U2BCool

All I have to do is this paper and I graduate. Ughhhh!!! It is the biggest pain in the bum to complete 90 hours of interviews. The community health class was poorly organized, I felt not a lot of thought was put into the curriculum. The rest of the program was a breeze.

I work in a small suburban hospital as a RN. I work 2-3 shifts week per diem on a medical floor. I have a ton of experience. I choose to be a floor nurse so I could spend more time with my disabled child and other children before they forgot who their mommy was. I cannot believe how bad the physicians at our facility treat the nurses. We have a very knowledgeable and caring nursing staff. I cannot tell you how may times we cover these doctor's bums when they forget orders or write incorrect orders. When we call after hours doctors are irritated and state rude comments. They prescribe ridiculous amounts of pain medications for minor illnesses, because our high addict population loves them and will complain if they do not get them. They admit anything and everything to boost hospital census and waste so much money because they refuse to speak of anything relating to continuum of care or look into options such as home health. A foot (not severe) infection will stay 8+ weeks for antibiotics and Q2H dilaudid ( We make addicts- and then throw them out). When you ask a question (in the most positive nicest way possible) they roll their eyes or complain they do not have the time to talk. I came from a university hospital system and never had to work in such a negative environment when working with physicians. We send our Director/Manager numerous emails and letters. They know it is a problem and keep telling us they are keeping track of the problem and are trying to get the Medical Director to rectify the situation. How does one take a professional approach to this problem? I love working with my fellow nurses and do not want to change facilities, I want to make the environment we work in better. I like my Nursing Director ,but she will not get firm with people and she will not put any pressure up the organizational chart. Ideas?

I agree with you. This is why facilities walk all over nurses. Nurses do not support each other or stand up for their fellow co-workers. We just go home frustrated or leave the profession. We need to join and participate in our professional groups, state nursing agencies/societies and unions to make sure the are representing the true needs of nurses in our area. If every nurse picked atopic they were passionate about and actually took the time to participate in legislative or public policy issues we would be an incredible force.

For those of you who work in larger facilities check your hospital's library website to see if they use RefWorks. I was able to open my own account under my facility ( I did not have to pay for it) It is great for APA papers. It is a great a way for me to organize journals for my papers and keep an ongoing reference page. There are tutorials on You Tube that are worth your time watching. Now, if I can just finish that dam paper!

I am almost finished with the Western Governors RN to BSN program. We were moving and I knew I could not start a program when I might not be in town to finish it. It was one of the most cost effective programs out there. I do feel it is a quality program and a lot of work. I am going to start my MSN program this Spring. I am considering WGU, but I do miss being in a classroom environment. I feel you make so many good contacts when you are in a face to face setting. I know some WGU students have made it into CRNA programs. I would contact CRNA programs ,before enrolling in WGU to see if they would except a degree from WGU. They are fully accredited, but do not issue grades (it's pass or fail). Some schools have a problem with competency based programs. There are some good threads in the college section under WGU. Good Luck

We just moved to a new state and I accepted a RN position on a Med Surg Floor. I am starting at the new grad pay, because I only have 6 months experience as an RN working in a nursing position in a hospital. I have another 1 1/2 years as a RN Research Nurse position in a large hospital. In addition I have 20 years experience as a LPN. As an LPN I worked in the SICU, PICU and ED. I was PALS, ACLS, tele certified. They do not consider any past healthcare experience when determining pay. I am really upset that they are treating me as a Brand NEW Nurse straight out of school!!!! Ok, you can treat me like one -- but pay me like one??? Especially, when the Director of Nursing told me during my interview she was looking forward to having a nurse which such experience working on the med/surg floor. I fell like I am being taken advantage of. Am I just being a Diva here? How should I handle this? Thanks for you input!!

I actually came here today to vent. I have a BA degree in a non nursing area and an ADN degree. I am going back to school through Western Governors University (good program). I am almost done and I am furious I had to spend the money on a BSN degree instead of going into an MSN program. I know several MSN programs take ADNs, but they give you very little credit for having a degree already. Hindsight I should of gone straight into a MSN program. There are programs for non nurses to become RNs with a MSN in 18 months in Minnesota!!! I do not understand why they make it so hard for RNs with ADNs with BA/BS degrees in other fields to go back to school. Thanks for the vent!

this steams me. i had a ba and some graduate work before starting the adn program. i have tried to find a school that would let me finish my graduate degree in nursing. many of the state college rn to msn programs are discontinuing. although, i do see programs for those with ba/bs degrees in other fields. they can complete a few prereqs and 18 months of full-time study for a msn degree. i had 18 years as an lpn and tons of statistics, public administration and disaster management education in college. i had someone from und nursing department get snippy with me and rudely asked me why i would even think my previous education should apply towards a bsn ( at least some credit could transfer). i had to pay every cent of my education and a full-time rn program at a state school or private school was out of my reach financially. looking back i should of taken out loans and obtained my bsn first.

I remember is was mandatory to wear the flying nun nursing hat. I was giving so much grief because I hated wearing it. It used to fall off into all kinds of messes, patients would pull at it and it would always get caught in the curtains.

U2BCool; My kids can't believe that I was cool at one time. With night shifts, diapers, school and the mini van I having problems finding the coolness.

My friend that tutors high school kids for standardized tests gave me some useful information. She said that it looks like the student learns about diabetes and expects questions to be like: the normal glucose level for someone who is hypoglycemic is... What she was trying to explain to me is that the instructor want us to get the whole "critical thinking" picture (yes she used that dreaded word). So, I need to learn the whole picture for that patient. She suggested drawing a stick figure of person and start drawing statements around the picture of what that patient in hypoglycemia would look like: They are cool, clammy, sweating, nervous, and having palpatations. So the instructor's question are to get us to think how we would recognize this patient as a whole - we do not always have the lab work done in the beginning. My friend said that every part of my answer has to fit the question. On the test the question would be for example... Mrs. Mary came in the clinic with her three children screaming and they all had runny noses. Mrs. Mary is sweating, looks clammy and is confused. As the nurse you would.. A. Offer the kids tissues. B. Tell Mrs. Mary to bring a sitter next visit. C. Ask Mrs. Mary if she had breakfast his morning? D. Ask Mrs. Mary if she is a diabetic and does she take insulin? Not the best example, but the stick figure has helped me.

I graduated from LPN school in 1992 and just started my first nursing LPN/RN class. I took a few pre-reqs at a time. I did not want to start with learning BPs etc. but my transition program expects the LPN to already have that knowledge. I am glad I went back I am learning alot and gaining some different perspectives to the knowledge I already have. Hospitals seem to be going through the we only want RNs phase in my area, so LPN jobs are hard to find and those available are very low paying. We have had to make some serious cuts to our budget and I know if I get in a pinch I can get a student loan. I think the average person in my class is in their late thirties.

I HOPE to graduate in December! Listen to me, I should be writing my care plan right now!