jenhen82

Perhaps you need to think of this as you would an incident occurring as a staff nurse in a hospital or long-term care facility. You would never turn over an incident report to anyone not w/in your organization because it's an "internal" document. Just as every risk manager will tell you in orientation to a new facility-"whatever you do don't refer to an 'incident report' in your nurses notes. If you do then it becomes something the plaintiff in a lawsuit can subpeona and read/use in court. As long as it remains internal it is for yours and your facility's attorney's use for reference to what happened down the road in addition to your nursing notes."

Simply looking for any thoughts or experiences in regards to smaller facilities that deal with a zero census at times. Does your facility float staff? Will they float all LD staff, leaving no staff on the L&D unit, with the intent to bring staff back if and when a patient arrives to ED needing triage or delivery.

Hello, fellow nurses. I am new to agency staff nursing. I am in the process of checking out different opportunities in my area (Niceville/Ft. Walton Beach/Crestview/Destin, FL). I am already employed fulltime at a local hospital, but I need to find somethin PRN/per diem to supplement. I recognize the names of some agencies advertising for my area, perhaps because I've seen ads from those companies everywhere thgat I have lived. A couple are familiar because I have knoiwen of coworkers or agency staff who have worked for the company. However, I have seen a lot of ads in multiple regions by RD Staffing/Cardiac Staffing/R&D Staffing for LTAC prn positions. I am interested in this sort of work,and I have asked around amongst coworkers about this agency, but no one has any experience with them. I cannot find much online except their job board and ads. Is there anyone in this forum who is familiar at all with the company. Any info. weould be greatly asppreciated as I'm leary to aspply with all my personal info to a company about which I can find very little info. I know that it would seem easier just to apply to a familiar company, but thery advertise higher pay rates($35/hr) than what I've been told by other RNs. Earning more income is a high priority at this time, so I'd like to at least attempt to find sdome info on therm vs. serttling for the familiar. RN jobs aren't exactly high paying around here.

I doubt i would spend $250 for oxygenation education-I would hope that you learned sufficient info. on that in school-besides that's pricey for a course on the subject. Anyway, I'm responding because I, too, would like some input on how to become more marketable. I graduated in '11 from an online RN to BSN program. Graduated RN in '08. LPN in '05. CNA in '02. Worked in all of those capacities. RN experience in stepdown/ICU, ED, long-term care, med/surg. Having trouble finding anything. Currently not employed due to recent move. Have BLS, ACLS, tele training. In northwest FL, which I'm learning isn't the best market.

BlueDevil,DNP: I'm surprised you admitted such a detailed hiring experience that you state was so recent. You may want to reconsider what you post on a public forum. Such detail of something so illegal, whether you are in an at-will state or not, could lead you to legal problems down the road. Despite probationary periods, the employee's nondisclosure of a pregnancy, or at-will status, you would probably be surprised to know that employees have been known to seek compensation for wrongful termination and that they usually do get something when pursuing the right avenues. Also, attorney's, as well as prospective employers, do search for posts to blogs, social media sites, and forums like this.

Don't be scared...the instructors and your fellow students will smell the fear. It just takes a true commitment to make it through. You can't have the mindset that your family will come first or that work comes first...or you won't make it. The mindset must be I will do what I have to in order to get through this. It should also be to spend all of your spare time preparing, studying, reading. Some like to "go out" on the weekends--they are not the people you want to spend your time with or become one of. Some of them may make it despite their higher commitment to "fun," but mostly they will be the ones with complaints and fear of not passing. Just stick to your purpose in being there and do all you can to learn all that you can. Don't be someone who puts forth the least time or effort to pass.

Just a thought for everyone: If you do your research on any school with high NCLEX pass rates, then you will find that those schools do "weed out," as you call it, a significant portion of their students. Both lpn and rn schools I've attended lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-70% of students throughout the program for different reasons (failure, couldn't make the time commitment, changed major, etc.). My point is that it's not unusual, and I doubt you can escape it by simply going elsewhere.

When I think about it, it's harder to think of someone with an MSN to precept Rn-BSN courses than it is to think of someone to precept form MSN (I can only think of doctors not MSN prepared nurses/nurse practitioners). I knew a DO when I worked in Pensacola who precepted FNP students, but can think of no MSN's. It certainly made me rethink the distance option...it's less trouble to move and start over in a new place (I've done that a few times already for my education and my husband's.)

Unfortunately, I've never met a nurse who didn't complain about the lack of a schedule in nursing school. I have never heard of one with set hours/schedules. Things can even change as little as the day before a clinical or lab. I've attended two nursing programs (LPN and RN) Everyone in both complained about childcare and scheduling issues. In LPN the instructors decided on times for everything for you, but like I said things could change the day before or week of something. In RN we were told we had a choice for clinical and lab times--but that only meant that 120 people fought to either get to the computer to sign up first or get to the registrars office--some even skipping class to be where they needed to be to get first pick (which by the way is not looked upon kindly by instructors). This may sound extreme to some, but my husband and I were engaged when i started my last year of rn clinicals. We moved up the date to christmas break so that I could cut my hours from 40 biweekly to per diem shifts (which means I lost all benefits/health insurance at my job), but I was covered by his since we were married. I know it sounds like a crazy reason to move a wedding up but I knew I couldn't lose health insurance and I knew I couldnt plan any work hours with school being so unpredictable. I'm not saying a school with a definite schedule doesn't exist--but I suggest saving up money and waiting if that's what you need to do until you can afford childcare and be available for school, whatever hours it may require. Programs and instructors are not interested in your home/family obligations.

I hope someone answers...I have the same question. i'm hoping to go to USA's program next fall. I'm in Birmingham, but I would be willing to travel to Montgomery if it meant finally getting school stuff together.

I haven't read the whole thread of responses, yet, but had some suggestions. I, too, have had difficulty finding employment as an RN even with experience as RN, LPN, and CNA. Anyway, I know of a couple of places to try in Virginia Beach area if that interests you. I went to school for LPN at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. Its the site for training for Eastern Virginia Medical School, and it still possesses an RN school. It's a huge health system which owns multiple hospitals, nursing homes and I believe some home health opportunities as well. Also, years ago I got my first nursing related/health care job at Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk, VA, and know of many others who did as well. The interview/hire process was very cut and dry (though I showed up in person to apply and they interviewed on the spot--not bc of my experience--as I had none in health care--but because it was their standard for interviews.) Both of those hospitals have websites you can check out if you search from a search engine for their names. Also, I would just start looking up all of the health care facilities/hospitals in the cities in the Hampton Roads area (virginia beach, chesapeake, suffolk, norfolk, portsmouth, etc.) Also, I don't know how you feel about home health, but there are tons of jobs for that type of nursing. If I hadn't finally heard from a local hospital, the I would have started applying to local home heallth agencies. I just thought--have you tried searcing fro nurse positions though the federal or state govt. in the east coast states. Hampton Roads areas has lots of military medical clinic sites that used to have open positions. Try www.usajobs.opm.gov for federal govt jobs.

92mxMom, I've read a few of your posts in my search for info on South Alabama's clinicals. I used to attend USA in hopes of doing the BSN accelerated program when I was an LPN. I was Waitlisted #75 and my usa advisor basicly said pick a new major or start taking prereqs over to get A's in them if you want to get into the Nursing classes. (I had moved from Virginia Beach to Mobile to get the BSN) I ended up just moving an hour east to Pensacola and getting an ASN from Pensacola Junior College. Now I'm hoping to go back to USA and apply to the RN-BSN and then MSN programs. My question concerns clinicals. I keep reading that you choose your own APN for clinicals in your home town, but I am now located in Birmingham (I've moved multiple times in the past few years for my own education and my husband's as well). I do not know anyone who works either as an advanced practice nurse or at any of the listed clinical sites for that matter. I know there are many clinical sites in and near Birmingham. Will USA give a list of preceptors/clinical instructors, or help a student find one if they do not know of anyone in their hometown??

All nursing schools that I know of do ERI testing. I went to LPN in Virginia in 2005 and we had to take them. Same at RN in Florida in 2008. We were told in the RN program that we had to pass test in order to pass program....50 pwople out of over 100 did not pass after retries x2, I don't know about the final try, but I do know that they made statement that they could not fail those who didn't pass the test bc it wasn't listed as a req for graduation in the student catalog, but that they were pursuing adding it to the catalog for later classes. We were required to show up for the retry testing or it was considered that we weren't trying then we could fail for not meeting the requirement that the catalog did warn about--actually taking the tests (though not passing). If that makes any sense. So lesson I hope to bring to the thread is, don't think you can just go to another school and get away from ERI. It is very difficult, but the NCLEX is, too. (NCLEX-RN is entirely different and much more difficult than NCLEX-PN, if that's of interest to anyone, as well.)

Just a thought here, but I often attribute the increasing failure/dropout rates to the admission process (or what it has become over the last several years). At this time, it seems that the majority, if not all nursing schools, adhere strictly to admitting based on GPA. However, I don't think GPA is always the best indicator of a students interest or likelihood to succeed in nursing. It may indicate that the person is great at studying the material, but not that he/she will perform well in nursing clinicals. There was a time when experience as paid or volunteer work counted for something in the application process. I think that some exposure to the field is important. I would have hated the idea of having to get experience before applying when I was straight out of high school bc it would have been one extra thing to take care of to apply, but now I realize that some are afraid of needles, others afraid of stool, others afraid of vomit--and somehow some people think that, as nurses, "there must be someone else who takes care of this." Not that it matters too much: I didn't have a great GPA. I have no idea what mine was after my first college-somewhere in the 2.0's. I had been an early admit with a gauranteed spot if i maintained a certain gpa, but after 1.5 years I knew I could not quite pull it off with one semester to go until clinicals began, so I transferred (only to discover that admission was tough everywhere and I was coming from a 4-yr university to a community college). There are just so many applicants. In the end I've transferred 5 or 6 times since high school and taken the long route CNA to LPN to RN and now to BSN. I never had the highest GPA for gen ed prereqs--I had to move 1,000 miles away from my hometown to find a school that would accept me. I did maintain one of the highest GPA's in clinical courses--anyone who's transferred knows that your clinical grades don't follow you to the next school or level of education. They always look at your gen ed grades b/c clinical classes (and, therefore, grades) don't transfer. I've noticed one or two schools have lowered their expectations. I look at job openings in the area and can only attribute this to larger demand for nurses in those areas with fewer applicants. For anyone interested in the statistics: I believe we lost 1/10-12 students in CNA class. We lost 16 out of 31 in LPN school. Lost 25-30% of RN class. Those that did not finish either failed or dropped out due to lack of time available to devote to the work.

I don't think that answered the original question asked, and I'm wondering the same. I have found that maintaining my own insurance can actually cost the same or more than COBRA due to preexisting conditions-not to mention it never offers the same coverages as work insurance. I , too, would like to know what happens between assignments. I am in Birmingham at present while my husband goes to grad school. I have applied to 30 jobs in the area-nearly everything I could find open. Only two interviews, which produced no results. I realize the economy is not good and am considering travel. Health insurance between assignments was my only concern. I'd like to have some time between asignments with my husband so that our marriage doesn't completely fall apart, but I realize that insurance is more important than time off between assignments. I can't find an answer to whether or not there is an opportunity for any amount of time off between assignments while maintaining work insurance. I'm willing to pay cobra for short period between if that's what's necessary, but would like to know how it all works.