francesca22

[if you are a new grad in California, especially the SF Bay area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, or San Diego, expect to compete with the thousands of other new RNs that get dumped into the local employment market every few months. These areas are totally saturated with too many new grads, more than the local job markets can absorb.] Yes, I'm aware of that. The S.F. Bay Area is imploded with newly graduated nurses scrambling for jobs. It was so when I entered training and graduated as well. For every available slot, there were 20+ applicants both in the training programs and later, in the job market. Then and now, Calif. new grads must resort to extraordinary measures to make themselves desirable candidates for hiring, i.e., undertake post grad advanced specialty training, be willing to work where no one else wants to work, accept difficult schedules, cover weekends, or move to the lower paying boondocks. An option one of my classmates chose was Indian reservation nursing to pay off her student loan. Post graduation, I led a dog's life, working a surgery unit nights, and by day, attending a rigorous ICU/CCU training course that involved both hands-on clinical and didactic study. Upon course completion and certification, I was promptly hired to work ICU/CCU and ER. My roommate worked nights and undertook post-grad. neonatal ICU training. She also was hired as a result. One wonders why anyone would enter our profession, considering the current job market.

I did not mean to judge my Southern bacteriology professors's pronunciation of 'oil' as 'wrong.' I know it was a regional dialect. Once I 'got ' that she was speaking in her native style, I understood. I probably should not have posted this message in "learn to say it right."

Don't give up on California too quickly. TX is the pits, salary-wise, as are many of the Southern states. The border towns may pay more, but they are dangerous, as noted in a previous post. I live in Northern California, the S.F. Bay Area. The pay here is really high, especially if you are willing to train for work in difficult areas, i.e., S.F. County/General Hospital AIDS dementia unit or critical care. Just don't attempt to rent/buy housing in the expensive city. Better to find housing in one of the 'burbs and use rapid transit. My RN daughter, who lives close by, is following my career trajectory, working as a County Hospital Psych. crisis unit manager and teaching. She makes $75/hr., but truth to tell, it's a stressful position. She is exhausted all the time, but that is the sacrifice we sometimes must make, it seems.

My bacteriology professor was a woman from the deep South. I knew from nothing about bacti, so had no idea that her description of the microscopes as 'oool immersion' [long 'o'], referred to their being 'oil' immersion 'scopes. In my class notes, I had been duly writing 'ole' until I finally made the connection: "Oh, I get it, you put a drop of oil on the slides...ergo, oil immersion." [slaps forehead].

Originally Posted by SoCalHeart:This isn't a term limited to the medical field, but I can NOT stand when people say irregardless!! Yuck, I, too, cringe hearing someone use that word. It's essentially a neologism. Admittedly a grammar nazi, another of my pet peeves is misuse of lie, lay, lain.

I have a neighbor who says, "de-hy-dre-ated" for dehydrated, "re-lator," and "vet-tra-narian." I get double snaps for not rolling my eyes or correcting her, OK?:yeah:

Chemistry, both high school and college level were required when I attended 'boot camp nursing' and integrated collegiate pursuits in a diploma school, fifty years ago!. Later, in BSN and MSN programs, both organic and inorganic were included in the curriculum. I added physics, as those days were the dawn of exploration into the fascinating phenomena of bio-physics and the advent of previously unimagined diagnostic devices. I think one should have chem on board to facilitate understanding of the chemical elements of the human body, if not just the basics. Bottom line physiology, we humans are all about electro-bio-chemistry.

I wouldn't do it. A profession as intimate and sensitive as ours mandates [in my view] maintenance of professional boundaries at all times. A breach in that well defined line can really backfire, ultimately cause harm to either: caregiver or patient. My x-mate is a psychiatrist. His credo has always been: "once a patient, always a patient." Makes sense to me.

NurseNinaFla;4146863 [i actually have one of the old metal ones (which I used to use,guess I'm an old timer! and yes I loved using it!] When I was practicing, preferred the 'old fashioned' metal ones too!!!

nurse-lou4146647 [$15! For a tubex! Heck! I know I have some of these around my house somewhere! I ought to list it on eBay!! Personally, I like the carpujects. I have one in my pocket at all times and use it regularly. Everyone else on my unit takes a needle and a syringe and withdraws the med from the tube of morphine/demerol/dilaudid..such a waste to me!] YAY!! Send some to our nurse in need here. That style, the blue Tubex, is no longer made, so for the RNs who cherish them and aren't used to or don't like carpujects, they are a hot item. Guess that's why the price can be so outlandish.

Here's one. http://cgi.ebay.com/BLUE-TUBEX-INJECTOR-BY-WYSS_W0QQitemZ140385242843QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20100224?IMSfp=TL100224131012r29279

This sounds crazy now, but: I graduated in 1959 from a S.F. Bay Area school that was renowned for turning out capable, battle ready nurses. As an IP, I worked nights in the ER at my home hospital, assuming an assignment that would befit an RN. [We were a designated trauma hospital; lots happening all the time.] Upon receiving RN licenses, my college roomie and I walked into Herrick Memorial Hospital in Berkeley, CA, asked to see the DON [in those days, no such thing as HR]. She asked us where we went to school. We told her, whereupon she said, "can you start tomorrow?" Our gross salaries were $325/mo. We felt like two millionaires.

nrsbrker: [we take care of "clients"] Ugh. Agree. I watched a PBS show on which several 'suits' discussed the health care crisis in the USA, the phenomenon of the bottom line vigilant, for profit HMO. One physician on the panel said of the new corporate lexicon: "I remember when we were called doctors, not 'providers,' when patients were called patients, not 'covered lives.' Heck, I'm so old that I remember that too. Has anyone else experienced the hierarchical leveling of inpatient care teams? At our hospital, THE MANAGEMENT issued new name tags imprinted with 'patient caregiver' to all staff who touched a patient. We RNs immediately wrote our appropriate titles with black felt tip markers on the tags. Not only did we find this demeaning, the patients were complaining that they didn't know who was who and whom to ask for what service.

I was visiting a friend in hospital recently. Passed the nurses' station where I spotted a sign that exhorted RNs not to use QID, or PRN, other time honored Latin based acronyms in their charting. 'Write it all out,' the policy read. I asked why??? Was told that many of the new RNs are not Latin, Math, hard science collegiate prepared, are recruited from foreign countries, or are trained in two year fast-track AA programs where such nuances are not covered. Is this the new face of nursing? Down-skilled? In my experience as an inpatient in hospital two years ago, had mostly foreign RNs, many from the Philippines, several from Zimbabwe. As I am hearing impaired and cannot discern accented speech well, I was essentially lost in verbal exchanges with these nurses, even though I made it clear I was not understanding and why.