StarryEyed, RN

My hospital pharmacy dispenses pre measured amounts of the powder into our Omni cell (in little plastic containers) which we then mix with a defined amount of sterile water on the unit. We mix one for each patient it’s ordered for, put a pt label with date time made. Good for 24 hrs.

What i would do is carefully read each hospital's mission statement and values and use their own "buzz words" in my cover letter to them.

Absolutely take the job!! Then immediately add it to your resume and keep sending it out. USE that license. I finally started getting interest after I added a non-hospital RN position which was really just giving flu shots. I can't even tell you how happy my heart felt when they offered me that flu shot position because I was using my RN license. After that I started a hospital RN volunteer thing, then a per diem RN job, then two hospital RN interviews which turned into offers -- all within two months! Bottom line.... Get that RN position on your resume!

We get overtime pay for that extra hour and anything beyond that if need be.

I will try them. I'm about an hour from Santa Monica so maybe I can even head out there one day :) Thanks!!

I don't post for ppl to do searches for me unless I've tried extensively myself. KOI navy top is probably the first search I did before even thinking about posting here.

That's awesome that there is amazing teamwork on some units to divide and take over the pts of the nurse in crisis. However, in California, we have staffing ratios and it is absolutely ILLEGAL to have more pt's than ratio allows. I would NEVER do this unless i had empty beds, nor would anyone expect anyone else to do this. We had an RN that had to leave d/t illness and the Charge RN immediately took over until they were able to get someone from the night shift to come in early and take over.

I'm not exactly sure if I'm using the right words to describe it. It is solid navy (not sure but might come in other colors, too). It is a somewhat patterned fabric in the sense that some parts of it are a little see-through and some parts of the pattern are not. I think that is all I know how to describe it. I saw a nurse who brought a pt up to my unit wear it once but completely forgot to ask. Then I saw a phlebotomist wear it and was able to find it is Koi, but I haven't been able to find it on any websites. Does anyone know which one I am referring to and where I can get one?

If she's still orienting how would she help staffing at all? Presumably while orienting they're paying you and your preceptor to do the same job, right?

When I was a new hire/new grad I had an awesome preceptor who took her lunches WITH me each shift (there were others who would either take it at a different time than their preceptee or would go off with their friends and leave their new grad alone for lunch) and she would also introduce me to other staff as we interacted with them and tell me about them. And not in a gossipy way at all. For example, there was a staff member who is very sarcastic with everyone right off the bat and she told me this when we saw we'd be working with her, telling me this is how she is but she is not being mean and this really helped, that staff member is awesome. Others she would say they are awesome but some need to be explicitly asked to do something and they will do it. Just little tips and info and integration into getting to know the staff and how the unit works. I love that on our unit everyone gets along and we don't have the night shift vs day shift conflict that other hospitals seem to have.

Despite the fact that you drove around for one hour looking for parking, you still parked there knowing it was illegal or at least that you would be fined. That ticket is no surprise. I'm sure you knew you'd get a ticket if you parked there. Yes it sucks to be ticketed but ppl will be mad about a ticket whether they know they deserved it or not. You can always petition it. I've parked places where I wasn't sure if I was supposed to d/t confusing signage. I just found the website on the ticket and explained my situation, acknowledging everything that happened and my ticket was taken care of that same day.

omg, I freaked out one time cuz I saw gooey brown stuff all over my A&Ox4 pt and was thinking "how the heck did that happen?! Plus it nearly touched my arm but luckily only my glove actually did, then I saw a little dessert cup hidden in the blanket mess and realized it was in fact, chocolate pudding. I remember having seen it there when I had done my initial assessment :)

No kidding! It's annoying when the sitter is calling me into the room all the time saying "He's trying to get out of bed. She's touching her NG." THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE THERE FOR!!! Then they wait for ME to be the one to tell the pt not to do that and move their hand away. I had an awesome sitter one night with a little old lady who had a PICC, Foley, and NG. She needed to go to the bathroom so she had a CNA cover her for not even 5 minutes and when she got back the Foley was out. The CNA that covered here tried to deny it and laugh it off saying "oh she's quick lady". ugh!

Because things can still get missed even on a double check. I was getting report for a pt w/a PCA, was handed a copy of the order and the pain documentation flowsheet and noticed that both nurses that had signed off on the order had missed that the order also included a continuous infusion rate. I caught it and we added it and clarified everything. What if a calculation was off on a Heparin drip? Also with dressings, it's one thing to hear from the offgoing nurse that the dressing is clean, dry and intact, then you see that it's soiled or even soaked. It's another to go into the room have the nurse show you what it looks like then you definitely know what's a change from the start of your shift instead of just the last time the offgoing nurse looked at it.

Just 1-2 months??? I had an agonizing 11 month wait until I started my first full time RN position. Don't give up!!! Take another job while you're still applying. ANYTHING!! You said you have family to support, and for yourself you just can't give up in 1-2 months. I got two full time offers at the same time, I would say the following is what helped me stand out for the new grad program: 2 months of giving Flu & PNA vaccines, it was a paid RN position 2 months of per diem RN position with a blood bank couple weeks of volunteer RN position at a hospital (basically shadowed RN's and helped CNA's) I also had my BLS, ACLS, and PALS Then a couple things that my application (not resume) had that not most have was: a year of living abroad accelerated 2nd degree BSN almost trilingual (2 fluent, 1 conversational) I basically showed and told them (in the interview) that those 11 months were not wasted and I wasn't spending my time only sending applications expecting results. I explained every single gap in school or employment. I ended up at a place a absolutely love so i wouldn't take back those 11 months for anything if it meant I'd end up somewhere else. In fact, if I had known it would've taken so long I would've travelled with my left over loan monies.