ownadobe

I too was a new grad and young (20). I learned to always ask the CNA to do something and not order them. I understood they knew more about the patient and respected their opinion. I kept my professional relationships professional and personal, personal. Worked well for me for over 25 years.

My job must be feast. I have been in a stable position for 10 years now, gaining more skills but along with that is more responsibility. I have now started doing CM for those on disability/WC trying to get them back to work sooner. I am employed by the company and not contract so I guess I should consider myself lucky.

I started in LTC moved up to administration. Then went to acute care after that to case management. I found that the experience I learned in LTC paved the way for my career. You might find it easier to transition. In LTC on night shift you have anywhere from 30-60 residents compared to 10 or so in a hospital. LTC has IV's, trachs, you will find your assessment skills will be very good as you are dealing with many different illnesses. With all the different types of nursing, I have always continued to work PRN in LTC. I find it a nice change.

I worked night shift for many years. It is beneficial to those who have children at home and cannot find a day job. In LTC it consists mainly of a med pass around midnight. The rest of the night you monitor the residents. I often would do rounds with the CNA's just for something to so. The night nurse prepares the lab paperwork for in the morning. Some facilities have the night nurse prepasre the MARS and TARS for the next month. I did a good bit of chart review as well. Some of the larger treatments were completed at night. I did my charting at 3am before going to lunch at 4am. At about 5:30am I would get ready for the am med pass which includes accuchecks and insulins. At 6:30am the next shift would come in for report.

I changed my 24/7 call after supervisors would call in the middle of the night to see when someone was returning to work. How should I know right off the top of my head. We have over 1200 employees and at any given time 60 people can be out sick. (The facility has myself and one other nurse. There is a nurse on site for 12 hrs/day Mon-Fri). I also had employees calling me to call off sick. When I am at home, I do not have the resources to handle them calling off. I changed the message on my cell phone stating it was for emergencies only. Non-emergencies are to be called to the office. My phone also has all the numbers of people who are to contact me for an emergency. If my phone rings, and it is not one of the contacts, I will not answer it. This has drastically reduced the off hour calls. We have trained security to handle medical emergencies and employees are instructed to contact them on the off hours. It is a wonderful system. She may want to try it.

I'm not telling her how to raise her kids but I know from experience that some employers really don't care what your personal issues are. They just want you at work. I found when I moved where I am now, people were more understanding and helpful. Dayshift jobs are hard to come by especially for a new nurse but they are out there.

The mid-atlantic area seems to have everything. MD, WV, PA, VA. Rural areas are great for raising your kids. I moved here when mine was 9. I used to work in the city but found that they did not care that you need to stay home on a day or two cause your kid was sick. Since I moved to the rural part of the mountains there seems to be a different mentality here. We are in the mountains, not far from the beach, and close enough to major cities for day trips. I really like the smaller hospitals where you are more than a "always replacable employee". A sense of family is felt here.

They were just that slow. She had everything in and called once a week but never got to speak to a real person, only leave messages that were never returned. It took her 2 trips to Baltimore. She did have a MD LPN license and was endorsing her RN license. She was able to practice as an LPN until her endorsement came through.

samsam is right. The best way to endorse into MD is to drive to Baltimore and go directly to the BON. I have never known of speaking to a human when I have called there. A friend of mine took 5 months to get her endorsement.

I had all 265 and within 3 hours I found out I passed. In WV the board of nursing updates every couple of hours. I took mine at 8am and finished around 11:30am. Had my results by 6pm that night.

As an OH nurse for over 8 years I would personally recommend that OH is not for a new grad. Since there are so many asects like you have mentioned a person needs to gain experience before moving into the OH field. Often the OH nurse works alone, no physician to assist in decision making. An OH nurse needs to have very good assessment skills in addition to people skills. He/she needs to be a self starter and comfortable in decision making both medical and business. I have always been one that feels a new grad should get at least 1-2 years in a hospital for clinical experience then branch out after that.

I don't find it boring at all. Sure there are "slow days". But after 20 years of rushing to get everything done before I go home; I find it quite refreshing.

Martinsburg; I do not know about DC

Some instructors are good, some have less to be desired. You do get that everywhere. But many in my class passed boards of their 1st try.

I would not recommend it either. There are many BSN programs online. WVU has a program. If I had it to do over I would have attended another school. Many times you are left hanging when trying to get registered for classes, purchasing books, etc. I can remember many times we would be 2-3 weeks into a class before we even had our books. I paid over $40K. I am glad I have my degree but should have considered other options.