SpeedracerRN

Ready to go if I can figure out who wants us. I am signed up with Florida's state disaster call, but don't know how to get the right people my resume. 3+ years in a level one trauma center unit, 5 years of hardcore urban home health and experience in third world messes from my time in the military. PM me if you are looking for a healthy male RN to go.

Kudos to you, and your manager for being supportive. Keep on top of the paperwork and never be afraid to call in for a hand if faced with an oddball situation, something new, or if your gut feelings concern you with a pt. You may be the only person to notice sepsis in its early stage, an abuse situation or whatever, so never ignore that "spidey-sense" we RNs have. Enjoy your new career.

Solid med surg experience and working with other disciplines like PT, OT, ST MSW in real world patient settings is an important part of effective home health field work, much less case managing patient needs. I hate to say it, but as an OR nurse straight out of school and no good old fashioned floor nursing, most hiring managers are gonna have to stretch to consider you. I would knock out a year of awake patient care first in a hospital. Something with lots of IVs, Wound-Vacs, post ortho or surgical care type work. Home health may be cake at times, but killer assessment skills, sharp critical thinking and the ability to identify real patient needs is something you must have to excel.

I worked for years at Tampa General as a floor nurse and loved it. Welcome to the big time kinda place...best hospital culture around the area. I have been doing HH case manage and am interviewing with UHC this week for a disease management position. They have a huge operation here in Tampa, as does Wellcare and Humana.

Are you KIDDING me? CYA? Jeez, I may be new here, and you may be a senior member, but a nurse is an ADVOCATE. Not a person looking to CYA. Please. Anybody working front line med surg. who wants cya job just needs to go find a nice nursing home or insurance job. If ever a patient needed somebody to help, this is it. Why become a nurse? To cower because 2 docs are gonna battle. A stupid doc needs to be stopped or taught. Too bad you don't think so. If I was there, and could make a clear definition as to which the right way to go would be, you could be sure I'd say so to the patient and the family. Sleeping at night and doing the right thing go hand in hand.

Sounds like your patient is gonna need a good advocate to get through this. Time to shine, but be diplomatic as you can. If one of the Docs is a known tool bag, and the other is good it should be easy. If they are both nincompoops, duck!

As a father of 3, one high needs, I am almost always given better info and straight talk by the practitioners when they know what I do. When I first meet them, it is poker time. This is how I decide if they are putting on the "professional courtesy" face or the normal way they practice. Always remember, you HIRE the Dr. to treat you. You would not hire an electrician who was sketchy, a plumber who can't solder straight or a mechanic who never gets it right the first time. MD types are no different. You are the customer.