inthemood

I work nights in the ED here in Southern California. No one is coming in for 2 hours to do lunches. On a night that we are fully staffed (?!) we have a triage nurse and two nurses that work with the triage nurse in the "Fast Track" section. One of the fast track nurses will cover us all for lunch. With one EMT (preferably two) we all get lunches, our work environment is sane, our patients get better care, and if someone gets a critical we can all pitch in to help them/the patient out without our own pts care suffering. The article is a political piece therefore the title is appropriately alarming. A weakening of our staffing ratios could begin with a sly maneuver like starting with just lunches, then whittling away bit by bit. Instead of complaining that CA nurses have it so good, others around the country should organize and fight for their own safe/sane staffing ratios. I say sane because even if our patient's outcomes were not improved by ratios, MY stress level is manageable with four patients. There is no reason to "get off" on the fact that you take care of 10 pts with no tech/aide, no secretary, blah blah. I'm taking care of myself as well. Fight on CardiacRocks!

I'm a new grad who is just finishing my orientation in the ED in a small community hospital in a suburb of LA. We are BUSY as all heck! We are very close to several level 1 and 2 trauma centers so we don't get too many severe traumas but we get everything else. My advice: BE CURIOUS... ask whatever comes to your mind. Your coworkers will have no problem explaining things to you. You will quickly find out who you communicate well with. Build mentor/mentee relationships with the nurses you work best with. And stay away from the know it alls. If you are in DOUBT... ASK! Go back and read the basics from school... fluids and electrolytes, aseptic technique for Foleys, basic dysrhythmias, oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve (I think that one's REALLY important). Don't freak out! Although I still kind of am! hahahaha take it one day at a time. Go home each night and maybe make a quick note about something that you didn't know. Sleep on it. Then when you are awake and fresh, grab some coffee and do some reading about it. Lastly, join ANA and ENA. The Journal of Emergency Nursing is great! Oh, and learn lung sounds with your RT. Learn proper nasotracheal suctioning technique. And use an SBAR sheet to organize your reports. Good luck

Thanks for the info "nobody." Hope all goes well for you.

Hi nobody: I don't know how long it takes to hear back. Wish I could help you there. What do you feel went badly in your exam? I mailed an app to Vacaville a little over a month ago but was advised by a friend who is a state employee not to expect anything for a while. I applied in person today to Metropolitan and the HR person said they have not had any RN examinations in a while and that it might be a year before I heard anything from them. Funny, though since there are vacancies listed on the website. How did you apply to Coalinga? When? How long did it take to hear from them? Was it by snail mail, phone, or email? Any info would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

Thanks for the info nmdupre, et al. I guess the thing to do is call some other MSN programs and see what they think of JFKU. I would love to go to UCSF but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket. I will let you all know anything I find out. Peace.

Hi all: I am curious about this program too... something is just so fishy about this. JFKU is non-profit (not that that means much, if you ask me... That's another story.) There is very little (none) real info about JFKU online. I was invited by phone and plenty of mailings to open house. I noticed on their website that they have jobs open for adjunct faculty that require only a Master's degree. They also have an opening for Director of Marketing, or some such title. UCSF has a similar program with Golden Gate University (GGU) as well. FROM UCSF WEBSITE: A number of defined specialty areas offered in the MS program at UCSF are open to Pathway participants, as long as participants graduate within a time frame agreed to by the participant, their GGU or JFKU advisor, and a UCSF designated faculty or staff representative. Participants must complete the MS application and identify their choice of MS specialty area a minimum of nine months prior to graduation from GGU or JFKU. If the participant chooses an oversubscribed specialty area in which UCSF cannot guarantee acceptance for Pathway participants, the participant's application will be screened and evaluated for admission with the general pool of applicants to the specialty area, provided the application meets the February admission review cycle timelines. FROM GGU WEBSITE: Qualifying Areas of Master's Degree Specialization Advanced Community Health and International Nursing (CNS) and HIV-AIDS Focus Adult Nurse Practitioner and HIV-AIDS Focus Clinical Nurse Specialist in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing Nursing and Health Systems Leadership Occupational and Environment Health Nurse Specialists Occupational and Environmental Health/Adult Nurse Practitioner Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (NP) Gerontological Nursing: CNS and NP Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist Health Policy I might go to the Costa Mesa open house just to ask "Why should I get as BS at JFKU instead of a BSN anywhere else that also allows me to apply for a PHN certificate?"

Hi all: So I guess the real news would be the exceptions to the PVT - good pop-up => fail or CC page => pass... haven't read of this happening yet. Still a lot of confirmations from the other side though. A bunch of people have in my class (California) have felt horrible after the exam, got the good pop-up and, sure enough, within a couple of days they are up on the BRN website with license numbers. I'm just passing the time checking the BRN and PVT every two hours or so (even though I know this is completely irrational, I am going for a run soon). I took my exam yesterday at 1400, finished @75, took my time (2.5 hours), got the "exam still open" pop-up immediately after the exam, went home and got the "good" pop-up, and have continued to get it this morning as well. Could I really have passed and become an RN? Felt like I got stupider as the exam progressed! hahahaha Well I am breathing but I won't be able to sleep until I see my name and license number on the BRN website.

Hey all: My first posting on this thread but very informative...THANKS. I applied for RN - BSN Fall 2011. No communication at all from SON although I haven't checked my mail today yet. Deposit due on Monday but I don't know if I'm accepted yet....??? Hmmmm..... I'll go check my mail. Then again I might just do another major since I am kind of OVER nursing school right now (six weeks away from finishing ADN). Don't get me wrong - I love nursing but nursing school... It's really amusing at times :hdvwl: I figure I can always do Track II MSN for ADN with non-nursing bachelors. Congrats to all that have gotten in to the program. You will love it. Now I would just like to WORK, that's where the real learning is at.