jeyre1847

I am an RN with my bachelor's. I'm working in a NICU which I really enjoy. I've always thought about graduate school, but I'm not sure what I'd want to do. I'm not terribly excited about the possibility of NNP. I enjoy doing teaching with parents, and other nurses. I'm not sure what I'd want to do, just trying to get a good idea of my options. Can you become a nurse educator with a background in NICU? I was trying to think back to nursing school, but I think our NICU information was mixed with L&D, so I think most of our teachers were from L&D. Thanks for the input!

I've been a nurse for a few years, and I'm starting a new job in the NICU this week. I've wanted to do NICU for a long time but there weren't the jobs before, so I've been working with adults. I'm so excited to finally get to work with babies, but I'm also getting a little scared after only being with adults recently. Also, it doesn't help when you tell people what unit you're going to and they say, "oh, my! Scary, intense, really sick babies, blah blah blah". Really boosting my confidence here. Do you have any suggestions to help transition to the NICU? Any resources you recommend looking through?

I have been a nurse for 4 years. I work on a busy med/surg unit. The question is specifically because of a friend of mine. He's 28 years old, still in college, not really sure what he wants to do. He got a bachelor's in biology with the intention to go to medical school, but he's been floating around. I think every week he wants to do something different. Sometimes it's medical (pharmacy school, PT/OT, PA, etc) and sometimes it's completely random (going back for accounting or English or engineering??). You may be able to tell that I don't take him too seriously to begin with. Lately he's been talking about nursing. Usually I'm pretty cool with talking about my job. But something about these conversations just irks me. He always wants to know 1. How much money do you make? and 2. bad stuff. Not good bad stuff either, like "whoa! Tell me about that crazy infected wound!". More like "you don't really have to help with bedpans and stuff, right?" I tell him that if you go into nursing for money, you will be seriously disappointed because there are less stressful ways to make a buck and you're not going to be very patient and understanding with annoying people if you're there for money. And secondly, yes, I do have to deal with crap. Literal and figurative. Lots of it sometimes. I go home at the end of my shift and I feel like my scrubs are covered in C-diff and MRSA and my muscles ache from the physical work. I'm not going to pretend like it doesn't bother me or anything like that, but it's just part of the job. You get over it. He's still talking about it, and usually now it's something about how he could go directly to grad school, or work in another field, clinic, etc. Where he wouldn't be expected to do the dirty stuff like me. Maybe he could be a good nurse, work somewhere he'd have less dirty stuff, but I still don't know what to think. I feel kind of offended by his questions and attitude about nursing, but I can't pinpoint why. My questions are: how do you respond to people like this? Are you slightly offended like I am, and why? I seriously don't know why it irritates me so much. Have you ever known someone like this? Do you still encourage them to follow today's dream? How do you describe your job accurately, and do you ever feel like the people asking just wouldn't make a good nurse? (probably mean of me to say). Maybe he'll be good, maybe he'll be shocked in school and either change his attitude or find a different field. Thanks in advance for all the input!

No, actually I do not work with children. But if I told you my stories, you wouldn't believe me. I haven't even been a nurse that long, but every day I'm convinced we age backwards. Not in the humorous, old people wear diapers and take naps kind of way. I am completely serious. I have patients of a variety of ages, but all adults, but some days I can hardly believe my patients really are grown ups. I swear, I could write a book entitled "We Never Really Grow Up, Do We?" As a preface, I would like to say that I really do enjoy nursing. I love my patients and my job. I could probably write another book about the stories of inspiration, endurance, survival, love, faith,and sometimes grief. But I do get frustrated, and this is the collection of frustrations that have happened over my career thus far. Please don't think I'm bitter or angry. I really do take good care of my patients, I just go home and want to vent about some things. I'm posting this wondering what other nurses think, and I'm also always curious to hear stories. Here are a few ways I've found. 1. Food. Any parent will tell you children + food often = argument. It's not all children, of course, and not all parents and not all food. Let's not get into an argument about that. I don't know how many times I've had a conversation something like this. "I don't like this/I ordered ---/ I wanted ---/ Can't I have another ---?" I'm sorry. The food sucks. I don't make it. You're in the hospital. What do you expect? I'll fix what I can. I'll get you what I can. Sorry, I can't change whatever diet restrictions you have. And here's the kicker- "Well, I'm not eating, then." How many of you have had argumentative young children who refuse to eat the food you put in front of them because you put it there? I usually try to find something they will eat, and if they refuse, I just take it and don't argue. If you can't have bacon with your breakfast, you're not eating any of it? You are an adult. I am not your parent. You managed to survive this far, so I can only assume you're capable of taking care of yourself. 2. Poop. WHAT IS IT ABOUT POOP?! Just yesterday, a dementia patient reached back, took it out of her bedpan, and smeared it everywhere she could reach. My 2 year old niece does the same thing. I seriously don't understand. I've never had to deal with the anal-retention aspect of potty training children, but believe me when I tell you it doesn't end there. Patients of ALL ages with do the same thing. I just don't get it. I had another patient a while ago who had PT, they helped him up to the toilet and back, and he was instructed he could do this instead of the bedpan. That's what he would do at home. The CNA and I were in the room when he asked for the bedpan, we offered to help him up. His face started to turn red. He was alert and oriented, and pooped himself intentionally. He turned to the CNA and told her that, "Now you have to clean me up". He'd rather mess himself than have to wipe his own butt. Again, you're a grown man, what did you do at home before you got sick? 3. This one is particularly men, but there's an aversion to clothing that comes with age. I do my best to maintain patients' modesty, keep all the right areas covered up, but I seem to have the most problem with men. They just like to pull the gown up and the covers down so every visitor walking past can see his business. Try to keep them covered all you want, turn around and he's naked again. This is more of an older boy thing, not the toddler running naked in the yard thing, but men also seem to think very highly of their private parts. Yes, I've seen you naked. No, I'm not interested. Shocking, I know. 4. When patients refuse cares. How many times have you nurses had to truly convince a patient to do something like brush their teeth or take a bath? No, I won't let you get a bedsore sitting in your own excrement, or choke on the gunk that caked on your teeth because you screamed when the CNA tried to clean you. Sue me, but it's not happening on my watch. 5. The drama. This one is probably the truly irritating one to me. I can deal with dementia all day. I will leave work, sigh, and laugh it off. But some people just choose to be crazy, and they're the ones that get to me. The patient who will tell different nurses different things in an effort to create a rift. Patients who scream and cry as soon as a certain family member shows up, accusing you of all levels of insanity. 6. The more comical ones, mostly from my nursing home years. The conversations I'd have, dealing with dementia folks. I had so much fun, but I can't even explain how hilarious it can be. I feel like I worked at a preschool. Conversations like, "Mary, that stuffed animal isn't yours. You have to ask Arlene if you can play with it". Residents who get homesick and want their mom. Who have a meltdown if the routine changes. Who argue with each other about whose side of the room the TV is on. Who play with their food and make smiley faces with their peas and mashed potatoes. So, that's the end of my stories thus far. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now. Now's your turn- what stories do you have? What did I miss? What wonderful things do I have to look forward to? Thanks for reading!

I'm applying for jobs around Omaha, and I applied for an RN job here. I can't find too much online, and it's a pretty small hospital so not many people can give me any advice. I have one friend who worked there before she took time off for her kids, and she had nice things to say about it, but I'd like more opinions. Any advice on working at this place? Is it a good place to work, and a good place for nurses? I just don't want to leave an acceptable job for a crappy employer that treats its nurses badly.

I am working with long-term care patients, and some hospice patients. One of my hospice patients is very confused, very tired, and is on hospice for failure to thrive and dementia. Recently, as part of a standard assessment, she tested positive in a depression screen. I know before she was on hospice she had some anxiety issues, and her son said she has a history of mental health problems. In response to this screen, the physician started her on an SSRI. I brought it up to the DON. She frequently won't take pills and spits it out if it's crushed in applesauce or pudding, etc. She has a really erratic sleep schedule, and we usually just let her sleep if she wants to. Now she's only on a few medications, like the sublingual morphine and ativan. My DON was in agreement with the doctor, and said that if I have an order for an antidepressant, I have to give it. I guess I'm concerned first about the practicality of giving a medication to her that should be given fairly consistently. But I also just don't know why an antidepressant in her condition. I'm certainly okay with medications for most patients, but I guess I don't see depression as the problem with her. I could see in someone who is alert and oriented and is depressed, possibly about their condition. With her, I mostly just want her to be comfortable and see if I can get her to eat and drink as much as I can. But then maybe she is depressed and it's causing other problems with her, like the sleeping. In your experience, how are antidepressants handled in hospice dementia patients? Thanks for your input!

I'm here to ask for your best resources for hospice care. I'm looking for research on end of life and I couldn't find much about it. I want to know more about the common issues that come up with end-of-life care, expected and problematic. Also, if there's any research in the different diagnoses and how the care changes, that would be interesting, too. Does anyone have any good resources I can read or look stuff up in? I want to know more about the physiology of why stuff happens so I can know a little more about what to expect. Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

I'm a fairly new nurse, and just starting out at an SNF. First off, I love my job, I love my residents and my coworkers :) Today was my first personal experience with a patient death. I've had patients I've cared for die, but they've always managed to hang on til my day off. So I've had a few dying patients I've cared for, but none that have gone. But today was that big nursing milestone, and I think it went okay. I just have a few end of life questions. I can't seem to find answers (there's not too much info about end of life care, but that's another discussion). I almost feel silly asking my coworkers because the way they discuss symptoms it seems like I should have heard of them already. I have two I'm most curious about. 1. Fever. My patient today ran a low grade fever. I can't seem to find any physiology on why that's normal for end of life. Is it a last inflammation kick? Or maybe the body knows something's wrong and it's trying to fix it? Or is it more in the brain and hypothalamus, hormones, etc? 2. Mottling. I've heard of this happening with patients within a few days of death. It's a lack of circulation, particularly in the extremities, and I can figure that much out. His legs almost looked stringy and blue, not just discolored like I would expect? And why are the knees the place to look for it? Thanks for your help! I'm pretty new to this. I was really nervous at first because he was having a lot of trouble breathing, but he was resting comfortably when he passed away. I felt like a good nurse today for taking care of him. I'd like any tips you can offer on this aspect of nursing so I have that much more I can offer the next time I'm in the position. Also, I've had so many fantastic experiences with hospice nurses. You guys are fantastic :)

So, at my clinic, I was made aware that before I started and after the old nurse left, a coworker used to call in prescriptions for the nurse practitioner. This coworker of mine has no medical background, and is essentially a secretary for the clinic. I was slightly horrified. I asked someone else why she would be given that particular duty, and they said that they all used to do it because you don't need a license or anything to call in prescriptions. But they're so glad I'm here now so I can do it! I was trying to find a legal requirement or something, but I couldn't find one. I saw a discussion here but it looked like it varied by state. So, fellow Nebraskans, now I'm wondering: what are the requirements of the person who calls in prescriptions for the prescriber? Thanks!

First, I'm sure there's a bajillion similar posts, so I'm sorry for the redundant post. I didn't see something that quite described what I was looking for. I'm a registered nurse with BSN. Ideally, I'd like to work in pediatrics, or possibly something L&D, but I think any acute experience would be fantastic, just to get that experience with a little bit of everything. If you wouldn't mind, I have some questions for people who have done the military nursing route, if you don't mind helping me out. My list of questions: What branch of military offers what? I'm afraid to contact a recruiter because I'm only vaguely looking for information, not wanting to sign up just yet. I have friends who are Army nurses, but they did the ROTC thing, so I think it's probably different. Does anyone pay your loans if you already graduated? I kind of have a lot of debt What service/active duty requirements do they usually have (ie 5 year contract, a certain number of time deployed)? Do you usually find that your military experiences translate well to civilian work and give you good work experience? Also, what do nurses do in the different branches, such as more field work compared to hospitals? I think either would be very interesting work, but I'd just want to know what I'm looking into. Do you find that it's flexible or more difficult to change? For example, would an ICU nurse be stuck in ICU, or would they be willing to put you somewhere else if you wanted to? Are people generally supportive of new nurses? I'm absolutely willing to learn, I just need people to teach me. Thanks so much for your help. I love have all these allnurses mentors to help me with career questions like these. :)

For all the Abcde's, to me it not only looks funny, but sounds funny, too. I think the first part sounds like "absent", so I could imagine Abcde being very absent-minded. But that's just me. Awhile somebody was talking about drug names that would work for baby names. I saw a few that I wanted to add to the list: Januvia, Cialis and Premarin. although I'd probably do something like Premmaryn, Premarenne, etc. Just to make it unique, of course :)

dobbie, as in the magical house elf? well, i think in harry potter it's spelled dobby but still! i also think it would be difficult with them named so similarly, ie dobbie, dolly, donny and donna.

Well, now, that sucks for the rest of the new grads who didn't get hired during the summer. Bleh. Seems to be the story pretty much everywhere.

If you've ever read the book or seen the movie, you may remember some of the crazy things people tell themselves and what they do to get a little attention. I've found myself doing similar things, but not with men. With HR offices. I recently woke up to this fact after I had to fight the urge not to take the cell phone into the shower with me. I'm usually tethered to my phone, because I'm afraid if the interviewer calls me and I missed it, they'll just call someone else and I'd miss out. I'd leave a message with someone, then at 4:30 the same day, feel the need to call again, "just in case" they didn't get the message, if only because I don't want to wait until tomorrow. You know the excuses they make about why men don't call them back (maybe he lost his phone? maybe he had a family emergency? maybe he lost my number?Maybe I should just call him again to make sure). I make similar excuses about HR offices. Maybe she's not there today, she lost my message, forgot about it, is on vacation, etc. I replay every moment of the interview, thinking that maybe I'll find what I did wrong. But the lesson in the book/movie is more to accept that it's not that something is wrong with you, it's just not the right one. At one point in the movie, one of the girls has a mundane date, he doesn't call her back, and she goes to extreme lengths to "run into" him. Even if the job isn't actually fantastic, it becomes much better in your imagination when you don't hear back, then suddenly it seems like you're missing out on something huge. I know there are definitely flaws in this logic, and that my relationship with HR offices isn't really comparable to dating, but I'm learning to accept the signs when a recruiter is trying to say, "we're just not that into you". Just thought I'd share that thought :)

I feel kind of stupid even asking this. I read a lot about it, then I just filled out the application. I know when I was looking earlier I found the forms and a list of things needed to apply. Now I can't seem to find anything. I just did the application, but I know I need stuff for the letter of intent, track choice form, etc. I can't find them anywhere! Anyone have any directions on how to find these please? Also, where is everyone from? I'm kind of far away, and I hope that doesn't deter them choosing me if it's mostly local applicants or grads from that school. It seems like a really good program! Thanks!