TigRN

It is awful. My husband had an appy a couple of years ago... knowing the state of health care from an RN perspective I made sure I was with him pretty much 24 hours a day. I slept in the room and provided pretty much all of his care. If I hadn't he probably wouldn't have gotton what he needed. I had him deep breathing and coughing the day after surgery [he didn't like me much for that one ] - I had to ask for towels -they didn't bring him any. The nurse would come to hang meds and not tell you what they were for.... I kept making him ask. I haven't had an issue with my HMO [yet] but I have several family members that have. It's scary. I actually had more issues with a PPO 16 years ago when I had my first child. He was an emergency C-section and they wanted me discharged after 3 days regardless. My doctor them "fine, he would discharge me and he would also give me the name and number of an excellent attorney" -- they backed off very quickly... :roll

Do they even get Sexual Harrassment 101 in med school? haha But you are right Mattsmom -- many nurses do that and they may make the assumption that we all are alike [course you know what happens when you ass-u-me :roll ]. We had one nurse that I recall when I transferred to the facility I am currently working in -- the most work she did was trying to find a doctor that would marry her.

I once had a doctor [resident] leave a note in my locked "locker". How he got it in there remains a mystery still. He didn't sign it, all he did was right "you're hot" on it. It took me about two weeks to figure out which one it was. At this particular hospital most of the residents we called by name - not title and we had a great working relationship between them and the nurses. Once I found out which one it was [was single] we went out once and then I told him I wasn't interested..... he was a little strange. I agree with everyone else though... if you're married make it known -- even if it is just in dropping hints about your significant other....

Do what mine did -- do it annoymously... if your ID people would do it. I'm surprised your hospital has not gotten on board with many others and not allowed them. If you can get the nail from her [heck I wish I had been offered margaritas!! :roll ] and the ID people will cooperate, don't tell them who you got it from...... I was really glad people didn't know where the one they had at the health fair came from ---- people were offering to pay if our ID nurse would tell

NICU Nurse -- see my previous post on this thread... my IC nurse here actually did culture an inhouse acrylic nail..... it was mine! And I don't even come into contact with patients.... so that should tell you how much fungus, bacteria they can carry. I would have hated to see it if I still worked with patients!

tntrn - you're right it doesn't mean ALL nurses with fake nails are running around with a fungus growing under them. But, if you read the articles and the studies it shows a STRONGER incidence of infection spread, fungus, etc., in those with artificial nails. Think about it - how would you feel if you were the parent of one of those infants who died and the result well could have been your artificial nails? Much less how would you feel if you were the nurse - even knowing you were diligent in wearing your gloves and washing your hands? Perhaps if you have that much problem with your natural nails you should be seeking medical advice. My natural nails are now week and split simply because I wore acrylic nails for so long. They have been off 4 months now and my nails are just starting to show signs of "healing". I don't think it's a matter of not seeing both sides as much as it is in being smart enough to understand the risks to our patients.

You beat me to my comment Klone.... you don't wear gloves for everything you do in the patients room.... you can easily leave your little bugs on the door handles the patient uses. I don't recall wearing gloves when I handed out medicine that went in a cup - but I touched the cup. I have seen nurses that wear gloves for everything.... while I understand not wanting to pick up something from the patient.... how impersonal to stand there with gloves on every time you enter the patients room??? I'm sure it makes the, patients feel like they have koodies [sp?] or something.

Okay -- I too can't resist to respond. We have a policy in our hospital that nurses in the patient care areas can no longer have artificial nails... they can actually be written up for it and terminated. Many hospitals have gone to this policy based on the fungus fact. I am in an area outside of patient care and up until about November had artificial nails. We had a health fair about that time and our Infectious Dz nurse was looking for one to culture. Since I decided to remove mine any way I was able to pop one off into two pieces. She cultured both pieces [mine were not kept very long, done professionally, etc] - one the pieces at through the gel on the petri dish with the bacteria and the other had so many different fungus' growing it was ridiculous.... even after that some people still wanted to keep their nails. They always say -- I wash mine, I keep them clean. It's not the washing that's the issue, the bacteria gets into the acrylic or gel and just gets overlaid each time you have them filled - so it's not just what's underneath them but what's in them....I guarantee you that if I'm ever a patient in the hospital and some nurse walks in with fake nails -- I'm requesting a different nurse!

To all those out there wishing JCAHO would make unannounced visits -- my understanding, at least here in California they are now doing that. You will know the year, but that is it. They could show up on our doorstep tomorrow.

I agree with Vicky..... when I graduated we were one of the first [at our school anyway] to be able to take the computerized test! It was way much better than sitting for 2 days. I also like the teir that if you answered so many questions in one teir correctly it automatically took you to the next teir until you were finished. I finished the exam in 45 minutes - and passed the first time around. :roll

It most likely depends on the facility. I work for the federal government [and recently have seen the state and local governments doing the same thing] is that we generally do not bring ADN's in anymore. Most of our posting say directly on them BSN. The ADN's that we still have out there make the same as the BSNs that are at the same level.... but like others have said in this thread the ADN's will not advance to management..... in fact, some of our management positions are now listed with Masters preferred.

Klone - I didn't see that her "caps" were on except when she listed the college that she was looking at....which is the proper acro for that college. Babydoll: How difficult is RCC to get into? I live in that area and I am familiar with the RN program which seems to take an act of congress to get into! There would be no reason not to go that route as many people go directly into PA programs. With your LPN school, perhaps some of your classes may help you in that you may have completed some prereqs already - on top of that the LPN will allow you to perhaps work part time while in PA school giving you clinical and assessment skills. RCC is not the only place that has a PA program depending on where you live. Off the top of my head I can't remember the name of the other one that is close, but I do know it is in pomona. Best of luck!

Unlike what you are doing I jumped right into a BSN program... with two small children [18months apart!]. There were some days I questioned my sanity in doing that. The worst part came the week before I was suppose to graduate -- I just truly wanted to quit. If it had not been for my husband at the time I might just have done that. I think most of us have been there -- just hang in there- like someone said above.... it will pay off in the end. The only thing additional I would add is that make sure that whatever decision you make is based on what you truly want to be when you "grow up" -- it took me 6 years to figure that out and another 4 to get my degree...... I love the medical field always have - just got discouraged with two year programs and their waiting lists. It takes a special person to be a nurse [i should say a "good/caring" nurse] and believe me nurses will eat their young even if you are dedicated -- I never believed that until I got out there:o But, you can do it!!!

cc - while I am not a "nevada RN" I work for the VA Administration which has an outpatient facility, home health and a small inpatient facility in Vegas. The pay is pretty decent when you consider the "perks" -- great benefits and I don't think you can beat how many holidays we get. :roll I haven't checked their postings in a while - but I do supervise staff in a non-RN arena so I know they have jobs available and they are getting ready to expand their home health service line and I know they are going to be hiring quite a few nurses for this. I also know the teaching hospital pays quite well -- and you are right, the nurses are stressed. I can't tell you if that translates into more money or not. One of my former employee's wife works their and she is always busy. Good luck......if you are interested in the web address for jobs let me know!

Thanks so much -- I'm heading for the website now.:roll

Has anyone out there started working with telemedicine? I am looking for information from those that might be working with what are called interactive computer systems where the patient dials in to record what needs to be recorded [i.e. blood pressure, etc] and when the nurse arrives she scans what has come in as it would be color coded and begins calling patients.......

I can't remember who said it earlier in this thread - but there are plus' and minus' at any large healthcare organization. Much of what most of you have complained about can be seen in places like Kaiser. I had a co-worker whos husband was to go in for simple outpatient knee surgery. He was overdosed on pain medication because the nurse failed to do vital signs and note that he had been given meds in the PACU. He died about 3 hours after surgery. The VA does have it's issues - we are funded by the federal government and if they decide not to give us money - well we don't get it. Only in the last few years have we been able to start billing 3rd party insurance companies - but often times the Vets are unwilling to tell us they have insurance - we can't bill medicare like private hospitals so we are often stuck between rocks and hard places. Often times our patients are sicker than what you see in private facilities simply because of the nature of our population. I agree that we have several employees at all VA hospitals that have that Government Employee attitude - but it's not just the hospitals. As a supervisor I deal with it on a regular basis. And, it is extremely frustrating that it does take what feels literally like an act of God, the President and the Pope to fire someone that would have been fired immediately in a "normal" facility. I could probably go on and on -- but keep in mind that all VA's are not the same - and all employees in the system are not the same. I have had patients come in and request that I be their nurse even though they were not part of my assignment. I have had patients come back to see me when they were discharged. I have a poem hanging on my office wall written by one of my oncology patients to me before he was discharged and a stuffed dog brought back to me by the father of patient who died. Not all of us are bad nurses and many of us care for the patients like they were our own family. But you are right, many of us get burned out because we feel we have to pick up the slack for those that are just "government employees" for the well being of the patient.

In response to not working on the floor anymore - for 2 years I did an outpatient chemo unit that we have inside the hospital [keep in mind that we are a VA hospital so we do primary care, surgery, specialty care, etc. all in one setting] that I absolutely loved. I was then approached by one of the executives to take over the cost accounting system which is predominately clinical which I did reluctantly but was looking for ways to move up -which I did. In this hospital if you are in nursing there basically are no perks, no seniority. I have been in this job for 5 years now and loathe it. I am trying to get back to working with patients again although more in an outpatient setting such as a case manager or in the new line of Telemedicine.

Gee, when I worked nights I would have loved to have had only 6 patients. Often times our ward was split between 2 RNs. Each of us generally had [but that wasn't always] 1 LVN. Each RN generally had 10 to 12 patients. I work in a VA hospital so our acuity level is generally a 2-3 -- and I was the only oncology trained nurse on nights so I got all of them when I was on. We also only had 1 unit secretary for the entire hospital on nights so we were left to fend for ourselves for any new orders, emergencies and 24 hour chart checks as well as IVs. Like others in this thread --- I'm glad I don't work the wards anymore!:roll :roll