studentgrl

im a lil over one year as a RN at a busy 40 bed tele/cv unit. at nights we get average 6 and lot of times 7 pts a piece, sometimes we dont have nursing aides, sometimes we dont have charge nurse and im the only senior nurse on the floor some nights. they try to call other senior nurses to come in to do charge but they all refuse or have other jobs. alot of times we're just short a nurse but our nurses dont want to come back if they dont have to cuz they just had a bad and crazy night. they never look at the acuity when they do staffing cuz most of the time we have 4 complete pts a piece that require so much of our time, our bp machines are half working and o2 sat is not available on all the machines, i can go on and on but i wont. the truth is nursing stressful with high patient ratio.

i also work on a 40 bed tele unit in the inner city. i understand what your going thru, most day are "bad" days meaning super busy, having no time to pee or eat, giving report to day nurse when my stomach is growling like crazy, eating my packed meal in the car while im driving home in traffic, running out of blankets/applesauce/blank paper documents on the floor, sometimes we end up only having ONE freaking CNA for the night so we have to do some vitals!! i usually start out with 6 pts at night and one admission during the night. what kind of floor has no coffee on the floor? us! we have to go to the vending machine on a different floor and buy it ourselves. when i go home i cant even sleep cuz im replaying all this crazy stuff that went on during the night and what i could have done better or go online and study something i wasnt sure of. i definitely see myself having a heart attack from all this stress later when im older. its just so hard to get a job in the university hospitals that have better patient ratio because theyre on a budget freeze and not hiring outside the hospital and i started out as a new grad last year. so im planning to stay for couple years and go into a less stressful area of nursing like OR or maybe go back to school because the university hospitals pay for the tuition. currently my floor night shift have 4 openings. anywayssssss.......... gotta go to work now.

sorry double post --

Type of Hospital: community Type of Unit: medical tele which includes post cath and post surgerys Number of beds: 39 Number of patients each RN has: nomally 6-7 on my night shift but up to 8 i have had (im a new grad too!) Do you have a nurse's aides and/or at what census level do you downstaff an aide: we have 1-2 cnas during night Do you have a unit secretary and/or at what census level do you downstaff the sec'y: unit secretary goes home at 11pm All i have to say is i wish i live in california where staffing ratio is low. my typical night consists of no breaks and scaring down a granola bar while im charting. im on my second week of orientation and its scary, my manager refused to give me more time on orientation (9 wks of orientation on the floor). but i knew i would learn as i go by asking questions and getting support from my staff .

wooji what are you looking at? i work in chicago area and my hospital is hiring, and they hire really easily. from my experience, it was very hard finding a job in a well established chicago hospital such as uic, rush, northwestern, loyola, u of c, etc. its because there are so many new nursing grads and everybody wants to work there, so its comepetitive. i ended up in a smalll hospital that is part of a bigger hospital network. let me know if your interestested. my hospital is hiring and youll prob get hired fast cuz they're really short

seriously i heard the same thing when i was in nursing school. its gonna be so easy to find a job because there is a need for nurses everywhere. i went to school around champaign and i saw my classmates getting jobs quickly around that area. but once i came up to chicago, i found out it is REALLY competitive. there is SO many new nursing grads and they all want the day shift in a well established hospital such as rush, uic , loyola, northwestern, uofc, etc. I ended up in a small hospital yet part of a big network of many hospitals. they are really short of nurses and i got a job right away there. i plan to transfer to a bigger hospital in the future but now im happy getting the experience because wherever you go, you will learn tons! good luck with your job hunting. its a very long and patient process..

avery jane you should def check out loyola's new heart and vascular unit. they're hiring!!

igmirnor what i meant was make sure you know the different types of precautions you have to take for each infectious diseases. make sure you know all the diseases, you never know which one will appear on the nclex. when i studied- i made sure i knew all of the diseases mentioned in the kaplan course book. but the common ones like HTN, diabetes, HIV, TB COMMONLY appear in addition to all the other diseases. faith00, i studied 3 months straight right after i graduated. my school kept on telling everyone that based on evidenced based practice.. students should take their nclex within 3 months of graduating. i guess the theory behind it is that you tend to forget more if you wait longer.. i did as many questions i could cram every day.

igmirnor, wat i meant for the infectious diseases is make sure you know what type it is like is it contact/droplet/standared, etc. TB, HTN, STDs, hiv, diabetes are very common topics and likely to appear on nclex BUT other diseases do appear on nclex so you should know them ALL. i made sure i knew all the diseases mentioned in kaplan course book. hope this helps..

My scores were pretty low also when i started out on kaplan like low 40s 50s but it got better and better .. i think the videos and book content are the same so as long as you review one of them your good. i didnt have the patience to watch all the videos because it was hard to rewind to something i missed and sometimes it was slow to load. personally its faster for me to review the book than watch the videos. uhmm..wat else...question trainers 6 and 7 are longer so make sure you have enough time to go over them too. where are you at on the kaplan videos? are you almost done? ohhh one more thing.. make sure you know the different types of gaits/crutches/walker stuff. like which foot goes first and etc. i WILL think of you on the 25th!

i got 76 questions. i seriously thought i failed because i got ALOT of questions wrong. but it turned out i passed. i took the kaplan course also. like many other kaplan takers..i swear my the kaplan QBANK!! at first i was getting low scores on the trainers but i kept on going over it, understanding what kind of questions would be on it. i wish i stuck with kaplan in the beginning.. i went krazy, i borrowed all these nclex review books from the library and i was so determined to cover everything. i own a saunders comprehensive and borrowed lippicots, etc. i like saunders comprehensive because if i didnt know something in kaplan's questions i could look at it as a reference because the kaplan course book is very brief. soooo i'll say this again...i love love kaplan's trainer questions and qbanks!! Things to study: MEDS MEDS MEDS (study by category please, if nclex gives you a med question and you dont know its category, sometimes you can guess its category by looking at the answer choices), theyre gonna give you a disease/condition and u should know if its standard/contact/airborne/droplet precautions, LABS, prioritizing, interventions. ALSO practice select any above questions. go to bookstore or library and borrow the 250 alternative nclex questions. thats a GOOD practice book. let me know if you guys have any questions. i know how it feels to be studying for nclex. now im in this stage where im trying to get a job but it takes forever for them to call back. when will this end?!!? =(

i am a new grad who recently just passed the nclex. i want to get a masters later on after some hospital experience. i know rush, uic, uofc, loyola, or other university hosptials will pay 100% tuiton reimbursements. i want to work at northwest memorial because i do not like TRAFFIC!! i live in skokie area. do you guys know how other non-university/ community hosptial's tuition programs work?!?!? like is it only partial assistance??? thanks in advance. ohhh and other question? how long does it take for them to get back with you after you apply online?? i dont like this waiting game..

hi guys. iv always been on this site, reading about tips on nclex cause im studying for mine 1st test on march. so i have several sources. unfortunately all of them are not 2007..some are even from 2002. i hate when one book says one thing and the other book says another!! anyways..i remember one book said hold lithium dose if pt starts showing EARLY signs of lithium tox like fine tremors..but another book said just give the dose and assure the pt that the fine tremors will go away and give the dose. so which one is right!?!?!??!?!?!? ohhh..and if someone has the chicken pox..u cant room them with another kid who already had the chicken pox?!?!?! is that true? i looked it up and found that its possible they can get it again. but....i thought they couldnt get it! i had tons of questions but i forgot em all. i will post em when i run into those questions if u guys dont mind =)