meriposa

Hello!! I have been a nurse for 12 years and 5-6 of which I have done labor and delivery/gyn/postpartum nursing in some capacity. (have also done med-surg, homecare, etc). 2 1/2 years ago I transferred to the main OR because I needed normal m-f hours, no wknds, no holidays because I was on the tail end of a brutal divorce/custody battle and it was more conducive to my personal life. Let me just say, I have hated the OR since the first day. I hate the attitudes, the lack of teamwork, the surgeon abusiveness, the type of nursing it is. I use zero nursing skills and I feel I have dumbed myself down (no offense to anyone who is an OR nurse). I feel more like a glorified servant than a nurse and it has also killed my self-esteem from all the knowledge i have lost and the way I am treated there (we are so micromanaged and have no autonomy). Currently, I work part-time hours in the OR, 7-3:30p with no weekends or holidays. It allows me to pay minimal daycare since I pick up the kids from school and the hospital is minutes from my house. I have never stopped missing L+D. I do work prn once in a while to get my fix but I miss it so intensely that I dream of delivering babies all the time!! I guess I just wanted to hear from others what they would do in my shoes. Would you go back to FT to do what you love with weekends and holidays or would you stay PT in an area you loathe in order to put your family's needs first?? I am so incredibly torn. I did not bother posting this in the OR section because most OR nurses I know are in love with their job. Thank you!

I started in OR boot camp back in Feb 2012 but came as a seasoned nurse with a background in L+D, medsurg and homecare. Everyone warned me that you had to have thick skin for the OR and treat the surgeons like they walk on water. I figured I would just get accustomed to the culture and with 10 years of exp under my belt I had high hopes for myself. Let's just say I cry at least 2-3 times per week (after work of course) and have to give myself a pep talk most days before I will even get out of the car. Each day I try to find witty comebacks, stand up for myself, try to remain non-emotional, get things done as fast and efficiently as possible and am prepared to be thrown under the bus by any team member I am working with. This is the norm and each day is like entering the battleground anew. I find it so unfortunate that this is my focus rather than giving excellent patient care and becoming an expert in my new setting. I hope things improve for you. After going on a year in the OR, I have accepted that my environment will likely not change. I am stuck in a contract but will likely move on after I fulfill my time.

I worked for about a year and a half at the GYN institute in the women's pavilion at mercy. The pay was well above average, great health insurance and pto benefits and it wasn't a bad commute through the city. I would have stayed but found I was not happy in my role there. I have also heard wonderful things about the OR.

Just a question...how far do you go in order to accomodate your patient's scheduling requests ? I have noticed since getting back into HH, that patients are much more demanding with scheduling. When I give a 9-10am window, I'm confronted with 'can you make it 9:30?' Or a patient who is on the complete other side of the territory wants a late afternoon appt so you are zigzagging all day- turning 30 miles into 80 miles? Or today I was 45 minutes away from a patient's wife who called and demanded that I come immediately to see her husband because SHE had to leave for an appt? I never hear my other colleagues complaining about this, so I wonder what I could do differently? Where/how do I set limits? Advice please!!

I was with amedisys for a year and couldn't even hang in there to complete the 12th month for my sign-on bonus. It was 24/7...the paperwork, phone calls from patients and MDs up to 10pm at night all days of the week, the micromanagement. Multiple times a week I would get called out after 5:30pm, after I had picked up my kids from daycare. It was just endless... Fast forward to three years later and I decided to give HH ONE more and FINAL go. Different company, and now per diem instead of FT. Needless to say I feel even worse this time. Now, instead of my salary, I'm per visit rate and I'm having to follow-up on things on days off when I'm at my OTHER job. Its harder to juggle the 24/7 stuff when Im working my other job. Not to mention, I do alot of vacation coverage so I get thrown in with patients I've never met before and the other nurses leave things an absolute mess, meaning I have to devote even MORE time trying to pick up the pieces and straighten things out. I constantly go back and forth about which I would rather put up with...punching a time clock and being locked in four walls...maybe being in an office job (which I did but was mind-numbingly boring)...or having the freedom with my schedule but having the work follow me around everywhere I go.

I live in harford county and have been trying to get a job at UCMC for almost 2 years. I can tell you that they want 2 years recent experience in all of the specialities (definitely PACU, OR, ER). For fulltime I was offered 34/hr on days (I have 9 years exp) and there health insurance benefits looked reasonable. Not sure about tuition reimbursement, etc. I was disappointed with per diem rates- 28/hr flat rate. Good luck to you!

Hello fellow nurses! I am a nurse of 8 years and I recently took a job at a gyn office/clinic assisting with minor procedures and doing telephone triage.( I also did L+D for a few years and still am prn through an agency. )This is by far the easiest job I've had 'clinically' but so challenging when it comes to the doctors! I'm well aware that at any nursing job there will be at least a few tough physicians to work with. I try to let things roll off and I felt like it was pretty easy to do in L+D since the physicians are in and out. I am really having a hard time with the physicians in this practice. They try to hold me accountable for management-type issues and are constantly calling me into their offices to complain about many things that are out of my control. I have to say that its extremely hard not to take things personally. Any suggestions for dealing with doctors that are impossible to please??

Just curious if anyone does med-surg float and how do u like it? How much more is the pay vs. regular med-surg hourly rate??

For those of you who do Med-Surg-- if your agency sent you to a tele/IMC or Short-Stay unit where everyone is on a cardiac monitor, would you demand to be paid the Tele/IMC rate for that unit vs. a basis med-surg rate? Heres whats happening to me-- I am a med-surg/L+D nurse, with MINIMAL tele experience (I DO NOT feel competent at this point in time caring for someone on tele nor do I have ACLS)....Im doing prn at one particular hospital and when they have a need help in the IMC/Tele or SSU, staffing will ask if I want to go but that the charge RN hold my tele-beeper and watch the monitor for me, so Im basically only doing the 'med-surg' care for the patient. So its like I get cancelled or go work on one of these units.... I have done this twice but Im STILL watching my own monitor although the charge RN is documenting on my strip, I still feel its my patient, my liscense and I am responsible for whats going and I have to wonder how much the charge RN is truely paying attention!! These patients are also much more acute- on heparin/amiodarine drips, blood transfusions, yesterday I got someone fresh out of the ICU with a trach/peg/etc.... I think my agency should be paying me the rate for these units because I feel im doing much more than just basic med-surg.... OPINIONS????

I am an RN with 6 years of clinical experience and I applied to MD General last spring. It was for a pre-op RN position, full-time days with occasional work in the PACU when needed. I have to say that I was floored at how low the pay was. It was actually less than what I was making in Baltimore county and the recruiter was not open to negotiation whatsoever. With all the the job openings that were posted there, I figured negotiation would definitely be an option... The Nurse Manager that I interviewed with did seem very friendly and accomodating from what I could tell. They were also willing to be flexible with my schedule- I could do five 8hr or four 10 hr days, and could pick which day I wanted off each week, no weekends, no holidays...

I just started as an agency RN in MD two weeks ago. I have only been cancelled once so far. The staffers at my agency did say around the holidays you get cancelled more bc reg. staff is trying to pick up more shifts for extra money or the census is down.

I just started with an agency in the Baltimore, MD area. I do MS and L+D/MB. The pay all depends on the hospital. Its about 35-38/hr for MS and 38-45/hr most places. No overtime until you hit 40 hours a week. Someone told me that if you go to some of the less than desirable hospitals in the city you can make more like 48-50/hr. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't be better off in a float pool somewhere. There is a community hospital in the suburbs, 10 minutes from my house- they pay 35/hr for the first three 12 hour shifts per month then it jumps to 45/hr. Too bad they aren't hiring right now! In response to the question about NJ- I met a seasoned nurse who did agency there for years. She jsut came to MD because she had been making 50/hr doing PICU/NICU but they just recently CLOSED DOWN FIVE HOSPITALS in that area.

On-call pay used to be 75/day for weekdays and 250 for the entire weekend. NOW that we are owned by Amedisys- its dropped significantly. $20/day, weekday or weekend.

Most ALFs that have HH patients use these paper tools and fax them to the physicians- but for order requests as well as clarifications. Its actually alot faster than waiting for a return phone call. Its a great idea, but you are probably going to have to get a fax machine for your house if you dont' have one already!

FYI--- this company is AMEDISYS!! thanks for your response!!

DONT DO IT!!! Our company just got bought out by them in Maryland. Every change except for computer charting has been negative.......... They will nickle and dime you for everything- We went pay for visit(because the census has been low for months), got a pay cut from what we were making before, cut our mileage, Amedisys can cut your benefits if you dont meet productivity, and they MICROMANAGE EVERYTHING!! They just seem to take away any autonomy you have, such as if there is a missed visit, -- it cant just be a missed visit because the patient refused---- IT HAS TO BE APPROVED first by your patient care coordinator!! The list goes on and on......

ok fellow homecare nurses--- does this seem wrong to you? i was hired as a 40 hour per week salaried employee.... recently, our company was bought out and we are now paid per visit.. our census has plummetted and i have had appx. 12-15 revisits per week (for the past two months). in the past, our 40 hour salary was based on 30 revisits, which is fulltime, and of course 12-15 is hardly even part time pay. however, administration has told the full-time employees that although we are paid per visit, we were told- verbatim--, ' we own you for 8 hours a day regardless of the fact that you are only getting paid per visit." so basically, i have 2-3 revisits per day but im sitting around from 8-430 monday thru friday because 'those are the rules.' is this illegal? i have to be 'available' to them for 8 hours per day when im getting paid for 2 hours?? its not like we are even making on-call pay!! help!!??!!?

I have been contemplating getting botox certified as well..I just dont know how to begin after I get my cert!! I would love to be independent of a physician although I know I would have to be overseen by one..... Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Im in MD...

I have a friend who works at Cooper, in Camden, NJ. I think thats somewhat close to Philly. She works NICU there and absolutely loves it.

What about Christiana hospital in DE? Im not sure how far it is from PA but I have heard good things. Union Hospital is up that way too.

Our company just got bought out and we were at 48c/mi. now down to 42/mi. They are cutting costs all over the place with the new co. It used to be 250 for being on-call the whole weekend, now they only pay us 60. Its frustrating. I see patients in two different counties and when possible I will try to see my patients in one county one day and then the next day see the ones in the opposite county. It doesnt always workout and but I still try!! On the successful days I only drive about 30-40 mi. instead of 70-80.

Well the pay was actually based on 40 hours per week- so we worked 3 12hour shifts per week and then one week out of the month you had to work a 4th 12 hour shift so that your pay equaled out to 40 hours. There were some people there who did a mix of 3-11 with 7a-7p. I did the day/night rotation. The 23+/hour included the shift differentials for evenings/weekends/50% night shift. So your pay was the same every week. Im sure JHH pays more for new grads now because there have been cost of living increases since then.

HMMMM............when I worked there about five years ago, I remember it being around $23+ some change an hour-- which was for day/night rotation. I usually cleared about 1300 biweekly after taxes for a 40 hour work week. Don't remember the differentials for night adn weekends. Hope this helps some!

One of my good friends is a circulating OR RN at Mercy. She has been very happy there for going on 2 years. I know the staff gets along well and the pay is good. The neighborhood is close to downtown and is definitely not like the neighborhood JHH is located in!!! My friend has never had any complaints about the location. I also have an acquaintance who worked in L+D very briefly at Mercy-- and I agree with the above post--- it was kind of like sink or swim for her. She had quite a bit of exp in L+D but it seemed like the staff just threw her to the wolves and enjoyed giving her a hard time bc she was the new girl on the block. Needless to say she was only there for a few months before she left....

I worked for Franklin Square for 3 1/2 years and resigned in March 2008. I worked in L+D and mother/baby. L+D IS VERY BUSY. At times unsafe but not on a daily basis. I would say the benefits are comparable to the city hospitals but they ARE not affordable if you are only working part time. For L+D you either worked days or nights, no rotating, and every third weekend with on=call. L+D was a decent place to work and my co-workers are truely what kept me there the longest. I know the night shift staff was even more cohesive and very close-knit. Overall, I truely enjoyed working there. I can tell you that there were many changes in management during my time there and many people have had problems with the current mgmt. Truth be told, I had to leave because mgmt said they would not hold my position a day past the 12 weeks I had for FMLA/maternity leave. I had asked for one additional week in which I would use my vacation time and they would not grant that. Im sorry to say I don't know too much about the other areas of the hospital. I know the NICU staff is phenomenal and they have a good retention rate. I did interview on a med-surg floor but I was not too impressed with things and they did have high turnover. Feel free to send me any other questions you have! Good luck!