Nemhain

Geez... the average sick days taken on my unit per year is 7 and I've used 4 so far.

I hear ya! I've heard many nurses say that they used to be able to spend more time with patients 6 + years ago when ratios at my hospital were much higher. The paperwork is taking us away from the patient and we have to get after the MDs to sign this and that. I get fed up having to chase the doctors down to sign medication reconciliation sheets (which they should be doing anyway). The simple solution would be to start holding doctors responsible for doing their own work... but that won't happen because it's too logical. Charting will only get worse... no wonder there is a revolving door of nurses, old and new.

University Medical Center (UMC) has a good PICU and they're building a new pediatric hospital (Diamond Children's Medical Center) that will be attached to the existing hospital and it will have a it's own ED! I think it will be done in the spring of 2010. I've heard good things about Tucson Medical Center's (TMC) PICU and I think they are also planning on a separate children's hospital as well. I think the new grad pay right now for both hospitals is $24.00

I have to say that I've heard nothing but good things about TMC's L&D... seriously. I know that there are approx. 4,000 births a year there! That 's a busy L&D dept. I can't say I've heard the same about the Med/Surg units. I heard that the Med/Surg floors are carpeted (I'm just imagining the spills... gross).

That's what I see coming. Not only what you mentioned above, but my hospital has part-time nurses going to full-time and some inactive RNs returning to the workforce. The "nursing shortage" was created by many RNs leaving the profession or going to part-time status, not because there weren't enough graduates. Those aforementioned RNs who are coming back to the profession (as a result of better working conditions) and hordes of new grads are going to make it a tight job market. I feel bad for someone who's just starting school; they may have a difficult time finding the job that they want.

Maddie, I'll PM you.

Maddie, If you look under "Article 2"Licensure; persons and activities not required to be licensed of the Arizona Massage Therapy Board's website, you will see where Licensed health care providers are exempt providing they do not identify themselves as a massage therapist.

maddie, I was a massage therapist for 10 years before becoming a registered nurse, and yes, massage therapy IS within the scope of practice for RNs and has been for quite sometime. Actually, it is within the scope of practice for Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, MDs and NDs as well. However, one cannot identify themselves as a massage therapist (in most states anyway) unless you hold a license saying so. Just as prescribing medication is within a nurse practitioner's scope of practice she can't call herself a Physician. That being said, however, I feel that someone who hasn't been to massage school isn't prepared enough to make a business of it.

Yes, Ambien and Phenergan for anyone over 70...it seems to turn them all into psych patients! I can't tell you how many times I've seen people climb the walls with these two drugs.

:rotfl: I with you!

1) No, I wouldn't be a nurse again. 2) Yes, you should use your MPH.

I'm really hurt and embarrassed. I was in a study group with my math professor and I got really hungry. I didn't want to leave to go all the way to the dining hall to get something "healthy" to eat 'cause I was afraid I'd miss something in my group, so I went to the vending machine just outside the room and got a donut. When I came back in the room (I had already had a bite of the donut) my professor looked up and said, "that's nice, a nursing major eating a donut." I almost died. Everyone looked at me and said nothing I was really embarassed 'cause I am a little overweight and I realize that wasn't a healthy choice, but it really made me feel bad. just needed to vent

Holy Crap! (pun intended).

I've been saying this for years as well. My unit has hired only 2 new graduates in the last year and none of the seasoned nurses are able to get any overtime. It will take a while, but hopefully those who are planning a nursing career will be wise to the RN job market upon graduating. The job market isn't what it was 3 or 4 years ago... that's for sure.

Yep. At my hospital there is. We've benefited from the local schools hemorrhaging new graduates. We now fight over who gets to work overtime.

I keep a line KVO if I'm going to hang another bag with in two hours during the day or within three hours at night. I find alot of times at night that the pt. would rather be KVO 'cause they don't want to be too disturbed with the flushing. I don't know why, but they don't seem to mind sleeping hooked up to the pump.

No policy at my hospital, but almost everybody dilutes 25 mg of Phenergan in 50ml of normal saline and hang it as a piggy back. We don't need an order to do that (hang it as a PB).

You said it, sister! I want to add "management". I've had three other careers before nursing and all of the nursing managers I've had so far (although I know all aren't like this) act unprofessional, are vindictive or are completely clueless about bedside nursing. It truly is sad and very disappointing.

I'm jealous! Very very jealous!!! I want to go down to two 12's a week with the option of working the occasional 3... but you get overtime for it... you lucky devil!!!

According to Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Medical Surgical Nursing (10th ed.), "...because hypoxemia stimulates respiration in the patient with severe COPD, increasing the oxygen flow to a high rate may greatly raise the patient's blood oxygen level. At the same time, this will suppress the respiratory drive, causing increased retention of carbon dioxide and CO2 narcosis..."

I'm already seeing that. At one hospital all of the nurses were talking about "the good ol' days" of 4 to 7 years ago when they could work all of the overtime they wanted. One nurse hadn't worked any overtime in 6 months! It's getting more difficult at my hospital to move to different departments. I honestly think nursing schools should start putting the breaks on flooding the market with new grads; some schools want to increase enrollment by 100% in the next few years. When I graduated only 5 to 10% of my class had no job when they graduated; now it's about 15%. What people don't understand is that there is no "true" shortage of nurses. There were approximately 450,000 RNs that are not working in nursing at all 3 years ago and there were about 100,000 open nursing positions in the U.S. Many of those nurses have come back to the workforce because working conditions have improved. When California passed their ratio laws about 10,000 RNs that left the profession came back to it! I bet new graduate RNs will have a difficult time finding a job in about 5 years.

Now that I think of it... it might be through Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

I believe it is through Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. It's either online or via cable/satellite television.

I think that's everywhere in Tucson (Carondelet network, UMC, and TMC) except Kino pays new grads $24.50 (that pay was actually listed on their website). Some of these hospitals will pay more (just a tiny bit) if you work in critical care and/or have a BSN... 'cause UMC is a Magnet Hospital I do know they compensate BSN nurses with a bit more pay (but this may not hold true for all Magnet Hospitals).

St. Joseph's for Med/Surg. TMC for L&D and Mother/Baby. I would suggest UMC for Med/Surg, but there have been so many budget cuts that when a PCT leaves/quits the unit, the floor doesn't get a replacement. My friends sister works at UMC and she came from St. Joes and she's sorry she left. At St. Joes you have CNAs that answer call bells and the charting isn't as bad as UMC's. I hear they've packed on so much charting that it has taken the nurses away from the patients.