MultipurposeRN

I do about as well salaried as I did hourly, except when I was doing In house registry at premium pay. Of course, I was PRN for years so didn't usually work full time, either. If I went back to bedside I would definitely want hourly. But the salaried job I have now is great in terms of hours and flexibility so I don't plan to give it up while I'm a single parent w/ a child still at home. It actually pays better per hour than being on the floor as a staff nurse.

Forgive me, I haven't read very many posts. In regards to this proposed law, our hospital has a disproportionate share of charity as it is.

Where are the instructors in these situations? When I had students I tried to put them with nurses who didn't mind students and also nurses that could teach them a lot. I was pretty fortunate in finding staff who fit both criteria. I figured they weren't going to learn as much from a staff member who wasn't keen on them, though I couldn't always avoid it. Then I just had to tell the youngns that there were people who didn't care for students and we'd just deal with it the best we could. I was a pretty visible and available instructor, though. I know not all programs were able to have instructors stay on one floor most of the time.

how old are these kids, anyhow?

LOL, Helllo! I like your terminology and vote that we make it official! :rotfl:

Nice to see a positive post about nursing. I still believe nursing is a great career, no matter what it's flaws may be. What other job gives you so many different kinds of areas you can work in? How many other jobs can you moonlight in a different area to see if you would like it or not while keeping your fulltime position? I used to teach nursing clinicals and loved every minute of it...I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't still believed nursing is a great career choice.

I hate to see, "Patient complaining of _____" Makes it sound like they're all just whiny and gripey.

I keep reading on the report 'child' this and 'child' that. But a 16 year old who's having a baby is no longer a child. My daughter had my granddaughter at 15 and signed all her own consents. I couldn't have even looked at her chart without permission had I wanted to do so. That doesn't make this any less a tragedy, of course.

Well, you could say most patients w/ obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc who have lived an unhealthy lifestyle and diet have brought their problems on themselves, but they are still entitled to the best care that is available out there. No less should a drug abuser get the appropriate care for their injury. Not to mention that it's possible the physician, staff, and hospital could be found liable if one of these patients were to sue and it was proved that they were deliberately undermedicated. There have been lawsuits over patients having inadequate pain control.

My youngest son's dad worked 7 12 hr nights in a row then would have 7 nights off. Sounded good, but after a few years he was terribly stressed and run down. I would say your hubby might do ok for awhile, but eventually it will wear him down then the quality time w/ you and the kids won't be there because he'll be tired and irritable. Believe me, it can totally change someone's personality. Plus, I would have to wonder if his liability would go up...being more fatigued does lead to more errors, and that's an additional stressor. Would it be possible for you do just work prn a day a week and him to work a 4 day week then a 3 day? Your expenses should be quite a bit lower if you're a SAHM, so maybe he wouldn't need to consistently work 5 days a week. Can you downsize your lifestyle a bit, maybe? Get a cheaper car or cut back to one, or stay away from a big home mortgage? I don't know what your situation is, but it's possibly a way you could have the best of both worlds.

People complain about spending money on the war in Iraq, but have no problem w/ the millions if not billions of dollars spent on the useless 'war on drugs' that has cost countless lives. It hasn't worked, it will never work, and it's costing a fortune to keep trying to treat something as a crime that should be treated as an addiction problem or a vice. If we must spend a huge fortune on fighting drug abuse, find a method that works and quit wasting money. That's dollars that could have gone to treatment programs or healthcare, for sure. I'm wondering also about infant mortality rate. Are they including high risk mothers? Do we in the US have a higher percentage of women who are high risk to begin with trying to have babies when maybe they shouldn't? Do we have a higher rate of fertility treatments resulting in multiple births? I'd be interested to know.

The main reason I won't join the ANA or the state association is because they are too political. That's fine for them, but I'm a nurse, not a politician. And I almost never like the candidates they endorse. The Democrats will be just like the Republicans and like every other politician/lawyer. They'll be good for themselves first and foremost.

have they thought about getting a psyche eval for this guy? Have you thought of filing stalking charges?

My most recent resignation letter had the reason, that personal and work responsibilities had increased and I felt it best to cut back to just one job, I enjoyed my experience at X hospital and the people I worked with and for, blah, blah. I was quitting a prn job, not my primary. There should be a more tactful way to put your reason for resigning instead of just saying, hey, they're offering more money so I'm out the door. You might say you found a position that offered unique opportunities for personal growth or something like that. Anyhow, good luck w/ your new job!

We just had an LPN retire after 58 years of working for our hospital. She always wore her cap. She did wear white uniforms but was modern enough to wear pants. Now we only have one RN in the hospital who still wears her cap. We had another on the same floor, but she has retired as well. Don't think we'll be seeing anymore cap wearers anytime soon. I and my classmates hated ours with a passion and couldn't wait to get rid of them. I graduated in 1990.

"I was foolishing hoping to work with people who cared about others, regardless of where they come from or the language that they speak."Wait til you have to deal w/ people who bilk the system..whether illegal or not. Then you'll find your compassion for them ebbing pretty low, especially when you see other people w/ limited resources struggling to get by or to get the care they need and knowing you can't help them. Wait til you see the Medicaid mom in to deliver her 4rth or 5th kid, unmarried, and not working, even though she could get birth control free. We've had people ask our hospital for free samples of Tylenol, because they 'couldn't afford' their 5 dollar copay, yet spend more than that at the snack machine outside the ER waiting room door. I had a patient who comes in all the time, chronically ill. Wife asks for meal tickets. I would give her a few to last through his hospitalization. The next day she's asking different people for more meal tickets after bringing kids (one of them grown) to the hospital to eat for free, loads her pockets w/supplies from the floor's pt food stocks, and insists on taking up a bed in the pts room. It's also amazing how many times his pain prescriptions get 'stolen' from home while he's hospitalized and his wife asks for renewals.Yes, nurses have compassion..that's why we went into nursing..but what we don't have to be is naive, blind or ennabling of these kind of behaviours.

Thimerosol caused so many problems when chemical cleaning first got started for contact lenses that I'd be a little leary about having a flu vaccine with it. 2 of us at work got mild cases of the flu already, before we even could get the darn vaccine. Now I'm not going to bother.

You might consider working around Joplin MO, too. There's 2 big hospitals there. Wages aren't bad, COL isn't bad either. There's kind of a slump in sales of new homes, so it's a good time to buy. YOu can get a nice 2 story newer house around here anywhere from 100-200 k..that gets you quite a bit of home. There's also cheaper houses that are believe it or not fairly nice for 40-60 k, though usually they're older homes that may need some fixing up. Still, there's even some newly built homes where I live that priced around 65k a few years ago when they were first built.

People talk weird (kidding). They don't know what a freeway is; they say Missour-ah instead of Missouri and sun-dah instead of sundae. YOu must be from a different part of MO than I am . I've lived here my whole life in the SW part, just on the cusp of KS, OK, and ARK, and no one here says Missouruh, we say Missouree..also say Sunday, not sundah. We pronounce it more like SUNdy. lol

again i say: scrubs are what nurses wear. everyone else should not be wearing them. what about nurses' aides and surgical techs?

Got my GED years ago..took it and the ACT in the same week; started college 2 months later after dropping out of hgh school. Won't affect anything except possibly some branches of the military don't like it unless you've been homeschooled. My son took correspondence school for awhile as a teen, then took his GED when he felt ready. I had to provide a Home school transcript when he joined the Marines. He is now in college, carries a 4.0, made a 33 on his ACT, and has applied for nursing school. I have a GED, my son has a GED, and my daughter is getting ready to get hers...guess it must run in the family.

I never bought the arguement against liability insurance that lawyers only look for those who have it to sue...I just can't see a money hungry lawyer letting that stop them. After all, a nurse has a guaranteed job for life one way or another and what's to stop them from getting half your check for the rest of your working life? I've always carried my own liability insurance. In fact, when ready to do my clinicals for my BSN, I had to have it.

Thanks for the responses. Not to wish anyone ill, but it is nice to know you're not crazy and that some of these severe symptoms really ARE hormone related. I will definitely czech some of these books and sites out.

If anyone can direct me to a site that discusses menopause symptoms more in depth, I'd be grateful. All I can find are the usual hot flashes,irritability, possible lady partsl bleeding and dryness. I'd like to know if other women suffer chest pain, nausea, abdominal cramping, panic attacks, joint soreness, weight gain and severe fatigue. All these symptoms I've had at one time or another, and when I started the Estro patch it relieved many of them almost instantly. I can tell when it starts to wear off...my joints start aching again. I've had a couple of ER visits when I had chest pain and everything came out normal. I'd like to get off the patches eventually but am almost nonfunctional sometimes when I leave them off for long periods. Anyone ever experienced symptoms that severe?

My opinion is that if you just drop in to pick up an application because you happen to be in town, it shouldn't really matter what you're wearing as long as you're clean. If they choose to interview you right then, a person could certainly tell them 'I'm not really dressed for an interview right now, can I set up another time with you?' then if they don't care, go ahead with it. I would wanted to be dressed neatly if I was actually going to interview but if I'm just inquiring about an application it shouldn't really matter.