Littleguccipiggy

Hello! I've been working at my current job for about three months, I transferred there from a different location. Overall I like my job, my coworkers are nice, but there's just that one nurse who literally acts like she hates her life all the time. S...

I didn't reply since you were asking about outpatient surveillance. I currently work inpatient and my workplace follows ONC guidelines. Its done through employee health, so I believe only nurses who hang chemo are monitored. https://www.ons.org/prac...

Whoa. I haven't worked at many hospitals, but I've never seen Rituxan not in a 1:1 concentration. That's asking for someone to make a rate error with that concentration. Is there a specific reason your hospital doesn't use a 1:1 concentration?

Sounds tempting, but I can't go back to those unsafe nurse patient ratios I had when I was in Texas before. (Granted, it was a small county hospital, not a big hospital like Houston.) That and I don't think I could take the humidity anymore.

I love night shift! Sure, my sleep schedule is all wonky, but I could never switch to days. Here's what I love: There's less people around - respiratory, PT/OT, chaplin, volunteers, family members. There's less procedures at night - nobody's going t...

I've never had a problem wearing a necklace at work. If anything people tend to grab at my giant badge to see my name. I have the HRC's blue equality pin on my badge buddy and nobody cares about it. I originally wore it because when I lived in the mi...

The discussion topics are pretty straightforward. Most the of the questions are based off of your personal experiences or how things are done at your hospital. For the test just use the chemobook and information presented in the course. Everything th...

You can take as long as you want. Just read the directions on the test. It tells you have to save your work so you can go back to it.

OCN is mostly for status, since its a requirement for Magnet to have a certain percentage of specialized nurses, hospitals are pushing for all of their nurses to get certified. Its the same as ADN vs BSN, you have the autonomy, just a different title...

It will depend on your hospital's policy on when new grads will be able to hang chemo. It seems that its typically about six months. When your hospital feels that you are ready, they'll have you take the ONS chemotherapy class. Then you can hang chem...

Its pretty much the same as any unit. Get hired into an oncology unit, gain experiences, get you ONS chemotherapy & biotherapy card, and if you really want to, become an OCN.

I didn't even know there are still manufacturers out there that don't put safety devices on their needles. That is a huge safety issue. Ports are usually pretty secure where they are, but I also can't imagine taking the needle out without stabilizing...

At my hospital we don't self schedule, but the night shift manager is awesome at giving us a great skeleton schedule. Thurs/Fri/Sat, Sun/Mon off, then Tues/Wed/Thurs on. That way we get six days off every other week. Some people choose to split up th...

What's worse than being Atheist is being Buddhist. Thankfully, I've only been bible thumped once, and that was when I lived in the middle Texas. I was a new grad then, so I didn't know I could say "this isn't the appropriate time for this conversatio...

When a butt looks like two tennis balls bouncing up and down, kind of like Ned Flanders I imagine. I have yet to meet Dr. Dreamy .

This week I learned -I am trying to not get my feelings hurt when job #2 decided to extend my orientation one more day -No matter how much the nurses say job #2 is better or easier, I still love the chaos and my friends at job #2 -Sometimes job #2 ma...

I would say a nice fuzzy robe and a hat. When patients lose their hair they get a lot of heat loss from their head and robes are more fashionable than hospital gowns. Most fuzzy socks don't have a good grip on the soles, so maybe some nice slippers t...

This week I learned: -Sometimes its impossible to get pyxis access at job #2 -Having chemo experience and an OCN will get you your chemo check off at job #2 before you're even off orientation -Not doing blood return checks during and after chemo make...

I can't quite remember the details, but it has to do with the alpha and beta proteins that make up the hemoglobin molecule. The type of thalessemia you have affects that protein molecule. Its similar to sickle cell in that you need the gene from both...

Darnit! I was hoping you would get the job! I'm glad you're staying positive midazoslam. Its true, sometimes its just exciting to make it to the interview stage. Maybe it just means that something better will come along. Don't let that lack of clinic...

Man, I remember Texas ratios. I had 6:1 on the oncology floor. And my hospital wondered why they couldn't retain their new nurses. The job market is hit or miss in SD. I didn't have a hard time finding a job here, but it was harder for me to find a p...

I love working on oncology. However, I would love to get my masters, and volunteer abroad. I found a volunteer organization that has opportunities for oncology nurses to go to Bhutan and teach nurses there. Most of the big name organizations want mid...

This week I learned: - I may have to ask for an extension on my orientation for job #2. Its hard to orient when you haven't had pyxis access for two weeks! - I can survive working a 60 hour work week - A colovaginal fistula is a horrible thing to hav...

I never minded sickle cell patients at my old hospital. Most of them were on PCAs so we just had to give them benadryl every four hours. They were all young so sometimes it was nice to just hide from the chaos and bull&(&t with them for a cou...

DatMurse, we're mainly oncology. Sometimes we'll get med/surg overflow but we try to get them out of here as soon as possible since we usually have onc patients waiting for our beds.