moliuchick

My 21-year-old niece just found a big mass on her neck since early July due to extreme pain to her neck. A neuro doctor found out this mass from her MRI and he claimed that mass is invasive and it has spreaded to one side of her shoulder already. She was put in ICU for 3 days and she was given antibiotics, steriod and pain meds. They put her in ICU mainly because she had problem swallowing and they didn't want her to aspirate. She is back home now and she had a needle biospy two days ago. The doctor said no cancer cell was found but as usual something like this cannot be 100% sure. With the help of antibiotics and steriod, her swelling on the neck has gone down a bit but not completely gone. The ENT doctor said he will observe her to see if it is just a cyst (benign tumor) with imflammation or if it is cancer related. He said he will perform an incision to the mass to get a better look at it eventually. Now my concern is: 1. this ENT doctor is very young and not sure if he is good. 2. the neck is so vascular, cutting into it may cause bleeding and complications. I am posting this to see if anyone has similar experience. Also, I want to know if someone can refer some good ENT doctors or oncologists for my niece. She is in Minneapolis, MN, my sister doesn't mind driving far for her as long as the doctor is good and experienced. Please let me know as soon as possible if you have any informations. We are very desperate for an answer and we don't want to delay her surgery any more. I am a nurse myself but I feel helpless in this situation because I work in TX and I don't know any good doctors in MN. Thanks and god bless.

I know what you mean, I am a hands on person. I learn more if I actually work in the hospital settings. If I decide to work on the "floor" or "er" I will have to start as an "trainee". I will probably get paid $19 per hour and go through tons of dumb classes before I start working. And the sadest part is that I will have to work 12 hours per day and never get my christmas off. I don't think I will ever what to work on the floor or ER . It is a nightmare. My family needs me more than anything.

You started working for a clinic as soon as you graduated? And you also work for agencies? What kind of work do you do for the agencies? The reason why I asked is that I want to work for the agencies too but I only have endo experience. One of the agencies that I contacted asked if I had experience in pre-op and recovery. I would say yes but only pre-op and recovery in the endo center. I have never done that in a hospital or same day surgery setting. I wonder if they will take me as their agency nurse. I can't wait to do agencies work, they pay like double for whatever I am doing now.

I have a very weird questions for all the nurses who work for ambulatory services out there. I know my specialty and I know what am doing day in and day out. I have been in my specialty for 6 years, I am the most experienced and the best nurse in my place ( I just got a reward for that) but there is one problem. Since I have not worked on the "floor" for so long, I start to forget about meds that you give for cancer pt, HTN, Diabetic pt.... I want to be a good nurse and I really want to keep my nursing knowledge. Can anyone suggest any good website? or books (easy to read ones) that i can use to help me remembering all the clinical nursing stuff? Please do not tell me to go back to work on the floor because I am too spoiled now at my work, I don't think I can ever do floor nursing again. Thanks!

Did you really die? this story is sooo funny. you are making me LOL!

What if you die at 23? or you got pregnant at 24? Things will change over 10 years of time. I was single when I was 30 and I am a mom for two little kids at 39. You can never never really plan out things that way. My suggestion is enjoy your life. Nursing is not a easy job. When I was in nursing school, I thought everything will get better once I graduated. After I graduated, I've found out that everything is not what i expected to be. I have a lot of disappointment in the floor nursing. Now I only work for ambulatory service and I think I like my job a little more than before. Good luck with whatever you are going to achieve. Good thinking but it is definitely hard to do.

In my endo center, besides performing consciou sedation in the procedure room. We also give IV, do consent, possible anema when pts are not clean in the preop. If we work in the post-op, we will have to monitor pts vital sign and discharge pts. Most Pts don't have complications and the job that we do is pretty easy.

I work in a GI center where we take about 20 patients a day. I only work Mon to Fri. 8 hours per day. No weekends or holidays. This is a great job because I can provide one-on-one patient care. I don't have to handle 6-8 patients all at once like a lot of RNs in the hospital. Our RNs rotate from the preop to procedure room to postop. Most pts in my place are healthy and they come in to do their colon screening for preventative measures. We do colonoscopy and endoscopy only, we don't handle ERCP or Bronscopy. That makes thing more simple. We don't have to clean pts bottom or vomits. We do IVs, monitor pt in the procedure room, give conscious sedations and monitor vital sign in the recovery room. It gets stressful only if we have a lot of patients(like more than 25 in a day) besides that I think most of our nurses are pretty happy with their jobs.

I have just got a new job that I have to put in 20 + IV a day. I love doing it but I just cannot get the techique down. My chances of getting that IV in are about 10-15%. I suck, I know. I had asked my supervisor to stand behind me to watch my technique and critique me and I had also observed many IVs insertion. Sometimes, I see the biggest and juicest veins and I can still poke to the side of them and miss. How long before I will be good at doing this? How long does it take you to be good at getting your IV in? How come I got a flesh back and I advanced the catheter and the catheter would bent and coiled up? did I hit the wrong place? I mostly would try the hands b/c AC was not a choice for our pt. Can you give me some advice please?

JaneRNBSN, I only worked in the OR for a few months and I already hate it so much that I want to quit my job. Why do you think that our OR experience is a "gem"? Do you mind giving me some suggestions as in what specialties I can go into after losing all of my med/surg nursing skills? Thanks.

Hey, hang in there. I am in the same shoes as you. I cannot decide on what to do because Nursing is such a hard job. I hate floor nursing and OR is hard for me too because I am dealing with really strong personalities everyday. Anyhow, I don't have much to suggest to you. All I can tell you is, you might get disappointed with the OR too. And don't feel bad for changing your work, it is common that nurses change their jobs 4, 5 times before they find the one that they like. Good luck to you.

Sorry to hear that Med/surg is stressing you out. I was a CNA before gettting my RN license. I used to work on the Cardiac floor. There was a lot of work on my floor too. I agree with you that it is stressful. I bet you hate going to work, just like how I used to be. Guess what? I still don't like going to work now even I am working in the OR. I am still looking for something easier to make my life little bit happier. Do you have plans to go back to study? Do you like being a dental Hygenist? I think it is a better job than working in the hospital. How about the Radiology tech. You can make more money and the job is easier. How about train to be a pharmacy tech. They are highly in demand and the job is less stressful. At least you don't have to deal with Poops and pee. Good luck with whatever your plan is . I am stuck too in the medical field and I can't wait to get a less stressful job. But still don't knwo what to do yet...:uhoh21:

Wow, there are a lot of good informations right there. Thanks for replying to my posting. I will definitely call the nurse recruiter and find out more about the VA system. The place that I am currently working for, I have to pay about $200 per pay check for the entire family and I have a huge deductable. I still have not met my deductable at this point. I think insurance is a joke. If VA provide insurance for part timers, I will for sure work part time there. By the way, what is your patient to nurse ratio?

Medical/Surgery nurse, we mostly call it the "floor" nurse, that means the nurse works on the floor with patients who has all different kinds of problems. Perioperative nurse is the same as OR nurse. In the old days, we only call nurses who at at the OR as "OR nurses" because their job only covers the job in the OR but now, the OR nurses duties cover a whole wide spectrum and the name "perioperative" nurse is more appropriate. The OR nurse can be a "circulating" or "scrub" nurse. The scrub nurse is sterile and she/he will be handling sterile instructments to the surgeon and help with surgeries. The circulating nurse is the one who does not "stand" right next to the surgeon to assist. The circulating nurse assist the entire OR team to make sure the operation is running smooth. Her job will include interviewing the patient before surgery and getting appropriate instructments for the surgery. "Perioperative" nurse will need special at least 6 months training in the OR before she can become a perioperative nurse. A Med/Surg floor nurse can be trained with an experienced nurse on the floor for about 3 months to be a floor nurse. In the nursing school, you will not get any training for being an OR nurse but you will get most of the training for being a "floor" nurse. Most nurses who work in the OR long enough, they will lose their basic nursing skills, such as giving injection, knowing the medication, cleaning trach... because OR nursing is totally different from "floor" nursing. Hope my explaination makes sense to you.

Hi, I have a quick question about the VA hospitals. I have heard from a lot of nurses tellling me how good the benefit of the VA hospital is and I would like to know more about it. I am wondering if the VA hospitals provide insurance coverage if you work part time? Do they have 401K or the other one, I forgot 404K??? Something like that? How much do you have to pay for your insurance? Do they provide training for new nurses who come from a different department? Thanks!