DIVA_NURSE405

I'm currently an RN working in med-surg.I'm also an Home Health RN prn, but I have over 2 yrs exper in HH before going prn. Working in the hosp will help u with skills such as wound care, wound vac,education on diseases & meds,care plans etc. Learning the OASIS is on the job training, you will not learn this in a hospital. I love home health & currently considering going back FT after I have my baby because of the flexibility. I really hate the paperwork in HH, but the pay is much better than a hosp. You also have to consider that you will be the only person there with a pt and your assessment skills have to be up par because sometimes you are the only health care professional that pt sees in between DR visits and outpt wound care visits. Many HH agencies will not hire new grads.

i currently work on a tele floor @ nights and our ratio is 6:1, we do have monitor techs, but majority of the time no cna's, so that leaves us with total pt care @ x's. we get all the chest pain & stroke pt's from er & surrounding small hospitals. i've been thinking of looking for another job because i've been hearing that soon we will be only going to 1 cna @ night & only 3 nurses on a 23 bed unit because they seem to think that the night shift doesn't do as much as day shift! yea right!!!

Yea once i see blood return i drop it slightly then advance my needle a little more then the cath. Thanks for that website it sounds very informative

I have been starting IV's for about 6 months, some days I'm good some days I can't hit anything! Esp with older people, I usually can start on younger folks with no problem, my question is what are some tips and tricks so I can become better with IV starts? I ask my fellow nurses and all they say is " u will get better in time" I just hate having to call our NOW nurses( we have nurses who come and help you if you get backed up or need IV started) makes me feel stupid esp when she comes and hits the vein her 1st try and I tried twice! lol My main problem is when I put the cath in I get blood return but when I try to flush it, it won't flush, and sometimes my cath gets bent! Any tips will be greatly appreciated!:redpinkhe

I have been starting IV's for about 6 months, some days I'm good some days I can't hit anything! Esp with older people, I usually can start on younger folks with no problem, my question is what are some tips and tricks so I can become better with IV starts? I ask my fellow nurses and all they say is " u will get better in time" I just hate having to call our NOW nurses( we have nurses who come and help you if you get backed up or need IV started) makes me feel stupid esp when she comes and hits the vein her 1st try and I tried twice! lol My main problem is when I put the cath in I get blood return but when I try to flush it, it won't flush, and sometimes my cath gets bent! Any tips will be greatly appreciated!

As my nursing instructor told me R/T is something u as a nurse can fix!

good luck u will do fine !

U have to study! there is no wrong way not to study (unless u dont study @ all) u never know what type of questions u will get so u have to study everything get a comprehensive study book like Saunders and complete everything thats in it. U never know what type of questions u will get i passed on my 1st try with the min questions of 85 and I would say that 75% were pharm questions, I didnt get any OB questions(i was worried about OB). Just really focus on your weakness and drill it till it cant be drilled anymore! There is no way you can learn all the drugs but know the main drugs for disease process e.g. CHF know the drugs u will expect to see LASIX and its side effects, the diet, adverse reactions, and what labs you expect to see with this! Trust me the longer u stay away the more u will lose. Good luck:redpinkhe ps- for everybody who failed I would look into a refresher course like the ATI i heard great things about this course go to http://www.atitesting.com and check them out!

That decision showed that you are a man and know when to fight your battles! why lose everything u worked hard for over something stupid. walking away showed that u know when to pick your battles! U are not a pansy:yeah:

If your ultimate goal is to become a nurse then go the LPN way. Trust me u wont regret it I was an LPN for 1.5 yrs before going to RN school and please believe me I learned majority of my skills in LPN school it actually has made RN school much much easier. RN school is more critical thinking but if you are a good nurse you utilize critical thinking in every aspect of your work LPN or RN is doesn't matter. There are currently 2 paramedics in my class(it's an LPN-RN) program and they struggled with med-surg and mental health, but excel in critical care nursing where the LPN's are struggling so do your research and I wish u well.

Don't be nervous! u will do just fine, that was just a honest mistake your friend made(failed because of that she must had a VERY strict instructor) just go into it with the attitude I can do it!

I live in oklahoma and work at a hospital and where i work the LPN's can push IV meds, start IV"s. We can't hang blood but we can verify and monitor the pt after the RN started the blood. We also can't DC PICC lines nor drop NG tubes(even though it's in our scope) but my hospital only allows RN's to do this.

I see this more than enough! I was taught to flush slowly after the med being pushed because just like u said u are giving the pt a bolus if u flush fast. I always flush slow, it cracks me up when the pt's say" why u pushing that so slow all the other nurses push it fast" Mostly when Im pushing Morphine or Dilaudid??

Me personally i dont agree with it but now that this country is in a recession many people are looking for recession-proof jobs and nursing is one of the top, but can u blame people who want stability in their lives?

We got so much food and candy from the docs, i think I gained at least 5 pds! lol That sucks that the docs wasn't thoughtful of the nursing staff:banghead: