RS0302

I just got finished living in central Texas for the past 8 years and I am from Western Mass. and I spent many many summers in the mountains of New Hampshire. I can tell you as far as scenery/mountains nowhere in Texas is it going to be the same. Don't get me wrong, Texas is very pretty-but a different pretty compared to New England. I have visited all the cities you have mentioned, and in my opinion, Austin in the one that always seemed "more like home" to me with the hills and trees. I could see myself living in Austin, but you mentioned you wanted to steer away from more liberal places. I thought Houston was nice, but it's so humid. ALso, the summers in Texas get unbearable with 110 degree weather. I should also mention that my allergies were out of control in Texas. My doctor told me that Texas is the worst state to live in if you are an allergy sufferer. You might want to check this out. I had chronic sinus infections while living in Texas from allergies. I stepped off the plane here in Germany and stopped sneezing. Even my husband has mentioned how I am "not sneezing constantly." I don't want to scare you off about Texas, I did enjoy living there. The mild winters were soooo nice. The mexican food was delicious and beautiful sunsets in summer. Just make sure you visit Texas so you can make sure you really like it!!

I live in central Texas and pay $3000 yearly for property taxes on a $115,000 dollar house. I will agree that even though we have no income tax, I find the property taxes here a bit high. Plus, our sales tax is higher than other states. BUT, I think overall the cost of living is cheaper here compared to where I am originally from (Mass)..so no big deal. I have found groceries to be more affordable here. I dont want to name the hospital, but a hospital here in central TX does occasionally have 1:8 ratio on their med/surg units when they are short staffed. However, usually it is 1:6 and aides have a ratio of 1:17.

I like ER. I watch grey's anatomy also, but lately that show has been making me upset. They portray the docs as the ones who do everything for the patient. Last time I watched Dr. Yang went into the room to give a patient PO meds (yeah right) and they show them starting IV's all the time. I have only seen a resident attempt to start an IV once and that was when the rest of us couldnt get it. The docs always have time for long meaningful conversations with their patients. It just seems like nurses dont exist on that show. I think ER does a WAY better job of portraying the nurses role.

Trust me, there is a reason why you see a lot of job openings for nurses in your area and sign on bonuses. I am willing to bet its not because there are not enough nurses in your area...its because those places cant retain nurses. I would suggest working as a CNA for even just a short time to give you a taste of nursing, because even as a RN and working in the ER you are going to have to give direct patient care like that. Are you ok around all types of bodily fluids? Nursing school gives you a little taste of what real world nursing is like, but then when you get out there its a completely different world. Just my

What I dislike the most is going into work hardly having a chance to get organized, then going out on the floor and running my butt off for the entire shift hardly being able to get a sip of water, nevermind eating a meal or take any sort of break, and STILL feeling like my patients deserved better care, even though I know I did the best I could with what I had.

If I had to do it all over again, I would just go for RN. It depends where you want to work though. If you want to work in LTC you could find a job as an LVN. I knew I wanted to work in a hospital from the start, which is where I am working and do almost the same work as an RN for a lot less money.

I'm sorry this happened to you. It could happen to any of us. To BinkieRN- Yes, we can ask patients what their allergies are, but sometimes patients are unresponsive, or simply do not know what their allergies are. I dont know what the details are in this case, but just saying......

honestly, what will people think to complain of next??!! pretty soon we will all be walking on eggshells around our patients, because we might do something that "offends them". I've had patients complain about nurses to the nurse manager about " a look they didnt like". I agree its ridiculous.

We didnt use anything to scoop them out. The docs were aware of this and pretty much said the maggots were doing their job....even though the patient had them pretty much falling out of the wound onto his gown After about a week of TID wet to dry dressing changes, the maggots were gone anyway.

I have seen this before in a patient I once had. It was an unusual situation as the patient had let this tumor go on for years and it had pretty much eaten away at the side of his face. When I did wet to dry dressing changes his eyeball was completely exposed, looked like it was hanging on just by the optic nerve. Something I'll never forget! He had been packing the wound at home for years is what he told me! Anyway, maggots got in there when he was at home and by the time he got to my floor the wound was infested. They went away after a couple of days of us doing wound care though.

What are the things that made you want to go into nursing? The real world of nursing is a lot different then most of us imagine before we enter school. You may be able to find jobs like in the OR where you wont do this kind of work as much, but I work on a medical/surgical floor and do CNA type of work you described daily even though I am the nurse. Trust me, cleaning up poop is not the highlight of my day, but I wouldnt say it "disgusts me". I try to remember it could be my family member in that bed. You do get used to after awhile, but it was never that big of a deal to me. The only problem is that to get to some of the jobs where you dont deal with poop are the ones where you need experience on the floor. However, with the nursing shortage this may not be the case for you...you may be able to find a job straight out of school where you want. Then you will just have to make it through nursing school where you will have to do physical care for patients.

Well I commented on that post, I dont think the comment I made was too critical, but I admit I did get a bit peeved, because I felt like whenever someone tried to explain something to him, he came back with a "well it still cant be that hard" response....but this may have just been me. I guess like others have said I shouldnt be suprised, because this is how the general public feels about nursing. Even when I try to educate my own family members for example, they give me that "gimme a break its not that hard" no matter how much I try to educate them about what nurses really do.

Thats not all there is to dealing with people's lives. We have to be able to assess patients and take necessary steps when we feel a patient is deteriorating. The doctors are not there unless we call them. No offense, but are you getting your ideas of what nursing is like from shows like Grey's Anatomy?

Hi, I am also a fellow military wife and contemplating what I'm going to do. Right now I am pregnant, but would like to go back to working maybe 6 months after I have my baby, but my husband will be deployed. I am an LVN and the best solution I can come up with is to try and find a job on post/base at one of the clinics. You could try looking on the CPOL website. Just do a google search for it. This type of job seems to be the only one I can find that will accomodate daycare hours and no weekends. You could always try and find a home daycare provider that would do extended hours, I'm not sure how weekends would work though. It's really frustrating for me, because I am going to be completely alone here with no family to help me. I'm not even sure if its going to be worth working! I hope you can find something...I understand how you feel.

Not to be rude, but you also have no idea the meaning of stress in the nursing world. I get its stressful not knowing if you are going to get paid or not, but there is a different kind of stress in nursing. I would assume as a lawyer you realize how "sue happy" people are these days. Now to answer a few of your questions, the female docs treat male nurses just the same as female and really could care less. I work in a hospital with male nurses and I agree male nurses sometimes have to be careful about what they say/do. Sometimes a female nurse can take things the wrong way. Are you planning on working in LTC? Just please make sure you are going into nursing to help people. Trust me, you are going to be miserable if you are in it for the money.