frodo-dog

My step daughter works at USAA, the insurance company, as a call center rep. She barely graduated high school, yet earns $22/hour and gets $10K bonus each year. She gets full benefits, vacation, 401Ketc. No one threatens her license or lawsuits. She works regular hours. and no one says she has to get a 4 year degree to continue working. Makes me think I am the one who got it all wrong. I was working PRN at $20/hour doing home health, no benefits, no guaranteed hours and certainly no bonus.

Peter Fine of Banner Health is reported to have a 2012 base salary that translates to $2,473/hour.

1. Phoenix AZ 2. 2 3. Med Surg, overloaded ratios. 4. $26 5. N/A 6. Non Union? Just left floor nursing, became an RN Case manager $72,000. LOVE IT!

Just had the same thing happen: I got called in to the managers office and 'written up". The whole write up was total fiction. I proved that by going through the charting. Their response was that I either sign the "corrective action" or take involuntary termination. They informed me that with that involuntary termination, the board of nursing would take my license away and I would have to pay for an attorney to fight for the license. So I signed. Then they said that I could now take 2 weeks off as voluntary resignation. I have no idea why they did this. Really no idea. One of the other nurses on the floor told me that this was not the first time that the managerment had done this, which made me feel slightly better. I tried to get other jobs, but they "faxed over" the signed write up to their "aquaintences" in other companies. I did manage to get another position, but will not update my information on line or let anyone know where it is for fear of continued harrassment from my old company. I know what you are all thinking, I must really be a horrible person and in denial, but I really can not think of a single thing that I did other than not be personally liked by the management favorite.

Hi GaMommy81, our floor was split between a pseudo ICU and the "specialty med surg", so the nurses were simply assigned to either. The fresh livers went to the pseudo ICU, but our pseudo ICU didnt have the equipment or clinical skills that normal ICU's had, again it was very repetitious. Also, unlike other hospitals, our whole floor had a 5:1 ratio and it was very hard work. We did not get lunch or leave early. We also shared a CNA and so were doing most of the CNA work ourselves: walking patients, taking them to the bathroom, cleaning them up. So thats another question for your decision making. 3:1 is about as many as I think you should have. The veins of liver kidney patients are shot and the liver patients bleed profusely, so getting IV's is very hard and its demoralizing. We used to joke about how many we had or had not got in a day. The constantly need replacing and we always begged for central lines. I love liver patients though, they are so complex in their symptoms. I did love that I was specializing, but as a new grad, needed more clinical skills to move on. If I had worked else where and gained all of the variety of skills, I would not have minded so much.

I did liver kidney transplant for a year. People left the floor to go to med surg to get real experience and a step closer to ICU. The tasks on a transplant floor are pretty much the same every day and the varienty of skills is lacking. It is not a good basis for ICU. General med surg would be better. I got very bored after the first few months yearning for some variety. There was the pre blood work up and transfusions, post NG, duo, catheter, IV's, get them up and about, send them home. Lots of lactulose diarrhea or compactions. How I longed for a CBI, ortho experience, anything else. However, if its the only route into a hospital... well take it. Otherwise I would recommend getting wider experience on general med surg.

How do you "prove" practice hours? Can you "practice" in another state? Could you do home health for the hours and return to your telemetry? That is a lot. I was looking at getting an OR license and saw that requirement. Luckily I have 960 hours but I havent seen that anywhere else I have been looking at.

The Magnet hospital I work at has not given nurses' a pay rise in 3 years, yet the doctors sit around and gloat about their big bonuses they get each year. But at least they still provide benefits for the nurses. Home health is the epitome of the economy. No benefits, no hours, no guarantee of work tomorrow. You get no vacation unless you find someone to cover for you. I even got paid by one company on a company visa card that didn’t have my name on it so I couldn’t use it in stores only POS. I had to pay 25c per transaction. The ANA and schools tout nursing as a profession and state that they require you to gain a bachelors, if that is so, then companies need to treat and pay the staff like professionals. I was excited about the concept of learning and creating evidenced based practice, I wrote up an EBP article for management, they just said “oh that’s great, e-mail it to everyone” and that was the end of that: My Magnet hospital treats us all like “just (stupid) nurses”. Not what I was expecting. I believe if more men enter the profession, we would get treated better. Yes, I am leaving the profession.

How sad, you live your life bearing the burden of being unable to have children, then get judged by nurses for not having visitors in old age.

I did the same thing in Phoenix AZ, but got paid $22/hour to start. They had a "new grad" program and you shadowed the existing RN until you were comfortable on your own. You detail that there is training and support so don't worry. In this job you get to have quality time with your patients and that is very rewarding. After 6 months, I got a job in acute care and hated it. Looking to get back into hospice, HH, DDD I now get offered $30-35 \ hour..... in Phoenix. I have found that all positions outside the acute care setting advertise benefits, yet when you look at whats offered its a scam. Its a "limited plan": you pay in weekly an extravagant amount and can only claim a maximum of 5 doctors visits a year, nothing else. That's it! So basically the company makes money on you. If you cant get anything else, as is the norm in this market, take the job and get something on your resume: It is rewarding, you learn a lot, there is support, but your pay is low. After 6 months to a year, move on. HH is the future of nursing, see "hospital at home", the future is not in hospitals. www.hospitalathome.org/

This is me to a tee! I get bullied everywhere I work. I just got written up at work, I was stunned. They showed me a list of lies that the two bullies had run into management with and management had simply written down every lie that the they had run into them with without ever questioning the information. As a consequence I have been asked to leave my job. After proving that the information was incorrect, management refused to recind the write up, but is supporting my internal transfer. They are both CNA's and sit texting on the floor all day, when asked to help with pts, they don't even look up and state "I'm Busy!". Because they have been there a long time, management supports them and not the new RN's. Thats where bullying gets its support. We even had a "BEE" initiative but if its not supported by management.... its worthless.

In the Arizona Phoenix hospital that I work in, CNA's makes $13/hour.

I graduated from school and went straight to home visits. This is different from home health: home visits you visit for 1 hour with a client for a specific reason, and usually fill out OASIS paperwork. Home health is usually paid for by the DDD and you sit with a client all day. I was paid only for the 1 hour visit. I received no benefits: no medical, no PTO, no holidays. I was never short of work. I really liked the 1 hour visits: I like the independence and the case coordination with the doctors, social workers and other agencies that are involved with my patients. I like the connections that I can make with the patients and their families. It was very rewarding. On the negative side, the paperwork, case co-ordination and case management would take up to 8 hours per week, especially on “start of care”. I would end up averaging $5/hour for my work. I never had any peace: I would be called in the movies, late at night; basically any time was open season for calls from the office or members of the care team. Being a new graduate was not an issue. I had the case notes, followed the orders, and reported any issues to the appropriate care team member. It was a lot less stressful than the acute care setting I am now in and far more rewarding than simply handing out meds all day. I just can’t afford to do home visits and these agencies usually don’t pay benefits. Absolutely must get a GPS, makes life so simple and is tax deductible.

Re Job hopping: I am a new grad and a second career nurse. Prior to nursing I was an IT management contractor; I took 6 month contracts, resolved issues in corporations and moved to the next job\issue. It was my career to job hop. I can adapt to changing environments and flourish. After graduating I couldn't get a position in a hospital, so I applied to a home health agency who acknowledged that they are a stepping stone for new graduates. They said that they anticipated that, with their help, all of the new graduates would leave within 6 months and be gainfully employed in a hospital. I wanted to work rather than stay at home doing nothing. As predicted, I now work for a hospital. One day I may become a travel nurse. I can manage change; I like someone to "take away my cheese". Isn't that what we are taught to adapt to?

GCU is horrible. Run while you can. I had signed up for GCU, they charged me $1900, I started school, then at the end of the first week, they pulled me out and told me that I could only attend their "international" school because I was not born in the US, despite the fact that I have lived here for 20years, am a citizen and have all my pre-requisites here. I will not gain a BSN as I paid for. They reschedule my start date to be with the international contingent doing an international BSc. They will not give me back all of my money and I am mad. They treat you with contempt and lies. So mush for "christian" values.