simonsmom

I have a question about fire safety. I work in a hospital where a pt who is a placement issue has numerous, boxes, clothes, personal items, etc all over the room. It is a safety hazard and the management knows; however has not done anything about it. I would like to report it to someone that can really do something about it. Any suggestions? The fire marshall? I am kind of at a loss how to circumvent the process so that real action is taken. thanks

Okay, that is good to know. I have put all that down in my resume, because I do all of that. I am also the "charge nurse" on the floor as I work NOC shift, meaning I am the only RN on the floor at night for about 100 patients. A little scary for a new grad, but I just had to go with it and ask the senior LVN for guidance on some things. I have ACLS, EKG and of course BLS. I will look into PALS as all of those classes are a pretty penny. Thanks for the feedback!

Hello- hopefully this is in right forum. I am currently working in a SNF and I would like to know any tips or advice to move to a hospital job. Prettying anything would be great in the hospital but would like need surg or something along those lines. I feel as if I am learning bad skills that aren't what I remember bring good nursing skills in school. Amy help would be appreciated. I have about three months in working here. I know I won't last a year here.

No, it's not. From what I was told basically this happens all the time cuz they are trying to conserve cash basically. The only reason they started hiring RNs is because they had to due to staffing rules or something in Cali cuz mostly the people that work on the floor are LVNs. So they hired me and this other girl and we were like ummm what is going on here. We were getting the wool pulled over our eyes. But if you are from or know the bay area market it is TOUGH and hard to find a job. I was looking into moving, but hard due to family situation I have going on. My husband has an awesome job and we take care of my mother who has various issues and just had a baby. So my intention was to maybe stay a year and then move closer to my house for work as I commute, but I feel so guilty leaving any of these patients like that. It would wear on my mind.

I am going to contact the ombudsman today when I go in tonight. this is crazy thx

Hello- I just started a new job after two years of trying in the Bay Area of California. I was really excited and knew it was going to be hard. NOC shift and basically only RN on floor at night so not complaining about work. I am concerned that they want us to work with no soap in the patients rooms, no sanitizer in the machines, fighting for paper towels and wipes. Plus trying to find a workable thermometer in the place and most nurses supply their own blood pressure cuff as I found out. Only thing they have there is O2 satsthat work. The patients have no soap and are using shampoo to wash their hands. I was appalled. It's hard for me to contact the admin who orders as they work M-F 8-5 and he disn't repo d to my note or my phone message. My DON to,d me that I needed to contact this admin person but he doesn't answer obviously. What kills me too is that this is a five star rated facility! Who are the proper authorities t contact? This is what happens apparently all the time. They also put chains on the kitchen so I have no options to give snacks to my patients if they want it. Like a prison. I want to report this since people are paying privately too for this facility. This is not healthy or sanitary. I luckily had a vial of soap in my purse to use and sanitizer too jt this is nuts. My patients need and deserve better

I finally got a job at a SNF that I have to commute to 50 minuts each way. Worth it in long run since I plan on being there a year and applying closer to my house. It is NOC shift and I have to leave my 3 month old at night but have to sacrifice somewhere. Thx for the encouragement on this site

I've applied to acute care, snfs, been told need expeRirnce

Pretty damn bad. I helped a friend get a job in va my hubby is ready to move anywhere with me so I can get experience

So graduated from Nursing school 12/2012. Moved home to California and took boards three months later. Super stoked and excited to land a job..... and NOTHING. I do home health which is obviously not using your license in a hospital. Applied to hundreds of jobs; looked into going out of state but was not able to afford all the fees that you have to pay out of state and to the CA board at the time since loans started coming due. Cannot apply to "new grad" programs anymore because of the time I have been out of school. Most per diems want one or two years hospital experience. I still apply with nothing. Any suggestions on what to do? This is getting really frustrating and discouraging and I am about to go back to my prior career if I don't get a job soon. I can't afford my loans, and living in the bay area is tough with what I am making here.

Hi- Do you know if you are a new grad and apply for a prison nurse position if it is difficult to transition to a hospital setting? I am just wondering if in the future I will have the opportunity to move on to a hospital ER position as I hope.

Virtual ATI is like going to nursing school again all over. Having to work so I can pay for my place to live and such I can't dedicate 5-6 hours daily to that type of practice. I really did not like that you can't take the assessments without an ID and Password from the virtual instructor. Once you get out of it you don't know what the rationales are for the questions you answered you just get the assessment of what you missed and then have to remediate. So not too thrilled. Taking the NCLEX in about 7 weeks so here's to hoping it works.

VATI is a joke. The content is not funneled in a concise manner and you have to go to numerous sites to do VATI then go back to ATI for testing. You cannot take test questions daily and study like Kaplan or hurst. It is now $300 and extra if you want to go to a live review. The codes are only given to you once for each section to test and then that's it. I asked for a refund after finding that it did not match what was conveyed in class to us and what we received. They completely ignored that and kept stressing their pass rates and trying to say how amazing they are. I am still fighting with them but spoke in length with hurst and Kaplan and felt better about them than VATI. Don't go with VATI they are a rip off.

I too utilized VATI and after awhile gave up on them as my school uses ATI. I then enrolled in Kaplan and passed with flying colors on my NCLEX after utilizing KAPLAN. I heard HURST is amazing, as well.

JNClems- I currently work in the ED at a well respected hospital on the island and I can tell you that many of the HPU grads tell me the same thing. They hated HPU and couldn't wait to get out. I agree and the more entrenched I get into the program the same holds true day in and day out. Professors bail on us at the last minute all the time. I saw one actually last week and she said she left because she couldn't handle the treatment of the students and the staff anymore. The standards are substandard according to the teacher. So I am not ungrateful for getting my BSN, I just wish it would have been a different school now.

RNfr808- There are not dramatic students, just horrible administration and some staff. The pass rate was so horrible for HPU that they mandated all these extra things that cost way more money. They are now picking clinical sites for us in Level 3 since they don't have enough spots to go around. They just spent almost $100K for the new president's ceremony. While the Hawaii Loa Campus has leaks in the roof, horrible internet access, you can't print sometimes at the computer center because the internet went down, there are never enough writing tutors to look over papers, professors don't want to help look at your paper if you ask them. I think there are a handful of professors that are there to help you be a good nurse. However, be prepared to write about 20+ papers in level 2 and only get less than 10 clinical days. While UH, KCC and other schools go in and start doing all those things right away. HPU is "theory based" which is a lot of BS for writing your bottom off in papers that are worthless. Can't do catheters well? Oh, well! but you can write a wonderful APA style format paper because that is what is important when your patient tells you that they can't breathe! DO NOT GO TO HPU! WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME FOR EVERYONE! They have a good environmental studies program from what I heard. however, that is about it.

To StephanieF- FYI your advisor WILL not be helpful for too much longer. Take it from me. Just a little recap of this new semester so far. I made a schedule (HAHAHA!) that fit what would work for me. Big mistake because they do this screwed up registration system. You pick classes- lectures and then "hold" your place for lab/clinicals. Then you get another round of time tickets to register for clinicals. That is if you have all your health reqs in place then you get to go and register. So if you follow the rules you should be kosher, right? WRONG! If you do your reqs late and don't read the instructions or directions like you are supposed to then you still get choice clinical sites and if you petition to change it, oh, well! You are stuck, even if it means the site is 45 minutes away from you. Also, they changed clinical days on my friend from Thursday to Saturday, the first day of school. My clinical instructor quit last week for "personal reasons" although it was rumored long before that she was going to quit but I was stuck with my clinical so you can't change it! So I just TODAY found out who my instructor would be when I have clinical days beginning tomorrow. The SNA is a joke and will not help you out either. Have gone numerous times to them with valid issues to be shot down. So at this point just gotta trudge thru and pray that I make it out alive and with my sanity. I will be grossly out of funds and owing many thousands but I will have a degree. At what cost I am not sure. The advisor will get frustrated with you once you start asking questions and generally causing a ruckus. She will have another advisor in the office that will be rude to you and tell you that you have to wait and don't bother her anymore, which is wonderful customer service! Have not had to many good things come out of this school except for good friends that I know I will have for years to come. RUN the other way to UH or another school if you have the chance! RUNNNNN!!!!! Don't walk and don't look back, ever at HPU. They really screw you and then tell you Mahalo while they are doing it!

I am not sure if you got accpeted into the HPU nursing program or the pre-nursing program. Re-read your letter to verify or contact the admissions office. I currently am a nursing student in the nursing program going on Level 2. FYI- administration is WORTHLESS, they change things all the time and you just have to accept it. If you try to complain or say anything about it they shut you down. Many of us moved here for school ( I did from CA since it is impacted all over the state) and I am screwed here. There are five levels that you have to do in order to be done with the nursing program, that is the program itself NOT the pre-reqs. I had a Bachelor's before I applied and had been taking pre-reqs in CA because I wanted to apply to CA schools but was waitlisted like crazy over there. So I chose this school becasue I got accepted right away pretty much. BIG mistake! Now that I am stuck here on this rock I am having a hard time paying for everything because they promised me all this fin aid and did not come through. I am already in the program and want to just finish it and be out. If you get in you will take 8 classes during your first level and you will need to pass with a 2.75 in all classes in order to move on to the next level. They do the worst registration process ever and then say it is becasue they have to firm up the clinicals. Also, a lot of professors are going on leave or doing some other stuff so we are getting screwed on that end currently, they are going through accrediation to get PhD status and so they are screwing us over again with GPA stuff. Just one punch after another and I know by the time I am done it will not end. Oh BTW be prepared to shell out $13K a year just on tution and then books are a whole other thing with clinical stuff to boot. Also, Hawaii is a heck of a lot more than where you are from and you will find sticker shock like crazy here. Also, they are racist here don't let them say different so try to stick to the places in town or Kailua becasue they don't really like "outsiders" to live here, just visit and spend money and go on back to the mainland. Good luck, I would seriously wait if what I knew now I knew then.

I have a question about HIPPA, too. We did a process recording and the person interviewing stated a FIRST name only of a person that died many years ago. He received an academic warning and so did my friend as we have to do everything verbatim. My problem is that this is a Federal law and once someone dies it is public record, so how is that a HIPPA violation??? They said it was a school violation, well, as a school you follow the FEDERAL laws because they trump all other ones. So how is this a HIPPA violation per say if the person is dead years ago?