realredhead79

RADIATIONNURSE2B, I don't usually let things bother me, but am I reading that you called the other nurses " desk nurses"? I just don't understand that. I am in a internists office...we do alot of procedures, and I do ALOT of triage. I've been a nurse since 1999, and I've worked in several different areas.....this job has been the hardest. Are you implying that they do not do anything? Please let me know what you mean by this..... A nurse should NEVER think that ANY area is harder or busier than any other area.

Hey there! I started as an LPN in the internal medicine office I work for now. I got my RN in December after being an LPN for 10 years. I make the same as the hospital nurses.... I do pretty much the same thing I used to....at this point we have 2 medical assistants, but I am responsible for all injections, INRs, etc.... I make sure logs are completed, QC checks, but generally do the same things the MAs do, I just get paid more... I work my A$$ off. Alot of hospital nurses think we don't do anything, but we do....I am not responsible for 8 patients....I have over a 1000 to take care of....I do ALOT of triage, and the MD trusts my judgemet. I wouldn't trade the weekends and holidays off for anything in the world! It is soooo worth it......Every nurse has to find their "niche." I learn something new EVERYDAY..... Good luck to you, it is possible, but sometimes you do have to take a drop in pay to be in a clinic.

hey there!!! my respsonses are in red!! i am an rn in an internal medicine office. i had been a lpn since 1999 and just made rn in december....very exciting!! right now i have two medical assistants that i work with, 2 receptionists, a md, a np, and our office manager. i love my job....who would give up the weekends and holidays!!! let me know if you have anymore questions!! just dont get stressed out..... new patient: 45 minutes for our md, 1 hour for our np established patient:15 minutes if just a regular followup well woman:30 min well child: we are internal med...no peds ( yay!! i do not miss it!!!) med refill: we call in refills if up to date on their regular appts biopsy: 30 minutes for derm procedure and bx walk-ins': all depends on what the problem is....alot of stuff we can triage without patient being seen by md, or we have them come back lab draw: no time to do lab draws....we see patients from 0800 to 12 and 1 to 330....no time!!! the rn's do all their own lab draws, we have to spin them down and then a courrier comes and gets them everyday. so when the provider orders labs we do it right after they are done in the room with them, then this seems to get us behind on the rest of the schedule. we are scheduled to see a patient every 20 minutes, thankfully there are some no shows because the charting and icd9 codes take a lot of time. you really need to discuss this problem with your office manager.....maybe there can be a phlebotomist hired?? also.. what quality controls do you have to do for the equipments (do you have to run control on the autoclave and how often?) we dont have an auto clave, we had manual sterlizing of equipment. the cleaning stuff has to be changed every 2 weeks... inr machine: luckily are inr machine does not require liquid controls...the machine is made to check its own controls with each test done....so, for qc purposes, we write that the key in the machine is the same as the code on the strips we use. accuccheck: controls done once weekly and days that the machine is used ref/freezer temp log in our procedure room the old nurse put needles in the cupboards for easy access, they are not locked up, so anyone could get to them if they just looked in the cupboard. we have not had problems with this, but it could be one if somene found out. do you have poicy about keeping needles locked up or out of patient rooms? i do not leave any sharps in the exam rooms, except for the scapels in the procedure room, and im in the room with the patient at all times when we're in there. where do you order your medical supplies from and are you responsible for your ordering or does someone else take care of that? luckily, we are underneath a hospital system, so they have a template for ordering. i go in and punch what i need on the computer. before that, i had to fax in the order to the company we used....now we use mainly moore medical ( they have the prices listed in the book which helps!!) and we use to use cardinal health... thanks for any input. also any tips for a new office nurse would be great :)