rn4life2009

Tomorrow is our kids last day. I am working summer school until June 23. Then I get to go on my vacation to Tulum Mexico!

I have worked through tornadoes in KS and Hurricane Ike in the only hospital(direct hit) that was open during the storm. We were allowed to bring our family and we rode out the storm and evacuated the next day. It was one of the most scary things I have been through. We took care of pts and thier family members. The building shook and swayed and it sounded like a bomb was going off. Windows broke out in the halls and patients room windows cracked and water poured in. The wind was so strong it could suck you towards the window. The day we evacuated there was no water and so we couldn't flush toilets and had a limited bottles of water to give meds and the ac went off and people were slipping from the humidity on the floor. The thing that bothers me the most is the people they made stay to work had spouses and kids but the ones without kids were allowed to evacuate. NM made that decision which i think is not fair. It make sense to have criteria for who stays which would be people without kids, not caring for elederly parents, live close to hospital and so forth. We were paid for all our time and they fed us. I still would never do it again.

In tx it varies by district. I haven't seen the certification requirement but some districts only hire BSN RN.

The year I work on ltc we bought like nice fuzzy socks with slip grip, nice smelling lotions(vanilla, fruit pleasant easy scents) and body sprays. We would make sure to use the lotions on them and make sure they had on their warm socks at night.

I have been through this before. I dreaded going to work my stomach was in knots. I would cry on the way to work. When I was layed off I felt bad at first but I am relieved I no longer have to work at a place that made me hate being a nurse. I have worked in nursing before and while it was hard I never felt so frustrated and felt like I never had the time to take good care of my patients. I working a prn school nurse job and love it. Take the time to find out what part of nursing you want to do. When you interview look around talk to coworkers, do they all seem very stressed? Talk to people who have worked there before and asked them if they would ever want to work there again? Its important to get a feel for the job before you take it.

Go online and look up the different procedures. The company might even have a web page explaining the procedures for the patients. I would take extra care with my physical looks. Careful tasteful makeup, nails hair. Thier business caters to people who care greatly about looks so they want people with a polished professional look. Just my 2 cents and good luck!

I have been there. I had never failed anything until the RN program. I had alot of things going on in my personal life and I failed my second semester. It was a severe blow to my self confidence. It is ok to be sad for a while then brush your self off and figure out what happened to cause you to fail. If clinicals were hard get a job as a cna(it helped me feel more comfortable with pt care) or if it was the class get someone who is good at it to explain the hard concepts to you. The second time I flew through it with good grades in clinical and class. I graduated and passed nclex no problem and started a job a month later.You can do it! PS I wouldnt mention to the other students I had been in before because in my experience I was treated by some of the other students as if I would never make it.:)

I would definitely get short term disability insurance in case you have any complications. I was doing med surg(eve) and started pre term labor(never happen in the other 2 pregnancy) and was put on 6 weeks bed rest before he was born which used up my pto and was a strain financially. It would give your the peace of mind to do what was best for the baby.

Thanks everyone!

I should have listened to my gut in the first place. I want to go back to work so bad but not at the expense of my license.

I wasnt exactly offered a job. The owner wanted me to come in so she could try me out to see if I would work out. She said she couldnt offer me a job because my references had not called back. The job is in a methadone clinic which she told me was from 5-9am m-s. Turns out it starts at 6 on some days and I would probably get 20 hrs and have to come in 6 days a week. I went in for training the first day and I sawl some things that really didnt seem right. She gave a TB test without gloves to a patient and she has no medical/nursing license. I was right there and could have given the tb test but then she had her other nurse sign the paperwork that the nurse had done it. She talked kinda rude to the clients. I left the first day feeling uneasy about the job. I had not filled out any paperwork saying how much pay was or anything to show I worked there. She kept saying how she was trying me out! I started thinking about it and the fact that I was using my license in this setting. I called her about me working without a job offer and told her I couldnt come in until she could offer me a job when my references called back. She kept saying I should come into work I told her to call me when she could offer me a job so when I called her today she told me the only reference that called back was my friend(a nurse i worked with) and she would mail me a check for the day I worked. I am relieved about it and bummed the job search continues.

I am in the Houston area too. I have my ADN and have worked as a LPN and CNA and have over 2 yrs experience as a nurse. I cant find a job either. I was layed off after 1.5 yrs as a rn in dec 09. I think the job market here is just overflooded. I think trying job fairs is a good idea. I know I was hired by hca as a new grad and alot of the other new grads I worked with got 1 yr of med surg under the belt then transferred to ER or ICU. ER wants you to have acls and pals and especially TNCC. ICU want acls and ekg recognition would help. these courses show that you are serious about being in ER or ICU. I wish you good luck!

I sent them an email with the boards policy on the title nurse. I also told them if the 10 was referring to looks it was tacky! I mean really! I could care less what the person looks like who is taking care of me as long as they know thier stuff.

what do you think of this ad posted on craigslist(tx)? is 10 a reference to looks or skills? office "nurse"/medical asst date: 2011-03-21, 12:43pm cdt reply to: [errors when replying to ads?] looking for a medical tech/phlebotomist must be a "10" drawing blood/starting iv's! ft m-th, off f.

There always going to be ignorant people who assumes things. I say if it is your dream then follow it and dont let anyone stop you!