Bubwa

Study like it's your job, do a bunch of practice questions, and don't put off the test any longer than necessary. I graduated the second week of December 2010, took off three weeks or so and started studying around the 7th of January. I took my NCLEX around Feb 25th or so, and I passed. I did an accelerated BSN program and graduated with a 3.75 on a 4.0 scale. Hope this gives some perspective. Best of Luck. You can do it! :w00t::w00t:

Yes! Go for it. Wow! Congrats for staying afloat while working Med/Surg days! That is not easy. I think that you have an awesome foundation to start L&D, especially if your peers and supervisors can recommend you. You know from your previous experiences what "sick" pts. look like, which interventions to use, which care plans make sense, and medications used in the Med/Surg setting. These are all important for L&D. For example you know about pain management (think s/p c-section, and labor). You know about hypertension and which meds to use (think labatalol and pre-eclampsia). You can learn L&D, especially with that foundation. Make sure you really sell yourself including your accomplishments, peer reviews, pt. advocate, and especially your DESIRE and LOVE of L&D. Show up to HR or even the L&D departments in your best suit ask for the director/manager and hand deliver a resume. If your supervisors think highly of you see if they have any connections and see if they will make a phone call on your behalf. I just made a similar move, but after only 1 yr. as a M/S nurse on days. I'm currently orienting to the OB department. How do I feel about OB? I frickin' LOVE IT!!! Go for it. Besides, if not NOW then when? Best of luck,:w00t::w00t:

That sounds really unsafe. I wonder how it would make the "powers that be" feel if they knew their loved one was one of the 6 pts. with 1 RN. Or, if those that make staffing matrix choices were put in your shoes; how would they feel? Unfortunately it seems that this will NEVER happen. But why? We as nurses put up with too much. I know some nurses think this is just how it is. It's normal not to eat lunch, it's normal for your raise to get taken away, it's normal to have dangerous nurse/pt. ratios, it's normal to have your 401K taken away, it's normal not to get a break, it's normal to have have to answer phones/call lights/doctors questions/radiology tech questions at the same time with a smile. Enough already! We need to stand together with a clear unified voice and tell management etc. IT'S NOT OK!!! If we weren't afraid that standing up for ourselves and making waves would result in losing our jobs, maybe things could change. If all nurses said this is bull****, and we won't work under these circumstances then there wouldn't be anyone to work in unsafe conditions. Now how to make this happen??? Union??? Any California nurses have any info/input about this?

California has a nurses union. Perhaps other states should consider this?

Being a new nurse is hard. I would cry after work pretty consistently for the first couple months. It will get better as you gain knowledge and experiences to draw from. Ask as many questions as you can and if other nurses get irritated, oh well. Better to be safe than not ask questions and put your pts. at risk. When I first started as a nurse I would ask other nurses who seemed efficient, what they did to "stay on track". You can do it! Stick with it and be patient with yourself. Best of luck.

I work days in CO and it is for sure a "mixed bag". Generally I have 4-5 pts. and it just depends on the day. I can say that one of my more challenging days I started with 5 pts., 4 of which were discharged, and then I got 4 admits. Crazy. The amount of time spent on a discharges can be really varied as well. Some physicians write really nice specific discharge instructions, on the discharge papers; while others leave so many loose ends you end up having to call them for clarifications, and work with the case managers to get the transporter set up and the home O's set up and yada yada yada. I guess the same is true for admits too, sometimes you will have a 0.5 page of orders and other times you will have 4 pages of orders to verify. Med/Surg is like a box of chocolates.

That's wonderful. I graduated in January, landed a MS job in April, and have also had a wonderful/helpful group of nurses to work with. It really makes a HUGE difference.

Hi and Congrats!!! I started nursing school in January and am in an accelerated program, and yes it is time consuming. I would even say that it is kinda hectic, and a helluva lot work, but totally worth it. I have also wondered how those with kids in my program do it, but they do, and do it well. In my humble opinion the things that yield great satisfaction in life aren't always "easy", but worth the hard work. I agree with my posting predasseser don't sweat it, especially till you get there, and once you get there you'll figure out what works for you. Best of luck.