Robinroo62

I would stay away from northwest. They pay higher but staffing is horrible! I've heard horror stories from nurses, cnas, and former patients about the dangerous staffing practices and lack of support from leadership. Im thinking the pay will be a lot less than what you're use to in dallas due to a lower cost of living here but it sounds like with your experience that it might not be to bad. We have several nursing schools in the area and have been having to hire a lot of new grads recently but again it sounds like your 10 years experience will be a edge! Nwa is beautiful and I love living here, hope the move goes well and happy job hunting!

We are in the process of making warning signs (chemo precaution signs) for staff to take extra precautions and educational handouts for pts and familys regaurding safety and chemo admin. Also the standard orders sets in case of reactions is a great idea, Im going to bring that up at our next meeting! Do your chemo pts wear heart monitors or pulse oxs during administration? Thanks for all the responses!

These Chemo Carts are out in the hallway in front of the pts room. We are not allowed to keep medications (including saline) or any sharps in them as they public could potentially get into them. Basically PPE, chemo spill kits, and "gator boxes" for chemo wastes. But I was wondering if anyone else kept 4x4s, tubing, educational stuff...

I work on a med surg floor and was taking care of a older patient with hallucinations. He was seeing spiders and bugs all along the walls. As I was trying to reorient him and show him nothing was there, RT walked in to give a breathing treatment. or as the patient saw it... "Oh good, the exterminators are here!" Took a long time to convice him the vapor from the breathing treatment was medicine and not bug spray!

I work on a med/surg unit where we ocassionaly administer chemotherapy. We have dedicated chemotherapy carts for outside the chemo patients rooms but they are very unorganized. I am updating these for a project and am having trouble finding any info about what is recomended to store in these besides basic PPE... Of course we'll have the chemo gloves, gown, mask/safety shield and chemo spill kit. Im wondering if there should be anything else added? How does your facility stock your chemo cart and/or what would you change about it? Thanks in advance!

I am also a 2 year old "toddler nurse". I work med-surge and on my floor we check I&O's about every 4 hrs when we take vitals. A lot of our drs will write orders to notify them if output is less than 120cc over 4hrs. Since it was a post op patient and they had a foley I would have called in the 1st 4hrs especially if they pt had bp issues as well. When bp is low the kidneys arent getting profused and can cause low output, or the pt could have been dehydrated from blood loss. Nursing can be very stressful and hoping that output will increase isnt goin to make a difference, If you ever have a concern about a pt dont hesitate to call the dr. Thats what they make the big bucks for! Sometimes we learn things the hard way, but I have a feeling this is going to stick with you and make you a better nurse because of it.

Med-surg Arkansas Where I work we almost always have a 7:1 ratio on night and 6:1 on days. Charge nurse usually dosent take pts unless theres a call in. Our aids usually have about 10-11 pts apiece. It sounds like where youre at is extremely dangerous and exhausting, Id be finding another place to work!

As a senior graduating from ua- fayetteville, all I can tell you about are my experiences, and those have unfortunatly not been good. I can think of 3 outstanding instructors at the ua and many not so good ones. During the length of my schooling here we have had many discrepancys about policies and procedures and have had to use the university's mediator service many times to work things out between the faculty and the students. Fortunately it has always worked out in favor for the students. now as to the claims that we dont have as much experience on the floor and arent as prepared for our first year, they are taking agressive measures to increase our clinical experiences and preparation for our first year. Like many schools, It has its own problems as im sure uams does, the main one that i can think of is the administration of ua-fayetteville and untill they start listening to the students things will not get much better. On the plus side the nursing program is about to get a new building and will have much more space and they already have awesome learning tools! lol where ever you choose to go its going to be hard work and lots of studying but hang in there and use as many resources as possible!