MamaKitty13214

When it ain't your time, it ain't your time, by Golly!!

I'm in upstate NY (WAAY north of NYC) and where I work FT case manager salaries range from 70-80K or more DOE. So, I can't complain. The money and benefits meet my needs. You may want to do something like what inadvertently happened to me -- I actually went back to the hospital job because I needed better health insurance coverage because my son needed a few surgeries. Turned out the insurance coverage from that job really stank and it is not getting better. You have a lot of home care experience which is its own challenge and I am sure many of your patients are recent hospital discharges so you are very familiar with what their post-discharge needs are. It is worth applying for a case management job with your background even if you have only had a few years of hospital experience -- you never know -- if they really need case managers, they will consider someone with a lot of home care experience and some hospital experience. The challenges you have in home care can require WAY more resourcefulness and creativity than the challenges you have as a bedside nurse in a hospital -- hospital nursing is just as task oriented and time management oriented as home care nursing and you don't have the resources in home care that you have in the hospital, so the challenge of the work is often much greater. Nursing is always a learn-as-you-go adventure. So, depending on where you are in your life, either way might work for you in a hospital -- and different hospitals have different cultures as well. Most long time nurses that I know have had too many jobs to list on a resume because they went from one job to the next because the last was too exploitative. And if you can't trust the people or system you work with to be fair, it's another bye-bye until you find what works for you. The huge benefit to being an RN is that your skills are always in demand, you just have to look around to find the best fit for you. I never thought I would go back to hospital nursing after I left. I am now finding it to be way more interesting than I ever thought it could be (I'm in a state teaching hospital which is a Level I trauma center, so we see EVERYTHING here) . You will make more money in bedside nursing because of overtime and shift differentials (hopefully) but you will get a "bigger picture" in hospital case management and, depending on where you work, better time flexibility and negotiating power. Good Luck to you whatever you decide! :flwrhrts:

He was there. You just didn't see him. Always remember that when you feel them, they are there. Your eyes and conscious mind can't see them, but your spirit can.

Wow, Eagle78, you have really been through a wringer. Cancer is about a weakened immune system -- our bodies have a certain number of cancer cells all the time and a healthy immune system keeps them under control. When we have a lot of exposure to negative energies on a spiritual level (constant negative media mind control, personal stress from work or family and other cultural influences) and physical level (pollution from chemicals, electromagnetic fields, drug-tainted public water supplies, poor diet/food drink choices, etc) that we don't think about in our day-to-day lives but which have significant effects on us spiritually and physically over time. Our immune systems become overwhelmed and cancer cells take over and start growing out of control until we pull ourselves together again on many levels. That can happen -- there are many cancer survivors with many wonderful stories and much healthier attitudes toward life and the meaning of life after their experiences. And even those who don't survive leave behind many lessons for their families and those who love them. There is a higher force looking out for you, guiding you and giving you strength, whether you want to call it God or Jesus or Buddha or Allah or whatever, it is there and it loves you and is clearly helping you through your cancer challenge. Listen for the messages from this journey. Prayers for your healing. I wish you the highest good and best outcome for you. :flwrhrts:

I went back to a hospital bedside job after 10 yrs working first in a hospital (4 yrs) then in hospice, home care and field case management and found some sample medication tests online just by googling several terms -- that was 8 yrs ago, so I don't remember what I googled but there are sample tests out there to practice with for medication & IV calculations. I didn't like the bedside job because of the often unsafe staffing ratio and the Nurse Manager of my unit was a backstabber, so bye-bye to that job after 2 yrs. Found a float case manager job at a different hospital with a great boss, so that is still working well after 6 yrs. Since you worked in homecare, you probably case managed your patients and you might want to consider a hospital case management position. You don't need to be giving meds or doing the icky things that make bedside nursing a real challenge sometimes, but you have to know all of that in order to develop a safe discharge plan for your patients. Having worked in home care, you have a good understanding of what the continuum of care involves and would be an excellent candidate for the expanding field of hospital case management. Worth thinking about. Good Luck! :flwrhrts:

The Real World is not a well-ordered place You can't control everything You do the best you can within the Standard of Care for Nursing Practice and according to institutional policy You document carefully and clearly, especially when there is non-compliance, non-cooperation, or "the system" poses barriers (i.e. docs won't give requested orders, supplies can't be obtained, etc)

Swift Boat Propaganda:down: Don't look at that man behind the curtain. "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." ... Albert Einstein

OK. You are right, he is perfectly OK with how things are in this country right now. But I don't think my statement was rude. He is anti-government & anti-change and offers no productive solutions to the desperate problems that so many of us are facing. He is part of the problem, not part of the answer. Things in this country right now are in a desparate state and in need of change. Too many people are dying unnecessarily just because they cannot access basic health care because they don't have the money or insurance and this is simply WRONG on any ethical or spiritual level. Again, I have to ask, how is money more important than human beings?? Is it right for people to die because they don't have money? Is money the only measure of worth for our existence on this planet? That is what it comes down to and it gets very complicated. "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." ... Albert Einstein

Our health should not be treated as a commodity ("market") to be exploited for corporate profits. Please specify what "failed government policies" have destroyed our "health care market". Health care should not be a "market" where our health and well being are bought and sold by corporate interests. Corporate greed and Wall Street have destroyed our "health care market". Numerous posts of people's real-life, real-world experiences in this thread alone are testimony to that. Health insurance premiums just keep increasing 20-30% or more every year and wages remain stagnant or people lose their jobs. I don't know what world you live in, but you sound like you are clearly anti-government, pro-Wall Street, against working people, travel on the Right Wing Swift Boat, are completely out of touch with what ordinary working people are going through and really don't care about anything but maintaining Wall Street "free market" profits. If you don't like how things are in this country, perhaps you and your wife should go back to Brazil. That's what right wingers always tell any "foreigner" who doesn't agree with them. Sorry, what you say is totally biased toward sacrificing human beings for corporate profits and maintaining status quo. The U.S. Government, particularly for the past 8 years, has been a travesty beyond descriptionand NO, NO way could I ever "trust the government" the way it is, totally in the hands of corporate interests. BUT certain programs, like Medicare, worked quite well until the likes of Senator Bill Frist (MD, hotshot heart surgeon with mega interests in Humana HMOs -- http://effectmeasure.blogspot.com/2005/05/frist-family-values.html ) twisted arms in Congress to pass laws favoring health care legislation that opened the door for FOR PROFIT health care corporations to take over parts of Medicare and Medicaid. So, yeah, here is just one of your "failed" "government" programs -- MEDICARE D -- it is a HUGE barrier to medical treatment because it is so complicated & requires being locked in to very confusing "plans" run by private insurers who profit from restricting your access to what you need. Failed because corporate interests in Congress decided that Old People & Disabled People needed to be exploited. You obviously want more of the same. U.S. Government is imperfect with a great deal of corruption and a few good people like John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Eric Massa, and others who DO want to do the right thing for all of us, which is their ethical responsibility to do. THEY deserve our support because THEY are swimming upstream for us to pass legislation that will help PEOPLE and NOT CORPORATIONS!! Your free market privateers are making all the laws that are making "government" fail. So, let's keep letting the entities that are CAUSING the problem keep running the show that -- "free" markets. That's a true definition of INSANITY!!!

No one said HR676 is not federally funded. It is. Our taxes are federal funds and are supposed to be used in ways that benefit all of us, not just corporate entities. And yes, it is an expansion of Medicare to cover everyone. Many things would change. The plan is socialized in the sense that no one would be left out, unlike the mess we have now, not in the sense that "the government" would dictate what doctors you could see the way that private FOR PROFIT health insurance does now. Medicare works and costs a fraction of what FOR PROFIT health insurance does. Many services in this country are "socialized" & work well for the most part: fire departments, police, highway depts, etc -- would you change all of these "socialized" entities over to for-profit corporations? I guess you must be involved with the insurance industry to be so vehemently anti Single Payer and anti HR676. There's nothing wrong with making profit from services, but when profit becomes more important than human beings, there is something very wrong.

universal health care is not "socialized medicine", whatever "socialized medicine" means. universal health care means everyone has access to care without financial barriers. early access to primary care prevents medical conditions from worsening and becoming the catastrophic trainwrecks that end up clogging ers & icus and burdening existing public programs which have been crippled by insurance industry influence. the term "socialized medicine" is a bugaboo term thrown out there by the insurance lobby & big pharma to imply that big brother will tell you what to do. big insurance doesn't want to give up their grip on you. they are determined to continue this country's profitized medicine. their propaganda plays on the notions of "freedom" and "choice" as though such a thing actually exists in the titanic of "health care" in this country as it is now. the term "socialized medicine" is a red herring and a nonsense term meant to scare people away from a single payer system. single payer = privately delivered health care, publicly financed -- medicare for all. obama does not have a plan at present and he is on the fence with what he supports. he doesn't make the laws anyway. congress does. before he was elected, he supported single payer. right now he is waffling because of the influence of big insurance and big pharma. ask the citizens of canada, the uk, france, germany, most of europe if they would give up their universal health care for a profit-based employer-provided health insurance system such as we have in this country. why is the u.s.a. #37 in quality of health care according to the world health organization? yes, there will be snotty replies about how bad the canadian system is -- that's more propaganda about the evils of "socialized medicine" thrown out there by the swift boat people. don't buy it. as for who pays for it? we all do via a percentage of income (oh, horrors!!! a tax to pay for something that would actually benefit everyone and society as a whole) instead of insurance premiums that only cover a percentage of what we might need when we actually have to use it. what we have now is a for profit health care industry. what we need is a health care system not based on corporate greed. we are paying way more now because corporations all demand their cut and do it by denying authorization for service. the irony of the argument of "long lines and wait times" under single payer is acute when you consider that insurance companies either deny or delay authorizations for services. 60 people a day die because of lack of insurance coverage or under-insurance. under a single payer system, everyone has access to medically necessary care. "long lines and wait times" are another red herring, like "socialized medicine". rather than cynically dismissing any change that would actually result in universal health care, tell your congressman to support hr676 -- http://conyers.house.gov/_files/hr676111th.pdf . and, by the way, the ama only represents 15% of practicing physicians in the country. they have a huge lobby in washington and are heavily involved in the insurance industry ( http://www.chiroweb.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=44189 ). they are vested in maintaining a for profit health insurance industry in this country. they are a big part of the problem. you should instead be listening to pnhp -- physicians for a national health program -- http://www.pnhp.org/

The answer: HR676 = it is a WELL THOUGHT OUT PLAN -- please read it: http://conyers.house.gov/_files/HR676111th.pdf PLease also look here to see what some nurses have to say: http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/fact/top-10-reasons-enacting-single-payer-healthcare-system And Physicians for a National Health Plan on Single Payer: http://www.pnhp.org/facts/what_is_single_payer.php

I hope you don't lose your job or health insurance because of what your insurance company may deem a "pre-existing condition" or deny payment for "experimental treatment". Glad you are happy with what you have and that you are OK with a FOR PROFIT insurance company numbers counter telling you what to do. Your situation could change in a heartbeat. If you think there is any Freedom or Justice in the U.S. healthcare system as it is, you are clearly not paying attention. PROFIT based insurance as the payment mechanism for health care is a FAILURE because the priority is on maintaining a healthy profit margin for the insurance corporation, NOT on providing proper health care for human beings. Single Payer HR676 is the only answer that makes sense. Privately delivered, publicly financed health care. PERIOD.

I went to a Single Payer event in Rochester, NY, last month where Rep. John Conyers (he & Dennis Kucinich co-wrote HR676, which I would advise everyone on this forum to READ before spouting off about "government-run" health care) was a guest along with Rep. Eric Massa, newly representing Rochester and a very vocal advocate of Single Payer. I was asked to speak about my experience as a case manager/discharge planner at a public hospital where all the uninsured patients are dumped by private hospitals. To be fair, the public hospital where I work is also a Level I trauma center, so the "higher level of care" transfers are often appropriate. Before I got to speak, Rep Conyers was asked about reimbursement by a physician in the audience and Conyers said that Medicare rates would be increased and that he believed all nurses should also get a raise!! Health Care will NOT be "government run" under HR676. There is a lot of confusion in the debate because of many of the terms which are used. "Universal health care" really is universal coverage for a privately delivered, publicly financed system. "The Government" won't tell you what doctors you can see & what you can & cannot have the way FOR PROFIT insurance companies currently do if they still decide to cover you after you've gotten sick. And the FOR PROFIT insurance companies have worked their way into the Medicaid & Medicare programs by offering "managed care" options which are supposed to be less costly, but are actually devised to allow the FOR PROFIT insurance companies to exploit these publicly financed programs by deciding what to ration. So a lot of this anti "universal" health care and anti Single Payer propaganda is coming from the Insurance Industry. They don't want to lose the cash cow of the health care industry -- those poor CEOs can't live without their multimillion dollar salaries and corporate jets. As for the first post on this thread, please don't be so naive as to believe that there isn't an agenda behind what all these economist authorities are spouting -- look deeper into the backgrounds of these people and follow the money. Betcha none of them has ever had to decide whether to buy food or medicine or pay the rent or get your pills. Not a single one. They are telling you not to look behind the curtain and are distracting you with lots of shiny baubles. Statistics can be manipulated to prove any point desired and the LAST study on anything health related I would ever trust would be anything by Blue Cross/Blue Shield or any drug company. As far as I am concerned those statistic manipulating reptiles have their heads up their anal sphincters and have absolutely NO connection with what working and poor people have to deal with in every day life. And I'll betcha there's some connection somewhere to either Insurance industry or Big Pharma. And lastly, "The Government" is "We the people". Unfortunately, "we the people" have been dumbed down and lied to for a generation or more and we don't hold our elected representatives to task. Too many of them are bought & sold by insurance industry & Big Pharma and the decimation of Medicare/Medicaid and favorable legislation for these huge corporations is proof of it. So "the government" has become separate from "we the people" and corruption runs deep and wide. We as nurses really need to become more politically active in changing our crumbling system and follow the lead of the California Nurses Association in advocating for a Single Payer system. Profit does not belong in health care -- there is NO ethical justification in what the for-profit insurance industry has done to the people of this country. PERIOD. Single Payer is the ONLY solution and I will fight for it until the day I die.

Good for you! GO FOR IT!!! I was 40 when I started Nursing School (3rd career) and at least 1/3 of the class was 40 or over, with a few folks in their early 50s. A lot of us were in similar mid-life crisis/change/divorce boats dealing with personal stressors but wanting to do something worthwhile with our lives. Being a little older when entering this profession brings a whole different dimension to nursing practice because we've already worked through a lot of issues that younger colleagues are still struggling with. It is also really great to work with a variety of people and you continually learn from everyone you work with. I am now 60 & currently work as a Case Manager at a Level I Trauma Center & don't see any potential for "retirement" anywhere down the road and that's OK. Life is an adventure and age is just a number. Best of luck to you!!