SalineFlush

It frightens me that your hospital doesn't have monitors in the room in a unit that it designates as "Step-Down". Scary. I can easily answer your question on what was my (most recent) experience floating to a floor without monitors in the room. It was Hell. Perhaps more frightening was the lack of cardiac knowledge among the nurses. I floated to one floor which is supposed to be "Progressive Care" about a month ago and before I could even get report, the charge nurse told me that I was getting a patient that had "brady'd down to 15". She said that the ICU charge nurse said they couldn't take the patient yet because the bed wasn't clean but that since I was an ICU nurse floating over I could take the patient until they did have a bed ready. I refused. The unit did not have the equipment to properly monitor a patient with those sort of arrhythmias, and I was certainly not taking a patient having those pauses with three other tele patients. Someone said "Oh, well we can transcutaneously pace him". I said, "Oh no we can't!". I don't think she had the full grasp of what that involves exactly. I was ready to walk.

I've always had a horror of having someone collapse or need medical attention and being expected to tend them outside of the hospital. I can do CPR but without my medical equipment and colleagues around me, I suppose I have a fear of failing to save them. Earlier this year, I pulled a woman out of an overturned car and waited with her and some bystanders until EMS and police arrived. I never told them I was a nurse. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not one off the clock. Just a bystander.

Of course I know what HIPAA is really "about".

I attribute everything to HIPAA. Patient: "Where do you live? Me: "I can't tell you. HIPAA..." Patient: "Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend?" Me: "Can't say. HIPAA..." Patient: "Please tell me you're not voting for ______!" Me: "Well...it would be a HIPAA violation to discuss that." When you think it best to avoid providing an answer, blame HIPAA. Never forget your lifelong right to remain silent. It has served me immeasurably, and it has become a bit of a mantra always on repeat in my head. I don't lie about myself to patients...but I don't necessarily answer completely or elaborate either. Often times, I just pass on answering at all.

Actually, there are differences. That isn't opinion, it is fact. I've worked in telemetry, and I've worked in Intensive Care. Shake your head till the cows come home if you want.

All nurses should be protected by a union. When we aren't, we are the perennial sacrificial lambs and long-suffering servants of the hospital.

I see no reason to force LPNs to obtain BSNs as LPNs and RNs traditionally perform slightly different roles, but I support having all BSN-prepared RNs. It is in the better interests of the profession. In my state, most LPNs are in long-term care, and that seems to be where they thrive and make the best money. My hospital doesn't have any. Many offices have moved to CMAs. I'm not sure if the 2016 time frame for the BSN requirement is entirely practical, but it would be great to have it happen by the end of the decade.

Actually, it is that ICU is "somehow worth more than med/surg or OB", and I am an ICU nurse. The care we provide carries more risk for harm and liability. Nurses in med-surg and or telemetry may have more patients, but they are doing less for them than we do. There is a much greater risk of liability when you are caring for physiologically unstable ventilated patients, running CRRT, managing vasoactive drugs like Levophed, continuous sedation and paralytics, an aortic balloon pump or hypothermic resuscitation than passing out sleeping pills, Percocet, and walking patients to the bathroom. So yes, we should be better compensated. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. It's an insult to the profession as a whole, however, and not just to those nurses working in the ICU.

Get out of the South. I'm leaving. I've been with my current NC hospital for 3 years and my base is still less than yours ($22.44). I'm tired of working nights, and I don't feel that we should have to work "overtime" to bring home a decent wage. I see nurses all the time pulling extra hours and my question is "Why?". There are people in manufacturing with no degree of any sort making more money on the hour than we do. It's sickening. I had a great realization earlier this year that if I stay where I am, I will never get these student loans paid off while still being able to enjoy life as an adult and have the normal that people seek (i.e. my own home, a decent car, vacations, etc.). It doesn't quite jive with me either to incur more educational debt before I've got the debt from my first degree paid off. Therefore, I've decided to move on. The South will always be behind.

That sounds like hell. Nurses at my hospital are never scheduled for 16 hr. shifts, certainly not on the floor. 12 hours is cruel enough---16 hours is torture. Nurses only work 16 hour shifts in extenuating staffing circumstances when there is no one to be found to relieve them, and even then approval for the extra four hours must by policy be obtained from the Service Director.

More guns will never be a solution to the gun problem.

Floating can really stink as it never makes for confidence when you are pulled into an unfamiliar environment and made to care for an unfamiliar patient population with unfamiliar staff. I am also an ICU nurse, but at our hospital, while we can float to the big telemetry and medical floors, we have a four patient limit. If it were suggested to me on a float that I was to take more than four patients, I would call my director and raise civilized cane. If that didn't work, I would probably refuse. It isn't safe, and while the hospital can always replace me as a nurse, my license is my livelihood.

Well, I was a traditional college student when I obtained my nursing degree. I went straight from high school. I don't think there is any other profession that allows for more direct amelioration of the lives of others, and I wouldn't trade that aspect of the job for anything. That being said, I sure as heck wouldn't be doing this for free! There are many who pursue the field exclusively for a reasonable paycheck, and as long they are professional and care for their patients as they are supposed to do, there should be no judgement of that. Bedside nursing doesn't pay that well, and it is often unpleasant...we should be glad there are so many people willing to do it.

You never mentioned what your ultimate goal is for your nursing career. I would say establish a goal of being away from the bedside within a few years. I am also a 2010 graduate, and I haven't been in love with either of the two jobs I've held since I graduated, though I didn't hate the first, and the second is okay. Moreover, I know that I want to be away from the bedside within the next couple of years--it is exhausting, the pay (in the South at least) is a joke, and you're saddled with great responsibility while holding little power. I know that the work I do is a means to an end. Write out your goals. I would also say, if feasible, get as far away from LTC as possible. I was a supervisor at a facility that sounds similar to yours for a couple of months last year and the workload for nurses working the floor was outrageous. It was privately owned and they also had issues with supplies and staffing. The director was possibly in need of a psych eval, and it was a bad situation, hence my resignation after about 8 weeks. You've gotta have a plan.

Black suits are a tad funereal. Wear gray or navy, but do wear a suit. Dress for the way you want to be viewed---a serious contender with confidence. Moving into leadership moves one away from a clinical focus and into a business focus, so a tailored suit is appropriate. A tuxedo would be bizzare however, so only do that to show comic aplomb--tails will be sure to get you some laughs.