SHURN

same problems here. Actually, the entire health system is now "restructuring." Yeah, you all know what that really means.

As far as the botox, yes, I went to a derm. He also had prescribed robinul first. It worked ok, but man, I had some serious dry mouth and eyes! Remember, it's an anticholinergic med, so you get all the good things that go along with that. As far as the ETS, no idea. I sweat a lot on my back and underarms, so for me, botox was best. I can live with the back sweat (more easily managed and easier to cover.)

I don't know how much research you have done, but there are other procedures that help with hyperhidrosis. I myself get botox for underarm hyperhidrosis and it really changed my life! There is also Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS)for more severe forms, and that may be an option. A quick search on google says that that procedure is good for excessive facial sweating. I hope you find some relief! ETA: I have a family member who had ETS and she loved the results!

Still wondering what that meant too. I am guessing I can assume after the other post...

Excuse me?

No, I don't think you should worry. All areas of nursing involve skills that are important NO MATTER what area you work in: critical thinking, multi-tasking, patient education, etc. Sure, would you need orientation to a different specialized area? Yes. But the skills that come only with experience, well, hopefully you will have. Plus, you might love the mother/baby unit and never leave!

Looking at your example question, I will give some advice that many students in my program needed: stop reading into the questions so much!! Choose the most obvious answer. Sometimes you think, "wow, this question has such an OBVIOUS answer that they can't possibly be looking for something so simple. Hmmm...what could they really be asking?" STOP reading into it so much. The questions are usually very straight forward. I think you probably do have good critical thinking skills and a good understanding of disease processes, just by your reasoning. However, IMHO, half of the battle of test taking in NS, and really the NCLEX, was just knowing how to take the tests. My program was excellent at preparing us in that way.

I agree. I would rather buy my own lunch than have to spend my break thinking about work. Like you said, it's my time.

agreed with what others said. A few of your complaints are really facility related. It's not hard to use at all, in my opinion. In time, I'm sure you will be comfortable with it.

I agree with amarilla - we give report in our ICU like she described. Very detailed. Still, being that detailed I can give report on both of my patients in 10-12 minutes. Considering we can't clock out until 23 min after, that's fine. We are also required to go over all orders from the last two shifts and go over am labs and tests together. 5-6 min per patient is not very long for a sick ICU patient. However, there are some nurses that seriously want to talk about everything. It would take 45 minutes sometimes!! I have learned to just say, "that's ok, I have enough! I'll figure anything out in the next 12 hrs! SMILE" I try to be nice about it, but I'm sure they realize I am annoyed. I also hate people interrupting me. I just say, "sorry, I get sidetracked too easily and don't want to forget anything." I have most definitely resorted to "if you let me finish, I'll tell you that in a sec." Not recommended.

I learned very quickly that I just could not let the complainers bother me and I had to quit taking it personally. You learn a lot about your co workers in a short period of time. The fact of the matter is that there are great charge nurses just as often as there are horrible ones. But when it comes down to it, 99% of the complainers don't want to do charge even if it was offered. So someone has to do it. Just try to be fair and remember what it feels like on the other side. I find the least respected charge nurses are the ones that don't work staff anymore - they forget what it entails very quickly.

bump....me too

well, the admit I got tonight is a good example. I get in report that the pt is on a NRB, HGB 7, ? GI bleed. Was med surg, but pulmonary wanted ICU. No prob, It sounds warranted. So I get the pt. He is on 6 L NC, sats 100%, BP 120/60, HR NSR. A/O. I call the primary for a few things and ask (not rudely or in a presumptuous manner BTW) why this pt is ICU. I know the pulmonologist and totally trust him, but just curious what I am missing. Turns out he got a call from our bed management that they felt the pt needed ICU and a pulm consult. Well apparently bed management never talked to the ED nurse and the ED RN did not question this decision. So now, we have med surg orders again and yet another transfer for this poor man who has been sitting in ED all day. Obviously this is a problem on many levels, but inappropriate admissions are an issue when we have only 2 open ICU beds at that point.

It's funny because I was just saying this the other day. People need to stop picking up! When management sees we have NO ONE to fill in the holes, they will hire more nurses. Of course I got my head bit off for saying it - Gee aren't YOU so lucky that you don't need more money, blah, blah, blah. Yes, I understand that some people DO need the money. Many of the RNs on staff have spouses out of work, kids to feed, etc. So I do get it. It's just not fair to expect everyone to want to pick up. I don't have a magic solution. But seriously, as long as people do work OT, we will never be in a different situation.

well, I went from nights to days 2 yrs ago. I was on nights for 3 yrs. I felt the same way as you about, well, everything. I finally decided that my health and family life was more important. I think one misconception about day RNs (in my unit at least) is that they are not helpful and do not really have the same teamwork. This is true, but only because of circumstances. It is toooo dang busy on days. Between docs, PT/OT, speech, RT, very time consuming families,and going to tests for hours sometimes, it is not uncommon to not even see one of your co-workers until almost 2 pm. When people CAN help, they do. I am NOT saying nights are not busy, but in reality, it is a different busy. After two years, sometimes I wish I could go back to nights. Days are exhausting. BUT, exhausting in a way that once the day is done, you recover. For me, it took a whole day to recover, sometimes more. That is my opinion, for what it is worth. Also, if your unit is anything like mine, most needs are on nights, so if you go to days and don't like it, Ill bet they let you go back to nights.

I am thinking of applying for a new position within my hospital. I have been in ICU for 5 years, coming in as a new grad. Since I don't have any other RN experience, should I include my nurse externship experience on my resume? I worked in this hospital for that position. Should I include any jobs from my work history while I was in college? They were not medical in anyway. I know they do'tn really effect my RN skills, but is it better to have more on my resume? Thanks everyone! It has been a while since I had to make a resume!

I have to agree with Carolladybelle on this - I think sometimes what seems rude is really just overwhelmed. I really feel bad when nursing students don't have a good RN to pair with. But not all of us are good at teaching. I personally don't like to do it. And it had nothing to do with not liking a particular student or students in general. I have never liked teaching- it is just not one of my strong suits. Also, like mentioned, we are usually already short staffed; adding an extra body to teach is just too much sometimes. Add that on our floor, the students ALWAYS show up just as we are wrapping up report. I don;t have time to sit and catch them up. I think that their instructer should know this and bring them earlier. NOT the student's fault, just a failure in the system.

It sounds great in theory. No problem with agreeing to a few years at a hospital who pays for my education. However, I work with a current new grad. He worked for our health system all through nursing school and received education assistance (they pay I think $3000 per semester? It's an AWESOME deal). Anyways, once school is done, the person has to work within the system for 2 years. Well guess what? Not one hospital in the system (8 of them!) are even willing to give this new grad an interview! So guess what? He is SOL and will have to repay all these "loans." So I guess my point is, just be prepared to possibly owe money in the long run anyways!

Just stick with it! You are getting an awesome orientation, so get the most out of it that you can. I started as a new grad in and ICU, had 6 months orientation. Will you be day or night shift? If it is nights, you might not get a lot of "fresh" hears - meaning directly post op, but you would see em after they have settled a few hours and are more "stable." After year in our general ICU, I trained into our CVICU. I loved it! You will learn so much - you will be overwhelmed. STUDY after work. One day it will "click" and it's the best feeling. I had many moments of severe anxiety (not a work), thinking "what did I do to myself?!" by choosing such a hard specialty right out the door. But, that healthy dose of self awareness and the attitude that I knew I had a lot to learn (and still do- it never stops) ended up helping me. Basically, you will have moments of excitement, energy, awe, and regret. Just go along for the ride and soak up everything you can! Congrats!

No I did not take one. I just got a practice test book and did some of that. Honestly, I did not study much, passed in 75 questions. I really believe the test is more about knowing how to take it than real knowledge of anything. Shame, really. Sounds like you will be fine.

Unfortunately, yes, this happened to me for the first time a few months ago. I work ICU. This pt's family already had a "reputation." They had spoken with the unit manager a few times already, complaining about a ton of things, but never nursing care. The family was nice enough, but VERY passive aggressive. I tend to get assigned to these pts because I can usually diffuse the situations. During my first shift, the daughter asked to speak to the manager. I was thinking, "oh boy, here we go!" But the complaint was about another department. She said all of the nurses, "especially SHURN, have been wonderful!" Ok good, nothing to worry about. (although I still don't completely trust her) She proceeded to thank me profusely for 2 day, offer to buy me lunch, etc. So, three shifts later with this pt. The daughter asks me a question and I gave her an honest answer. Not rude, but not what she wanted to hear. They were very much in denial about their father's prognosis. Well, this women went off! Said some really rude things. I asked her why this was coming up now, when I had taken care of her dad 2 times already. She said she "had to try with everything" she "had" to be nice. Well whatever, just makes me think you are even more unstable. If you were that unhappy with me, you would have been vocal about it earlier, just as you had been with everything else. So I told her I thought it would be best if another RN took care of her dad. So no, not really fired. I would have tried to talk it out, but the things she said were VERY hurtful and inappropriate. The sad thing is, my charge sided with her, because, well she is under a lot of stress. You know what? Everyone in the ICU is. Not everyone (and actually very few) act like that. I was very upset, but more so that I didn't feel the charge had my back.

ugh I hate it! I always sing the jingle as annoyingly as I can after I hear it. I can't help myself! BTW- just because someone doesn't like something doesn't mean they are desperate to complain!

I worked Tuesday day(7a-7p) and wed day. Many of the night shifters that were scheduled for Tuesday night came in during the day and slept on the cots that were set up. They relieved us. I only live a few miles from the hospital, but I knew I would not get out of my driveway in the am. So, a co-worker and I shared a hotel down the street and used her 4 wheel drive to get there. The hotel gave us a big discount and it cost $30 each. In a huge suite. The hospital also offered accommodations and staff who stayed were offered "disaster preparedness" pay. Then when I got to work on Wed, the hospital did not allow the night shifters to leave. They slept at the hospital during the day and worked Wed night. We (day shift) were allowed to leave last night. Those night shifters are the ones that really sacrificed. I know there are a few different circumstances (no child care) but we had 70% of staff call off! Yes, 70%!!!! come on. People knew it was coming, they could have slept at the hospital. You can't tell me that all 70% had a legitimate excuse! I know of 5 in my unit alone that are single and could have come the day before. One girl lives about a block from me and insisted she would make it in wed by leaving very early. Even if you left 3hrs early to get in, if you get stuck in your driveway, it doesn't matter. And guess what happened. Yes, it sucks! But the patients are there regardless. Selfishness made my job harder and pt care worse!

OP, this is a hard situation. I think it is easy for us all to look at it and say "do this" and ask "why did you do this?" I would call your loan company and work something out. Just reading all the advice here, defaulting just does not sound like an option AT ALL. Also, to everyone condemning people for taking out high student loans - how do people manage to pay for college? In my state, a STATE school right now costs > $25 grand a year. I'm sorry, but that's a lot. I went to a private school that didn't even cost that much. Maybe it's just raised every year - but in reality, very few people right now have had wage increases in line with those tuition increases. I don't think eveyone's parents have that money, or should be expected to pay it anyways. I have a lot of loans, I worked all through school to pay what I could, and my parents helped the very little they could. (BTW I'm not having trouble with repayment.) Until this country gets with the program, this will continue to be a very real problem. We want people in this country to take all the "opportunities" offered, but it's pretty hard. Unless you really are poor or are an emancipated minor, getting government loans is impossible. So you are left with private loan, which are similar to the crazy credit card deals we are so used to seeing. I'm not trying to rant (I know it turned into one). I just think about what will happen when the children I will one day have want to go to college, and I get all worked up. It's just scary!

The rotating shifts were the only thing throwing me, so if you like that, do it! Plus, depending your age and where you are in life (children, etc), making less money can be easier in the beginning of a career. If you don't have kids, now is the time, cause you might not be able to swing even a few thousand less a year when you do! Anyways, never a bad idea to be happy in what you do - sometimes it really is more important than money. good luck! it sounds very interesting.