Flipper911

OMG I did my interview at WP. I was so llooking forward to happy go lucky interview, but the guy who nin tervieewd me wanted to grill me on my qualifiv=cations. My graduate and my progress towards my doctorate degree seemed to **** him off. in the end he gave me a glowing review even though I walked away thinking I would never make it in the military. My suggestion - go in balls to the wall and be yourself and you will be fine

be good at your job and you can be my hero! Sexuality does not matter when it comes to caring for a patient.

residents are in the learning process and sometimes we need to remind them of that

I don't think it is a point about being "too good" to perform any of the tech duties. In my facility we would shift to primary nursing and give 3-4 patients to the nurses and they are responsible for vitals etc. Why not use the RN as an RN? To me it makes no sense to use a nurse as a tech and is a poor use of resources. Thankfully, I work with far more forward thinking people and we do not fire someone for not taking a role they were not hired for.

I do not see a problem with cell phone usage among staff that are responsible. Take away cell phone and some staff will be on the land lines or breaking every twn minutes. The blame does not lie with the phone but with the behavior. My current hospital everyone has their phone. I see more texting than actually talking on the phone and this includes nurses, residents and attendings. The work gets done and it is a non issue. \ I have worked many hospitals where cell phones were used and really have not seen a negative impact from the use - outside a horrid ringtone now and then.

So what happens if the trops were elevated and she had some ST changes on her EKG? The time you spend calling the resident and then her senior you could have drawn the labs at least and had the EKG at bedside. These are not very involved processes and I probably would have just followed through with the orders. Because even if you have a 1% chance of being wrong it is too much.

I use to bug the hell out of the recruiter until I got an interview. Emails, phone calls and even popping to say hello. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

the true luxury is being healthier than those we care for.

i never care if they are on the phone. If I have meds for them I set it beside them and if they have questions they ask. I can check back with them later to complete an assessment etc. Usually if they are well enough to chat on the phone they can't be too distressed. I cannot imagine it fun being a patient and I am more than willing to work around their schedule as much as I can.

I had a fresh post-op in the SICU - some belly surgery. Anyway, the Anes. giving report stated the patient would need something for pain, but he was having a hard time deciding exactly what he should order. In the end he told me, "just give him whatever any prudent nurse would give for pain and I will sign off on it." To date my favorite order! How did he know if I was a prudent nurse?

I was guilty of the wearing the colognes as a younger nurse, but now I cannot stand to smell it on others. Even some deodorants are horribly strong. Soap still smells good to to me!! I like the nurses who carry around the fabreeze to douse themself after smoking. The smell of smoke is sickening at times and the smell just clings to some people. A must must must are breath mints! Especially for change of shift. I pop in a few altoids at the beginning and end of my shift - I wish some of the people I worked with did the same.

our floor nurses wear white (icu and ed wear blue) and we have quite a few nurses that have gone to wearing blue and black underthings below their whites as some sort of protest - it is too funny.

Amen to the zipper. I also have to have the cargo pockets - can't have enough pockets!!

I have worked as a traveler and a nurse for ages and you will get the nurse here or there who is difficult to give report to. They interrupt or ask non-relevant questions or want some minute detail that does not have anything to do with patient care. Funny thing is these are usually the nurses who give crap reports. I the basics and anything missed or I should be looking out for. Depending where I am the emphasis is in different areas. I recently worked and ICU where the night nurse had the same assignment for three days in a row. When she came back after my shift I gave her the new orders and told her what the plan was for the patients. She started to have a snippy attack, because she insisted we go system by system even though I told her there were no changes . You get thoes kind from time to time. I just try to go with the flow, no need to even worry about it.

I alwyas feel orders are more suggestions. We are the gatekeepers to ensure harm does not reach the patient. Some order are held or not done because it is not appropriate at the time. A nurse should never blindly follow or we should all be replaced by unskilled labor. When you have slew of residents running around you have to help them out sometimes. They write for some inappropriate things and most understand that we all are working on the same team, but there are ones that develop the early ego syndrome and that is when their senior, fellow or attending can be helpful to ensure patient safety.

i had to wear regular clothes as a director and could not stand it! I had to pay to have the clothes cleaned cause I was not about to iron and I spill stuff all the time or i was still crawling under desks or moving stuff around so nothing ever stayed clean. My co-workers always commented how I looked neater in scrubs.

In my situation she actually laughed. She knew I was making a little fun of her as she stated her name, held out her hand all while puffing out her chest - a resident!! (margaret was not a real name). She remains a facebook friend to this day.

Most patients cannot tell a nurse from a janitor even with designated scrubs. Truth is, as a male, when I enter the room they assume I am the Dr no matter what color scrub I wear. I do think cartoon scrubs or anything cutsie should be limited to peds. It is disgusting to see an adult dressed in scoobie scrubs!

Duh! I would not use the real name.

I have noticed the rules are different at each place I work. In the units we usually are on a first name basis with all the physicians. We all know each other and it is a very good atmosphere. In the teaching facilities where I have worked all the residents are called by their first name, not to be disrespectful - just that was how it always done. I once had a resident ask my name and I gave my first name and she held out her hand and replied, "I am Dr Hassan". I read her badge (Margaret Hassen) and said, "nice to meet you Maggie". I don't understand how some nurses feel it is disrespectful to call a physician by the first name. I know nurses that still give up their chair and call every physician DR Whatever. If they come find me and use my first name then I gonna use theirs and have not had much issue with that. The one exception I do make is when I call about a patient. In those cases, I do call them by Dr Whatever. Even if every other time I run into them it is Bill or Rob. Just an odd quirk. Just wondering what is the norm for others?

sounds like a whole bunch of time spent at the facility compared to civilian nursing. So, it is better to live really close to base even if the area is a bit seedy than far away and having to commute so much?

i hate those blue plastic gowns - you sweat like a pig! My facility has both (yellow paperish and the blue sweat baths)

in the critical care units the nurse does it all - with help from co-workers. on the floors there are admission nurses until 2300 after that all the admission nurses are gone, the unit secretaries and the nurse is left to figure the whole dang thing on his/her own.

The power has shifted back to the people doing the hiring. There seems to be a glut of applicants and few openings to go around so the people who hire can be very picky and gone are the days of hiring the next warm body that comes through the door. We all had our pick of positions in the past, but now applicants need to work harder to stand out or to have a facility take a chance. To be honest, if I were the one hiring I would go with the safe bet over someone with zero hospital experience. I agree with the other posters that maybe attaining ACLS, PALS and maybe ever instructor credentials in both would give your resume more of a clinical punch. Good Luck!

before settling on nursing why not explore some of the other healthcare or science related fields? Pharmacy, physical therapy or even a major in chemistry could lead to other exciting fields.