ocean waves

Hello. Good for you that you are exploring options for professional nurses in the military. In order to learn accurate answers to your questions , it would probably be helpful if you call or visit the nearest military recruitment office in your area. I enjoyed working as a pediatric nurse practitioner in a non-military clinic for several years. Briefly I considered joining the Air Force Reserves, but I decided I did not want to commit to travel away from my husband and son for the monthly weekend and annual summer requirements. Best wishes.

Hello. Thanks for sharing your interesting thoughts about the possible outlook of many patients such as that ".... they are Personality Type C,victims and caregivers are predators....". Though it has long been known that many patients have a perception of loss of control when they are admitted to medical facilities, your words seem shine a brighter light on how patients may see nurses as "predators". Good point! I agree with your comment that "...part of our job is to show patients we are on their side..." . Best wishes.

Hello. I agree that it "would be nice if someone who worked in medicine and healthcare" was currently the secretary of Health and Human Services. On the other hand, I do not think that "the government is working against health care workers". To me, the government is working with health care professionals to come up with ways to control costs for good care and provide reasonable options for health insurance plans for all citizens. For example, I do think that a "tightening" of the Medicare system is in order to prevent "milking" of the program by doctors who tend to order excessive tests for their patients. My hope is that any new protocols for nurses which may result from reducing health care costs will be justified. Best wishes.

Hello. Good luck on your nursing class. I have worked with many maternal/child health patients including OB Recovery and post partum floor patients, however, I kindly suggest that you "interview" in person a registered nurse who works in your city. To me, an assignment to interview a person really implies a meeting with the subject. An interview meeting with an OB nurse would probably be fun for you as an aspiring registered nurse, and you would probably learn interesting information about OB nursing work in your area. If you do not know any local OB nurses, perhaps you could call a nearby hospital and ask a staff member in the nursing office to help you arrange an interview. Best wishes.

Hello. Good luck in your class work. I agree with the poster who said that "each school has its own course listings". Most students find that the best way to find accurate answers to questions such as "what other courses do I need" is to arrange a meeting with a nursing advisor at your university. As a retired nursing instructor, I have seen a few sad situations in which students unfortunately failed to seek help from nursing faculty members and took some classes which did not "count" toward our curriculum requirements! Best wishes.

Hello. It is good that you are asking questions about nursing education. I agree with the poster who shared the importance of learning the appropriate terms for professional nursing education. (Bachelor Of Science in Nursing, and Master Of Science in Nursing). It is also important to arrange meetings with nursing instructors to learn specific entry requirements and curriculum content at the universities or colleges of interest to you. Each professional school of nursing tends to have different requirements. All professional schools of nursing include student requirements of serious, extensive, supervised, hands on care of patients in clincial settings. In addition to successful completion of clinical experience and course work, all graduates of professional nursing programs are required to take a very difficult state, written, licensure exam in order to actually become Registered Nurses. Nursing education can be a tough journey, however I enjoyed my nursing education and the high adventure of my 35 years as a nurse. Best wishes.

Hello. One idea is to call your state board of nursing and ask for information about the CCRN test and any study guide suggestions. Another idea is to contact a representative who will be helping to administer your specific CCRN exam and ask for any available study aides. If there is a medical book store on a nearby university campus, you could call and learn if they have any specific test prep books for your exam. A former nursing instructor may be willing to help you "scout" for study resources, too. Best wishes.

Hello. I answered the interesting questions on your survey. If your research question consists of "is there a relationship between professional nursing work and stress?", you probably will not have any difficulty in measuring a definite relationship. One idea for further research is to study the relationship between professional nursing stress and stress management classes. The focus of most inservice education for professional nurses tends to be about important topics other than stress management ( medications, treatments,emergency skills,patient advocate issues, and nursing staff management challenges). Maybe in your research you could make a good "case" for public health officials to highly advise employers to provide periodic stress management classes for all high stress level employees such as police, fire fighters, and nurses? Best wishes.

Hello. I agree with the comment of the poster who said "money is good...sanity is better...". Some fellow nurses seem to feel that one of the priorities in nursing work is to go for the gusto by earning the highest salary they can find---sometimes the trade off for bigger bucks is super high stress and feeling married to the job. Others of us feel that one of the priorities in nursing work is "sanity"---sometimes the trade off for less stress and sanity is a lower paying nursing gig. You asked "is working in a hospital an abusive relationship?" My answer is no---to me, hospital work is a challenging choice which is sort of like choosing to serve in the military---not abuse, just choice for hard nursing jobs. You say that you "would love to quit" your current job. Hope you will consider giving yourself "permission" to change to a nursing position which will work better for you at this point. Best wishes.

Hello. I agree with the writer who said "...one idea is to have assigned people on certain days to help like maybe you on Mondays, social worker on Tuedays...". The point here is that professional delegation of tasks may be a good strategy for your situation. I have a hard working DON friend who she seems to have a little difficulty letting go of tasks in order to delegate work to others. My DON friend sometimes says "I am working extra hours, but I'd rather do it myself to make sure it gets done right". Unfortunately, some employers will "eat nurse managers alive" because they are salaried. Hope you will be able to work with your administrator to develop a plan for delegation of some tasks including the passing of food trays to your patients. Best wishes.

Hello. The idea of "having a new grad RN with no nursing experience as a DON" probably would NOT work out well for the patients, or the staff, or the new grad! Even my nursing pal who had over thirty years of great RN experience prior to taking her DON job is having a tough time due to the seemingly endless big struggles of a DON job. Though my DON pal says she basically likes the challenges of her job, unfortunately this DON job seems to have taken a serious toll on her quality of life---mega work hours, major stress, serious fatigue,less time for family,health changes including development of hypertension, and less patience in interactions with friends. A DON job is hard stuff even for an experienced RN! Best wishes on your thoughts about employment.

Hello. I agree with the posters who say "...sensible to have experience in the area you are going to supervise." In addition, it seems wise that a new LTC nursing supervisor also have significant supervisor experience and/or education in nursing management issues. One of my pals is a new LTC supervisor, and she is expressing difficulty with staying on top of all the required management tasks---this pal is a darn good nurse, however, she did not have significant management experience or leadership education prior to taking this gig. This new superviser pal is doing the very best she can in her job, and her LTC facility is very fortunate to have her as a dedicated employee. Best wishes.

Hello. Sorry that you are experiencing difficulty regarding giving important patient care reports to the CNA's at your facility! One idea is to arrange a talk with your nursing director about constructive ways to solve this problem. For example, maybe you could volunteer to prepare and provide a required inservice education program for the CNA's about patient care reports. Hard stuff! Best wishes.

Hi again! Yes, you and many DON's certainly deserve a pat on the back for working oh so hard toward the goal of good health care for the patients at LTC's ! Take a bow! To me, DON's at long term care facilities are "unsung heroes". Hope you will find combort in the thought that you are not alone in your struggles to seek "professionalism in co-workers" at a LTC--- my DON pal recently called me literally crying saying that a corporate inspection person had "downed" them with write ups about several nitpicky errors! Thanks for doing your best to help patients in LTC's ! Best wishes.

Hello. Sorry you are having a hard time. My DON pal describes her corporate inspection person in some of the same words you have used: "...tears our place apart..., finds things wrong, and ...makes everyone's job harder than it has to be...". I agree with the writer who stated that the role of an inspector "should be a mentoring type role, not a punative role...". Even if the inspection person improves and becomes a more mentoring co-worker, however, the frequent, picky inspections of your facility will probably continue. My DON pal says that long term care facilities are the one of the most inspected and regulated types of health care facilities in this country. Since inspection "nightmares" may be the norm for LTC's, here are two ideas for coping with this situation : (1) express your concerns in a professional manner to your administrator, and/ or (2) locate a job in which the usual tasks are less stressful and submit your resignation. Hard stuff! Best wishes.

Hello. I have a LTC DON pal who has these on call rotation and heavy weekly work hour issues, too. Are there any guidelines at your facility regarding maximum work hours per week for a DON? In the case of my DON pal, there does not seem to be any protection policy to limit weekly work hours including on call duty. It is my understanding that in some critical service jobs such as fire fighters and nurses there are exemptions from some of the USA federal labor laws. I have learned that in the U.K. there is a labor directive of a "maximum average work week including overtime of no more than 48 hours per week in a 17 week period". Best wishes to you.

Hello. I was very fortunate to be able to travel to Nairobi, Kenya for a month to help with a maternal child nursing education workshop as part of my job at an Agency For International Development program. I agree with the African writer who kindly explained that there is a mix of "...well established infrastructure...but also harsh and heartbreaking..." situations with regard to medical care in Africa. In Nairobi, I saw a huge contrast between the modern patient care at the hospital in the city and the heart breaking, severely limited patient care in a few bush clinics just outside of the city! One of the USA doctors in my group became tearful and said: "I just realized that even if I donated my entire salary for one year it would only be a drop in the bucket for the medical needs here!" I was so very touched by the medical care needs, however I was not willing to leave my family to do volunteer work in Africa. I agree and sincerely respect the thoughtful comments by the African writer who warmly honored the "calling" to help plus she advised that one "do homework and get some good first hand information....before making a commitment". Best wishes to you.

Hello. I agree with the poster who said "...think of what other person may be feeling...how would I want to be responded to?" Sometimes during the pressure of a hard job a temporary lack of empathy can unintentionally develop in nursing directors. I know a DON who is oh so sharp in many of her management skills, however she seems to have a temporary "empathy deficit" regarding two areas: (1)communication with employees--sometimes she really wears employees out with non-essential chatter-employees have even kindly asked her to phone text info to them, however she does not seem to get this "hint" ; (2)communication with friends---sometimes she talks to them as though they were her employees, dominating some conversations and cutting friends off when they are talking--when friends say "please wait and let me explain what I was trying to say", she does not seem to take this "hint" either. Maybe the wisdom here regarding empathy is to use the "Golden Rule" of doing unto others as we would have others to do us and to listen for "hints" of needs from employees, patients, and friends. Best wishes.

Hello. I hear ya loud and clear about the high stress of being in a DON role in a long term care facility thanks to hearing work stories from my DON pal! I agree with the posters who encourage you to take regular vacation breaks from work in order to get rest and regroup. Have you asked your employer to cover your expenses to attend a nursing director networking/ leadership workshop? My DON pal just attended a conference in Arizona and says that venting to fellow DON's (plus traveling out of town) seemed to be very helpful to her. I also agree that if it feels right professionally (and mentally) to resign, then gracefully let this job go and press on. Best wishes.

Hello. My new DON pal may be similar to your new DON regarding the goal of "perfection". She has enlightened me by saying that she is "pushed daily by her administrator to expect perfection ...no matter if you are fully staffed or not...." (for reasons of good patient care and high accreditation ratings). She says that her path as pusher for perfection is a very hard road because she knows staff may think she is asking them to do almost "mission impossible". Prior to her DON position, she worked as a staff RN at this LTC facility--she knows that short staffing and challenging patients can make patient care goals a nightmare. During your efforts to improve work for nurses and care for patients, try to keep in mind that some DON's are hammered by their administrators to demand "pie in the sky" patient care. Best wishes to you.

Hello. Good luck on your decision on if or when you will resign from your current PRN job. "Old School" of thought about how long to stay at a professional job one does not like was to stay one year (in order to establish a good job reference.). There was only one time when I did not stick with a job for at least a year. The exception was when I resigned from a nursing job after working only two months because the employer had not told me the truth about my expected weekly work hours. My understanding in my interview was that I had agreed to work in a part-time, patient education, salaried position with a requirement to work 24 hours per week. During my first week of employment, my supervisor stated that "...as a part-time, salaried employee I was expected to work 40 hours per week because she was a full time salaried employee and she worked 60 hours every week...". Best wishes to you.

Hello. Congratulations on your new job in a doctor's office. It has been my experience that medical assistants sometimes work in a more "expanded role" in clinics than in hospitals. As a pediatric nurse practitioner, I enjoyed working with medical assistants in a clinic for five years. The reality is that there are fewer professional nurses in clinics than in hospitals. Sometimes it becomes a necessity to safely delegate less complex care tasks to trained medical assistants in order to complete care of patients before the clinic closes each day. I respect your concerns about legal issues regarding the role of medical assistants. I agree with the writer who suggested that you check on guidelines for medical assistants in your state. Have you called your state board of nursing to ask questions? Best wishes to you.

Hello. Good luck to you on your decision about whether to do nursing work in palliative care. Have you considered calling a local Hospice organization and making arrangements to talk with some of the nurses who work at this agency? I have heard good reports from families who had loved ones receiving hospice care. Though I have never worked as a hospice nurse, I certainly have given nursing care to many patients who were not expected to live---two of the biggest challenges I experienced in this type of patient care were pain management for the patient and counseling for the depressed family members. Best wishes to you.

Hello. Good for you that you plan to enhance your nursing education and patient care by reading professional review books! One idea for exploring review book options is to go to a medical book store at a local university which has a school of nursing and a school of medicine. University medical book stores tend to have a wide variety of high quality, current text books and review books regarding several medical specialties. The "catch" is that some of these great books can be expensive, however the price is usually well worth the great information. Best wishes to you.

Greetings again. I so agree with the posters who discussed that an unhealthy lifestyle is not the only contributing factor to strokes. A history of strokes in one's family can certainly put one at higher risk for a stroke. For example, my father and most of my grandparents all had serious strokes, so I figured I was probably at high risk for a stroke. Though I worked for decades at having a fairly healthy lifestyle, I had a mild stroke at age 53. I agree that we should not be judgmental about patients who have had strokes because there are a variety of contributing factors to this condition. Best wishes to you.