deathnurse

While you may make more money and have more job opportunities, you'll certainly inherit all that is wrong with health care. Our RT's are CRUISIN' compared to what we go through in 12 hours a day. And they don't have the family crap to put up with as much as we do. We've got a Viet Vet RN who gave it up to manage vents and he's happy. Been with it a long time and makes as much as we do and he's STRESS FREE. Don't be a nurse.

Ya' wanna' be a nurse? You passed the test. You want more letters after your name? Become a professional in another field. It's folly to stick on BSN after the RN. There is NOTHING that an ADN can do that can't be done by a BSN, so don't consider yourself a lessor person after you spend the time and money on the "credential." You'll be wiser though. And more learned. You'll know of better ways to invest your time and efforts than in persuit of a lofty nursing degree. Good gawd, don't get a masters. Or a doctorette. You'll only be steered towards a lower valued teaching position, with a lower income (but will probably at least have a retirement, not like a hospital nurse.)

When you're saving money, you won't see snazzy ideas such as these. When you've got OPM (other people's money) from universities, county facilities, and so on, you start to see the paper mill projects come to light. They need more nurses, higher salaries, and better retirement. Not "Shared Governance."

Take your breaks before they take your spirit. Insist that "night shift" can handle it. It's a 24 hour job and this mantra that day shift has to do it all is preposterous and shouldn't be fostered. I had a good day Sunday. Was able to shave a patient, just for the 'l of it, and started an IV for another nurse who was swamped, because they actually waited for the NEXT SHIFT to bring up another patient. Such simple concepts will keep nurses happy, increase retention, and cut down on recruitment costs.

psychomachia has the definitive answer. And, again, I'm amazed at the very question. Oh, give me a wino at change of shift! It's now 0232 and my rants and rave continue, despite the Cuervo conditioner. The dog's lickin' my hand again.

You're FREE! Don't ponder the life of a nurse! You're outta' there! You won't be abused by patients, doctors, managers, relatives, and visitors any more! You won't be sued! You won't catch a deadly disease or have a patient spit in your face! You won't go home completely worn out and zapped of your strength! You won't build up a slow tolerance to MRSA through your nasal passages! NO MORE NEEDLE STICK DANGERS! Drunks won't hit you. Night shift nurses won't ask you to take out the trash! Doctors won't berate you for not knowing every little bit of information so they can get out the door faster! Visitors won't ask you to get them coffee and an extra couple of chairs while you're trying to stop someone from bleeding! When YOU'RE sick you can GO HOME without screwing other employees into taking on more patients! YOUR OUTTA' THIS CRUMMY BUSINESS! Or are you? Me? Oh, I love the abuse and all of the above. I make $31 an hour, almost 50 years old. No retirement. Too worn out to work overtime. Got an HMO that almost covers me and my family. I could work as a psych nurse with the hands-on training I got from my managers, fellow employees, and fricken doctors that treat you like krap. Maybe I could strip in a club? Nah, that's for younger guys. With larger...egos. I wanna' hurt somebody. Bad. REal BaD! (Ok, it's 0200 an I'm on a roll here. The bottle is half empty, not half full.) Lemme have it, all you touchy/feely types. Go ahead, ya'll.!!!

professionals. yeah. professionals.

This is a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY for you! Stay out of patient care and use that "degree" for something else. Pharmacy sales is a good one. Converting over to a pharmacist is even better. Or maybe transfering into physical therapy. But a nursing degree is a pretty sad label...

Had to through that in.

Yeah, the situation sucks, but we're making choices aren't we? Get out of nursing and into a business with more respect.

We could use him here in Las Vegas.

Not in that order.

and the grief that goes with it.

Nursing is the most well-respected occupation in the public opinion polls. But it doesn't appear that they are polling the patients and visitors in the hospital. Patients love nurses until they need them. Then, they require their exclusive presence to meet all of their needs hand and foot, to the exclusion of that nurses other responsibilities. Doctors need nurses and resent their phone calls and updates. Visitors intrepret a nurse as having all of the information that was ever acquired throughout a patients lifetime locked up in the nurses brain somehow. And, they also expect you to wait on them hand and foot.

...and the problem is, specifically: How could anyone even consider that they would have to attend this "mandatory" meeting at the whim of a managers coercion? Can't you all take a JOKE? Tell em' OFF! If you can't, I'll talk to them for you. I enjoy that kind of thing. So subservient, so subservient....