rachelyp

My husband and I are relocating to the Chapel Hill area due to his work. In the area there are two major hospitals DUKE and UNC. Are there any nurses here who may have recommendations for one over the other. UNC is public and DUKE is private. That sounds like a given. I want to continue working in the Operating Room (with 3 years of experience) Which hospital has a better working environment? Better pay? Better benefits?

Read ahead or at least try to read ahead so lectures make more sense. Figure out your learning style and maximize it. If you've found yourself to be more visual/audio try to find videos/topics on Youtube or make your own recordings/videos. When studying and taking tests try to imagine real life situation….if you're the nurse and your patient has the disease process…what would you assess, what would you do and think what is more important.

Our career is so broad you can go anywhere. I live in rural area and my choice of acute care facility is very limited. I have respect for every nurse regardless of their specialty. I dreaded my med-surg clinicals because the nurses were overworked, understaffed and the floor didn't really have much unity. I would see seasoned nurses sitting behind the nurses station while the newer nurses running around trying to figure everything out on their own. When the call light would go off the charge nurse would walk in circles looking for the nurse rather than going inside and seeing what the pt needed. I had grouped all the floors as the floor that I worked on and told myself if I have to work med-surg I needed to relocate to area with another hospital. Making my long story short during my last semester practicum I was in the OR, things worked out and I've been in the OR from student, to nurse tech to RN. If you do go the operating room route I just want to share with you that it is a lot different from the floor and I didn't learn anything about the OR in nursing school which lead to frustration and for this reason I think the turnover in the OR is very high. I still enjoy the work I do on most days. Depending on your hospital taking call varies from weeknights, weekends, holidays and will most likely be required. I don't even know how long I'll stay in the OR. Depending on your hospital policy maybe on your off days you can shadow the OR, Endo, Cath Lab and just see if it's something that you want to do without having to commit and being contractually stuck in a dept at your hospital. If you want a 9-5 desk job I'm sure there are some non bedside RN positions out there but I don't know what they are....Maybe informatics, research, infection prevention specialist?..Let me know if you find a 9-5 RN specialty. If you enjoy teaching maybe you can teach future RNs. The opportunities are endless.

It all depends on timing and location. In my last semester of nursing school we have a practicum/110 hour internship with partnering hospitals in three main areas- med-surg, ER, and CCU and we rank them from the first choice to last choice. I had one year (two semester of med/surg) already, I was afraid to even set foot in to the ER since I've never had any exposure, and CCU made me too sad. I had one day to shadow the OR during my med-surg clinicals so taking a leap of faith I drew a line across the choices and wrote OR beside my name. At the time the clinical coordinator stated the hospital does not have any slots in the OR and I need to rank the three choices but a few days later the OR management from local hospital contacts the nursing school for two practicum slots in the OR. I ended up getting one of the slots in the OR. I enjoyed my practicum and the experience reinforced my desire to work in the OR. The nurse educator suggested I apply to be a nurse tech in the OR so I can continue what I am doing and get some money in my pocket after I was done with my 110 hours. The paperwork to hire me didn't go through until last week of the semester. So after graduation I worked as a nurse tech and studied for the NCLEX. Once I passed they immediately filed paperwork for me to transfer as a RN in the OR. This year another student did her practicum in the OR but since RNs are appropriately staffed according to management they have not hired any new nurses since November. Try to see if you can take the Peri-op 101 training independently. It'll help you in the OR setting because you don't learn much of the OR in nursing school and can give you the extra edge.

How have you been preparing? When I studied for the NCLEX I tried to focus on what I didn't know or focused on content that I couldn't easily grasp in school. Do you know your learning style? For me I am more kinetic and auditory learner so I would Youtube topics that former nursing students or nurses would lecture on. There is one guy whose name I can't remember...something with last name Linares who has great videos out there. If I couldn't find anything on youtube I would find it through my study books and consolidate the information as much as possible, record myself and listen to myself several time to make it stick. I did find Saunders and PDA by LaCharity two helpful study preps. Also have you tried deep breathing, stress/anxiety management techniques? Through nursing school sometimes I would get psyched out by just missing the first question (our tests were mostly computer based and we couldn't go back to change answers). I tried alot of deep breathing exercises to help me stay calm....I even found myself taking deep breathes and trying so hard to stay calm because I felt I was running out of time (barely answered 70 questions and had two hours elapsed. I had mentally prepared to answer 265 questions but hoped I only had to answer 75 questions and pass). Towards about a week before the NCLEX I would look for as many questions I could find, not only answer them but read every single rationale. Hopefully I've helped. Don't give up. Stay calm. Take a deep breath and say you can do it. After it's all done no one will care or ask how many questions you had nor how many times you've taken the test.

If it makes you feel better, when I first started in the OR I was a sloppy prep-er as well. The more you do it, you'll get better control of the sponges. It also never hurts to watch others on how they prep. Betadine is bacteriocidal and kills existing bacteria on contact. If you apply a very thin layer you might miss a spot without knowing it or might not apply enough to kill the bacteria on the skin. What is more important, having a clean prep or working towards preventing your pt from getting an infection? Our kits come with two types of application sponges. One set for scrubs and one for painting. With the scrub solution. I soak the sponge in the scrub solution and in my hand ring out half of the scrub solution and foam it up before I apply it to the pt. Then when painting I dip the sponge and squeeze about half of the solution by pressing against the inner edge of the tray before applying it. Hopefully I've helped a little.