have a lot of post CVA with one sided residual people. Then I try to focus on their Dx, a wound, or post op site, if they have an NG or foley, etc. and on unable to turn/total cares I try to go in with the tech for the bath to help if they let me know when they are doing it so I can take a good look at the back without having to get the patient up over, or I do their Q2hr turn and look but a lot of the patients are too big for me to move alone. Sometimes I get all of this during multiple visits and I just jot notes down on my report sheet for abnormals I need to chart on. One of the nurses told me I should chart the assessment in the room while I'm seeing the patient at the beginning of the shift which is what our hospital pretty much wants us to do but I'm just not fast enough yet! I'm worried I'm falling into bad habits though, back charting :/ I need some tips too! But I just can't feel good about skipping anything on my assessment or copying the last shifts notes. I hear you on that. I have seen wrong info copied like 5 times. Good luck and congrats on passing your NCLEX! Get ready for a lot of personal growth... I can't believe how much my confidence has gone up in 3 months even though I have a long, long way to go. :)

There are lots of LPN's where I work, but if you are having a hard time finding acute care maybe consider looking at rehab or a doctor's office if you really don't want to work in a nursing home. But I think any experience would help you out in the long run! I think you might see more stuff at a rehab hospital than a nursing home though. But even at the nursing home you would get practice with passing meds, time management, etc.