mswim

I am with you....I am with us all.... So what are we all going to do.. we have this huge forum with thousands of nurses from all over the country. Let's not say we are going to do it...Let's do it.

Sorry Tish88, I will answer your scheduling question. You are correct the during the six week block in schedule, i have 2 weeks that I will be on call. One of the weeks on call it is for 3 days during the week, and one of the weeks I am on call over the weekend days. So for example I could be on call Mon-Wed during the evening, and then work Thur-sat during that week. I was told they used to do that you would work the same day as on-call which then people were there for a long time if they got called in. My other weeks I work my normal schedule.

Thanks everyone for your info...I went for my shadowing today armed with lots of questions. There are currently 7 nurses on staff, they are hiring 2 more including me at 30 hrs or 3 days week. The also have a rule on hours straight worked. Your are only to work 16 hrs straight & after that another on-call person comes in for you. (That means there has to be at least an 8 hr break in between, not 2) They do their schedule in 6 wk blocks with taking one 3 weekday stretch of on-call, and one weekend each 6 week block. You do not work any of your days on call on the unit. You work every other saturday, & your weekend on call counts as a weekend but you are not there during the day. It sound like a pretty successful system...so I think I am going to take it. I also think working 30 hrs or 3 days will help with the burnout. What do you guys think?

To OP: Don't stop asking questions on this site. It is a good way to get information about many different perspectives in nursing. I do think it has been my experience that male nurses have the edge so to speak...I don't know if they make more $ b/c I never asked...but I suspect that it is true. I however don't believe that I can be mad at them for these differences...it is really administrations & managers that are to blame for these advantages.. I personally like working with most of the male nurses. I even liked being in school with the male student nurse that wasn't always prepared so to speak.. he added comic relief to a stressful environment. We are all nurses regardless of our gender.

In all honesty there were 7 male nurses in my nursing school class. If anything I think they were preferred at our school. We had one gentleman (not all of male classmates were like this) he would show up late to clinical, and not in the proper uniform, wouldn't complete assignments, drinking the night before...& they let it go.... I really think I would be sent home for some of the stuff he did. That being said I don't have anything against him, actually helped him study. They let him get away with it so, it is on nursing instructors. I just say this to illustrate the point that I think they are treated well in nursing school. I also worked with male RN's on the floor & there was no difference...sometimes I think they were treated even better b/c they were are only "man" on the floor. I definitely think they also have the edge on applying to management positions...for whatever subconscious gender bias that people have about males in management. As a disclaimer I realized that this may not be the same everywhere:)

Did it. The first time was the last time though! But you will get over it!

I think it depends on the center & patient census. I currently work 3-10's supposed to be 12's. We are opening up Tue/Thur/Sat so schedule is changing. I was supposed to work 4 10's when we opened to 6 days a week. But now they are saying we are going to end even earlier & I am only getting 3 days...not sure what my shift is then 3-8's.

I think most units require that you have at least 1 year hospital experience. (it sounds like you have many more. Most places will train you even with no experience. I don't think that you have to work on a renal floor. Renal patients have cardiac & many other issues. How long to become competent. Well the gold standard is 1 year. Chronic at a clinic is very different than acutes in hospital. So if you want to travel having a experience in both would be a plus. I currently work in chronics & am thinking about a move to acutes. I have worked there a year. Chronics is more of a grind... but you get lot's of practice with the machines.

Hello, I currently work in a chronic dialysis clinic. I have applied for a job at a acute dialysis unit. What are pro's con's to acute dialysis vs. chronic. Do people like there acute job? How is the on-call?:)

Last year after being burned out on a med-surg floor I decided to take a job in chronic dialysis clinic. It was good decision. Even though chronic dialysis is far from perfect...It was better than my med-surg job. (They actually closed my floor 2 wks after me leaving.) I actually like dialysis. :) I have enjoyed working with the machines & patients most of the time. My problem is lately they are now cutting staff & hours. I have not even been making 32 hrs a week most weeks, and our patient load has not changed, just the amount of staff...so I started casually looking around & applied for Acute dialysis job at another hospital. I have talked to some others that say the workload is much more doable, call is always a struggle. I did ask how many nurses are on staff and there are currently 8 which means we have every 4th weekend on call. Does anybody have any advice? Would this be a good move? What are the differences b/t acute vs. chronic? People have told me after doing chronic acutes will seem easier. It seems I will get more training ACLS, telemetry with acutes which will help my skill set. Is being on call really that bad or does it depend on where you work? Thank you for the info if you respond!

what states? They perioperative course that I applied for did not require experience on the job either. I am saying these other applicants had some specialized clinical time in OR which I cannot get.

No this class does not include OR time. I have tried on several avenues to get OR by doing and internship and no one wants to have anything to do with it. The class is part of surg tech curriculum so it is not a AORN course. I have been on the AORN website. The hospitals listed there with 101 courses are not hiring or it is the one I a applied for that I did not get into because of the class I talked about in my earlier post.

I graduated nursing school in Dec 2008 and started a position on a Medical-Surgical Floor since everyone states you need that year to ground your skills. I was really interested in OR, or possibly ICU. I tend to be a really detailed oriented OCD person. I have done my year and hate med-surg. After I got my years experience I tried to get an OR position since that is really what I wanted to do anyway. The hospital I worked at now is not hiring due to decreased case load with the economy. I interviewed for a spot for a course at another hospital, but the grad from their own school get to do a specialized clinical experience, and the one who got accepted for the perioperative nursing course did this clinical experience. I called the manager to express my interest in the position, and volunteered to do a internship of volunteer in OR for more exposure time. She stated that they did not have that at her facility. I called my school that I graduated from and got the same thing. No OR internship. There only advice was that I could go back to school for 12 months to be a surg tech and that would give me the edge. I don't have the money to stop working for a year, and come out more in debt and no job. The only thing I could think of was to take the intro courses to surg tech at my local community college. It a course which is introduction to OR, and lab that teaches aseptic technique and draping, and positioning. Any other ideas? I just wish I hadn't listened to everyone and done med-surg. I could be in an OR position right now.

where did you get your job? I am trying to get in an OR with no experience.

In your shoes!. I actually just finished a year plus 4 months of med-surg. It is way to crazy. I have up to 8 patients as well with team nursing. It has gotten worse with the economy with the supervisors cutting us down to minimum staffing to staff other units. Anyway I thought about leaving nursing. i have a back up plan. I thought it was just me but other new nurses are describing the same hell I had. The difference after being the year was not that I got better at the job, but just that I had habituated and resigned myself to the stress and being unhappy. I still didn't eat or pee last night. But I did not get as upset as when I first started mainly because I know that there is nothing to be done about. I just worked like a dog and stayed late to finish charting. Someone said that she knows other nurses that hated their job in Med surg for years before they were able to transfer or get another position. Well, life is too short for me to hate my life for years. I did find another position at OP dialysis. So I going to start there soon. I figure it will advance my skill set. I have a year of med-surg. If I don't like this job I may try home health. One thing I do suggest is to shadow before you take a position. Home health has a different set of nasties associated with it.