TNnursejane BSN, RN

There are so many options in nursing. I spent 18 years in a small hospital in a critical care unit. I loved my job then we moved to another state with my husband's job. I have struggled to be happy since. I haven't found my niche yet but I have to sa...

I love it meanmaryjean! Thanks for the encouragement! TNnursejane

I had a pivotal birthday this year - 59 y/o. I've been an RN for 40 yrs and still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I've spent most of my career in critical care nursing. Although, I've gone down some different paths - some that were quest...

Hi NurseSMS I won't be able to retire anytime soon. Actually, I'm in no hurry and if I don 't ever retire that's fine. That was one of the reasons I decided to go after my Masters. I have a lot of things going on where I am doing for my family an...

I have been a nurse for almost 40 yrs and I still have my emotional roller coaster with nursing. I've worked 28 yrs in Critical Care to 10 yrs in informatics. Now I am a triage nurse in a large teaching institution. I love my job but there have been ...

Yes, Ms Vaught made a terrible error but the issue comes down to she missed all of the safety points that were put into place. My question is why did she override the med when if it was ordered should have been in the patient's profile. If she had gi...

You know, nursing isn't for everyone. I've been a nurse for 30+ yrs and I've left the bedside several times throughout the years. I've left the bedside then went back. I finally left the bedside 7 yrs ago. There are so many options in nursing. I've w...

I have been a nurse for 30 years and just took a job as a correctional nurse in a prison with 2200 inmates. I'm still on the fence as to whether I like it or not. We are totally on paper. When passing meds on segregation I find I don't have MARs and ...

I threw my resume out to every job board there was and a small hospital corporation finally took the bait and hired me into their quality and informatics department. Not only did I have 26 yrs of critical care nursing, I had a little quality and a lo...

Debuzz, I hate to tell you but you may have gone from the frying pan and into the fire! Case Management is a different type of nursing but you'll still deal with families and patients. Trying to satisfy them and find placement for them. Dealing with ...

I graduated nursing school in 1981. I worked in ICU so we didn't wear our caps and wore scrubs supplied by the hospital. We did get coffee for our docs and gave up our seats for them. We worked 8 hour shifts through the week and 12 hr on the weekends...

Great article! I have left the beside a couple of times in my career to pursue other interests in nursing. As you mentioned, we have all experienced burnout. I currently work with computers and electronic health records. I find this is where I will s...

Give them your two week notice while checking up on other places where you've put in applications. Don't just up and quite even though that's what you feel like doing because you never know when that could come back to bite you. Be sure that when you...

If I were in your shoes, I'd shoot for Hospital B. I was a critical care nurse for 20+ years and loved it. Saying that though, Beth is right. Business is business. I worked lots of overtime and even sometimes just out of the goodness of my heart woul...

My father committed suicide at 87 y/o. In doing the typical nurse thing of researching my dad's history, I decided that if a person really wants to take their own life, they will. They don't need anyone's permission either. There were no cues that my...

I have to give the plaintiff in this suit a "thumbs up" for standing her ground. When I was a young nurse, we didn't even know what sexual harassment was back in the early 80s or it was really kept hush-hush. I have a list of names from back then tha...

Dear love & loss, I've been in healthcare for a very long time and for some reason if you're not being talked about then something is wrong! Just watch your back and be vigilant. Sounds like someone has put a bug in the manager's ear but had no s...

I totally agree with greensilver. Having a PIP along with the experience you've had with it, can undermine your self-confidence. That is what happened to me. Once you lose your self confidence after this, it is hard to get it back in these circumstan...

I really feel for you! I recently left a job where I thought I'd try my hand at another field of nursing. I was put on PIP once because of med error. I got a verbal warning and it seemed like things went downhill from there. I ended up resigning afte...

Hi! I just wanted to chime in and give you a word of encouragement. Yes, you will have to answer to future employers about your termination but most times, they see that you are truthful and go from there. I agree that you probably need to get out of...

How tragic! He will be missed. Prayers go out to his extended family and those who knew and loved him. God bless! Sincerely, TNnursejane

Great idea HouTX. I'm actually going back into the clinical area in a LTAC. I did not get the nurse manager position but that's OK. Don't think I was quite ready for the position as of yet anyway. We'll see how the LTAC goes! My background just come...

I have 26 years of Critical Care experience and 6 yrs in Risk Management. Currently I work with the Electronic Health Record. After 5 yrs in this field, I don't feel that it's a good fit. I want to go back into Nursing Leadership. How do I convince a...

HI all! I'm 53 and have been out of critical care for 5 yrs. I've got 20+ years in Critical Care and have worked the last 5 yrs in Informatics (electronic health record). I just can't do the travel anymore and the world of informatics is not all it's...

Thanks for the advice, Katie M. From what I've been told, I have 6 weeks of orientation and a CNA with you and 4 patients. Occasionally it's 5 to one but rarely. We'll see how "rarely"! I'm going to give it a shot. Recruiters are still calling about ...