RunningRNBSN

I am young and personally hate working 3 12's in a row; however, I don't feel I am unsafe as a nurse. I have worked 7 or 8 in a row and although I was exhausted, I don't think I was unsafe. I work with a nurse in her early 60's and she tries picking up everyday overtime. During our busy seasons, I have watched her do FOUR weeks (an entire MONTH) in a row with no days off.. no exaggeration. I don't know how she does it!

I do not have personal experience in this but I work with a nurse who did L&D for 20+ years and transferred to the PICU for a change of scenery. She has regretted the choice ever since and is having a really difficult time with essentially re-learning everything. I think changing specialties is a great thing -- change is a good thing! I would just make sure you understand why you are changing specialties and will be ok essentially having to re-learn many things all over again.

--PICU RN-- LOVE: Seeing my patients get better and go home. Appreciative families! Co-workers who are willing to work as a team. Educating and comforting families. The kids who hug me and say "thanks for being a good nurse". HATE: Those nurses who fuel to a toxic environment. Working night shift! Physicians and nurses who will eat you up, spit you out, and then stomp on you without thinking twice about it. Trauma admissions and codes (I am not an adrenaline junkie)! Management who forgot what it is like to be a bedside staff nurse.

They are all different careers -- you really need to do some soul searching and decide which route is best for you. I am an RN and do not particularly like being a bedside nurse because despite the progress of our profession, there is very little autonomy. I sometimes feel like a robot following orders. Yes, I am expected to think critically and the physicians I work with expect me to think about a situation before calling them; however, in the end, I am expected to follow their orders. However, being an RN gives you many different options and opens many doors. A PA is very similar to an NP (both mid-level practitioners); however, the PA is taught using the medical model. In some states PA's are not allowed to independently practice whereas the NP is essentially able to. You obviously know what an MD/DO is -- requires many years of committment of schooling and training. I am unsure if you have a bachelors degree already, but if not, you are looking at a long road ahead of you. I've met plenty of physicians who returned to school in their 30's, 40's and even 50's. You also need to think of lifestyle. Are you accustomed to having a set number of days off every week and being home at a certain time of the day? Do you want an 8-5 job? Do you want to work three 12-hour shifts? Are you willing to work 80+ hours a week? Also, if you pursue the MD/DO route, are you financially prepared to forego a salary for 4 years during medical school? Are you prepared to take out a lot of $$ in student loans? Many many things to consider... EDIT: I also wanted to mention that I really *wanted* to pursue medical school when I first started college and even during nursing school... however, as a practicing nurse, I am glad I chose to not pursue medical school. I have met very few happy physicians. Those physicians who are not office based spend at least 70+ hours a week in the hospital.

I am sure you can find studies on MRSA Prevention -- search CINAHL.

I am suprised you are eligible to sit for the NCLEX. Many states require you take an approved "refresher course" if you have not practiced for X number of years. To find a refresher course, your State BON should have a list of approved courses on their their website. Are you sure you want to leave a stable job with the military for nursing?

I agree with "MiamiGuy" -- although my viewpoint might sound a bit "harsh", death is a natural part of the life cycle. I personally don't have any set beliefs of where someone goes when they die. When someone close to me dies, I grieve and then I get over it.. I find no point in trying to wrap my head around what happens to them after they die. They are dead... they have no more cares in the world, are pain free, and whether they are in "heaven" or not does not matter to me. I think people put way too much thought in to death -- grieve and deal with death how you want but I think people dwell on death far too long. Death simply sucks... but every living animal dies.. pay respect to your loved one, grieve, and then move on with life.

The most physical laborous intensive jobs in society typically pay the least out of most careers. Why? Because they are simply that... physically laboring. The most well paid careers are typically those that requires experience and intensive educational training.

I work in a 16 bed PICU and we are affiliated with a medical school. EVD cultures are only sent per MD request and the MD is the only one who can collect it. RN's can only change the EVD collection bag.

I learned the hard way -- I was an orienting RN and had a patient who had a GSW to the head and was trached. He developed a lung infection and had frothy sputum coming out of his trach -- I went to suction him and he coughed and I got sputum in my eyes... nasty!!!

Do NOT attend a school that is not accredited by CCNE or NLNAC because it may be very very difficult to ever get accepted into a graduate program (i.e., masters, doctorate).

An OR nurse probably sees and hears the physicians using anatomical terms and thus could probably do better at recalling anatomical terms. I honestly don't know what I would be able to recall if I had to, but I do know that I am sometimes suprised by the things I do remember from A&P. I doubt I could go as far as looking at a cell under a microscope and differentiating them anymore or recall every muscle and bone in the body... but I think I recall most of the major structures.

I am getting married later this year and I absolutely did not invite everyone -- I sent invitations to a few people who I am fairly close with. You interact with a variety of different people everyday at work.. you shouldn't have to invite everyone. Just make sure you send the invite to their home and do hand them out at work. I worked with a nurse who handed her wedding invites out in the hospital (I thought that was a bit un-classy to begin with) and she only handed them to select people.

Did they ever figure out why his K+ was so high?

I sympathize with you! I don't think every nurse is meant to be a bedside nurse -- I consider myself one of those nurses. Although I am very competent at what I do and do enjoy my patients, I know that I am not meant to be a bedside nurse. I don't know if it is necessarily the stress of being responsible for anothers life, but I do know that I need to get out of bedside nursing. I plan to stick with bedsie nursing until I finish my masters degree (I graduate late 2011), and then hopefully I can transition out of bedside nursing.

I don't think there is anything wrong with sticking with one specialty, but I think many nurses stick to one specialty because it is what they know and are probably a bit fearful of trying something outside of their comfort zone. I work with many nurses who have worked in PICU for 20+ years (many of the them have been in our unit that entire time). I also work with a few nurses who don't like the PICU but don't want to move on because they have seniority and can schedule themselves however they like. The only reason I am staying in PICU is because I have a contract with my hospital. After my contract is up, I plan to move on and try something different.

That is a very broad question... what are you specifically looking for?

You obviously did not read my posting very well. Do some research on PROFESSIONAL professions (nursing is not considered one of them) and you will begin to see why the nursing profession will need to begin to require the BSN as an entry level degree if the nursing profession ever wants to advance and become more respected by other healthcare professionals. Heck, I have spoken to a few people and have read some doctoral capstone papers that discuss creating the requirement into nursing practice at the masters level or even doctorate level by 2050.

I actually had this same exact situation arise a month ago on the PICU. I had a patient who was on fluid restriction, a low K+, and only have a PIV. Thus the physician did not want to order a K+ IV rider and instead wanted it given PO. She asked that I call pharmacy and ask that it not be given in an extended release tablet but rather a more immediate acting form. The pharmacist said they only carry the extended release form in tablet and the immediate reacting would be given in a liquid suspension. According to the pharmacist, the liquid suspension can increase the K+ in 1 - 1.5 hours where the extended release takes 3 - 4 hours. On a side note -- liquid K+ tastes absolutely horrible!! It is EXTREMELY salty and even putting it in juice doesn't help mask the flavor.

Whoa... hold up. I am not comparing ADN to BSN, nor do I think either is better than the other -- both are equally as competent. However, I was making a point regarding nurses who feel they should be making more money than a sonographer. I am making the point that for nurses to begin to demand more pay (I agree, nurses should be making more money than other technical fields -- we carry far more responsibility and nurses are required to do a lot of critical thinking... among other things) that the nursing profession needs to recognized as a PROFESSIONAL profession. The problem with the nursing profession is that many nurses consider their ADN as their terminal degree, when it should really be the beginning. As someone who is very heavy into research and into advancing the nursing profession to be more respected by other healthcare professionals, I can attest that there are many in our profession who trying to make it that the BSN is the entry level degree by in the next 20 years. Again, I am not making this an ADN vs. BSN debate but rather am responding to why you will find that many other healthcare technical careers make similar or more money than nurses -- because nurses are often viewed as similar to other technical healthcare professions.

My first year out of nursing school I pulled in almost $70K that year and I only worked an overtime here and there. I despise working overtime now and thus do not pull in much more than my base wage -- I however do work a very easy home health per-diem job that doesn't pay great money but it is EASY work and pulls in some extra cash. And you are right that I think some of these other careers don't have the opportunity to work OT like nurses do. However, I have seen many paychecks of my resp. therapist friends where I work, and many of them are pulling in $100K+ because of the OT available to them.

HaHa!! Why didn't she just become an EMS worker??

I work at a hospital that pays nurses the least out of most healthcare jobs. The RT's make more money, as do sonographers and the CT & MRI technologists. All of those positions also top out at more than nurses do at my hospital. Nursing opens more doors though.. for the most part. But if a nurse is walking in with an ADN degree, there is no reason why they should be making more money than another healthcare professional who has an associate technical degree. Nurses will have a hard time demanding a higher salary until the profession as a whole becomes more "professional" and demands that nurses have a bachelors degree for entry-level positions.

I am not EMS, but if you witness the accident or no one is on scene, I think it is helpeful to just stop and ask if anyone is hurt or needs help. If EMS is on the scene, don't stop...

What state do you live in? Minimum staffing can depend on state laws (if your state has these laws), union standards (if you have a union), or just based on your hospital policies. I live in an urban city hospital and thus things are different for us; however, my unit (PICU) requires that 3 nurses be on the unit, even if we have 1 IMC patient and that is a hospital policy.