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.

I know for sure the answer to question two is the second one. I am 26 weeks pregnant and that is what I have been advised to do by my doctor and that is what it says to do in all my pregnancy books!

Here we go again...lol. To the original poster have you ever worked in a hospital before? Most people have a distorted image of what nursing is like. Even my husband does not get it. Hes been in the army for 7 years...he knows what overworked is and I see what he goes through. However, no matter how much I try to explain what I really do at work, he still thinks I run around fluffing pillows and giving nice, friendly people their medications. I've given up explaining what my job really entails, because nobody gets it until they are there.

For me, it was mostly the fact that I dont think nursing school prepared me for the real world. Then my orientation with the hospital was not great either. Most of what you need to know in nursing you learn on the job though. It's just at first when you are thrown in there and you dont know exactly what to do...it can get really stressfull.

usually its just whoever the charge nurse picks or whoever has the first empty bed. My floor is so unorganized that the charge nurse usually doesnt even know whos got the heaviest load. Sometimes if we explain we are busy, they will give the admit to someone else. Other times, it doesnt matter.

I dont understand why the nurse was just watching you??!!! Jeez for something like that I always try to help so we can get the patient cleaned and go on our way.

My husband is in the army and is due to go back to Iraq in December for the THIRD time and did I mention this will be two weeks after I give birth to our first baby??? He is SEVERELY underpaid for his job. Even being back in the states he works 14 hour days, 5 days per week for roughly 35,000. He puts HIS OWN life on the line in the army. Does that change my opinion that nurses are underpaid for what they do? No it does not!

Genetics56 you are right 20-27 dollars per dollar IS good pay! During nursing school and during clinicals, I did not get why nurses were complaining about pay. It took my first week on a med/surg floor when I became the one responsible for my patients. Thats when I realized why nurses were fussing about pay. For some reason I had never realized just how responsible nurses were for peoples lives before that. If I screw up and make a mistake..its someone's LIFE. I'm not saying nursing should make more than a doctor or make 6 figures, but there is a reason theres a nursing shortage. Nurses are leaving who dont want to do the work they have to do for the pay and working conditions!! Some are leaving for jobs that pay less than nursing. I think that says alot. Just my:twocents:

IMO nursing provides a comfortable, middle class lifestyle. I dont see many nurses driving really expensive cars or living in mcmansions....unless they are married and their spouse makes good money. However, you can live comfortably. The thing is when you are a nurse you work for EVERY PENNY. The stress and physical workload is why nurses get paid what they do....and IMO it should be more!!! I work with nurses who have been in nursing 20 years and their bodies are worn out. I see alot of back and knee problems in older nurses and its no surprise why. Yeah I can make good money now, but later in life is my body even going to be able to continue in nursing??? This is what worries me.

There are nurses at my workplace that do this, and they seem to do ok and still take care of their patients, but by about 12 hours they seem to get grumpy. Some will go home for 8 hours, and then come back for another 16. They usually come in with not the best attitude, becaue they are tired and I dont blame them. I've had a few patients that seemed concerned that the nurse before me had just worked 16 hours straight. They will ask me questions along the lines of "is that safe?" Then I will try to reassure them, but I dont blame them for being concerned.

I just wanted to add that a friend of mine from highschool got a job at Brigham and Women's as a radiology tech I believe, and she has a bachelors in something non-medical. It might be worth looking into.