erinnRN

Hello. I am looking to get my masters (i have my BSN) but am far away from any univ. that offers it. I see alot on online degrees but i can't seem to wrap my brain around the fact that you can get a degree and never go to a class. If you are currently enrolled in a MASTERS program and new to the online experience let me know how it's going. thanks. in the meantime i'll keep picking through the next 48 pages looking for info :-)

How many times have you changed jobs? I moved twice in one year, had to change jobs both times. I've been working in this last hospital now for a little over 6 months. It was the ONLY ICU opening around at the time I took it, night shift in a small hospital. (see my other posts LOL) Now I am having second thoughts. The people are nice, but I feel like I'm losing critical ICU skills each day. An A-line is a big deal for this unit. It's easy work, but the nights are so long because the patients are so boring. A day shift ICU job just opened up about 30 miles away from here, bigger hospital. I'm interviewing next Tuesday. But I feel like a job-hopper. I'm tired of orienting all the time, esp. as an experienced nurse. I'm tired of transferring my retirement accounts every 6 months LOL. I don't want the people interviewing me to think I change jobs all the time for other reasons.....you know the people you meet who have been in like 17 hospitals and you wonder about them....? I know the decision is mine but any input would be nice. Every other post people have been so helpful :-) :uhoh21:

whew thank you!!! last week i got into an argument with this "doctor" who said..."you verified that pressure with a manual, right??" the patient's systolic was 90, and prehospital was 104. i had no reason to believe it wasn't right. also, i have worked in 3 separate places and never saw a nurse routinely correlate the 2. then this "doctor" and i use the term loosely, said "see, i used to be a nurse and i ALWAYS correlated my NIBP with a manual." apparantly, he was a better nurse than the rest of us. i swear i think dr's who used to be nurses are even worse than the actual thing.

Hello fellow ICU nurses: Question: do you routinely correlate your monitor NIBP with the manual cuff with every admission and every patient? i don't mean verifying aline pressures with the manual or monitor cuff.... just curious of what your routine is. Thanks, E.

I now work in a place with none, which I love. Simply because I have worked in ICU's with 1 and even 2, and i found them...well to put it nicely...well i can't put it nicely. even if you found a quality tech, who would actually do your blood sugars and baths, they were typically too busy to get to everyones. for the most part, the techs that i've come across didn't do a whole lot anyway. so it's better not to have any false hope and just do it yourself. beats waiting for someone else to do it and get your hourly blood sugar and 45 min late!!! and before i get flamed, i DO KNOW there are great techs out there who are invaluble to nurses...i just haven't come across enough of them.

hello. i have also had to "suffer" through night shift, but have been doing it longer. when i left my first job (all day shift) because of having to move, i was shocked to hear there was nothing but night positions left (in ICU - I refuse to work med-surg b/c i have never done it!) not any hospital had a single day shift. where i had left there were plenty of day shift positions. so i had no choice. not because of children though, i don't have any. long story short, i did end up getting used to it. it took a long while but you will get used to it. i work 3- 12 hr shifts 7p-7a. later they offered me half days and half nights. but by that time i had been used to nights i stayed nights. give it some more time. also, why are you not sleeping? if it's because the kids keep you awake that's one thing. i can't help you there. but if they are at school and you do have some time to sleep let me offer some helpful hints. these are from seasoned night shifters. make sure the room is pitch black. i have tension rods with (and this sounds cheesy) dark green vinyl tablecloths with FLANNEL BACKS that i bought at walmart. total costs for 2 windows was like 6 bucks. drape the tablecloth over the tension rods and put them on each of your windows. that way you don't have to invest in darkening shades that i hear don't work anyway, and you can very easily take the tension rods down when you are not working... also i take 50mg benadryl (over the counter, "sleep aid") but all it is is benadryl. not all the time but when i know i have a good 6 hrs of sleep coming my way and i need some "help". try soft earplugs too. i also hear a fan works. i find that night shift is nicer all around. in both hospitals that i have worked nights in, the people are nicer, you never need to find help to turn your patients and you don't have annoying dr's to put up with. it's quieter most nights and it boils down to just you taking care of your patient. not taking care of social workers, dieticians, physicians, PT/OT. no getting them out of bed, no dinners to set up. it's fantastic!! maybe you can try 12 hour nights, that way you'd only have to suffer 3 nights a week not 5. good luck to you. just give it some more time. -erin

:angryfire I have been in ICU for 4 years now, in 3 different hospitals. Never, have i EVER experienced or witnessed as much verbal abuse as I have since coming to this last hospital. I am a recent transplant from a much larger ICU where physicians truly respected the nurses' opinions....maybe 1 percent who didn't. now what i seem to be dealing with are dr's who don't respect me and who i don't respect in return. i hear other nurses getting screamed at over the phone and THEY TAKE IT!!! today was my first horrible experience, where the dr actually told me to "never bother him again". (the order was for him to place a CVC in a septic patient, he placed an 18gauge IV and wrote in his note "this will be sufficient". never attempted a CVP. I questioned him) the nurses around me just said "oh, that's HIM." and i had the incident report in my hand ready to write him up. i'm just venting. but any advice for how to deal with these docs would be appreciated. just please understand that it truly is the majority in this place. not just writing this because i had one bad experience. many of you would fall over if you saw this stuff these nurses take. i'm upset because you know how closely physicians and nurses have to work in the ICU setting. thanks, erinnRN

I just changed jobs from a Level I trauma ICU to a small community hospital ICU. Among other questionable practices, I notice that 100 percent of the temps they take are tympanic. I asked the person orienting me where are the oral or rectal thermometers and she couldn't even find one. In all of my previous units we never used tympanic, or only to check vitals during blood. Do other ICU's use tympanic temps? Thanks

Hi all -- Just as I was convinced I was going to do agency when we move this upcoming Jan, a dilemma pops up. I work in an busy ICU -- we had an agency nurse come in for the first time to our unit. Apparantly she had been working agency for 20 years in ICU's and loved it. Nice lady but long story short, when she left at 3pm, things were a mess. Someone else picked the patients up and said things were left undone that should have never been left...and mistakes were made. The nurse who relieved her was not one of those picky ones either...so I knew things must have been bad because she is usually very laidback. I later heard my mgr call the supervisor and tell her never to send that woman back. Then she got off the phone and mumbled "THAT'S why I hate agency nurses-- you never know what you're going to get". (Don't shoot the messenger) My point is, I don't know what happened in this womans day to make things so bad. I helped her with her charting (computer) and I continually asked her if there was anything I could do to help. She refused and said she was ok. But I worry about the same comments being made about me -- I don't want to be that agency nurse that everyone complains about doing such a horrible job. I'm a hard worker -- but sometimes I guess being in a new environment can be so overwhelming. Scary thought. Maybe agency isn't right for me afterall???

Agency nurses I need your help! I'm looking at doing agency nursing when we move -- but I haven't called around to any facilities yet. I don't need medical insurance as I have it through my husband -- what I want to know is, do you get maternity time with these agencies? And if not, what do people do for $$ when they are off for 6+ weeks??? I was thinking supplemental insurance but wasn't sure. thanks, e.

I know this is a long shot -- a joke actually to think there would be any nurses from my area -- but we will soon be moving into the Orwigsburg area -- and I am looking for agency work in the Reading area. Any advice on where to go would be helpful. Thanks! Erin

Thanks everyone. I feel a little better, thought I won't feel totally better until I find a better place to work. I've never said "just go to work, do your job and get your paycheck" until I started there. And that statement has come out of my mouth too many times since then. I used to gladly pick up extra time. Because I never wanted the people I worked with and loved to be stuck. And now I don't even answer the phone when they call. I just think this is a place that doesn't know how to facilitate new people (i'm not even a new nurse...I'd pity a new nurse.) They don't want to hear ideas of what other hospitals are doing. Hardly any of them have ever worked in another unit, let alone another hospital. Well thanks again. I needed to vent to people who understood. Thanks! E.

Hello -- A few months ago (April), I started a new job in an ICU. (Left the old job because my husband got relocated) To make a long story short, I believe I've been there long enough to know that it's not going to work. The patient acuity doesn't bother me, it's my coworkers. It's just a totally different environment from what I'm used to. Alot less friendly. I have tried days and nights, and neither are suiting me. It's very hard because I loved where I came from. The people were amazing. 99% of them. And I felt like part of a family. In the new unit, decent people seem to be the minority. There are nicer people, but they are far and few between. I've never left a job before, without having a good reason. Like moving. As I said I never wanted to leave my last unit, but I had to. And now, I'm wondering how I tell my manager that I'm not fitting in and that I want to leave. Is there a tactful way, without sounding whiny "People aren't nice to me!!!". I tried giving it a chance, I know the 6 month rule, but I feel like everyday I'm becoming "one of them"... a cold person. And life is too short to be unhappy where you work. If anyone could help me out on how to quit a job and not sound like...I don't know what. Just help! Thanks E.

Hi! I will be starting as a new ICU nurse the beginning of May. I have come from a Transitional ICU but we did not get Swans, alot of drips and CVVH....I was wondering about a good ICU book -- nursing or whatever. oh, and any other advice for me! thanks, Erin

Hi! I will be starting as a new ICU nurse the beginning of May. I have come from a Transitional ICU but we did not get Swans, alot of drips and CVVH....I was wondering about a good ICU book -- nursing or whatever. oh, and any other advice for me! thanks, Erin