jdsp87

Hello all, I have always been interested in becoming a dialysis nurse. Recently, a classmate of mine mentioned to me that his father performs plasmapheresis as an RN and made about 120,000$ last year. Is this correct or even in the ballpark? Sounded too good to be true. I am in Los Angeles by the way. Thank you so much for your time!

My nursing "dream" ever since I was in nursing school was to be an Acute Dialysis RN. I finally landed a med-surg job after 2 long years because I saw that it was a requirement on Acute dialysis job postings. However, the acute dialysis nurses I talk to say that I need to be experienced with outpatient dialysis. Now I feel I wasted my time and hard-work getting this job =(. Can someone please what steps I can take to become an Acute Dialysis RN? If I do have to go outpatient dialysis first, how long should I stay in this med-surg position, and how long should I stay outpatient before applying to acute dialysis? I am desperate for the advice of you dialysis nurses out there! =)

Do you need a doctor's order in order to draw blood for labs from a patient's port-a-cath? None of the nurse's on my shift, including the charge RN, could give a me a definite answer. On one hand, it would make sense since the port-a-cath is a central line and, like a PICC line, it would require the expertise of a doctor to determine if it is OK to draw labs from. But then again, another nurse pointed out that the purpose of the port-a-cath is to make it easier for the patient: why would you stick the patient when access is right in front of you. I really want to hear all your opinions! =)

Does anyone know if there was a third round of interviews? And did anyone feel the 2nd interview seemed kinda rushed where they would cut you off?*I mean they only had to ask two questions! I felt because of that I don't think my 2nd interview went so well, my interviewer didn't seem or act so pleasant either but on a brighter note, my first interview went great! Did anyone see if their second interviewer wrote a lot or anything at all on their portfolio too??

Does anyone wash their dirty scrubs with their regular load of laundry? I know the soap is self-cleaning, but it seems kind of weird to wash the bacteria out of your scrubs, let them float in the laundry water, and be exposed to the rest of your clothes! Or do you always wash your scrubs as a separate load? I work part-time and only have 2 sets of scrubs and washing those four pieces of clothing separate is starting to get tiring.

I work in an Adult Day Care and routinely administer IM Vitamin B12 shots in the buttocks (dorsogluteal). I know it is not the best injection site but the patients say it's the least painful site and will actually refuse it if not there. We recently had a doctor specifically order a subcutaneous SQ vitamin B12 shot for a patient. We did the upper arm and the abdomen and the patient hated it. She wants the shot in the buttocks and refuses it if it's not there. I've researched online and half the websites say the dorsogluteal is only for IM while others say it's ok to give SQ there. Does anyone have a nursing fundamentals book handy and tell me if a SQ injection in the buttocks is appropriate? Hehe

Hello, I work in an [outpatient skilled nursing] Adult Day Care. I have a patient with renal insufficiency receiving Procrit sq injections ordered "qWeek". He received an injection last Friday and came in today for another (Thursday) because he said he would not be coming in tomorrow. My co-worker RN stated "We cannot give it to you today. It must be tomorrow or later." Now I've only been an RN for a year but I think we can give it any day of the week, as long as there has not been a previous injection the same week. If the MD meant for it to be only for tomorrow (Friday), wouldn't he have written "q7days"? I've tried explaining to my co-worker that Procrit is important and he might not be able to wait until next week, but I always get the "Doctor said one week exactly. We must follow what the doctor said because it's our license." I need some help! There IS a difference between qWeek and q7days right?

Hello. I am a new grad in the Carson/Torrance, CA area (about 15miles south of Los Angeles) and cannot catch a job opening anywhere in acute care. I've been meaning to apply to nursing homes around the area but my mom (who also happens to be an RN) said that it's extremely stressful and not to do it. I'm not looking for the easiest job in the world, but I was just wondering what exactly are the duties of the RN in a nursing home? All I know so far is that they supervise the LVN's and insert/run IV therapies. Can someone please help me and let me in on this field of nursing? Any comments from day and/or night shift are appreciated.

Can someone please let me know what the window actually tells you when you pass? When I try to re-register, it just tells me that I have "recently scheduled the test and cannot register for the test at this time." Lame! Why can't California have the 48results like normal states...

Thank you SoCalNursingStudent for your reply. Just an update for everyone, there are Cal States that DO take WCU degrees for entrance into Cal State Master programs! One of which is Cal Poly Pomona. So don't let anyone talk down to you if you are interested in going to West Coast. Tell them to stop being ignorant. hahaha

I've just recently visited the West Coast University campus in Anaheim to attend their general BSN program. I was mostly concerned if that BSN would be able to transfer to Cal State Fullerton so I could get my MSN in Anesthesia. The gentleman at the information session said with confidence that it would transfer to Cal State Fullerton "for sure, definitely." But after reading the forums here, I guess I received the wrong information. Could a representative from West Coast University or Cal State Fullerton clear this up for me please? Also [my back-up plan] I was planning to get the BSN/RN at West Coast Univeristy and, if worse comes to worse, just transfer to an RN-to-BSN program at a Cal State and go to MSN Anesthesia from there. Could someone please clarify that this is possible? And please don't respond, "Why would you waste so much money there just to transfer to an RN-to-BSN program?!" It is because I would only have to spend 2 years there (with my transferred classes) and I qualify for financial aid. =) Thank you very much everyone for reading!