TeleMeMore

I take it you are in Chicago? I'm scared to ask what hospital you work but this management and all the missed interventions are FRIGHTENING! I used to work in private community hospital in Chicago as a first hospital job, new grad and it SUCKED. PCTs were better than you described but otherwise missed a lot of things, like abnormal vitals. RNs would pass things off to night shift and things were bad but not as bad as you described. Management was terrible, no one EVER filed an incident report. I once put in an incident report because we had a trached patient and we didn't have any more continuous pulse ox monitors left and protocol necessitates a continuous pulse ox, so I ended up HAVING to use a dynamap with a pulse ox, at the patients bed side. I wrote an incident report because frankly when we only have 2 dynamaps on the unit, now were short 1, PCTs cant adequately take vitals, it isn't proper care of the patient, and we should have more cont. pulse ox monitors considering how many vent and trach patients we get! I also wrote an incident report for a missed medication dose by a previous RN, and one when a blood transfusion order was written for 10 am and passed off to night shift, and one for when an RN didn't transfuse the 2nd unit of blood because she thought you could only do one per shift, I mean i wrote them like crazy and NO ONE EVER followed up, the supervisors even said "um, I don't think you need to write an incident report for this". OF COURSE YOU DO! I got a better job, better pay, better bennies, extremely competent management. Now if anyone makes one mistake, there is a write up, the SMALLEST mistake, the SMALLEST delay, and while it is stressful its outcome is optimal patient care and accountability. When mistakes are made, they are brought up in an calm and understanding way and my manager is extremely knowledgeable and understanding. You deserve that!

Good now just rest up and hope you feel better!

stress anxiety task oriented real nurse? sometimes confident i do my best

Cedars Sinai? Lets trade places!!!

Um are you really that sick here you feel like you absolutely can't work, or you just don't feel good? If you are really that sick, it is a no-brainer, CALL IN! :) I wonder if any other professionals have this much anxiety over calling in sick :/

Are you looking to work/live in the suburbs or city? If you have a child I would suggest suburbia - there are some good suburbs that are close to the city but still pretty suburban, best of both worlds - arlington heights, glenview, deerfield, inverness, palatine, vernon hills these are all 20-25 minutes away from the city and have excellent school systems. they are close enough where you can commute to the city (although be prepared for the commute) or you can work at nearby suburban hospitals, advocate lutheran, alexian brothers medical center, evanston hospital, northshore system, northwest community hospital. if you venture further west into the suburbs your going towards the newer suburbs, cheaper housing, probably better school sytems, and pretty good hospitals, these suburbs are naperville, aurora, elgin, st charles, etc - great school systems and good hospitals - EDWARD***fantastic hospital, provena, SHERMAN*** fantastic hospital, CDH. There are also some FANTASTIC hospitals in the city to work at of course, top rated in the us news world report, however I don't have much knowledge about the school system although I can't imagine it would be as great as some of the suburban schools (although that could be my biased opinion..)

I work at a Catholic Hospital and although I do not have much other to compare it to, it is a nice place to work. I am NOT Catholic but I do appreciate all that the hospital does, it is a spiritual place whether you are Catholic or not thus, a lot of the care given focus's on the patient, what the patient really wants, the patient's spirituality, it is a calming force in the chaos that is healthcare. Ok maybe not so mushy but every now and then you I do get a warm, fuzzy, spiritual feeling. Of course our patients are mix of religions and ALL get treated the same. We even have our chaplains speak openly to patients of ANY religion to provide comfort. I think we even have a buddhist monk roaming around. We also have a GORGEOUS chapel that is a wonderful place to go to if you are feeling overwhelmed, ******, stressed, burnt out - it has calmed me down in the past and again, I'm not catholic. The sucky part is that they do not perform tubals, sterilization procedures and our INS does not cover contraceptives which I'm on so.. Oh well.

Same here.

dont do it.

^I agree with the above. And the OP. That's ********. If he is praising the dudes for something they are supposed to be doing then I want to be recognized for something I'm supposed to be doing too. I hope he realized what he did wrong when you pointed it out. He is supposed to be a professional.

I like the tube systems. I also very much like computerized charting, moving from a hospital with computerized charting to a better hospital that is still STUCK on paper orders makes me have to do 5 extra steps to initiate and carry out orders. We have mobility teams too i find them to be very helpful. We don't have these but have you heard of those tracking things that track how many times you go in a patient room and how long your are there from tracking your ID? Its like big brother! Good for when a patient says ohh she/he was never in my room when in fact you were there multiple times during your shift. But..just scary to think about that is what healthcare has come down too. Im not sure if its "new" but seems a new concept to me.

Suburbs of Chicago $24 for new grad at my current hospital, however I had 9 months of experience (and I still consider this being a new grad) but since they didn't give me the new grad residency which is a 3 month orientation - they gave me $26.50/hr + 6 week orientation + $3/ hr for evening shift (which is what i work) and $4/hr nights (which is what I will work eventually). $2/hour on weekends. $5/hr extra for incentive shifts.

Sounds like you are a fabulous nurse to me. God Bless You!!

Lucky.

This could be a foreign student who has worked their ass off to try and perfect our language, which let me tell you makes little sense in the grammar department. She may have just as well obtained her bachelor degree in SOMETHING, maybe it was online, maybe it wasn't..whatever the case may be I find it a bit disgusting that you jump to such conclusions that this person is illiterate/not a good candidate. While I agree that this is a poorly written email, and she may need a class or two on the English Language; this email shouldn't be grounds for not considering her, she is reaching out to someone who thinks can help her. And you come on a public forum and post it up and people are making fun of it. Maybe I am being overly sensitive but this just doesn't sit well with me. It just irks me that someone on faculty can act this way. How very unprofessional of you. I was born here and english is my first language. But I sure as hell believe that if I were to go to another country and study there, & in their language, I would probably make many, MANY more mistakes than this person did. Or maybe this person should go to med school...ha ha ha Have you ever met a Dr with poor penmanship (my GOD, what has happened to our educational system, how did this man/woman not learn proper penmanship in kindergarten).... or met a Dr with crappy english? I have.....

^ Yes. He was legitimately scary. I'm sure we're talking about the same one.

The answer is NO. You cannot *ignore* a patient's request because to administration the patient=God. The patient gets a survey after their stay and will fill it out if they are ******, for any reason. You wouldn't believe what people will complain about. i.e "The ice water tasted like tap and not bottled". THIS IS NOT A RESORT, IT IS A HOSPITAL!!!!! LOL. Ergo, you have to answer to their requests no matter how small/silly/stupid. BUT I won't let a patient take advantage of me and if they can do something on their own, while I won't ignore their request, I will go to their room and let them know they are capable of doing things on their own and they better start proving it if they want to get out of here (but in a much nicer way). Never ignore your patient, after all you are responsible for taking care of them, being the kind, compassionate nurse that you are. I never ignore my patient, what if it is a true emergency? But if it isn't (most times it isn't), I'll help them if I deem it necessary, otherwise I'll help them help themselves. AND there is a way to be proactive to cut down calls, make sure everything is in reach for them, ASK them if they need anything before leaving, NOT as you walk out the door, but stand near them, look at them, ask and wait. This way you are getting as much as you can done for them to make sure they are comfortable, they will be less likely to call you later on if they have everything they need. Ask them if they have any questions, etc.

I like your style of thinking. I don't see any problem with going this route IF you don't mind the enormous time it will take. In order to get your RN you definitely should get a BSN, at least you can use that to satisfy the degree pre-requisite of med school (unless it is like BIO specific-then you really don't need a BSN but another 4 year bio/health sciences degree). If a BSN+other pre reqs will suffice for med school, I say go for it. BUT I do think you should apply to both the nursing program and medical school AT THE SAME TIME, you may get into medical school! Take all your med-school pre-requisites, take your MCAT and apply, and at the same time, apply to a BSN nursing program. If you don't get into med school, get your BSN, get RN experience, you will have a career out of it - one you may love in the end, or you may not and you can at that point choose to try again at medicine. But like you said, if you do not get in will you be satisfied being an RN? But at this point you can get experience and then go for a masters and perhaps get a MSN and become a nurse practitioner? You really do not NEED 1-2 years RN experience to apply to med school, although it surely would help because you know what its like in the hospital as compared to fresh undergratuates who have no exposure but if it isn't neccessary then there is really no need to waste time, energy and increase stress if you at least try to get into medical school from the beginning. Think about how much stress you'd be saving from not having to study for all those nursing school exams!! Have you ever thought about nurse practitioner or PA? With PA you don't take the MCAT just pre-requisites and its another three years. I understand that you are using nursing as a back up plan and many nurses may be offended by that but I certainly am not. Everyone needs a back up plan and although becoming a physician is completely different than nursing it is in the same area of interest, the human body. It isn't like you are wanting to do accounting as a back up plan then wanting to become an MD. To me, it makes sense. While scope of practice between RN and MD is completely different, they work as a team to treat the disease/patient and are very much so related. You definitely won't lose out by being an RN first (except $$ and time). If you do end up becoming a nurse and then becoming a physician, you will probably be a better physician for it and have a clear understanding of what its like on the nurse's side.

i used to watch the show but stopped, i liked it when i watched it. obviously its inaccurate there is no sense in even complaining about that. but the scrubs are awesome, very comfy, good material, dont shrink all crazy and just well fitting. but $$$$ (as compared to others - just look for sales).

I was also hired without connections and I also graduated that dreadful year when NO ONE was hiring - May of 2009. I had classmates that accelerated to graduate just one semester before me (December 2008) and ALL of them (even the iffy ones) found jobs straight away. Where as my class (even the connected ones) had trouble. I started on the bottom of the totem pole, working as a flu nurse, then in an outpatient OR setting (private free standing surgi center run by a psycho surgeon), then doctor's office, then small community hospital, now FINALLY working at a hospital that I initially applied to when I had NO experience and they wouldn't even consider me. It is a community hospital, but a great one and ranks very well and is a great place to work so finally, I'm where I wanted to be. But it takes the acquisition of experience, slowly but surely. Not that I recommend Job Hopping as much as I did, I surely didn't plan to as much but things got better, I got better offers and now I want to stick to this place for good!!

Hmm me neither and orientation is coming up soon! I'm doing 4 even though it seems like an eternity away, I kinda was choosy between 3 and 4 but considering I'll be working full time and i don't like to be constantly studying I think it will end up being the best fit to do 4 with my current lifestyle and needs :) How bout you?

Me too!! Did you get you admission packet and "official" letter yet or just the unofficial letter from UIC?

With about 8 months previous experience, i moved to a different hospital , same specialty and they gave me 6 weeks orientation - 2 weeks of class and 4 weeks on the floor.

I got mine April 4th! Im starting in the Fall!!! Good Luck! I hope you hear some good news soon! :)

I got into a MSN FNP program at UIC - we had group interviews and while I will have had 2 years of experience prior to beginning my program, and 4 prior to beginning clinicals (im doing the program part time), there were others in the group that qualified (over hundreds of other applicants) to be there, and they were still finishing their BSN and will have then gone straight into their MSN after their summer break/graduation. While I have learned a lot of actual SKILL as a nurse having had my two years experience, that will come and those specific "skills" may not even be necessary for you working in a primary care setting (if that) as an NP. The biggest SKILL I've improved upon is CONFIDENCE and CRITICAL THINKING, as well as reading through H&P's - being proactive on what will be ordered by the doctors in terms of diagnostic tests/procedures. You may even do better just because you are used to being in school, you have everything you learned fresh in mind, while I have not been in school for 2 years, others longer than that and have forgotten a lot of things that I don't readily use on a day to day basis at work. Starting IV's and putting in foleys and yada yada prob won't be pertinent as an NP. So I honestly think it is not a big deal. There are pros and cons to both, and you may have to work harder, and perhaps even when your out as a novice NP compared to someone who had been exposed to RN experience, but you can still do it, it is not impossible, just be willing to work as hard as you can! Of course having had RN experience will probably help to make you a better NP, but that doesn't mean not having any RN experience means you will make a bad NP, you could still be a stellar NP. :)