nurse441

. Hey marshall, thank you for your response. I can totally relate to u. I just feel a bit selfish going along with the plan. But i know i got to ultimately do what is best for me. I know ive been very fortunate with landing the interviews.

i actually did give this a lot of thought, and pushed back the offer decision for several days, and now i pushed it back another week. i even let them know i need several weeks to start. i agree with not starting and leaving, so i'm going to stay patient and wait...but .. i'm afraid im running out of time . i did reveal to the hospital i want to please speed it up because of my other offer. too bad the interviews never really lined up the way I wanted them to be. in fact its literally 1 month apart.

to be honest, i did both. and i can say this.. it depends on which psych unit. i did a lockdown unit with mostly 5150's,5250 with chemical dependency. it felt like i was a nurse in a jail ward... without guards!!! yes i got hurt. yes i got hit. it was soooo mentally draining. not as physical, but can u imagine uncooperative patients x20 of them. it's like nonstop annoyance/stress. on the other hand, ive been on psych units where people are mostly depressed, didnt' want to eat etc etc.. those are a lot calmer.. but yea.. so u gotta look into which unit. as much as i liked psych, i was really done when some patients were using me like a verbal punching bag, cussing, drug seeking, trying to escape. and seeing coworkers get hurt . i can honestly say it was the worst experience of my life.. the crazy thing is, we had psychotic people wanting to hurt nurses.. and pregnant nurses working on the ward.. 7+ months pregnant. CRAZY!!!! these guys will take one look at u and punch u to the ground with no mercy!

go do something that will make you stand out as an applicant. think outside the box...

I need some advice. I have hospital A (far away, less pay) who gave me an offer. While I was waiting on the month long interview process to be completely, hospital B called me. Hospital B is closer to home, more pay, better facility- interviewed me and it went well, but said won't get back to me for another 2 weeks... Now i'm pressured to sign the offer from hospital A, and I have no confirmation from hospital B if they want to hire me. Has anyone ever signed an offer letter and gave a start date.. but ended up possibly picking up a second offer during the wait? what are the consequences of backing out on an offer that you already signed.. other than burning bridges? I'm not a new grad, so I hope there are no penalities/fines. i just need to be smart about my options.. of course i have to factor in family, proximity, long term goals, wages, shift hours, status of hospital. option B is my optimal but I just need some advices of how to juggle this situation. much thanks

So recently a friend of mine told me she's got an interview as a charge nurse position, only after less than a year of new grad experience in acute setting! I was completely baffled when she told me, not sure what advice to give her. She told me that this is a 23 bed telemetry unit in a small community hospital with LVNS, RNs, CNAs.. monitor techs. She had some charge experience in a nursing home, and a little bit on a busy tele unit, but being a charge nurse on a telemetry unit!?! management said definitely no one internal would get the position, so for sure its an outside canidate. They said they would let her work as a regular staff on the unit for 6 months,.. and take on the charge role after. !?!??!! My friend has been looking for a job for awhile now, given this bad economy, but is this worth it???? why are facilities doing this? would you personally take it if you're jobless, in a terrible economy impacted state, and you can get a six months chance to be a regular RN??

"you must take care of yourself before you takecare of your patients" yessss!!!!!!!!!!!

side effect. i use that all the time in my nursing notes!

i just got a job offer at one of the top magnet hospitals in the country. i feel so blessed. its at a stepdown cardiac unit. =) bye bye psych, hellloooooooo new job :) thanks all who gave me support and advice! i'mma quit soon hehee

i just got an job offer from UCLA SM =)

Some people are conserved by the county- their decisions regarding health care is done by someone else. that's when they judge them to be too ill to make any logical decisions regarding health care. some people are reised because they have a history of refusing meds, but are too mentally ill to make that decision. so to your answer, some of these patients have no choice but to accept either the injection or pill. I feel pretty horrible calling a code and giving someone Haldol injection the minute they 'act up". mind you these codes happen 3x a day in the hospital.. and then some poor patient will be struggling and hollering for mercy while 7 people lock them down on to the ground. and the med nurse comes with 2 IM. it's like out of some crazy house movie or something!!! and if they really act up-- you get the ultimate 5 point restraint for almost an hour =/ and that folks, is what happens in a locked up psych hospital.

I guess it really falls down to "CYA" cover your ass documentation. I will sure document everything. maybe psych is a little bit too much for me-- the manipulation. I don't even know who to believe anymore. Its almost as if half the things they say are either lies, delusional thoughts, or plain hallucinations. At my place, i see a trend of older nurses just get into this mode of disregarding what patients say and just ignore their complaints because they are just "too psychotic to thick logically". Half the people there are at there against their will. obviously they will all try to tell lies and get away from things.. we did actually got her an enema. but she said 'i'm taking every ounce of dignity away from her" by doing the enema =/ i pushed the night nurse to give MOM. but when do you actually listen to a psych patient and differentiate between a real concern vs lies..

reised means their rights to refuse medication is taken away. so they have to take it, or we have to give them an injection.. against their will.-- as ordered by a judge if the feel the patient is always refusing their meds but at the same time they are too mentally ill to make that decision..

I'm pretty heart broken right now seeing the type of care given at my facility. I work at an acute psych facility.. and i feel for the patients who has a hold, reised status, conserved.. a lot of times, these patient's basic rights are taken away. The other day i had a patient who was reised.. and complained that her med was giving her severe constipation- that is affecting her entire GI system, making her nauseated, extreme pressure. naturally, she refused the med and said "this med is giving me such a strong SE". I wasn't sure how to handle this situation since she is reised. She pleaded to me and said, "i know you nurses will shoot me with an injection if i dont take my oral pills.. please don't.. please, you're killing me". When i contacted my charge nurse, she said just GIVE IT! these patients are psychotic, dont care about what they say! they are doing everything to manipulate you into thinking they don't have to take the meds. just give her the IM backup and get it over with! So i decided to call the MD to see if we can change to another med (since the pt agreed to take another similar one). the MD disregarded the case. . the nurses yelled at me for picking up the phone =/ and said "i'm too new to know how manipulative these ppl are.. If you going to bother the Dr. about constipation, just wait to get your head chewed out. I know you're a new grad and you like to follow the book, but its NOT like that here. just freaking give the IM already!". i was so heart broken.. i feel for the poor patients. this is not how i imagined being a nurse.. I struggle between the fine line of listening to someone's real concerns vs disregarding them because they are just manipulative and psychotic and "reised". sometimes i hate my job. evil is another word to describe it.. nurse ratched anyone ?

thank you nurses. thats some good advice!!