DNS on the go

Several of my colleagues are considering attending a class to become Legal Nurse Consultants. They are under the impression that they can make a very large salary doing part time work screening/reviewing charts for attorneys. They discussed this cla...

I am currently teaching a theory and clinical class for one year BSN students. All the students are college graduates and they have decided to enter into nursing. In the clinical site, the students are being exposed to the nurses and to the various ...

Keep trying to look but expand outward...nursing jobs are scare. As a new grad it is worse...you cost to much to train and orient. While your looking, try to get a job in LTC. Even LTC is hard now with all the budget issues. Keep the faith an...

It is very hard for new nurses to get jobs. It is even hard for experienced nurses to get jobs. The future is going to be worse as budget cuts will cause hospitals and LTC/HH to tighten up on staff. It is a do more with less world. As a forieg...

Having spent a lifetime in nursing and having held many roles, I would like to offer my ideas about the profession of nursing. 1. While nursing is a profession it is also a trade. Being a trade does not lower or diminish nurses or what nurses do. ...

Medicare cut the reimbursement 11.1% starting with the MDS books that are submitted with an assessment reference date (ARD) of 10-1-11 (today). We were rushing to have as many books done with the ARD of 9-30-11 as possible. Too many cuts are coming...

Yesterday, in clinicals the students I teach had an opportunity to speak one of the senior nursing directors of the hospital. The main question they asked her was about gettings a job after graduation. The nursing director was polite but told then t...

DC lamb 3, My advice is get a job as a C.N.A. during the weekends-evening and nights. You will get experience and a chance to meet the managers who will be hiring. If I were you and had a good job, I would not have quit to go to nursing school full...

If you have the opportunity and the resources, please go straight to Medicine. Medicine is a more difficult route in that their is no part time training and residency is a killer. As a MD you have all the options you want, just pay your dues up f...

Please do not run to LTC thinking it is easier or less stressful. LTC is chronically short staffed, little supplies and paperwork galore. Every bruise, scratch, etc requires an occurence form and pages of documentation with an update to the care p...

As a nursing instructor and as your colleague, I have an issue that I would like advise on. If you read my previous post, from previous semesters you would see that the issue of training new nurses who would rather not be nurses is a major issue. ...

Dear Capecod Mermaid, I find it very hard to believe that any LTC facility would give you a month orientation to a new or any nurse. One month of unproductive time??? Additionally, no hospital will give 1 day orientation except for an experienced a...

LTC is a business-most LTC facilities are for profit. The mentality of the administration is geared towards cost containment which manifests itself in poor staffing, poor benefits, lack of supplies and lack of resources to do the job. Add to this t...

While I understand the writers passion, the nurse needs a job not a "pie in the sky" peep talk. Even if our nurses gets a job, gets alots of experience and gets an IVY league MBA (all not even remotely likely), the sad reality is that nurses are a ...

Please do not waste your money and time on further degrees including a BSN or an MBA, at this time. What you need is a job. If you can not find a job, either volunter or move on to another career. If you can return to your previous career and v...

Yesterday, in post conference a students asked me when are they going to learn "real" nursing. Each student had done med pass on one or two patients that day. When I asked the student what he meant he stated that nursing is not about vital signs and ...

Let me start by saying that you can not tell your hospital what to do. This statement or request, shows you have no awareness of the world. Hospitals are businesses. They are there to make money not to train you or to give you a job. Hospitals, nu...

Jobs in HCM are very difficult to get and ever harder to maintain. As a nurse your main path is bed side nurse then nurse manager. Believe me when I say that nurse manager is a hard job. Harder still is to get promoted to the next level...Nursing di...

To function as a bedside nurse and as a nurse manager, you must have hands on clinical experience. Nothing else will subsitute. I do not think the entry level MSN-CNL programs have been vetted in the real world. Nursing is not a theory or academic su...

LTC is a tough business. Nurses are expected to hit the ground running. Orientation is brief. LTC does not have the time or resources to train you. Additionally, as a new nurse to LTC you have to give your time. My advice is to forget shift and b...

I have to address your comment of "You say these students are unintellectual?" I never said they are unintellectual. I said they are not academically prepared. The academic deficits of the students who are attracted to nursing are significant and ...

Please do not waste your time going for a Ph.D. in criminology. What on earth are you going to do with that? Education is the answer to lifes problems. Think about what you want to do. Then check out the job market in that area. Nursing is curr...

I have been a nursing instructor at several colleges and universities. The science classes that are required by nursing students to take are not the same science classes that scienc/pre med majors take. To suggest that nursing students are required t...

Please continue to care for this patient. She needs the help. As for the situation, roaches and coldness of the place, maybe the family is poor (very poor) or they have cultural issues. Provide the needed care and education to the patient and the ...

Bree, Let me give you the news about NYC...the area is saturated with nurses at all levels: LPN, RN, BSN, MSN, NP, DNP. Too many hospital and nursing homes have closed or downsized. Too many beds, too many providers and too many trained and expe...