Buffy31

I am currently a supplemental RN on a surgical floor and would like advice regarding a possible change of position based on a few reasons. I enjoy the floor I work on, and up until January I have worked 4-5 days per week, one weekend per month. I do not have any benefits, although working as a supplemental, I get about $4 more per hour. I do not have health insurance. My schedule now is 1-3 days per week. I have applied and interviewed for a float pool position. This would consist of five 12 hour shifts per pay period. I would receive health insurance, gain PTO, learn new things like cardiac, and cross-train in the ER, etc...but I would have to work every other weekend, and work 12 hour shifts (but more days off during the week). I definitely need health insurance. If I bought it through the exchange, it would cost me $300/month. Some months I make $300-600 in supplemental pay. Insurance through work would be around $100-or less- and I could add my son too, dental included. Which option would you go for? Flexibility in hours, but no guarantee of hours, higher pay, and one weekend a month? Or guaranteed hours (but longer), work in new fields, have insurance, and work 2 weekends per month instead of one? This decision is killing me! Who knows, anyway--maybe I will not even be offered the position! (She makes the decision Monday or Tuesday next week).

I totally agree with gcupid

I'm out & it's been reported..so we'll see!

Well the asst that was just fired must have said something because the doc wanted to waste the remaining bottle of dilaudid and 8 vials versed today with me. So now any action would be my word against his. All I've got now is the missing hydrocodone. I'm reporting it as soon as I leave, which might be next week. Second interview at same hospital on Tuesday.

Will do, Hopeful. I appreciate the prayer!

This is such a huge mess. An asst that was just told to go on medical leave is trying to get a settlement & we were told not to talk to her bc someone here at the office gave her info on what the docs were doing . That was me, telling her they're trying to pin stuff on her. Can someone pinch me? Because this is too messed up to be real!!

I am in Washington. Applying for jobs and I've contacted a temp agency. The tough part is that I just have 2 years of experience doing conscious sedation. As soon as I'm out, I am making calls. Oh, and I found out that my last day might be sooner than I thought. The doc's girlfriend's daughter just graduated from nursing school. She is taking her boards this month sometime. The doc apparently interviewed her a week and a half ago, and told 4 coworkers specifically to not tell me. Because this chick will be my replacement. Good luck to her working in this shady place.

I'm getting all ducks in a row to report. I took pictures of the expired dilaudid & after the DEA goes in, they will request the accurate logs that I kept which show total quantity, so if they try to destroy the vials, the count will not add up. Those counts were also done daily with the doc. Sorry if my post has grammar errors, I only slept 3 hours last night because I'm planning the next move.

I'm the only RN. I count the narcs daily with one of the two docs. So when I came up short, we looked everywhere. I suspect a certain staff member I think the doc is protecting. It's a huge mess and I'm disgusted with myself that I let this happen (using expired meds)

Let me state that I have desperately been looking for a new job. I am a single mother and have been staying at my current job out of necessity. I work at an oral surgery office, doing conscious sedation. We had some dilaudid expire November of 2013. I alerted the doctor to this, and he told me several times to use it, or find another job. We also have midazolam that expired last month, I asked if I could toss it, and he said to keep using it. Further, we prescriber hydrocodone in the office. A couple months ago, a bottle of it went missing. I insisted that we report it to the DEA (as recommended by the DEA), but he specifically told me not to. My question is: as soon as I can get the hell out of this office, after I report this, can I lose my RN license for using this expired stuff? Even though I was only working there to support my family?

Hahaha..very funny smarty pants

I feel like I couldn't have studied any more for it. Some questions I really had no clue. I felt like I got 40% of them right. Thank you though! I bet you will pass as well!

I'm an RN!!!!:w00t:

I have enjoyed reading other people's stories on techniques they used to study for the NCLEX-RN, so I will share mine and help (maybe) someone else! What kind of student am I? Well, I am an older student (36), and a single mother with 18 years of Dental Assisting experience. In nursing school, I read the chapters in my book so I was ahead of the instructor during lecture. I took notes, led study groups, and bought books to go along with the textbooks which I felt helped A LOT. ("Nursing Made Insanely Easy" and "Pharmacology Made Insanely Easy"). I would typically miss anywhere from 0 to 7 on exams. I graduated with a 3.7 GPA. I just graduated last month from an ADN program. (June 21, 2012). I scheduled to take the NCLEX on July 5 (which as I am writing this, was nearly 4 hours ago). How did I study? I used: NCSBN 3 week course (scored anywhere from 60% to 95% on practice 20 question exams, and a 77% on their pre-assessment exam) Saunders (scored a 86% on the comprehensive test the first time I took it) "NCLEX Made Insanely Easy" some Kaplan (a used book) ATI throughout my nursing program ( I took an NCLEX-RN predictor which stated I had a 99% chance of passing during the first try, but I was still skeptical) ATI app on my iTouch A few study groups which focused on how to narrow down answers and assigning a "yes" or a "no" to each possible answer Reviewed "Nursing Made Insanely Easy" ( I love the cartoon pics and fast & dirty description) the night before the test ( looked at the pics) Reviewed "Pharmacology Made Insanely Easy" the night before the test ( looked at all the pics and descriptions of antipsychotics, hormonal drugs, and vitamin/supplements) How was the morning of the exam? It did not start out smoothly..I arrived at the testing center & found out that I did not have the Authorization to Test, which I was supposed to print from my email ( I live 15 minutes away and was to test in 30 minutes). I tried to hold in tears as the woman told me that I coud not test unless I had that paper. I ran out of the office and into the adjacent physical therapist office next door. Again, nearly in tears, I explained how I was to take the NCLEX and didn't have a paper from my email and asked if I could use a computer. The 2 amazing women at the front desk said they would help me! I gave them my email password info & everything was falling into place...except that email was GONE! Ok, panic again. 10 minutes left. Then we found a number to call in case the ATT was lost. I called, 5 minutes on hold to talk to a real person after which I said I was to test in a few minutes and needed another ATT. It was send immediately and they women printed it out. I thanked them and ran into the testing center with less than 5 minutes to spare. After checking in with finger & hand scanning, I did a yoga stretch where I bent at the waist and hung there for 30 seconds. Reset my mind. Let's do this. How did you feel during the exam? Some questions were like *BAM*, nailed it. Others, I used the narrowing down technique, reminded myself to take deep breaths, and that I knew this stuff, and answered the best that I could. I was sort of paying attention to the number of questions, knew I was getting close to 75 but figured I could go all the way to 265, as supposedly one person is assigned to that number of questions (from what I was told by rumor, I'm not sure). Then at 75, the screen went blue. I started crying a bit because I felt that I should have had a few more questions to "prove myself". I raised my hand to let the proctor know that I was done. She escorted me out of the test area & asked if I was upset that it shut off at 75 and remarked that most people are happy when it shuts off at 75. I replied that I felt I should have had more questions, and wasn't sure how I did. She said that either people know their stuff & it shuts off, or people know they did not do well and it shuts off. I went out to my car, blew my nose & drove to starbucks. I did the "Pearson Vue Trick" as soon as I got to Starbucks and got this message: "Our records indicate that you have recently scheduled this exam. Please contact your Member Board for further assistance. Another registration cannot be made at this time."..according to some forums on here, this is a good sign. I really hope so, but the skeptical part of me is still trying to schedule for my next exam.....

Thank you!! :)