ProBeeRN BSN, RN

I moved from home care to a wound /ostomy nurse position in acute care (after obtaining my wound care cert). I was asked about my lack of hospital experience and I sold myself by talking about the acuity / variety of patients I handled in home care (...

I left the company last year, some years they would take a couple new grads, some years they did not. I was basically on my own after 4 months, on probation for 6, but linked with a designated mentor for the remainder of the year. It was a great prog...

I'll bite. I'm no historian but I did go straight into home health as a new grad. The large HH company near me was piloting a new grad program- it required a BSN, several interviews, a successful summer internship, and a full year of orientation. Not...

I agree with karen4164 about pouching the peg. Is the tube stabilized? Sometimes if the tube is stabilized properly the tract will shrink and stop the leakage. Try a commercial stabilizer, Hollister has one.

I wear a lab coat as a wound care RN (as per my boss's request) . It helps staff and patients distinguish me from a floor nurse - at my facility we are considered part of the education department.

The wound should have been debrided first. A VAC won't do much on a 100% slough wound bed. If regular granufoam is used then Santyl can be used underneath if there is some (less than 25%) necrotic tissue present. Santyl cannot be used with silver ...

I have a husband, I have small kids, I have a dog. I'm busy right now with a bunch of home improvement projects. I'd like to make more time for fitness and running. I like to cook and I like to travel. I enjoy my job but it doesn't fulfill me...m...

When I worked 7-3 I had my son enrolled at a daycare that opened at 6. Some of them offer before/after school care as well.

I like to color my hair a deep purple and I'm working on a half sleeve, but I recently started a new job and before I interviewed I colored my hair to a dark brown and currently I make sure my tattoos are covered while working (which isn't difficult ...

It took me a while to learn to "just say no". I still have problems with it sometimes. Screen your calls from work, if it's important, they will leave a voicemail and you can call them back. Or get a cheap prepaid minutes phone to use for work cal...

After reading the first 20 posts or so- Guilt is not an effective motivator. However, I find that sometimes a good dose of fear (aka a reality check) is not necessarily a bad thing. For example- the noncompliant diabetic that just had a toe amp-I'v...

He took Kaplan/ used the q-bank prior to the first time and then continued to use the q-bank through the second time. The key to him passing was slowing down and reading the question- he was rushing through and not figuring out what the question was...

FINALLY! After almost 2 years, my hubby (a 2009 BSN grad) has been offered a nursing position! It's been a loooong road... May 2009- graduated BSN August 2009- failed NCLEX with 265 questions October 2009- got married!- yeah, we like to cram all ...

The market is tight... my advice is to try and at least keep a toehold in the field- you have an active license and no sense letting it go to waste- and if benefits aren't an issue you might have an easier time not looking for full time? Can you con...

We're in Western New York- Buffalo area

"People come on this board and ask "should I quit" when they've got a no-win situation going at some crappy job it took a year to get" It was such a hard decision for him. He felt like a failure, and like he was letting me down...and after that expe...

Call Adult Protective Services. They may remove the pt from the home. However, they may just tell the family "the heat needs to be on"-- if the home does have heat available--and if the family complies than that will be it. What about a space heat...

I've been at my current job almost 3 years. And not once, NOT ONCE in those 3 years have I been able to take a week of PTO during a time when my kid is on a school vacation. Not a Christmas break, not a spring break, not President's week, not a sin...

I dont have much info on Bhutanese patients persay, but in homecare I run into this type of situation all the time- keep in mind that you can't set the same goals for each patient, and each patient needs to be approached differently in terms of dise...

Here's something to make you all laugh-- Yesterday I was dragging. It was Monday, coming back from a week off, hadn't slept well, etc. An hour before the end of the shift. Called a doctor's office about a patient's insulin and possibly switching h...

I have a patient right now who is on 55 units of Levemir insulin (pen) nightly with orders to continue to increase by 1 unit daily until fasting bs is between 80-120. The pen dosage only goes up to 60 units. Is best practice to split the two in half ...

I usually see 6-7 as a case manager, and get paid hourly. Some nurses see 9-12 in a day- but not in 8 hours, depending on travel time, it's more like 10-12 hour shifts with that many. Get a complex wound vac patient and it's an hour visit, easy, wi...

LOL took me about a year and a half

Unfortunately I'm home health with 8 hour shifts. I'm calmed down a bit now though and I'm going to try and attach some days to a weekend to make a 4 or 5 day stretch. The only problem is I won't know I'm approved until my boss makes the schedule a...

Ours is all union contract, its a certain number of people that can have a given week, and 100 percent seniority. Technically someone can take 2 or 3 weeks in one 4 month "block" before anyone else gets anything