Enthused RN

It's not the specific bag I was asking about. What I meant is how long can the patient received the actual medicine? In my facility, they don't want the patient to be on the drip longer than 24 hours. What happens when the patient is on it for more than 24 hours?

I work in a mixed ICU. Occasionally we get patients who need a cardene gtt for various reasons. I have always been told that patients can only be on that gtt for a very short time (i.e. 24 hours). Why is that?

I commissioned in February 2014 and I finally received an email that I am going to BOLC this August. I think they are giving priority to providers over nurses.

I worked in a SNF as a new grad. It was unbelievably difficult. You should be able to find another SNF job at a safer facility. Check out non-profits and stay away from corporate chains. If you have some savings and not a lot of expenses, consider quitting and doing independent contract work while you look for a new full-time job. I sometimes do independent contract work for a company that provides health screenings (i.e. fasting/non-fasting finger sticks to check for cholesterol and blood glucose, height/weight/BMI calculator, health coaching) in addition to my regular nursing job. Companies like mine will hire new grads because the work is exceptionally easy but the pay is obviously lower than say a hospital job.

Don't forget he's going into the reserve side and not active duty. With the drawdown, the reserves will probably not be tapped as much for missions.

BOLC phase II for reserve (Army) nurses is 3 weeks and 4 days at Fort Sam Houston. You will need to complete phase I online before you apply for a seat in phase II. The online portion is super tedious. I'm not sure how the AF does their training for new nurse officers.

1) What do you folks that are med surg typically do on your drill weekends exactly? Just curious as to what is considered boring....paper work? Meetings? Etc, By boring, I mean I do a lot of sitting around doing mandatory online training (i.e. sexual harassment training, anti-terrorism, etc.). I've been administering a lot of vaccinations especially when the medics have been pulled to do refresher training. I occasionally draw blood if the medics are having a hard time with a difficult stick. The last few drills I've been helping to orient the newer officers, i.e. show them the websites in which to enroll for Tricare, get them started on phase 1 BOLC (on-line training), etc. 2) Benefits are essentially the same on the reserve side for both branches right? Yup. Pay and benefits are the same regardless of which branch you are in. The only exception would be sign on bonuses/student loan repayments but I think those have largely gone away for nurses since the draw down began. Google "military pay charts" to see what you would make for drill pay. 3) I'm told that army is much larger than AF and therefore often presents more opportunity for advancement as well as more opportunity to qualify for certain specialties (OR nurse, OB nurse, weapons qualification, etc), The Army is definitely larger and there seems to be a lot of opportunities, however, it depends on your unit and chain of command in addition to yourself (PT scores, etc.) on whether you will be able to partake in those opportunities. In general, I hear that it's easier to go up the ranks on the Army side than it is on the Air Force side (heard that directly from prior-service AF people who are now Army). 4) Are any of you attending school to earn an advanced degree at this time but not going on "student leave"? Is the military paying for you to go back to school? Are they requiring anything in terms of commitment? There is no student leave for reserves/Guard because you are already serving part-time. If you were to have something educational (or really anything) that conflicts with a drill weekend, you could ask your unit commander for permission to SUTA (Google it). SUTA is basically where you perform drill duty on alternate dates (i.e. you drill with a different unit, go to a nursing conference, pick up an extra mission, etc.). You could also ask for an authorized absence, you just don't get drill pay for that month and you miss out on some retirement points for that year. I haven't used the educational benefits yet. The educational benefits for the Reserves and the Guard actually differ. I'm toying with the idea of getting my master's within the next couple of years using a combination of my state's tuition assistance for the Guard (~$12K/annual) plus federal tuition assistance (~$4.5K/annual). I'm not sure if that entails additional service on my part but I don't care because I plan to be in for at least 20 years regardless. You can easily Google tuition assistance for Army reserves and Air National Guard. Remember for Guard you can get both federal and state benefits (depending on your state of course) since you would be serving both the state and the federal government. **Edit: In the Guard, you can actually go on in-active status for a year for a variety of reasons, i.e. school, etc. I don't know how the Reserves work but I'm sure there's something similar.

It sounds like it might come down to what specialty you would like to practice on the military side - med/surg or flight nursing? Also, if possible, I would ask each respective unit what your drill weekend would look like. As a med/surg nurse in the Army National Guard, my drill weekends are actually quite boring but each unit is different.

Have you thought about switching to the Guard? In my state, I was direct commissioned as a new grad without much problem (I was also an E4 previously). Might be worth looking into especially if the Reserves are still looking for a certain amount of experience.

Thanks for the response. Your case sounds very different from the case I posted. I think a lot of people would miss that because the complaints were so vague and it was going on for a while. Also, I'm not an articulate person and I don't know how to say this but I feel like people are starting to attack me on this thread. I already said I'm here to learn. I will be starting a new job soon and wanted to learn from other people's experiences, especially when it comes to missed diagnoses. I don't need people being condescending towards me when I'm trying to learn here. This is why I have become hesitant to post for help in understanding nursing-related things here on allnurses.com and will probably refrain from posting for help in the future. This site used to be a great resource when I was applying to nursing school and going through nursing school, but now as a RN I have found that people are not as nice here as when I was a student. The majority of you have been helpful but there's always a few that think it's ok to be rude and condescending towards the newer nurses who have questions.

Wow, I wasn't looking for the absolute right or wrong answer for this specific case. Obviously we can't know that and will never know that. I'm asking about missed cases in your personal experience so I can learn from any mistakes before they happen on my watch. Ultimately I'm looking to learn here, not for an answer regarding what happened. But for a bit more context, see article: http://calcoastnews.com/2014/06/staff-sergeant-dies-following-training-exercise-camp-roberts/

I'm familiar with the cardiac enzymes taking some time to show up on a test so in this case I'm guessing the first hospital didn't wait long enough. I mean, the guy coded mere hours after being released from the hospital.

Recently there was a case where a man in his early 40s with no history of cardiac issues died of a MI. He was seen in the ER of hospital A and released. Later that day, he suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital B. His death was attributed to MI. How is it that the first hospital missed this diagnosis? Is it possible that all tests (i.e. markers, EKG, CXR, etc) can be negative yet there is still an MI in process? I ask because I will be starting an ER position soon and I don't want to contribute to something like this happening. Basically, how can something like this happen? Sorry, I don't have more details regarding the care he received at the first hospital but perhaps you ER nurses may have seen or heard of cases in your dept and have some insight to share.

Happens all the time and it's illegal for them to discriminate against you. My facility recently had a pregnant new grad and she's currently out on maternity. It's not a problem. My original preceptor/mentor for this same job started there pregnant also and everything was fine. Like a prior poster said, do not mention the pregnancy during the interview because it's personal health information and really none of their business until after you become an employee.

Not entirely true. I volunteered during nursing school through a hospital's internship program (program did not require any medical experience). I rotated through a tele floor, stepdown, and finally a trauma/critical care unit. Obviously I didn't provide any trach care or RN-only skills at the time, but I did patient care for those patients. So it's possible, it just depends on what volunteer opportunities your local hospital provides.

I am beyond thrilled that I received a call for an interview with a PACU department. I am still pretty new to nursing. I've only been working for 5 months in LTC since obtaining my license. In school, my dream specialities were ICU and PACU but I understood the realities of the current economy so I took a SNF job. At first, I was flying in the clouds over the thought of finally getting an interview with a hospital (yes, it's my very first one with a hospital), but then I received the email and found out it's a panel interview. I'm completely terrified! I've read that PACU is the place where former ICU nurses go so obviously most PACU nurses have loads of nursing experience already. How can a rookie nurse like me stand out among (potential) veteran nurses in a panel interview? I've been researching sedation scales and threads on AN. Anything specific I should study?

I'm in the Guard and I'm pretty sure the prerequisites are the same. We need to pass a PT test and complete the online portion of BOLC before we can ask to go to BOLC. From what I remember, I believe there are courses starting in August and September with space available. The online portion is exceptionally tedious.

Congrats to the both of you!

LOL, in high school recruiters were a bit aggressive with me too but that's because it was only a couple years into both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and they needed as many warm bodies at they could get. These days it's hard to get their attention because of the drawdown. You have to be a very serious candidate to get their attention even just to enlist. I'm not sure what to look for when comparing each branch because the pay and benefits are exactly the same. I guess maybe the culture of each branch is something to consider? As for anesthesia school and the long run, you can actually switch branches later down the road if you really wanted to. It requires a lot of paperwork but from what I've read, it is doable.

The Guard and Reserves are both Army. The training is one and the same as active-duty soldiers. You wear the same uniform and you follow the sames rules and customs. You are considered an American soldier once you complete training regardless of the component you belong to (active/Guard/reserve). In your post, you are correct - you go through around 10 weeks of basic training then around 16 weeks of medic training at Fort Sam (be warned: sustaining an injury during training can prolong your time there. Take care of yourself if you do go to training.) The main difference between active-duty and Guard/Reserves is that you return home after completing your training and then drill one weekend per month, 2 weeks a year after that. You can serve pretty much anywhere. I live hundreds of miles away from any Army post but I drill with a unit that is about 15 minutes away from my house. For the Guard, you drill at armories. With the reserve, you drill at a "reserve center" (reservists - correct me if I'm wrong on the name). These armories and reserve centers are all over the place. If you live far away from where your unit drills, you will get billeting (aka lodging). I'm not sure on the specifics of how billeting works - probably something to ask a recruiter. As for enlisting and service obligations, everyone accrues an 8 year service obligation. If and when you commission, your enlistment contract becomes null and void. Ask a recruiter on specifics of the service obligation. That goes a little bit beyond what I can eloquently describe here. You sound pretty interested. I say take it to the next level and meet with a recruiter and see what you think.

I'm NG, never been part of the active component. That's good you stay fit and healthy. I know my fitness level was a big (positive) talking point when I went before the board for my commission. It sounds like ROTC is probably not an option at this point since you're very far into your program. I think the next step for you would be to talk to recruiters and see what they have to say. I know currently there's pretty much no signing bonuses or student loan repayments because of the draw down, but hey, you never know if you don't ask a recruiter directly. Well, good luck with your decision!

It was a non-nursing degree. I obtained my first bachelor's about 5 years ago and then recently got my BSN so I hold 2 bachelor's degrees. No, I think you misread. I enlisted 6 months prior to graduation from my BSN program. During that time, I drilled one weekend per month while finishing up school. I took the NCLEX 2 weeks after graduation and then shipped out to basic a couple days after taking the test. My husband mailed me a picture of my RN license when I was at basic. It was one of my happiest days in basic.

The requirements are always changing. I know right now both the active duty and reserve components want experienced nurses but next year, they may accept new grads. Just contact a healthcare recruiter when you are a couple of semesters away. Or, ROTC might now might be an option for you now. Also, the National Guard may take new grads in your state. Check with their healthcare recruiter too. Be aware that all 3 components (active, reserve, and guard) will have their own healthcare recruiter.

I did some research and looks like you're right. That's crap! A short-course shouldn't even exist! Everyone should go through the same exact training for the same length of time! Thank goodness I went to basic (didn't think I would say that one day when I was in basic)! *alright ... getting off my soapbox*

Hi inspired, I enlisted in the Army NG as a student and commissioned as a 2LT recently. Since I'm Army and you're interested in the Navy, I'm not sure if the same path can be taken. I'll tell you what I did. Since I already had a bachelor's degree, I enlisted as a Specialist (E4) about 6 months prior to graduation. My MOS (aka job) was officer candidate which meant I was supposed to go to officer candidate school after basic but I ended up direct commissioning. I started up my direct commission packet a couple months after enlisting. In the Guard, once you enlist you are considered "in." You get a military ID and you are expected to attend drill once a weekend called RSP (recruit sustainment program) at an armory somewhat close to your home. You receive a paycheck for these drill weekends and you are also eligible to enroll in Tricare and SGLI (life insurance). You take classes on basic soldiering skills, i.e. land nav, working with radios, etc. and do PT during that drill weekend. Quite honestly, I had a blast during those weekends and I felt fully prepared going to basic. Two weeks after graduating, I took the NCLEX and then shipped out to basic training 3 days later. Basic training is only for enlistees and not for the faint of heart. I wanted to go since I was a new grad who would be unemployed for some time anyways and I wanted to learn basic soldiering and Army knowledge since I knew I would become an officer sooner rather than later. It was one of the best/scariest decisions of my life but I had so much fun it was unbelievable. Two months after graduating from basic, my officer packet was finally complete and sent in to the board for review. Less than a month later, I took the oath of office as a 2LT and officially became a nurse officer. I have a feeling that being enlisted before commissioning smoothed the way to my commissioning, but I am not sure if my path can be taken by everyone. For one, I had a bachelor's degree already which made me eligible for my MOS of officer candidate (09S). This was key to my plan because I was trying to time my direct commission to happen shortly after basic. If you go in as another MOS (i.e. a medic), then you will have to attend AIT (advanced individual training) for some time right after basic. This takes away time from you working on your packet but it could be a valuable experience for you. That's up to you to decide. Research this option carefully. I spent hours researching how I could do this and it worked out for me but there was always that chance that it would not work out as planned. If you enlist, be prepared to not get picked up for a commission - always have a plan B. In other words, you better be joining because you want to serve your county in any capacity, whether it be enlisted or as an officer. If you rather not take this route, then either look into ROTC or start up the direct commission process about 6 months before you graduate. Be sure you talk to a healthcare/nurse recruiter and not a regular recruiter if you go the latter route. Good luck with your decision! And like I said, please research your decision carefully! I used multiple official sources (i.e. the Army website) in addition to forums such as AllNurses to make an informed decision.