DogCrazy

I drive my old (1995) Ford Taurus. I don't care if I beat the heck out of it driving it all those miles every week.

When I graduated, the only people who had jobs at graduation were people who already worked in healthcare. Everyone else started looking. I know I was really grateful to have taken my job as a tech when graduation rolled around and pickings were much slimmer than anyone had anticipated.

I have discovered that I like working nights. When I first started, I would stay up every night. Now it seems I just naturally sleep nights on my days off. I always take a nap for at least 2 or 3 hours on the day before my first night. I was scared to start nights, not sure how things would end up. But it's been a great experience for me, and I hope you have the same. I still make time for my family, I still have time for exercise and socialization. I find life is easier if I sleep right away in the mornings when I'm doing two or more shifts in a row. My commute is such that I don't have much time for anything except sleeping and eating and driving to work when I do two or more in a row. Good luck :)

I'm not judging, just saying you may want to re-evaluate your idea of fun. :)

Whoops

I drive an hour one way, sometimes an hour and fifteen or even an hour and a half if there is traffic.

I walked in to do my assessment, and my pt asked "how much is the shrimp?"

We're just starting to change our report system for ED patients and have gotten a couple on the floor without any verbal report. I had a friend whose pt was an etoh pt having active hallucinations, and nobody told her he was in the room. I don't like it.

I wouldn't say that AZ hires. I did get a job at the hospital where I worked before graduating, but not everyone who worked here in my graduating class got a job. One person was told she could continue on as unit secretary even after passing NCLEX. Lots of people from my class in Dec. 09 still looking. I did lots of networking with friends and coworkers here at the hospital to get my job.

Go for the liquid. I think the patient's K goes up quicker with the liquid than any other form, anyways.

I would never wear tennis shoes to an interview. I'd go to Famous Footwear and try on shoes and ankle boots until you find one you're happy with, that covers as much of your foot as you want. Like another poster said, you just have to wear them at the interview, and can pop your tennies back on in the car afterwards.

I worked in a forensic laboratory for years before starting nursing school. Any positive results should be confirmed by GC/MS, and that would determine exactly what was in the urine. The false positives are from the screening tests only, not the confirmations, at least at our lab. We used to have probationers claiming a false positive from alllll kinds of stuff, but when you find a metabolite in urine that is specific only to cocaine, that there's a positive drug screen.

It is totally normal to feel overwhelmed. I've been on my own for about a month, and I still feel scared. It'll be o.k., you just need to get into your groove.

How about the dialysis patient who went home and drank a half gallon of milk washed down by a case of Pepsi? Craziness.

I'm working as a new grad on my unit, at nights. I spent one week on days, plus all of my time on the new grad unit on days. I much prefer nights. I have time to go through the charts and learn what's going on with the patients, and what the plan is for them. I also don't have to deal with doctors all shift long, and families are scarce. It's just the patients. I'm loving nights.