CrazyGoonRN

Yes, it ended up only taking 1 week before I recieved an email saying I had received my license. Much quicker than expected! :)

I am having the same issue. The N 95 mask that I am already fit tested for is not the same one that is used at my upcomming travel hospital. My credientling coordinater contacted the hospital (at my request) and asked if I can do the fit test there when I arrive for my assignment. They said I can and that it will cost $40. That is expensive but saves me a lot of hassle.

I sent off for my Georgia license last week and I recieved an email from them the next day with a link to where I can log in and see updates. Also, I had to get ink fingerprinted and mail it to a company in California for my background check. They only accept electronic fingerprints if you go to specific locations within the state of Georgia. The nurse manager at the hospital I have been hired at says it typically takes 3 weeks to get a Georgia license. I just hope there is no delay so my start date is not pushed back.

I just took the CCU prophecy exam and I have never worked in a CCU before. My specialty is MSICU, but my first travel assignment will be in a CCU. The exam was tough! I studied before I took it and then I had to retake the exam to make above the required 80% passing score (recommedned passing score is 71% by prophecy but my travel company requires a 80%). I also had to take 5 other ones that included pharm and ekg. I had to repeat the pharm one also, but it was no where near as tough as the CCU exam. They allow 2 re-take's if you do not pass the first time.

I am new to travel nursing and am trying to figure out the best option for health insurance. I am too old to be on my parents insurance and I don't have a spouse who can put me on thier insurance. I plan to go PRN at my full time job when I travel, but I will loose my health insurance. What has been the best option that you have found? Do you just take the insurance the travel agency offers? I want to be home for a few weeks in between assignments to spend time with family and work at my PRN job. I don't want to have gaps of time without health insurance. Cobra is expensive. Do you just get private insurance? Thanks!

I agree 100% with everything you said. I was a LTC LPN for 3 years and I had many frustraing encounters with EMT's. My supervisor would get mad and tell them to just "load and go" because that is their job. I am now a critical care RN and I have no more than 1-3 patients at a time and it is very different. I am treated with much more respect by the EMT's and paramedics than I was as a LTC LPN. There is absolutly no reason that I should have been treated so poorly by them when I worked in LTC. IN LTC nurses rarely ever know the entire medical history of their patients because it is not practical when you have 30-40 during one shift. I remember running non stop for 12-16 hours when in LTC and never getting a break. I sure didn't have time to look up medical history on any of my patients.

Call the general hospital number and ask who ever answers what it stands for.

No absolutly not. If a patient is too hemodynamically unstable for hemodialysis and requiring CVVHD then I do not see it being safe to get them out of bed. Sounds like the higher up's are out of touch with reality.

Thanks for your reply. I have not spoken to them yet. I have been researching compaines before making contact. I'll probably apply with them, but it's always nice to get some insight from those who have worked with the company in the past.

Have you heard of this travel agency? What is your opinion or experience with this company? I have not been able to find many reviews on this company. They are rated #1 by Highway Hypodermics for 2017 but other than that I don't know much. Any info is appreciated :)

I was an LPN who transitioned to an RN. During school I found that I was drawn to critical care. However, when I graduated I was too intimidated by it to attempt to start out as a new RN in critical care so I applied to med surg jobs instead. What I really wanted was to get some hospital experience since this was never an option for me as an LPN. After 1 year on a neuro/ortho floor I transferred to critical care and now I can't picture myself doing anything else. What were you most interested in during school?

Our vaso is mixed by the pharmacy in 50 ml bags. It is never titrated and runs at 0.04 units which is 2.4 ml/hr (I think?). I have never heard of the 18 hour rule.

My first reaction is no, new grads shouid not be hired in the ICU. However, if the new grad has an adequate length of orientation and a good preceptor then I think it is fine. However, I know that my hospital is hiring anyone and every one they can find in the ICU's because of short staffing. This means a large number of new grads on night shift in the ICU. It is not safe because the more experienced nurses do not have time to answer questions all night long and take care of their own critically ill patients. I only have 1 year of ICU experience and I still have a lot to learn and I am helping the new grads. It is frustrating. Management is shortening the length of oriention to get nurses on their own quicker. It is very unsafe. I'm not sure how long the orientaion for new grads has been cut to, but I know experienced nurses with no ICU experience used to get 8 weeks and are now getting only 5 weeks. I wonder if this is happening at other hospitals?

It depends on how long you are committed to go to school and your money and living situation. However, you will have many more opportunities as an RN. I went through a full time LPN program that lasted 1 year. It was intense because everything is compressed. It was 5 days a week. It was hard for many students in the class to continue working at their other jobs once we were about 6 months into the program. It was tough because we would go over information and often be tested on it a few days later. It also required an 80 or above. Below an 80 was considered failing. I later went through a LPN-BSN program. Compared to the LPN program, in the BSN program we dug deeper into every subject and had more time to learn it. I learned a tremendous amount of information in my BSN program that was never mentioned in the LPN program. Going through a Associates or Bachelor's degree program is a big committment that lasts several years. Also, if I want to go on to grad school I can go anytime with my BSN. I am glad that I became an LPN then later an RN. However, I always wanted to work in a hospital with really sick patients. That is something I could never do as an LPN. What do you want to do as a nurse? As an LPN your opportunities are limited and the pay is less. As an RN your opportunites are endless and the pay is better.

No I don't think it will matter.

Happens all the time. I'm an ICU nurse at a large hospital and I came from a neuro/ortho floor. There is going to be a high learning curve no matter what background you come from. I honestly don't think the ICU manager will care which background you came from.

My LPN experience was factored in and I received a higher starting hourly wage but I was still treated like every other new grad. However, my LPN background was in LTC. If I had acute care experience I don't know if it would have been different.

Best places to work are in Nashville. The top ones in Nashville are Tristar Centennial, Vanderbilt, St Thomas West, and St Thomas Midtown. I do not recommend the hospital in Clarksville or in Hopkinsville, KY. TN has a lower cost of living than many other parts of the country. New grads start at around $20/hr. Tristar Centennial is probably the highest paying and Vanderbilt is the lowest. Vanderbilt is a magnet facility and the only level 1 trama in the area. They don't have to pay much because of their reputation. A nurse in Nashville with 3 years experience might make around $25/hr base pay. It really just depends.

I believe the correct way to write it is "BSN, RN" http://www.nursecredentialing.org/DisplayCredentials-Brochure.pdf

I have heard of that ratio at long term acute care facilities but never in an icu

I worked LTC/SNF for 3 years. When I started in med/Surg there were a lot of new things to learn, but I was no where as busy as I was at the LTC/SNF.

I can't understand why the physician had not looked at the chest tubes and noticed that the dressings needed to be changed. Everywhere I have worked the physician will look at the site when he/she makes rounds. Sounds like everyone involved from nursing, physician, bed management etc should be educated. Bed management should have never sent the patient to an ortho floor. I recently moved from an ortho/neuro floor to the MSICU and before the move I was clueless on the proper care of a chest tube. If it was bed managemets best option to send that pt there then priority should have been to move that pt to the proper floor when a bed became available. I also don't understand why the nursing staff did not advocate for themselves and let it be known to management that this pt needed to be transferred to the appropriate floor. Also, the nursing staff should have called the resp floor and asked for guidance in proper care of the chest tube/dressings. When I worked ortho/neuro other floors would sometimes call us when they had questions about things they do not see very often and we did.

Wonder Wink Flex is my absolute favorite!' Littmann Cardiology III

I had a pt's daughter call late at night. She repeatedly dropped her phone and I listened to her shooing her dog away while she searched for the phone. She rambled on and on about how her mom loves it when people joke with her, therefore I as her nurse should "flick her in the nose" and joke around with her when speaking with her. It was the strangest conversation I've ever had with a family member.

Here's my issue. I am transferring from one floor to another within my hospital. My last week on my current floor is this week and I start orientation on my new floor next week. However, I still do not have my schedule from my new Nurse Manager. I have no idea what days I am working when I get to the new floor. I have called, emailed and showed up at my new Nurse Manager's office, but she is never prepared to give me a schedule. I don't know what to do. I need my schedule. Has anyone ever experienced a manager that is this unorganized? Any advice on what else I can do? Thanks!