fromtheseaRN

I got raptors about 2 years into my ER experience. Yes, they're $65. But when you need to do an open thoracotomy on a trauma that just landed, they get the clothes off in a split second. They have been well worth it in my experience.

I was out for part of last year after having a baby, and thought my D/I ratio would increase... however, when I looked at my submitted application, my employer POC input my standard yearly pay on my employment verification, not subtracting the 3 months I was out without pay. Super bummed, I was hoping that would give me a leg up.

I'll second what was said above, that's a great score for walking in cold. I'm scheduled to take mine at the end of January. I work inpatient ortho, so our patients are elective joints and traumas, and I also worked in the OR on mostly ortho cases. I have the practice test disc that you can buy from NAON, and the areas I struggle in are the ones you see in clinic and not in the hospital... your spondyloarthropathies, gout, etc. Not seeing these things in practice make them hard to remember for me. Aside from the female athlete triad, any other bizarre topics you remember? Thanks for the help!

For hardware removal in a septic joint, we typically see a copious amount of drainage, at least for the patients at the hospital I work at. With time on the ortho unit you'll start to know what's normal for infected joints and what's not. For the drainage, I would have just let the surgeon know when they rounded that day (or the next). If I wasn't expecting them in within the next day, I'd call and let them know. That being said, I've never had a surgeon say it's abnormal. For a new joint with a lot of drainage or any surgery where infection was not expected or known about, I would call right away. The wrist pain is concerning, even if it was typical of her RA flares, the docs need to know so they can rule out a spread of infection of adjust her RA meds to treat the flare up.

All of our ortho patients have bed alarms on at all times. Our beds allow you to set the alarm to 3 different levels of movement sensitivity, and ours are set to only alarm if the patient actually gets up. It is the hospital policy, and it has prevented many, many falls on our unit (which funny enough, are mostly the young, fully A&O patients who underestimate how much the surgery and meds affect their ability to safely ambulate, and roll their eyes when we educate them about it). If a patient wants to be on our ortho unit with our staff specifically trained for orthopedics, they have to follow our rules. We are more than happy to find another room to accommodate the patient on another unit if they don't want a bed alarm... and each time we have the patient has requested a transfer back in order to be cared for by our ortho team.

In the hospital system I work for, patient companions can have homework, computers, etc in the room. Patient sitters are not allowed to have anything- you have to have your eyes on the patient at all times. You have to wear scrubs. So really, it's going to depend on the hospital's policy as to what you can do. And the ease of the job will really depend on your patient, as a previous poster stated. Good luck!

Find out who the OR manager is and send an email asking to shadow for a day. That shows that you are interested, and will also give you an idea if it's something you'd really want to do. I went to the OR from an ortho unit. I was hired with 3 other nurses, and 2 of them went back to their floors within 2 weeks because it was not what they had imagined.

I've seen/met several who have gone back for their FNP so they can first assist, and make a living off of it. A couple were already RNFAs, but said Medicare would not reimburse their services if they did not have their NP.

I floated to the ED the other day and asked about this. Only 1 of the PCTs I worked with had their CNA. The others were hired as nurse assistants (non-certified), and Banner trained them in IVs, foleys, etc. One thing I've learned about the nursing world is "rules" about what certifications you need to work certain jobs are very fluid and change from week to week, from department to department. The best bet is to get whatever certifications you can to always give yourself a leg up.

I work for Banner and this is not the case- we use CNAs on the unit. CNAs take vitals, do bed baths, etc. We use PCTs in the ED. They start IVs, insert foleys, draw blood, etc. Our CNAs and PCTs are not interchangeable. You'll have a avery hard time getting a job with just an ADN. I had almost 400 applications out before I did, and that was almost 2 years ago. The only reason I was hired was because I enrolled in a RN-BSN program. Go straight for your BSN- it's the same amount of time and you'll have a job sooner.

I always notify the doctor if I hold a med that doesn't have parameters on the order, but I would not wake up a doctor for that. I work days, and often night shift lets me know if they held anything, and I will let the doctor know (and also ask for parameters if there aren't any).

i'm sorry to hear that your husband is not supportive of your wishes. that is a hard road to navigate, and i hope it goes smoothly for you. so, what do you not like about nursing or your job? you have many avenues available to you, you do not have to do direct patient care, or put up with a lack of benefits. if you don't like direct patient care, a friend of mine is a lvn, and works for the government in an office job. she reviews medicaid patients records, and makes the recommendations and approvals for their needed home health care. she works monday-friday 9-5, and has amazing benefits. usajobs.gov or your local department of health will list these types of available positions on their websites, if you're interested. good luck to you, i really do hope you find a better fit.

You sound exactly like me! My first job began in March in a women's health clinic. However I knew I wanted to be in a hospital setting, so I kept applying. I finally landed a job in ortho/med-surg and began in October (still working PRN at the clinic). I absolutely hate it. I cry almost every night on my way home from work. I have way too many patients (6 usually) that are all straight from PACU or are very high acuity patients who somehow get placed on my unit(and I have 5 other fresh post ops to attend to). It's awful. Night shift yells at me saying I didn't work hard enough or do enough. Anyhow... my plan, and what you may also want to consider, is speaking with the DON of WIS at your hospital and expressing your interest in cross training. It's not inappropriate to show your passion for the area. My hospital system loves to cross train nurses, and it will help you transition over. Join AWHONN and attend the monthly meetings, network there. Find your hospital's class schedule and become NRP and ACLS certified. Volunteer to hold babies in the NICU. Do whatever you can to meet people in this area and eventually you will get over there. I know it's hard, I'm in the same boat, but we have to try to remember what we are gaining form our current position- you are learning to multitask like no other, you are learning about a lot of disease processes that you will encounter in women's health, and you are learning to collaborate with your team. Good luck and keep us updated on your progress.

I took it all online through Phoenix College and received an A in the class. It's not that bad and everything I learned really helped me to understand disease processes I learned about in nursing school (it wasn't a pre-req back then).

Phoenix College does use human cadavers, but it is optional. They were all people who donated their bodies to science following death. The lab part is mostly anatomy identification, bones, organs, etc. We did dissect sheep eyes, hearts, and brains.