Val_998

Perfect answer. The thought process is concerning.

I really hope you're not insinuating a comparison to concentration camp victims. That's disgusting.

I logged in after like a year just to comment on this having received this in the Allnurses email sendout. I honestly cannot believe you would even consider calling out as an option being that your staff, patients and Co manager depend on you. Why are you even in that position if you can't handle it? Are you so scared of failure and your own incompetence that you'd just leave everyone in the lurch? Over a urostomy?? Google how to take care of one! Print out the patient education information you give to patients upon discharge and read over it. Bam, you're educated. You need better problem solving skills, and if you can't figure that out, you need to resign and allow a more qualified manager to step in. Yikes.

You are not looking at this from the perspective that the OP is asking. This isn't about some ethical dilemma or hypothetical situations (pt's don't hold their faces up to flaming stoves while wearing cannula) I had a pt once who smoked at home, and was O2 dependent. I was a newb and was still precepting. Turns out, our policy was a 3 strikes rule, education and reeducation, then ultimately discharge for noncompliance with instruction as this becomes a safety risk for more than just the patient ie visiting staff, family members etc. Even more importantly, he lived in an apartment building. Well guess what, it exploded in his face, injured him, lit the whole floor on fire, whole building had to be evacuated and several others were injured. We all got in BIG trouble for not following policy, on top of that for not informing building management. All it takes is one cigarette with the cannula on. I stand by the policy of your last employer.

I know how you feel, I also cannot stand bedside nursing. My patience level is not what it could be and interaction with people drains energy from me faster than physical activity ever could. I've had several different jobs and the one I enjoyed most required short interactions with patients on the IV team. I can see why you think you would like CRNA, but to be honest, I don't think you have enough experience to know if it will be a good fit. You need critical care exp before any grad school will take you seriously due to the number of highly qualified applicants. Another thing that stresses me out is being responsible for people's lives, not sure if that bothers you too but CRNA would be a bad choice.

Msmoe16, not all places make assignments this way, but it does happen, charge nurses would rather avoid making their own people the dumping ground. However, as I said, it does make you a stronger nurse so I feel they are doing their own nurses a disservice by dividing assignments based on position title. You don't learn new things by staying in your comfort zone. If you want to travel, don't let that be what holds you back. If you are confident in your skills, and are able to stand up for yourself if it's a truly unsafe assignment, then I think you should go for it.

I've only gotten fired twice by patients, and they were aggressive, threatening and verbally abusive. Both times my managers were on my side and aware as these patients had been making hell for the other nurses prior to me coming along. I was pissed off by the sheer stupidity that we were stuck dealing with but not bothered by being fired! As far as travelers and floats getting worse assignments, yes, they usually do. I am resource pool now, and will be traveling soon, and know I will get worse assignments. Sometimes when I walk in on the unit and overhear a tidbit about a problem patient, I can just assume they are in my assignment. It can definitely be frustrating but also a good learning experience, if you can handle patients who make your shift a living hell, you can handle anything :)

IV therapy isn't quite the same as phlebotomy. There are also a lot of factors that go into placing a line and managing it, knowing what medications will do to the veins. I think outpatient infusion would be a good place to start especially if they are willing to provide a good orientation. Also any throughput procedural jobs, daystay, but they usually want acute care/critical care experience but depends on the job. I know someone who worked at a cataract surgery center and every patient got an IV.

Perhaps you could try to reach your goal from a different angle? As a hospice RN, you have great experience with oncology, symptom management, and working with vascular access as often patients will have PICC or ports. What if you try outpatient infusion? Chemo, blood products etc plus daily practice with IV placement and some chemo patients are TOUGH to get. That would at least get you on track with overall experience then be more valuable to a VAT. As far as getting more PICC experience, you may have to delay until you get an offer.

In a few places that I've worked, any trauma line or field line must be replaced no later than 48hrs and all tubing changed. They are considered "dirty".

Our policy is very similar, except I believe 4.50 is the on call pay. On top of that, I'm in the float pool so I'm scheduled more than I end up working, I'm on call pretty often. I've gotten called in as late as 230 am with a 1hr time to make it in. It's a pretty small hospital though and unusual to need a nurse for after 3am..

@pneumothorax- i agree with you on basically everything that you said. that is exactly why two years ago when i got into clinicals that i felt i would never be able to handle the "changing oozing purulent wounds, emptying bedpans full of waste and wiping butts for those who cant or need assistance" for any amount of money that the best hospital could pay. i never realized the importance of the nurse until i went through clinicals, now i understand a patient's need to be taken care of by the nurse, as their well-being is the responsibility of the rn. after going through school i eventually realized that my goals in life strongly resembled that of what nurses do for patients and on a global scale. i worked as an aide at a local hospital for a year and wow there were some nurses that just never showed compassion for their patients, and i vowed not to end up like them, hating every day they are at work. @greenfiremagick-- "so either the op isn't really aware of what nursing can be like, or she has not fully understood her own motivations, etc and has that drive to really be a good nurse and hasnt admitted it to herself...lol" i was experiencing all three of those!! :) i think that i really had just no idea what nursing was until i went through it and adapted to it, the only thing i ever knew is i loved health & medicine, nursing seemed like the obvious choice, and im glad it worked out because now i can use what i know to help make peoples' lives better. just need a job first

Thanks miss jamie, i am very excited, as soon as i get my 1-2 years of experience im hoping to be a travel nurse somewhere awesome like hawaii or california, another great perk of nursing :)

PS forgot to add, I'm still not a 'soft and squishy' nurse, BUT I did have my senior internship in the emergency room and it was the best clinical I had! I think I'm going to aim for critical care nursing, and I definitely do not want L and D or psych anymore as specialties (though all nursing is psych nursing ). If anyone reads this 2 years later after posting their own uncertainties, give us an update on your confidence progress

Hey everyone! I guess I never realized that I had so many helpful responses to my post, or that I was the only one who felt that way about nursing.... Life has a funny way of working out though, 2 years, LOTS of hard work, clinicals, blood/sweat/tears/etc later, I graduated with honors and got my license this past July! I slowly came to realize that I couldn't have picked a better job, and I'm now searching for a new grad position, I can't wait to finally begin my career as a nurse. My experience helped me learn more about myself and I'd recommend serious soul-searching and support systems to get through tough times, especially nursing school. Thank you all!