oldandintheway

Yesterday for the third consecutive year I fell asleep during one of our “mandatory” annual refresher courses. Fortunately/unfortunately a dear friend of mine kept punching me in the arm to wake me up, apparently I was snoring. The instructor was a...

Median times may be more helpful than average times, I also see many unqualified nurses in triage roles. I think the worst thing is when a provider interferes by trying to start an assessment to preserve their door to doc times. I also think fast t...

California is a very large state, cost of living varies considerably

I experienced leadership and management training in a very unforgiving environment a long time ago and dealt with the harshest peer review imaginable, would they come back for you when your a** was hanging in the wind. I learned the single most impo...

1100-2300 can be good or bad depending on what you want, I like it. You don't deal with the lull at the end of night shift/beginning of day shift, usually busy when you arrive till when you leave. Trade offs are searching for and often not getting ad...

Took a while but I've come to the conclusion I work for my patients not the hospital; although the hospital is legally obligated to thank me every other week for having clocked in. I try to get my affirmation from the conversations with my patients,...

Or they use their spouse's cell phone.......

I was over 50 when I started nursing school and I wasn't the oldest one. It can be done and it opened up a great and rewarding second career. You will face some different challenges than your younger classmates but they will have unique challenges ...

Depends, is this a routine recertification survey or in response to an incident. Although in theory surveyors may arrive at any time unannounced, I don't recall routine surveys occurring outside of regular state business hours. Surveyors are state em...

Andy and Barney went to Mt Pilot, Barney made reservations as B. Fife MD. Andy asked why everyone was calling Barney Dr Fife. Barney said he registered as Barney Fife, Mayberry deputy. In the end its capability and competence that matters.

The only real advice I can offer is: use the best vein you find, not the first vein you find; most situations allow the time to search out your best option.

True dat

Different industry, different lifetime but if we were forced to work short handed the ones that did show up split the missing persons wages. That eliminated the incentive for the employer to purposely short staff. I wish we could institute that pra...

I understand what you are saying, however I did not come to the ED from a vacuum. I would not be artificially pounding questions, I do have a broader experience base. My question is would there be any value in the context of continuum of care. By t...

Sorry to poach on your thread, but is there any benefit to an Emergency Department Nurse pursuing this certification? I currently hold CEN and CPEN but have a great interest in the whole continuum of care. My Director has told me that ED time does q...

In a prior career I was asked by a new hire what I did to deserve such a high level of pay. One of my colleagues took him aside and explained we are not paid on what we do but on what we know. With 3-5 years experience someone can easily acquire th...

BSN 16, I wasn't offended. I just wanted to acknowledge medsurg as a specialty floor and advocate for a well rounded experience, I don't claim medsurg is a prerequisite to being a good nurse but nursing is so varied sometime a circuitous route is a h...

I hate the insistence that I actually have to stay a whole 12 hours after clocking in, hey I showed up on time. Why isn't that good enough?

I'm sure you didn't intend to demean medsurg as a specialty field, it is a demanding and challenging job as any. Many new grads I've known truly benefited from starting in medsurg, as an ED nurse I value my colleagues that understand the continuum of...

San Francisco and limited slices of the east bay are probably the only places with a mature public transit system. Most west coast cities boomed during the last half of the twentieth century and are extremely vehicle centric. The SF Bay Area at one...

Yes, approach each day as an extended job interview, do your absolute best and prove yourself eager to learn and function as a member of the team. Avoid gossip, cliques, and work place politics. Make a good impression and hiring managers will be im...

Happy for you, to progress as a profession we need those that question and increase our growth

"Look" isn't always physical, it can mean demeanor and personality type. As I mentioned earlier I see a lot of meek and compliant new hires versus independent flexible thinkers.

I think for the betterment and advancement of nursing increasing the entry level education requirements should be considered, that said some of the best nurses I have ever known are diploma and ADN nurses. To the point of "fluff" courses I think the...

So I am seeing an unintended consequence of hiring preferences for BSN new grads. I live in a relatively rural area that has multiple community college based nursing programs and two university based BSN programs about an hour or so away. The local...