marsy

I work at a residential facility that has over 80 clients but I am the nurse for only 24 people working 40 hours per week. I worked previously at a day hab and was responsible for over 160 people working 35 hours per week.

loveDDRN I'm soo glad to hear how much you love this field! I started my RN career at Day Hab and absolutely fell in love! (Clearly agencies do hire new grads - I graduated in 2008) From that I moved to Residential and I also do Home Care for this population. I also want to get my NP (in Mental Health) and work with this population. Now here's the thing; I am the only person out of a group of 7 close nursing students who never worked in the hospital. At times I would think to myself; generally after telling a person I'm a nurse and their first response was "well what hospital do you work in?" UGH!, I need hospital experience. However, I've never worked a weekend or holiday, I get awesome benefits and sick/personal/vacation days, and I even got to go on a paid vacation to Virgina Beach with "my guys" (working residential they like them to "get away" and AMAP staff are not allowed to give medications outside of NYS) So considering all of this I have no desire to work in a hospital setting, plus with all the autonomy you get working within this population, I don't think I could deal with the hierarchy of a hospital. If you want to work towards your NP in family practice, or primary care, I would assume they want hospital experience. I however want my NP in Mental Health so what I do now is sufficient. Its a sticky choice. I'm also going to eventually go for my DDRN certification. I think as nurses in this very scarce population we have to represent! I wish you the absolute best of luck and congrats for your May 2011 graduation! You're almost there!!!

I think you should find out what the regualtions are in your state first. I'm here in NY and we work under OPWDD. We have AMAP staff who can administer medications (PO, topical, eye/ear drops) but not Subq or IM...

I work at a residential program with this population and I LOVE IT!!! I started off at a day hab center and from there went to a residence. I kind of prefer the day hab though because in residential I feel like I bring my work home with me (Especially when I have the on-call phone!) It's so hard to find nurses in this population so I'm happy that we have this forum.

haha that was really funny!

First off I think that a tone of a message can get quickly turned depending on the reader's mood/connection with statement. Because there were no CAPITAL LETTERS or !!!!!! I read OPs message as more of a concerned "I'm trying to understand how I could have handled this situation be I come entangled in it again" But that's just my point of view.... As for the message I know this might come out cold but please don't think that. I cannot stand when people say "I feel sorry for..." As nurses I feel as though it is not our job to feel sorry for anyone. We are here to help, offer assistance, knowledge and care. I work with developmentally disabled adults and once someone hears that I get a sideways tilt of the head, puppy dog eyes "aww, that's so good of you. You must feel really sorry for them" Sorry, no I don't. These guys/gals are enjoying their lives to the fullest. They have round the clock care, have plenty of friends, girlfriends/boyfriends, they go on trips, vacations, go to social dances/events, they love life and I'm super happy for them. Now to the message...side note: I am not a parent but have been a nanny for 12 plus years prior to my life as a nurse. I've taken care of special needs children, children of rich parents, children of middle class parents, etc. I find that nowadays parents are so unwilling to discipline due to what other people will think or because they feel sorry for their child. Now what kind of children are we raising here? Like I said, I know I'm not a parent (yet..) but in no way would I allow my child to be so completely rude to people who are there to care for them. I understand the attention seeking when the father was speaking to the MD, but throwing something and hitting? When this child goes into the "real" world how do you expect other people to react to her? Shouldn't you as parents raise your child to be respectful and good-natured with a side of mannerism? OP I'm not sure if I would have said something immediately to the father/child but I'm sure I would have asked for a little more respect in the future...best of luck if/when dealing with something like this again.

This was great! I loved it :loveya:

I've worked both psych and DD. I love DD and its nothing like psych at all. The way you interact with them, the way you become a detective when something is wrong with them because they may or may not be verbal, everything they do is completely different compared to pysch. Yes, some of them have pysch issues, but to understand them, you must first work with them. But that's just my advice...best of luck!

I'm in residential and we use the MARs. My company is backwards so I don't see anything changing with this. Larrythenurse, at first I was very uncertain about people being able to give medications under my license but this is how it goes. They are required to take a 5 day class and pass 3 exams with 80%. Then I schedule 3 separate medication passes with them. Inbetween I am evil and ask them a million questions about medications, side effects, proper administration, etc. They are recertified yearly; one day class, one exam, one medication pass. Additionally, I come during medication passes without them knowing just to check in. After all is said and done, I feel they are well trained and if a error is made, it lies on them and not me and my license...

Hmm, maybe you should have provided a PDR to him...

You can try OPWDD (Office for People with Developmental Disabilities)residencies or day centers. They pay $30-$35/hr and hours are not too crazy, no weekends or holidays. I love it...

I live in NYC and therefore make a nursing salary so I can identify with you. One of my other friends (a nurse) works in a hospital and does home care as well so she makes over 100k without having to go back to school thus more loans. She owns a house, car, goes on lots of vacations, and is saving up 50k to have a baby (she has a medical condition which may leave her out during/after pregnancy) Although I would say to you make sure you marry or live with someone who makes a good salary, her husband does not make nearly half of what she does. At times she gets stressed out because shes basically the bread winner paying all the bills and saving for a family but shes totally in love (they're so cute together) So how is she doing all of this? Picking up hours doing home care (so many places need home care nurses) and she has a 3 apartment property. She lives in one 3 bedroom apartemnt and rents out another 3 bedroom and 1 bedroom. This basically pays her mortage and utilities. Honestly, you're doing the right thing now, living at home and saving for a good down payment. You really shouldn't stress about things now and the thought of potentially living pay check to pay check. It seems like you're money savvy and know what you're doing. Keep on the right track of saving and best of luck!

Taber's is the way to go...

I'm pretty sure this is only for the US. I know that in the UK you actually take classes to become a developmental disabilities nurse. However, check their website...ddna.org

I'm a Residential Nurse over here in NYC and manage 4 apartments and one house (24 pts in total) The Managers do all of the appointment making I review every medical paper that comes through. I maintain their medical binders and when I do my monthly nursing notes I review each consumers file and make sure all is being followed up on. As far as medications are concerned I go to each place at least once a week and go through their MAR and med cabinets. AMAPs (not sure if its only for NY) give out all the meds, fax refills needed to the pharmacy, and make sure there are appointments for meds with no refills. Things run pretty smoothly...