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.

Hello! I started a new grad position in October for one of the larger hospital systems in the valley. It is not my dream job (of course), it's med-surg, but it is a foot in the door. I have only been off orientation for a few shifts.I have also been working since March at an outpatient family planning clinic. I just received a call for an interview in L&D, which is where I really want to be. However, it's with abrazo, which I'm not too sure about. I'm concerned that if I am offered the job I will ruin any future possibility of going back to my current hospital system, as I want to work at another one of their hospitals in the high risk L&D. Have any of you left a job so soon, and gone back? I would hate to burn bridges, but also hate to pass a chance in L&D.

belittling you with passive aggressive behavior and snide remarks is bullying. however, your response and how you let it affect you are your own choice. i think the hyper-sensitivity and hurt feelings is common with new grads, i am a new grad in a hospital and i definitely felt it for my first few weeks. there is some great advice here, i think the most effective thing you can do is call her out on it. in my own experience, that puts a stop to that behavior. i had a nurse who kept asking me things that were not necessary to the immediate care and could be found if she looked in the chart. she kept saying things like "you need to give me this info because i don't have time to dig through the chart for it" (things that are easy to see for oneself, like basic care orders, etc... not to mention each shift is supposed to review orders, and chart that they reviewed all orders, at the beginning of each shift). one night i finally replied that maybe she should work on her time management skills, and then she would be able to look it up herself. she hasn't given me grief since then. nursing is a team effort, and situations like this don't do anything to help the team be successful with patient care.

It never hurts to try and negotiate your rate, although for it to be effective you will need to have a lot of experience and great reviews to back you up. I highly doubt any facility in Arizona will offer relocation assistance, there is a flooded market here that they can have their pick of. Good luck!

Here's a survey by the Board of Nursing that they do each year showing you the statistics. http://www.azbn.gov/Documents/education/Employment%20Newly%20Licensed%20RN.09.09.11.pdf For me, I started a job in a clinic on March 1 of this year, just a bit over a month after passing NCLEX on January 20. I kept applying to hospitals though, and after 367 applications, I was offered an interview and hired with a local hospital system. It is not the unit I want, actually it is the one unit I never wanted to work in, but I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to get in a hospital. Also, the only reason I was offered an interview was due to knowing someone who worked there, and the reason I was hired was because of my glowing 90 day evaluation from my clinic job. Take what you can get, put your time in, and work your way up. Good luck!

I am in the RN-BSN at Grand Canyon University. The classes are 5 weeks long each, and it's pretty much just busy work. I chose it because it actually ended up being drastically cheaper than ASU's RN-BSN program. My only complaint is now that I am close to finishing, they've told me I am short 7 credits and need to take two more elective classes in order to graduate. Luckily I can get those done at a community college in time to graduate. I get a 10% discount for having graduated from the Maricopa Community College nursing program, and an additional discount because I am working for a major hospital system here.

every facility will have their own protocol for this. whoever trained you or your manager should be able to answer your question.

I can't answer all, as I don't work there. It's the county hospital in a bad part of town. Personally, I would love to work the ED there. Can't say anything about benefits, pay, or ration, that's info that you should ask whomever interviews you. Good luck!

this isn't something i'm overly concerned with, as many states mandate how many years experience a nurse must have in order to teach. i did go through my associate's program with a friend who was going to go directly into a master's program after graduation(she had a bachelor's in another area, so qualified for the rn-msn program). the hospital who hired her advised against this, as hospitals already spend so much to train new nurses, they said they would have a hard time justifying paying even more to train a new grad nurse who holds a master's degree. i wonder how many hospitals would actually choose a new grad with a msn over a new grad with a bsn due to the cost.

that's about average. banner starts new grads out around 25, scottsdale is around 26. not sure about the dignity system. mayo starts new grads out at a whopping 20.xx (ouch). if you want to make more, work nights and pick up extra shifts!

tempe is directly west of that hospital. there are lots of furnished rentals available in tempe, check craigslist. good luck!