samyaira

Hopefully everyone looking as of the last post has found jobs. Let's keep this thread alive for those who came after us....

ACLS certification is just paper; you're an RN, you can obviously pass classes. Experience with the steps and scenarios of ACLS is really the key. When employers are looking for RNs with ACLS, who they really want are people who are certified AND experienced. It can't *hurt* to have the cert, but I don't think it helps much either. And being unemployed, the last thing you need is to shell out more dollars. Let your future employer pay you to take the class if you need it, and let them pay for the class.

So far, the responses have ranged from simply asking for more information to downright condescending. Let me clarify that I am looking for an experienced opinion (or even published literature, if there is any, which I haven't been able to find myself) on outcomes for the pt. to have one large injection (infection control) or two small ones (comfort). Is the potential increase in infection outweighed by pt. comfort at injection sites? It really doesn't matter if I was technically/prudently "right" last time (and I was). You can be "right" and still have a sub-optimal outcome. The pt. reported pain and was very uncomfortable after I gave them 2ml in a large muscle. If I can help a pt by giving them two 1ml injections then I want to be able to do that with good rationale.

Okay, I need a bit of good nursing practice know-how. If you have a 2ml IM injection is it better to give it all at once (assuming non-irritating med) or divide it into two, 1ml injections? My thought process is that one injection will only break the skin once but will potentially cause a much larger sore spot, while two injections will be more comfortable for the pt. I ask because the last pt. I gave 2ml IM to (in the VG) c/o moderate-to-severe pain (non-irritating med). It really scared me how much they were complaining and I went home and looked up all sorts of things about muscle separation, tissue necrosis etc. Thanks for any help you can give.

The charge nurse already knows about this coworker of yours, believe me. Now you know too. You sound like you already know how to show up on time, do a good job and follow the protocol. So practice your way, do your thing, use your own judgement and stand up for yourself from here on out. What will you do next time this happens?

I'd like to find the meaning of a hat party and the origins of it, if possible. I've Googled "hat party" and "nursing school graduation" and some other terms, and I've searched this site too. My best guess is that it reflects a time when nurses wore white uniforms with hats and they got their hats at graduation. But if that is so, then what is a pinning ceremony for? Can someone "compare and contrast" the two ceremonies please?

Try to stay an extra 30 minutes at the end of your shift and write down all the little things you didn't have time to do. Then do them and go home, but keep the list. At the end of a week, pull out your 7 lists and see if there is a pattern of things you are staying behind to do, and if you can somehow fit those into your shift. If there's something you don't know, write it down and look it up (in a perfect world you would have time to do this right when you need to know, but better at home than never). Also, buy some personal malpractice insurance. It's cheap and it'll help you sleep at night until you get some confidence.

While I agree with the previous posters that nursing school needs to be your #1 priority, life is not all nursing school and you need to find a balance that works for you. One thing that worked for me and my boyfriend was agreeing that Saturday nights were "our" nights. It was a compromise because he wanted more time I could barely swing even one night each week. That lasted for about 6 months. When does your first quarter end? You may find there's a light at the end of the tunnel because of a schedule change. At the very least, there's always summer - right?

Wow, that is a sobering article. So oddly different from my experience. The only substance my hard-working nursing class is abusing is COFFEE!!!

bleah. edited because I can't figure out how to delete a duplicate post.

You are smart to be thinking about all of these things before you quit your job. Probably it is this intelligence that has served you well in your engineering field and will serve you admirably when (not if) you become a nurse. The way I read it, since you cannot just quit and *poof* become a nurse you need to decide if you want to quit your engineering job and do something else while you are pursuing nursing. Which doesn't sound like a nursing question at all, but rather if you prefer to keep the high salary or do something else entirely. On the one hand, you can save for nursing school if you retain your current job. On the other hand, you might not get into nursing school if you don't get a job in the health care field. My advice? Volunteer in health care. Volunteer hours look just as good as work hours on an application, you can keep your high salary and figure out if this is really what you want to do. Plus you'll be helping out where its needed. Win-Win.

I had Bio101 and Chem101 when I took A&P, but if it's just A then you probably just need MedTerm. If it's both A&P I would also recommend Nutrition, if it's on your prereq list too, because it will ease you into metabolism and the Krebs cycle (TCA cycle). Microb is also good. Actually, just take what you want and study hard - it's a LOT of memorization but you can do it, and do it well if you set your mind to it. Good luck!

Thanks to the RN who PM'd me with NYC info. I'd be happy to share if anyone wants to PM me with their info....

Hello! I've been searching and cannot find an answer to this question on any travel nursing website, so am asking it here. Hope some folks can help me. How much money do travel nurse agencies pay for housing stipends? I'm looking for numbers that nurses have actually seen, not ballpark. Any geographic location would be edifying but specifically I'm looking for numbers for LA, Seattle, Texas (anywhere), Las Vegas, Hawaii (anywhere), New York and Northern California. I remember a nurse posted that she got $115/day meals/lodging ($3450/mo) in Phoenix, AZ, which is exactly the type of information for which I'm looking. Thanks! S.

The information was presented at a nursing school information session in January....