Wheaties

I know this is an old topic, but I'm going trough something similar right now. I switched and left my hospital bedside nursing job for something completely different after being a hospital nurse for a long time. I am doing something that is not hospital related. I was so good at my old job, not the best, but I knew what I was doing and how to get the job done even if I wasn't the fastest at it. Now I work somewhere else. I work for County Jail doing a variety of things as a nurse. I'm only 4 months in, off orientation, but I'm still adjusting learning the protocols, documentation. I didn't think I would have a hard time adjusting, but amount of charting I have to do, the details I have to put into my charting just in case it goes to the court of law is so much. Like the topic creator posted, my current job has so much protocols and rules, and this is not even a hospital setting. Some say it takes 6 months to a year to click. I know I'm still early. But what makes me so nervous is what if it doesnt click at 6 months, 8 months, 12 months? am I better off just leaving. I already know this job is not something I want to do for past 12 month mark. anyways, I apologize if I hi-jacked this thread. But if anyone here can help guide on what to do, I would appreciate it. I didn't I would say this, but I kinda miss the hospital compared to working for the Jail.

I work for CDCR in southern california, the inmates are manipulative, they lie, and they get upset if they don't get what they want. the work culture is also really bad, everyone that works there are afraid of being sued by inmates. there are so many cases where the state has been sued already and there are very strict protocols and policies that needs to be adhered to as far as documentation and notification of complaints. inmates in the prison have more rights than people outside the prison setting. shocking, but it's true. they might be inmates, but they still have rights. Nurses don't deal with the psychiatric aspect too much since CDCR has psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers that deal with those stuff. nurses just deal with the medical side of things. word of advice, you gotta have a lot of independence, autonomy, you gotta have good nursing educational skills to convince these inmates that they are okay and their problem is not critical. there's also a lot of seniority, so if you're a new nurse, you are the bottom feeder who has to help the nurses with the most seniority. did I mention there are so many bosses to deal with. you have to work 8 hour shift 5x a week, sometimes you get mandated to work 16 hours if there are no coverage. and you won't get weekends off if you're brand new. It's all about seniority. but who knows, you might end up liking correctional nursing, some people love it. but it's not for me.

I applied to two places in California, for CDCR and also a State hospital. I got a job interview date for both but had to cancel because I couldn’t find anyone to switch days with me. I was told I had to reapply again. I re-applied for CDCR 90 days ago, haven’t heard back. I’m still waiting for a job opening to show up for the State hospital. I’ll call CDCR to follow up since it’s been over 90 day’s since my application. The job listing is still showing up on calcareers. The first time I applied, I got the interview date 2 weeks later.

I currently work in a hospital doing bedside nursing. I do notice we are sometimes short staffed. But there are also more nursing schools now compared to a decade ago just in my area. Used to be only 2-3 nursing schools where I live. Now that’s ballooned to maybe 7-8. But even then, it just seems like it’s hard to find nursing jobs especially for new grads. Yes there’s a shortage but seems like not enough job openings. I don’t know I’d like to give corrections a try. How common is it for nurses in the California state prison to get laid off or be part of the job cut? i would love to apply but I fear that in the next recession, my job will be axed coz of the state budget if I do manage to get in.

I work 12 hour shifts during the Day 7 am-730 pm on a busy medical tele floor. I spend a lot of time on my feet walking back and Forth between patient rooms. I often wonder how much I walk per shift my schedule in a 2 week pay period is 2 on, 2 off, 3 on , 2 off, and 2 on and 3 off for a 3 day weekend So I work 7 days per pay period. On my days off I go to the gym so 30 minutes of cardio and another 30 minutes of doing weight machines my question is, do I even need to work because I walk so much at work. Does it count as exercise? I'm always on the move. I've read nurses in hospitals walk around 3-5 miles a day depending

So what will it take for the USA to have some sort of national health coverage to all citizens just like in canada, United, most western European countries, nordic european countries just as an example? what's keeping the USA from doing it? it would surely be beneficial. i dont know much about the politics of it all and why the USA, one of the richest countries developed countries in the world, doesn't have it.

i went back to my old nursing skills checklist, it says measure up to the xiphoid process. but it's interesting. i googled it, and i figure i'd post about it here. any students here should ask the teacher though for clarification just like the above post suggested, and tell me your findings.

Okay, I'm a little conflicted. 1) Measuring NGT from the tip of the nose, to the earlobe to the end of the xiphoid process 2) Measuring NGT from the tip of the nose, to the earlobe, to the point between/halfway xiphoid process and umblicus (belly button) which is the proper way? i googled it, most said, measure up to the xiphoid process. another said between the xiphoid and bellybutton? which is right?

Apply to other positions in your area. It's disappointing, but just keep trying. But look into other places. I didn't get a job too coz I'm bad at interviews. My suggestion is to type out the question and answer and practice it out loud. Practicing the answers in your head won't help. I know.

You didn't have any risk whatsoever since your skin was intact. the skin is such an amazing barrier. Base on your description, you are safe. There wasn't anything contagious that you could have caught.

i used to work in the hospital, and the health insurance i had through the hospital was $250/month much more affordable than the what obamacare insurance companies offered through the marketplace. i dont know whats going to happen to be honest. i wish we had England's NHS or Canada's national health insurance. why cant we have that here in the usa?

If you work in Telemetry, see if you can transfer to another department, such as L&D/Maternity/Nursery and work there for a year or 2 and learn as much as you can. Then apply for a NICU position. i've seen NICU hire new grads, but of course its tougher now in todays economy, but thats how I would do it. Telemetry is hard, but L&D maternity would be less demanding

Thanks Davey. It's definitely something I might consider, relocating to another state. I live in California, but I live in the rural part of california hundreds of miles away from san francisco and los angeles. the cost of living is definitely much much more affordable here. it's a pretty sizeable area, i've seen hundredes of jobs listed, since we have 3 big hospitals, and another 3 smaller ones in a 20 miles radius but most openings are specialty areas like ICU. But I'll keep trying. I think just posting here in the forum really helps get this off my head. been anxious all week. but i'll contact my former coworkers and see if they can help me out as well. but for now i'll keep applying and just wait for it. not.done.yet- thats what i suspected, because i've seen new nurses who have barely 1 year experience get hired easily. i agree its easier to land a new job if a person is currently employed, especially in nursing.

Thanks. My very first job, I landed it because I applied for a student extern position ( I got lucky to be honest, it was hard to land a student nurse extern job). eventually when I graduated, I decided to stay on and I worked there for over 7 years. of course a lot has changed since then. mainly the economy tanking, and the lack of budget I have 5 applications out right now. I was sure I was going to land one of the first 2 that i put out, but apparently not. I sort of expected that being away from work despite the experience was going to bite me in the end. people always say, well you have experience, but to be honest, nowadays, it doesnt matter unless your experience lies in a specialty area like cadiovascular or ICU

I applied for a Pre-Op RN position at a local Surgery center mainly dealing with Outpatient surgery, but sometimes there's patients who stay overnight for observation. I've worked as a RN in a Med-Surg/Tele for over 7 years. I've been out of work for 2 years I've never worked as part of the Surgical department before. Is there anything I should I know or need to know as a pre-op Nurse since all my experience has been mainly on the floor? What about IVs? I know it varies from place to place. I'm not the most experienced IV nurse, my average is only 60%. Will I have to get good at it? any advice and tips is appreciated.

I never fully understand the difficulties of new nurses trying to land a job in a hospital after graduating from nursing school, but now I know. I know it's hard to get a job. I have so much respect for all those nurses who have put in dozens to 20 to 40 applications before landing an RN job. I'm a a nurse with over 7 years experience in the same hospital working med-surg/tele, the same job since I graduated from nursing school. I left my job for 2 years to travel, and now I'm applying again. I applied to 2 places so far in a span of 2 weeks, got an interview. I got a response online saying I wasn't hired. It's kind of discouraging. I'm kind of sad about it. I made sure to apply to in med-surg/tele where my experience lies. At this point, I also applied to 2 more positions, same sort of area, one in the ER, the other is a medical floor. I have an idea why I didn't get hired. I just don't interview well because I get nervous. I even wrote out nearly 10 pages of questions/answers to practice to get better. I even took an online refresher course. Is it because 1) I've been in the same position for 7 years in the same hospital that hospitals look at it as a negative? I've seen my coworkers who leave my department after 1 year and go somewhere else. 2) I've been away from work for 2 years 3)i get nervous when I interview, and english isn't my first language. i try to go into detail but most of my responses are short and simple despite of it. how much does interview count for not getting hired? So yeah, I'm kind of disheartened right now, of course I'm not giving up. I'm going to try and do better in interviews, I'm going to keep reviewing the nurse refresher course. What else can I do, any advice and help is appreciated.

I always thought working for state or federal that the retirement pension income is pretty good compared to the private sector which is nonexistent. I don't even work in a union hospital, so right now I don't get good retirement benefits other than the money I put away in my 401k. all I know is that you have plenty for retirement. Quit stressing out. I've seen people live a happy life for so much less or hardly any money at all. Money is relative. I completely understand the idea "you can never have enough money" but trust me, you got plenty I plan to become an expat in my mid-50s. and just live in Bali or Southeast Asia where my money will go a long way.

Just a quick question. I'm a floor RN.do most patients have some sort of central line access (picc, medport) when giving chemo medications in a mixed medsurg/oncology floor? I'm not an oncology nurse, but I just want to know. My IV skills aren't that great, I'm just average. I would be pretty nervous giving chemo drugs to a regular IV line considering the IV may go bad and cause damage to the skin. what is the protocol usually?

Hi, been a nurse for over 5 years. Been off work for nearly 18 months. worked in mixed med-surg/tele unit. There's a med-surg & oncology unit (combined) position. i don't know anything about med-surg/oncology, is there anything I should know as far as the workflow of taking care of oncology patients? i'm thinking i would have to administer chemo meds of which I don't know anything about. can someone enlighten me

I'm looking at jobs between VA hospital (federal) and California correctional prison (8 hour shift, 5 days a week) or California state hospital which deals with sexual predators 12 hours 7 days every 2 weeks) both state jobs have plenty of opportunities for overtime hours (not really interested in overtime, but it's good to know its there) I've Been a Floor RN for over 7 years in an acute hospital with not much to retirement benefits other than a 401k. Health insurance was great though at $50 a month compared to $350 with obamacare. but looking for a change from the demand. I tried to avoid and isolate myself from hearing and seeing other people leave for higher paying and less demanding nursing jobs. I was satisfied with my work, but I'm looking at my future now, I don't know how long I can keep up with this physical work on the floor. my back is already feeling it. which would you suggest?, federal or state? in terms of benefits (monthly health insurance cost) and longterm benefits (retirement pension plan, health insurance covered upon retirement, etc) in VA I'll probably be working in med-surg. I've always heard that federal and state are very generous with their pay and have amazing retirement plans. so far I'm leaning towards the state jobs

nobody really knows how well they do on nclex. all the answers are right to begin with for the most part. i felt the same way after i took it. i wasn't really sure how well i did.

I have been an RN since 2006 until 2014 here in California, Med-surg & tele mainly , and stepdown for 2 years(it's for patients not quite ICU, but can't be placed as a tele med-surg patient.) i left nursing in 2014 to travel and see the world. Left my job cold turkey. It was amazing to travel the world South America, Asia. I just came back to the USA last week and getting ready to find a job at the local hospitals in my city. This city I'm in is actually quite boring, dusty, hot, nothing much to do since everything is so far away by as much as 3-4 hours drive . I'm interested in travel nursing. But I don't know if I qualify because of my experience. where will I be able to find a job. And how hard or how long is the process to get a job as a travel nurse? I know with the economic downturn, a lot of new grads can't even find jobs as s nurse. Is it like that with travel nursing as well? Is it difficult to get assignments? im still trying to figure out where my nursing life is headed. But I'm intrigued with travel nursing if it allows me to have time to travel more overseas when I'm off assignment. Where do I start? I live in a farming city. It's a big city, about 500k population scattered all over. But it's still a country rural city.

which department or area did you apply in? i also agree that you might have to apply in another city. I know new nurses who made sacrifices by finding job in another city much further away. Once you have experience, it gets easier, and you can apply back in your city

someone said the grass isn't always greener on the other side. I agree. Just don't expect it. Just have to make changes or compromises. I also have anxiety coming to work because I don't know if it's going to be busy and crazy on the floor. Bedside floor nursing is demanding. I love those easy nights I have. I'm looking at other options myself. As the years went by maybe coz of better time management and experience, floor nursing became manageable to the point it was just a tad easier and doable. Has anyone felt that way?or is it just me.I'm looking at ER, it's also demanding, much more so than the floor, but it would be a good experience I think. I have nearly a decade experience on the floor, but I am looking forward to the challenge of the ER

I don't think you will be typecast. Other nurses in this forum can vouch for that as well. There's absolutely nothing wrong with staying in one area for many years. Each nurse will gain experience no matter what. I'm assuming you just graduated and a brand new nurse. Just think of it this way, you have the full future ahead of you and you can do and go anywhere as a nurse. I worked on the floor for nearly a decade as an RN, and though it might sound like a bad thing and a negative, I'm grateful for the experience. my mom is a dialysis nurse, mainly acute in the hospital, and per diem in davita. so yeah I believe that horror story with da vita. i too definitely want a change in nursing area. I'm interested in OR but I don't have any prior experience.