LisalaRN99

I enjoyed reading your article! I am starting my last practicum in my online MSN program in Nursing Education. It has always been a career goal of mine to teach nursing in some capacity. I believe going back to school for my MSN is going to be worth it in the end. I had quit bedside nursing for home health nursing and quit altogether when the Pandemic hit. I chose to stay in quarantine with my elderly mother. I do not regret this decision in the least. I will always cherish our time together. I am looking forward to landing a "first job" as a Nurse Educator. Congratulations on completing your MSN!

Maybe Karen is being secretive because she also knows that nurses are very good at gossiping about each other and she is tired of it!

Yes, we are exhausted, but I was exhausted doing five 8 hour shifts. I'd rather have the four days off!

Nursing is my second career. I worked a "regular" job, 8 to 5, monday through friday. Then I became a nurse. Then I learned the pleasures of three 12-hour shift a week, with fours days off every week. Awesome! Before I was a nurse, I did feel like I lived at work. But the upside was having every weekend off. I did work one nursing job where I worked 7 am to 3 pm, five shifts a week, and every other weekend. I hated it. I felt like I never had a day off! I can and have adapted to the 12 hour shifts, as long as I don't work them three in a row. I need physical and emotional recovery time#

Really? You are able to stick to this schedule? I have 6-8 patients....most times only 1 Patient Care Assistant for the 17 bed floor. I work on a medical/psych unit. My preceptor told me to spend only 7 minutes with each patient for assessments. It takes me all day sometimes to get the AM assessments documented because of frequent interruptions. At least most of the patients on our floor are not total cares!

I admire your stamina! Take care you don't burn out!! Having said that, I think to keep yourself fresh in med/surg while working psych will serve you well in your career!

Thank you for this information! And also thank you for the information about pantravelers.org!

Where do you return to as "home" between assignments? A family member's home? Just curious, since I have a mother who lives nearby, but her place is too small for me to move in.

Oh my goodness! I do not understand any of this! I have a lease on an apartment for 8 more months. I have been working with a recruiter from Supplemental Health Care. I was told I would only get travel pay if the position is greater than 50 miles from my home. If not, it is considered a per diem contract. I have heard that from other companies as well. Also, if I would not be eligible for the tax advantage if I gave up my leased apartment/"home" and became itinerant, as you say, where do travel nurses call "home"?

So I started looking into Travel Nursing instead of returning to my old employer after medical leave. I may be starting just within my own state, and possibly not even 50 miles away from home. I realize that would not be travel rate, but it's a start. I still have a lease on an apartment and a ton of stuff! My question is, how do you live as a traveler? Do you maintain a nomadic life, or do you have a "home" that you periodically return to? While I'm on my first few assignments within my state, I plan to return home on my days off, or at least once a month, so I can begin sorting and paring down my possessions. Any other suggestions for me as a new Traveler? I appreciate your wisdom!

Hi everyone! You may have read my post under General Nursing Discussion. I've had a bad 2 years with my disease of alcoholism! Not only do I have difficulty staying stopped, even after an "expensive rehab for a month", to quote my manager, but I added overdosing on meds when I'm intoxicated, so I end up in my own ER! Plus, I developed diverticulitis, and after a few attacks and home with IV antibiotics, I recently had my sigmoid colon removed. I had used up all my FMLA and now do not have a position to return to, but was encouraged to apply for any available jobs within the hospital. I am not in the IPN, so that isn't a part of my story. Having said that, what do I say in any interviews about why I am not returning to my old job? Yes, my manager had to replace me and they did not have to save a job for me without FMLA. And I have been out now for a month because of post-sigmoidectomy recovery. Do I have to mention my alcoholism?

Thanks! I don't have any fight in me at this time! I have friends and family encouraging me to see a lawyer. I just want to get well and attempt to put my life back together! I am also applying for positions outside the organization since I have no guarantee of a position within.

Hi all! I just found out that I have been replaced in my position while I am still on General Medical Leave with 60% pay! I emphasize General Medical Leave because it is quite different from Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). With FMLA, your employer must guarantee you a job similar to the one you had when you return. With General Medical Leave, no such guarantee exists! This year has not been a good one for me medically. I used up my 12 weeks of FMLA earlier in the year when I entered rehab for depression, anxiety and alcoholism, and later was hospitalized for a GI bleed due to diverticulitis. I was home with IV antibiotics for 2 weeks while I continued to work my program of recovery. And no, I was not reported to the IPN because I was never intoxicated at work and never took drugs. I returned to work in a newly created position that I had applied for prior to entering rehab. It was a very stressful situation and I had difficulties with the only other staff person in the newly developed outpatient program. She is a personal friend of our manager who was hired from the outside for this new program. So, yes, I relapsed, but also, in my intoxicated state, overdosed on medication. Back in the hospital, I was found to have another flare up of diverticulitis and surgery was recommended. So, I have been out of work for 2 more months from all this and now recovery from surgery. My coworker went to our manager while I was out, and complained that I was rude and unprofessional with her. We had our issues, but I had thought we could work things out between us, and besides, I was uncomfortable going to our manager with any personal issues because she was a personal friend. So, now I find out that my job is gone. I am technically still a "fulltime employee", I just don't have a position! I was encouraged to apply for any other positions in the hospital that I feel I can do, but with the understanding that I would have to interview just like any other applicant. So this is the difference between FMLA and General Medical Leave! I am fully aware that this is a consequence of my own actions, but I just can't seem to shake the feeling that this was not handled correctly. Any thoughts?

Thank you to all who responded! Things are rolling right along, whether we speak or not! I have no intention of going to management because she's not being nice to me!! I just want to work to flow! It takes all types in nursing!

Thank you Jadelpn! The way you called it is how it went down!

Hi all! I'm not sure if this belongs under the Bullying category, but I am starting to feel bullied. I t all started when I informed the director of our unit the reason for the delays in getting patients admitted from the psych ER to our inpatient unit was because the patient assessments had not been done earlier while the patients were waiting for available beds, some 12 or more hours previously. I did not seek out the director and say, "hey look, So-and-So wasn't doing their job for the previous 5 hours before I came to work". However, this nurse was spoken to about the delays. This nurse now believes that I "tattle-tailed" on her and has demanded an apology! I do not feel I owe her any apology and have told her so. I have also told her that I did not seek out to get her in any trouble, just stated the facts of our delay in treating patients. Since this time....over a month now....she refuses to talk to me except for the bare minimal required of us in order to do our work (it's a small admissions office). And she never lets an opportunity go by where she points out an error that I have made. I respond each time by saying, "Thank you for pointing that out to me!" In addition, she will inform me when I come in for my shift that all assessments were done, will roll her eyes at me, and state "so there's no reason to tell on me!" I ignore these remarks. I do not wish to escalate this drama any further. I think the whole thing is so juvenile. My purpose in posting about this incident is to gain feedback. Thanks.

My intention after nursing school was to go right into psych nursing like my other colleagues on the psych unit where I had worked as an Intake Coordinator while in nursing school. Unfortuately, my psych unit closed shortly after I graduated, and the hospital reassigned me to a med/surg unit. I did one year there before leaving for another psych hospital. I do believe having that one yea of med/surg experience was helpful for me as a new psych nurse. I have worked other facilities where they do accept granduate nurses right out of nursing school and they don't seem to have any difficulties in psych. Good luck with your decisions.

I am a psychiatric intake nurse! I work in a very busy ER that receives a fair number of involuntary as well as voluntary admissions for psych. It is our job to review all the clinical information gathered on the patient and make recommendations for admission or referrals out to the community. It is very important to have a solid med/surg background. Many times I or my colleagues have had to question a patient's medical clearance, which we discuss with our psychiatrist on-call via telephone. Working in a very busy ER, one must be confident in one's abilities, as the ER nurses can be brutal (sorry!)

While I applaud your enthusiasm to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I have my reservations about the way in which you wish to go about it. Frankly I feel we have enough nurses who want to learn how to prescribe medications without having to (God forbid!) touch a patient as a nurse! I realize you have a BA in psychology, but honestly that is not a whole lot of anything compared to a BSN in terms of preparing you for your "advanced practice". Also, earning "advanced practice" presupposes that you have "practiced".

I am also not interested in becoming a Nurse Practitioner! If I did, it would be in psych, but I do not want that level of responsibility. Nor do I wish to become an administrator. I am going for my MSN in Nursing Education. I love to teach, and I love nursing!

My goal is to obtain my MSN so that I have opportunities beyond my current career as a staff nurse in psych. I do not want to become a Nurse Practitioner in Psych or anything else. I would love to be able to teach, so I am leaning toward the MSN in nursing education.

I am looking at WGU for January 2015 for their MSN program. I am interested in feedback on the competency based program. Any feedback is appreciated!

The fact that you somehow managed to get into nursing is rather appalling to me. And very sad.

You should not have been left with this patient for that amount of time without relief. Psych nurses, like all nurses in all specialities are not saints or martyrs! We are human beings with human needs, such as bathroom breaks! Next time, make sure you are given sufficient breaks from this type of patient. In the future, when you are the charge nurse, hopefully you will remember this situation and be kinder to your one to one staff.

For the record, I do not like pediatrics. As a matter of fact, I promised my peds rotation clinical instructor that I would never nurse a child if he would just pass me so I could graduate from nursing school! I don't hate kids. I just happen to have no affinity toward them; never had them, and never intend to. This does not make me a monster. I can show all the compassion of the best of nurses without having birthed a babe. For me, I have been a psych nurse for the majority of my time in nursing. I worked in mental health prior to becoming a nurse, so this makes sense. I did a few years in telemetry and ICU, but psych has always been my first love. The mind/brain has always facinated me.