GI Jackie

I have never seen a program that lets you start with no on site classes and clinicals. Once you get the degree, you can usually advance with online programs. Good luck!

DO NOT EVER 100% trust the doctor that says "Trust me". They may ask you to do things that make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Trust your instincts. That doctor has a team of lawyers and a lot of money tied up in his license. He/she will make sure that you go under the bus before he does.

This is one of the funniest posts that I have read in a while!!!!!!!!!!!! We get zip, zero, zilch, nada, nothing! We used to get a coupon for $15 for a turkey that the local grocery donated to all the employees but I guess that was costing the hospital to much so they stopped that! Just keep repeating.....I love my job, I love my job, I love my job!

If you are serious about nursing school, there are ways to do it without going further into the poor house!. One company we have here is called Physicians Manpower. I don't know alot about them other than some of the girls I went to school with used them and they pay for your school with a repayment commitment of time at one of the hospitals they contract with. I don't know if they are everywhere or not but I think something like that would be your best bet. Good luck!

:deadhorse AMEN to that!!!!

I agree that you have at the tip of your mouse pointer more info than you will ever find in a book. I first started in school with the grand notion of being and MD. So as I sat in school pumping out my sciences, I realized that I would be 30 before I would be able to have a family and that just wasn't for me. So, I decided to go to nursing school instead. At that time, I didn't know the difference between a CNA, LPN or RN, to me they were all nurses. I did some research into pay, responsibilty, etc. and chose RN. All my Pre-Med stuff transferred over and now here I am. Been an RN for 7.5 years and I would not have chosen differently. I get a pretty good wage for what I do. Not to offend any LPN's but I don't think that they get paid fairly. They do alot of the foot work and get very little reward just from what I have seen. So you know my position is going to be just go straight for the RN school and knock our your pre req's now. You'll be better off in the long run.Good luck in your endeavor whatever you choose!

WoW! I just took your figures and plugged them into a student loan calculator at the link below......she's right!!! At fifteen percent interest? Good lord woman, you would be better off buying a brand new car and driving the 70 miles each way!!!!! That is what I would do. Your loan is not worth it when there is a much cheaper way to achieve the same result. Good luck! http://www.accessgroup.org/calculators/loan_repay.htm

I have been an endo nurse now for 7 1/2 years. We currently have anesthesia that provides our sedation for our procedures. That being said, if anesthesia is pulled for whatever reason we can and will give sedation for GI procedures. I work in a hospital setting, we do inpatients and outpatients. Our hospital requires that all GI RN's have BLS as well as ACLS and we have to maintain competency in an annual conscious sedation course. I personally am very comfortable giving sedation to most patients. I believe that there are definite advantages to having anesthetists giving sedation. One big one is that in Oklahoma, they can give medications that I cannot give, ie propofol. It is listed as a general anesthetic and therefore is only recommended to be administered by trained anesthesia providers. When we give sedation we use Fentanyl/Versed or Demerol/Versed. Another reason would be of course that is what they get paid to do. I do not receive any additional compensation for taking on the liability of sedation and my facility cannot charge for my services. I think just from my experience here and talking with other endo staff, we are a rare facility that has the luxury of anesthetists 99.9% of the time.

So they base their choices on how rude they can be and how much abuse the staff will take? I highly doubt it. Nobody here is complaining about taking a patient a cup of coffee or a meal. They just want common courtesy and respect. I am not saying that anyone is complaining, but I think that people should realize that customer service and nursing go hand in hand. I know loads of people who DO rate a hospital based on how friendly and courteous the staff is to them while they are there. I know many people that will not go to facilities anymore for that reason alone. Do I think that PR should replace competent nurses? Absolutely not. I do think that people should not take offense at someone calling them a waitress. A little humor can go a long way. Joke it off and get them what they are asking for. Just keep in mind pts DO have a choice. Jackie

I don't understand what people are getting so worked up about. We are very much trained, skilled, knowledgeable customer service representatives. You need to keep in mind that the patient is equivalent to your customer. They do have a choice. They do NOT have to return to your facility. NO customers, NO jobs. I don't think it is any big deal to make my patients feel as comfortable as I can. The only thing I would do if I couldn't take care of their needs at that time is say that I need to go take care of something first and I will back to get them what they would like. It absolutley chaps my hide when I read or hear comments from people that they will not come to my facility because they had a bad experience. Only to find out later that their experience was that no one cared enough to bring them comfort items and simple things. It does not take much to make most pts happy. Not to say that there won't be that pt that no matter what you do you can't make them happy. Just keep in mind, your pts do have a choice and it doesn't take much to keep them coming back.

I have been in GI for seven years. I can remember a few pts ask us to stop. What our doc did was stop what he was doing and wait until adequate sedation was achieved before continuing and I do not see anything wrong with that. I can remember one pt in particular that I gave some 200mg Demerol and 15mg Versed and 100mcg Fentanyl and she was still totally awake and crying. (Of course none of that was bolused just titrated over time to try to achieve moderate sedation) I felt miserable. I felt like I was failing her. The MD finally agreed to stop the procedure and we informed her that the next time she needed this done, she needed an anesthetist so that they could keep her comfy with deep sedation. I saw her afterward and she told me she remembered everything. I was amazed. I thought for sure with all that med we would have at least achieved some level of amnesia. All I could do was apologize and reinforce the idea that she needed stronger medicine than I am allowed to push. I think the one thing that doc should have allowed in your scenario is a couple of minutes and a little extra med to see if they could keep their pt sedated. It may still not have been possible and in that case, he should have stopped.

I am interested in the call pay at other facilities. We currently get paid $1.00 per hour to carry the beeper and time and a half when we get called in. I would like to know what others are getting paid to be on call for endoscopy and what city and state you are from. Thanks in advance for responding.

I love the variation in responses. I know that cost of living varies greatly from place to place but I think another question that should have been added would be -- How much does a single family home cost in your area? I read one of the responders say they live in So Cal and take home over $3000 every two weeks. I lived in Cali and remember how expensive it was to live there back then. The house that my mother sold for $350,000 8 years ago is now on the market for $800,000!!! I couldn't afford to live there now, boo hoo, I miss it! For the record, I live in Oklahoma, have been an RN for 7 years, work in a GI Lab approx 35-40 hours per week plus call. My take home after 401k, medical, taxes is between $1300-$1400 every 2 weeks. But a single family house costs around $90,000 -$120,000 here.

I am lucky enough to be in a hospital based endo unit that has anesthesia coveage about 99% of the time. We are all trained and do provide sedation when necessary. I actually like doing sedation, however I do not like the fact that I am taking on more liability for no additional pay. So, since anesthesia gets paid much more than I do, they are welcome to it. Our state does not allow RN's to push propofol except for Rapid Sequence Intubation or a mechanically ventilated pt. Since hopefully nothing like that is happening in the GI Lab, we cannot use propofol. Our anesthesia is reimbursed by approx 80%-85% of the billing that is done. Our hospital did a study to find out if it was feasible to keep anesthesia in GI Lab. Because you cannot bill for RN sedation, the money they lost by not having anesthesia was about $190,000 in possible charges lost. We just have one room running 8 hours a day. Think if you had multiple rooms? Financially it was a good decision for the facility. In the 7 years I have been in this GI Lab, I can remember 2 months that we lost money. Definitely worth it!

I saw a snippet about this, one of our local docs, not in our facility, is currently using this. My question is that in his TV report he said it inflates the balloons and pulls back the small intestine, then can further advance and do the same again. Is there any concern about how far can you pull back the intestine? It sounds crazy when you think of how long the small bowel is, that it wouldn't create further problems. I obviously have very limited knowledge of this. I am very interested to see how it works.

In my opinion, I think feeling like a respected and valued part of the team is the most important. If you are devalued constantly, it will effect your job performance and satisfaction. If you feel like you are wanted and needed in your department, then you are going to perform at your best.

I haven't seen anyone say this field, Endo Nursing. I am an Endo Nurse in a GI suite that is hospital based. We do approx 80% outpatient procedures and the rest inpatients. I love it!!!! I wouldn't trade my job for anything. (OK maybe a multi-million dollar winning lottery ticket) I have looked at other nursing jobs in our area and they just can't compete with the perks. I work M-F 6am to 2:30p. I am home in the afternoon for my kiddos. I take call every other week, but our call is wimpy. We maybe get called in once a week and usually know ahead of time that we will be doing a scheduled call case on Saturday at 0800. There aren't any other jobs in our area that allow me the flexibility to work full time and still be available for all my kids functions. I can't remember the last time I missed a soccer game or dance recital because of work. I think this field of nursing goes unnoticed in most places. You don't see many job openings for GI Nurses because once you get the position, you keep it. You get to work one on one with the physicians, do sedation for procedures, and generally get to meet and help great people. I just can't think of a better place.

I don't know which state you work in but in Oklahoma, you only need an ADN to do most staff level nursing jobs. Upper management is different but for staff level such as Public Health, Managed Care and most others that I can think of, you only need an ADN. Once you have your RN license, most places don't care whether it is an ADN or BSN, unless you are climbing the corporate ladder. If you are interested in management then yes by all means you are going to need your BSN. I feel for you, you sound so tormented. I work in an Endo Lab with surgeons and gastroenterologists. I wouldn't trade my job for anything. The first three months I worked in there, I hated it. The surgeons and gastros didn't know me, they didn't trust me and I had to prove myself to be worthy of their presence. I also found that in the beginning, if I backed down from them, they challenged me more often and with more intensity. When I finally learned to stand my ground when I know it's the right thing to do, they began to respect me. I have been in the Endo Lab now for 7 years and couldn't imagine being anywhere else. You can't give up. The best thing about nursing is that it is the only job I can think of that has so many facets. You can do so many different things, keep looking until you find the one that makes you happy.

JCAHO has one and only one job. TO BOLDLY CREATE AND RECREATE STANDARDS THAT THE INSTITUTION MUST ABIDE BY TO HANG A PLAQUE IN THE LOBBY. When they stop creating "silly nurse tricks", oh I mean standards, regardless of how impractical they are, they are out of a job. Now I am not JCAHO bashing. I am actually glad that someone has the unenviable job of being critical all the time, because there are some standards that are no-brainers. But some of the stuff they come up with is incredibly impractical.

By your standards, I would consider myself type AB positive. When I first came out of nursing school I was totally type A. I had something to prove and a chip on my shoulder like everyone was second guessing me. Looking back, I am glad they were. I had alot a great nurses looking out for me in the beginning. I thought I knew the right way to do everything and they were just going to have to accept the changes in them that were necessary to maintain my rightness. Luckily for me, they were patient and taught me about real world nursing and are still my very good friends today, seven years later. I am a better person and nurse for it. So today I know when it's important to pick the battle and when it is not.

That is too funny!! I think they are more concerned with transmitting germs to yourself from the nastiness that everyone else brings to the desk. You know the doc that just checked Mr SO-N-SO'S penile prosthesis without gloves and then used your phone to answer his page.

Our facility used to require a doctors RX to accomodate when I started 7 years ago. Now they have completely eradicated powdered gloves of any kind from our facility. We still have latex gloves but they are not powdered. When I used to have to use the powdered gloves, my hands would get red, chapped and raw. Now that I use powder free latex, I don't have that problem anymore. Maybe the powder was leading to more trouble than it was worth.

I know this an old thread but I just had to answer. Along with the whole you have to prep just the same anyway argument, I have another concern. We recently had a pt that had severe diverticulits and were unable to pass the scope beyond 30 cm. Our doc wanted him to have a virtual and follow up with him in the office in one week. We were able to get him in that same day to have a virtual colonoscopy and then he followed up in the office. The virtual showed diverticum and thickening at that location. He had a follow up colonoscopy one month later after antibiotic treatment. We were able to complete the colonoscopy at that visit and he had a large polyp that did not show on the virtual. We took it out and it was benign, but what if he just took the word of the virtual and pressed on. That was enough for me to say that the technology is not there yet to replace traditional colonoscopy. Besides you don't get to nap during the virutal--yuck!

I am an Endo nurse and have been for seven years. I have been to many endo conferences in which the doctors discuss the benefits of propofol in the endo suite. We are lucky enough to have CRNA's for our sedation about 90% of the time. As an RN, I do sedation when necessary and I just use demerol/versed or fentany/versed for our procedures. In our hospital and I believe in our state, it is out of the scope of practice for an RN to push propofol for CS. I wanted to know if any RN's out there know of facilities or personally used propofol for CS. In these conferences it sounds like the docs are having RN's use propofol. Just curious. Look forward to reading your responses.