rnicare

In this day and age many families have both parents working. You never know when one will lose their job and we have come to know that there is no such thing as job security. It depends on your financial situation and really is a personal decision. It is a challenge to keep yourself organized with little ones but many have done this. Most of the stay at home moms when my children were younger did not have an education beyond high school so they did not have a profession that required keeping up with current trends. Do what you feel is best for you and your family.

There are many websites or organizations that offer online CEUs. These are usually inexpensive. In order to be considered licensed you still need to meet the requirements of the state or region in which you practice no matter what type of nursing you do. Being a nurse definitely helps with monitoring of clinical trials and understanding the disease the research is being conducted for. My state does not require CEUs to maintain a license. Being certified as either a CRA or coordinator you are required to have a certain number of CEUs to maintain certification. These can be done through many online sites. If you are interested in being a CRA or clinical research nurse go for it.

I had jobs that we never got a lunch. When I worked in the OR the majority of time we did not have anyone extra to relieve for lunch. Most of us did not mind but we had to grab something to eat on the run. It was generally a bite of food. The staff rather have no lunch than down a sandwich or food in 5 minutes. I had another job on a hospital floor that we were assigned a lunch time. That worked pretty well and it was encouraged to take a lunch. If you were busy at your assigned time, we adjusted the time and you took your lunch when you were able.

Hello, One place you may be able to get both neuro and research at the same time would be in an academic setting. Most university hospitals have specialized units which include Neuro and generally do research. Centerwatch is a website that focuses on research and usually has job postings. Good Luck

I agree with Cak1219 above. It is good to do a year of med/surg in order to gain time management and organizational skills. You will be exposed to caring for a number of patients with various conditions. You can always build on the knowledge that you gain and specialize. Good luck with your new job.

I would recommend working for at least a year on a med/surg floor in order to build your skills. I have worked in the OR also and loved it. I feel that getting the experience on the units reinforces what you have learned in school. OR nursing is different as you are dealing usually with one patient at a time in your OR suite. If you get a experience on a med/surg floor or ICU you will always have that experience to fall back on if you find you don't like OR nursing. I worked with surgical technicians who went to nursing school and once graduated decided they needed to get more experience with floor nursing or ICU in order to better their skills and obtain organizational skills to care for many patients at one time. They really wanted to be able to have more options if they decided to move to another specialty. On the other hand I worked with surgical techs that graduated from nursing school and had no desire to work on the other units and wanted to stay in the OR. It is really based on what you want to do. If you are not sure if OR nursing is for you, I would opt to get more experience.

I knew that I wanted to be a nurse when I was 5 years old. I was always doing things for my grandma and taking care of her. Everyone told me that I would be a good nurse. When I was 7 years old I spent a week in the hospital and it was not a good experience but I did not let that deter me. The nurse that primarily took care of me was mean. I was scared being away from my family and she made me scared of her. I knew that I wanted to work with children because of the experience I had. I worked in PICU and throughly loved it. ICU can be intimidating at first but being there for those who are so sick is so rewarding. :wink2:

I have worked at a place where you must tell your manager your intentions of interviewing for another position. You are not granted an interview unless your manager knows. The HR dept. follows through with contacting the manager and confirms that she/he is aware of you interviewing. I guess they think it is a courtesy. I have seen where someone is blocked from leaving to another area because of business needs. It does make it a tense situation if you are not granted the new position and have to stay in the current area.

This is very disheartening when one hears such a negative comment especially when the patients are giving you positive comments. As others have mentioned, depending on the institution, the managers have to find something that needs improvement. I don't agree that it should be that way but it is real. I think many of us have been in that same situation. Part of nursing is explaining to the patient what you are doing and explaining their condition to them. Is the manager around observing what you are doing or just relying on hearsay? Ask your manager to point out when you are taking too long with a patient and ask the manager for advice on how you can shorten your time with the patient without cutting out the quality of the care of answering the patient's questions and putting the patient at ease. Keep up the good work.:)

Food is enjoyed by most people. Donuts, muffins, bagels, cookies, cake have all been welcomed. If you want a healthier version fruit and veggies are also a good choice. My experience having been a nurse for many years, food was always welcomed by all. It is great that you want to do something to show your appreciation.

I agree with the others. Cookies is a great way of showing your appreciation and means alot.

Hello, I appreciate your interest. I am in a master's of science with a major in nursing program and one of the requirements is to communicate via email with a nurse with the same level of education or higher from another country. The course is Professional Issues and topics of discussion would be education, profession, nursing issues etc. If you are at that level or know of anyone that is and would be willing to converse, I would greatly appreciate it.--Linda

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the information you provided. One of the requirements for this semester's course is to communicate via email during the semester with a graduate nurse or graduate nursing student. The stipulation of it being a graduate level nurse is posing a problem. Do you know of any graduate nurses or graduate nursing student that would be interested in communicating during this semester. The course is Professional Issues and during the course of the semester we will share what we learn with the other nurses in the class.--Linda

Thanks madeleine for your reply and information.

Thank you Madeleine for replying. I am a RN working full time enrolled in a master's with a major in nursing program in the Chicago area. One of the requirements for this semester's course is to communicate via email with a master's prepared nurse or master's program student in another country in order to learn about nursing in their country.--Linda