Dayannight

I'll be getting the flu shot at work tomorrow night. By protecting myself the patients I care for benefit as well.

The new CA law has made for better nurse/pt ratios. On our med and surg floors the ratio is now 5:1 days and 6:1 nights, and the charge nurses do take pt assignments. The down side to this is now it's required to have the same number of nurses on t...

Good for you! I'm sending good thoughts your way - and hoping everything goes well. Best wishes!

Whoa! Get out of there as soon as you can. The med/surg floors at my hospital certainly have a number of complaints from our staff, but not as bad as what you've discribed. So, no, not all med/surg floors are going to be so terrible as this one....

Have found antibiotic partials hanging on the wrong patient. Also had a patient with a PEG tube feeding that was supposed to be going at 50cc/hr found with the pump turned off, the tubing off the pump and the clamp wide open. That patient went into...

Go for it Cryssi! I know you can do it! Count me as another of those who where older when they started their nursing career. I was a SAH mother of five for a number of years and started as a CNA in my mid-thirty's. LVN at age 42, and just now (ag...

Wow, VegasRN and Tshe, I just assumed that the RN renewal was the same as the LVN's, which is now $100 in California. Two years ago it was $75.

The first time I made an error it involved giving patient A's meds to patient B. I realized my mistake after the fact, and reported it to both the MD, and nursing supervisor. Had to stay over and fill out the incident report - and patient B had to ...

Non-union hospital - straight pay for 12 hr shifts. NOCs gets differential of .75 first four hours, and $1.50 last eight. OT after 40 hrs. W/E differential is 10% of hourly wage.

LVN in CA

That was so funny! And true! Thanks for sharing it.

At the hospital where I work RN's and LVN's earn time and a half for coming in to work an extra shift. CNA's earn a $5/hr bonus for working an extra shift. We work 12 hr shifts; anything over 12 hrs is double time. Staff are not often asked to sta...

We have no pharmacist after 7 pm - The hospital night supervisor spends a lot of time running to pharmacy to fill missing med orders for the floors, as well as ER. This has been going on for years now. There is a shortage of pharmacists here in no...

jt is right - don't be discouraged by a generic response. Long before I became a nurse, one of my first jobs was working in the district office of a Congressman. The number of calls and letters he received on specific issues were noted, and I'm sur...

Brandy, like some of the other posters I want to encourage you to look into getting an older dog rather than a puppy, as well as look into the larger breeds. In my family, we've had a variety of dogs over the years, both large and small breeds, mal...

I'm an LVN and work in a acute hospital in northern California. We take the same patient load as an RN which is usually 6 to 7 on nights for the med/surg floors. We take and note orders, do our own 24 hr chart checks, and perform an assessment for ...

LVN 3 yrs SNF, M/S $15.18 hr, plus .75/hr for 7-11p then $1.50/hr for 11p-07a also, 10% more of hourly wage for working weekends ...

Hey, you can only do so many 12 hr shifts in a row before you do get to a point where the potential for making a med error increases considerably and patient care is jeopardized. The first time I made a med error was while working the seventh in a r...

I work nights 7p to 7a and most of us use our lunch break to take a nap. When it's "quiet", we sometimes give each other an extra 15 minutes. It's just a given that when it's "busy", we'll have the occasional shift without a break.

My own nursing background is mainly med/surg. My adult son will son be confined to a state hospital here in California for an indefinite period of time. (His dx is paranoid schizophrenia.) I would appreciate any insight about what to expect regardin...

At our hospital we can wear any color uniforms or scrubs we choose. I'm glad we have variety! At one time the OB unit required their nurses to wear only mauve color uniforms, but not any longer.

The shift differential should be the same for all nursing staff. At the hospital where I work, RN, LVN, CNA, all get the same night shift differential and weekend differential. (We also shared Smitty's experience of the RN's getting a raise last ye...

Our hospital has a 22 bed surgical unit and 26 bed medical. We use 12-hr shifts. Staffing on days is 1:5-6, nights 1:6-8. The charge takes a patient load as well. On days there are 2 CNAs for 12 - 14 pts, nights, 1 CNA for 10 -12 pts. The CNAs rea...

Several years ago the nursing staff at our hospital was given the chance to vote on whether we would like to change from 8-hr to 12-hr shifts. The majority of nursing voted for the 12-hr shift and it was put into place - we've been doing 12's since. ...

Again, congratulations! At our hospital the policy is to hire nurses who have had at least one year of experience, and there have been a number of nurses who have gotten that experience doing long-term care. It's a good way for a new nurse to get h...