CaregiverGrace

It's a medication. Yes, they are being unreasonable. The risks of hanging a bag of chemo are so minute as to be laughable, certainly compared to many of the other "accepted" daily routines of nursing care.

Fair enough. Personally though, I'd at least be looking at one of the countless LPN-RN online programs. This would be MUCH more amenable to a full-time work schedule.

lol, I doubt your employer is going to support any "at-work" study times, even if you are not particularly busy. They are after all paying for you to, you know, work.

Anyone else think it just seems unhygienic to be putting meds into your pockets? Who knows what's been festering in there after a few hours on a shift. I can vaguely look past the diversion issues, but the infection control issues here seem concerning.

I know this is never a great option, but have you considered taking out student loans to pay off after graduation? These loans of course can include money to cover aspects of your living situation. You may need to still work part-time, but a loan can at least help off-set some of the hours. Otherwise, I think a part-time work and part-time school program would be ideal. Nursing school such as at Northwestern will be highly challenging, and not passing a class or two because of lack of study time would be a real setback imo.

Is it any wonder that nursing is on such a downslide as a profession when clearly no one stands up for themselves? I see many other professionals in the healthcare industry that have not bowed down to management the way that nurses have, and they have maintained reasonable working conditions. There's something deficient in the typical nursing personality-type that wants to be the ever vigilant downtrodden saint in love with their own passive-aggressive self-sacrifice. There's no need for unions or even a unified front, simply a more self-respecting attitude amongst nurses.

Well, it's not hygienic and it looks unprofessional. However, we've all done it and if there's no one around and your surface is wiped down, I don't see the problem. The habitual eaters that sit there, eat, and gossip for half an hour are the ones management is going after, and I can understand why.

Again, not true. From the Statistical Abstract of the United States: "The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 percent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent—those below the median income level—now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes."

For every occasion that I've entered a higher tax bracket, I've paid a higher % of my income in taxes, for every lower tax bracket, I have paid a lower % all the way down to zero. This is a system that penalizes financial success. SS is just one spoke on the wheel of a broken system.

This argument lacks logic. Those that make more money still pay more taxes, and those that make the most money pay the most taxes, and those that make the least pay the least (or none). There are some corporate tax deals that I disagree with, but for the most part, every rich person I know pays a much higher % of their income to the govt than every middle class or poor person that I know. To say that, because you make more money, you should have a higher percentage of your income taxed, is inane.

I don't see anything wrong with pointing out that a large percentage of the population abuses the system, and a different, large percentage of the population ends up paying for it. "Life is not fair", I get it, but at a certain point you have to say that the system is so broken that is it no longer serving the interests of those that fund it. When you mention things like roads and police officers, that is such a small percentage of your tax money that it is laughable. It is sad but true that often the most demanding customers in the healthcare industry are the ones that are paying little to no money for these services. I don't feel like this is inappropriate, or unreasonable to point out.

I guess I'm not sure why a doctor, who has spent probably hundreds of thousands on their degree, and which they're still probably paying off, owes the public "freebies". I can't think of any other profession that is expected to pay so much for the education, and then expected to provide "free" work to potentially any customer that comes in. If she wishes to offer free care, then good on her, but it certainly should not be expected or required. You know, I have insurance, barely make ends meet, but still pay big $$ for medical bills that the hospital and physician groups send to me. It honestly doesn't even cross my mind to say whoa is me, I'm sick and everyone else should pay my medical bills.

Well, again though, you're missing the point which is that this nurse wants to do MORE bedside nursing. Going into nursing informatics is a bad idea for someone that prefers actual bedside nursing. Just because someone is good with computers, does not imply that they like working with computers, or want to have a job using them. My guess is that if OP wanted to work on computers and designing software, he would have pursued that as a profession, and not nursing. The OP may very well be good at nursing informatics, but may be miserable at it, so it would be a bad road to take imo. Since bedside nursing is what this nurse wants to do more of, finding a field of nursing that is more patient-based and less documentation-heavy seems like the most logical avenue.

Not to be devil's advocate here, but why would you suggest nursing informatics as a career choice for someone that simply wants to do more "true nursing care"? Being frustrated by computers because they take you away from the bedside is certainly not a good reason to commit more time to computers, away from the bedside. I agree that the computerization of nursing needs smart and talented professionals, but if someone has a serious dislike for the documentation aspects of nursing, going into that specifically seems like a bad choice.

I guess it would be like if I was going to buy a used car and the dealer said he had a couple good deals, but they had permanent bumper stickers such as "93.7 KDFM FEVER!" or "I HATE STUPID PEOPLE". I'd probably say, you know, these are ok cars but I'm sure I could find similar ones without the dumb pictures or slogans imprinted on them by their previous owner.

Tattoos to me basically say "I was dumb when I was younger, and I'm cheap now that I'm older (to have it removed)". If God didn't give ya a half-faded rose of thorns on the crack of your ass, you have to think there was a good reason for it. To me it's no different than those folks that cover their cars in bumper stickers, just a sign of low class.

i agree with the previous post. It is easy to fall into that trap of second-guessing a pain med administration, but ultimately it is not in the nurse's role to determine "seeker" vs "non-seeker". Of course, a nurse can inform the doctor of other issues with the patient that may prevent pain-med administration (such is patient is clearly drunk, or high, or has a clear past for drug abuse/rehab) but to say "well, this person in my judgement is not in the amount of pain they claim to be" is bad nursing practice. You can assess and report any contraindications to pain med admin, but including personal judgements of the patient's need vs dependency is simply not performing your duties properly.

Regarding speed and efficiency, I will bet you anything that this individual spends inordinate amount of shift time on break and/or on their phone. Their goal from the minute they walk in is to complete their task as quickly as possible. Not because quicker is better, or more efficient, but because they do not actually want to do their job at all, and take whatever shortcuts they can to avoid doing their job any longer than they have to. Ultimately, any complaints being made are not about you, not about the patients, not about the management, but about this small-minded individual that feels entitled to have a position irregardless of how well they perform it.

You haven't graduated, and you haven't passed your NCLEX yet. Might be jumping the gun a bit by harassing your boss about a job that you currently are not even qualified to take. Now if 3 months from now they're still blowing smoke up your butt, then that's a good time to get peeved and look elsewhere. In the mean time, you're talking maybe a month and a half delay on getting a job you want. Most grads would be quite jealous of that.

Code gray, or more commonly code silver, is weapon in facility and lockdown procedures. Is this a facility with a known criminal element in the area? You may be trained on basic self-defense techniques or disabling a threat.

Sure, but there's a difference between unique nursing practice and not following protocol. Having a cynical attitude about PRN pain med administration is questionable, but not delivering the med because of that attitude is unquestionable wrong. Delivering the wrong dose of medication because you're too uncoordinated and/or lazy to get it properly into the syringe is not "unique" or "creative", it is also wrong. There are a lot of common shortcuts that ultimately have no effect on patient care. However, two out of the three you listed have clear consequences on patient care.

Pretty huge disparity. Where to even start.

Maybe now it's time for China to start recruiting US nurses to work over in Beijing. The whole "import employees" operation has always been a scam to lower corporate payroll, but they could get away with it when the economy was better. Now, with unemployment having shown no signs of improvement since our current president took office, and the economy in tatters, US employees are going to have a harder time believing this scam. But that won't stop it from happening. Six months ago our company sent out a notice that they would pay us essentially a "finder's fee" of several hundred dollars if we can get certain types of healthcare professionals to come here from parts of Asia & India on a work Visa. This is in spite of many, many US healthcare professionals that are out of work. It is a shameful practice.

Do u not have pockets or choose not to use them? I also lose pens on occasion, but I believe it is overthinking it to come up with some sort of contraption to keep them on your person.

Just out of curiosity, why is this current program you're in a "nightmare"?