Sarah8714

At the hospital I work at we get an additional $5 more an hour over our base rate not including shift differentials. It is also $3 more an hour if you are the Charge nurse for the shift.

I have been carrying a Pocket PC around for years as a paramedic - we have lots of pockets in our uniform :) . I am new to the nursing world and to wearing scrubs. Do you carry your PDA on you all the time or do you leave it at your work area. I am afraid that I would drop it in my pocket?

In the state of Texas - That is a major liability waiting to happen to the hospital! Once paramedics are within a certain distance of the hospital, i.e. ambulance dock and into your door (100 yard parameter or so), the patient is the hospital's responsibility and the protocols that paramedics work under are null and void. Even though the patient is technically in the paramedic's "possession" it is the hospital's responsibility if they are standing in triage. As a paramedic we have in the past stood in triage for up to 8 hours but the state has regulated that to 30 minutes. If you are longer than 30 minutes the hospital could get fined a lot of money if they are not on ER divert. They also monitor hospitals that go on divert. We use a website database that the hospital House supervisors update and can be viewed by the local EMS services. As a nurse it is way too unsafe to handle that many people. The highest patient ratio around our area is 5 to 1 for medical and minor trauma.

At the hospital I am working at we get a $5.00 an hour for working in the ED. This is seperate from our base pay, OT, and shift differentials. It is a nice addition to the paycheck!

Been working in the Emergency Department and love it! Just finished my orientation on days and move to nights for another month or until I am released to be on my own.

We have self scheduling where I work... I have done 4 12's in a row and my FEET hate it!!! I like two on and two off rotation but I try to schedule around my husband's fire department rotation schedule right now.

How about a 42 yo female with psych hx came in at 0200 for a complaint of "My bones are leaking."

How about a 42 yo female with psych hx came in at 0200 for a complaint of "My bones are leaking."

I worked full time and went to school full time in Nursing school. I made A, B, C's throughout everything. My teachers would always tell me that A = RN, B = RN, C= RN, D = Does not! Always try to do extra credit even if you dont need at the beginning of the semester or if you dont think you need it. On my last semester I had a death in the family and my grades slipped some but did not make a difference because I tried my best on each test, and did extra credit anytime it was offered. Also, Attendance is an important factor! They like it when students are there every class, if you have a problem and miss a lot they are not willing to help you as much! Hope this helps!

This was back in my paramedic days - I brought in an lady who overdosed on a variety of medications. At the ER, I was helping the nurses place a foley catheter in the lady. The nurse was having a hard time advancing the catheter, she pulled it out and along fell out a ring. Then we started looking and found a gold necklace and top it off a Men's large size gold Timex watch. Yes, it was ticking!! For a month afterwards, when I dropped off a patient to the nurses that were there I would ask them what time is it?

The only fair statement you have hear is in the timeline of care. Patient seeks medical care via EMS (Paramedics), brought to the ER to be cared by ER nurses, then they are moved ICU/MedSurg/etc for further care. Paramedics are able to work under protocols and do not have to ask or receive orders. A nurse need a doctor's orders for pretty much anything or after their set protocol for certain patients. Nurses take care of the whole patient as Paramedic usually are not with the patient long enough to deal with that. Think about this - EMT's are to Paramedics as PA's are to Doctors.

I was wondering what a good length of time is for a new RN to be released from training? I am a new nurse with a paramedic background and started working in the Emergency Room for almost a month now. I have a progress review meeting at the end of the week and was wondering what other ER's do? I feel confident in most aspects - patient care, charting, medications, etc. but still trying to get down ordering tests and x-rays without the doctor first seeing the patient. A nurse said to me yesterday, "you need to be more autonomous" but I just have a problem with ordering x-rays on someone prior to an initial exam by the doctor.

Taking comments on what area to go into.... I have been offered two positions at different hospitals and cannot decide which one would be best. I have done the whole pros and cons list and it did not help. The pay, shift, and benefits would be the virtually the same. The drive time would be the same, however there is long term major construction starting that will affect with the first job. Job #1 is in the SICU. The unit is very well known for its performance and I would learn alot. The hospital has been under some scrunity for some financial downfalls and there have been some nursing layoffs and upper management though. Job #2 would be in the ER of a smaller hospital that is about to merge with the top trauma hospital in the area. The unit does not have as good of reputation but is getting better.

I am getting really nervous about taking the NCLEX on Tuesday . I have been studying quite extensively over the last month or so. I have taken Kaplan courseroom class and did okay. I have been doing their question trainer and getting scores of 77% but today I got a 61% on one of their longer tests and was distracted. I have also been doing NCLEX 3000 and getting scores around 80. I have done most of Kaplan online videos as well. I am afraid it the "anxiety nerves" getting the best of me again. Any suggestions for my last 24 hours of studying prior to NCLEX???? I had 265 and the anxiety got the best of me then...

You will get an email copy of your ATT from the BNE when they completed it. You can sign up to test with that. Did you pay Pearson? Since the BNE combined LVN and RN together, they were extremely backlogged when I was waiting. I had all my paperwork turned in with the the fingerprint cards etc on February 1st and got my ATT on June 15th and my GN permit on June 21st. Keep checking your email.... :)

I am a native Texan and know that there is a big shortage of nurses in the southern part of Texas. McAllen is at the border of Texas and Mexico. As I recall, this is not a big city like Houston, Austin, or Dallas. I would go down and check it out, see if they would pay for it too. If they are offering $50k, they would definetly fly you in to meet them. Definetly find out the specifics on the bonus and the hourly wage. It is probably alot lower than in a metropolitan area but your living expenses would not be as much either. Brush up on your Spanish, if you are really considering this... Most of your patients will not be bilingual.

Congratulations! The hard part is over (NCLEX)... Find the job that fits you the best and the rest will come.... :balloons:

If you are very comfortable using your PDA than I would use it. One of my clinical instructors used hers and my PA uses hers all the time. Initially, I had a Palm Pilot and was able to use Epocrates to look up all my drugs. My husband is a guru on all this techno stuff and upgraded mine to Pocket PC (Dell Axim 5) which I thought was too big to carry and did not want to pay $50 for the program, ePocrates is not free for PPC. Also, my other clinical instructor wanted to look at your book if you have a question so I was carrying both of them for awhile. Now I have another one which is an HP IPAQ but the memory is not the best for those kind of programs - they take up a lot of space. When I get my RN soon, and start making some real money.... I plan to purchase a good software program and a PPC that has enough memory to hold all my stuff in it. :) If you have it, use it!!!!

I would forget the Nursing books right now and go out and buy some NCLEX review books. The most popular are Kaplan series, NCLEX 3000, and Saunders, etc. They are available through www.kaplannursing.com and www.amazon.com to name a few. Also there are many off of www.ebay.com for cheaper. Kaplan offers several different things like classroom courses, online, and other review stuff, and they have a section for international nurses as well. The NCLEX is more about Critical Thinking than content based questions to see if you are a compentent nurse. Good Luck! :)

I am reviewing to take my 2nd try of NCLEX after taking 265 questions. I decided to go the Kaplan way. Last night, I went through their Online lecture about how the test works. When you have 265 questions, it all depends on if this was an above the passing standard question or not. Was the question very hard? If it was an analysis or application based question than it was above the line. If the question was an understanding or recall/recognition question than it was below passing standard. I dont think it matters if you get it wrong or not depends on where in the line you are. There are many people who take 265 questions and PASS... Dont worry right now!! Good luck

Hi! I found it very helpful to use the NCLEX review books in the content areas you are studying. I used the Made Incredible Easy series which are great and NCLEX 3000 also. I would also tape my lectures and listen to them in the car and also write them down while I am studying. We would have study groups that would just go over questions from the books on the content areas we were testing over. In Clinical, I would take the medication book and use Post its that you can mark on and mark the most common meds so that you can refer easily to your book without having to look up page numbers each time. Good Luck!! :)

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations to the both of you!!!! :balloons:

Good Luck... If you have quick results spend the next two days relaxing! They will post it on the website exactly 48 hours after taking the test if it works in your state. I received this link from another post but loved it. Dont worry about the number of questions you get. There is no magical number. http://caring4you.net/concept.html

Congratulations... All the hard work paid off!!!