GAgirl

Oncology/BMT transplant. Been there 5 years and absolutely love it.

I absolutely LOVE working in oncology. I have been in oncology and stem cell transplant for 5 years and can't imagine working in another field. On our unit, I've noticed people tend to love it or hate it. People that hate it seem to know right away and don't stay for too long. It is sad, and many interns and residents that rotate through can only describe it as "depressing". You see every emotion and all sorts of complications on a floor like this. I have the opportunity to get to know my patients and their families pretty well because they are either there for extended lengths of time or they are in and out frequently for treatment. Oncology isn't for everyone. It is challenging on many levels and there is always something new happening. Most days it is very fast-paced. You touch lives in ways that most people never have the opportunity to. I have patients from 4-5 years ago that still stop by to say hello. I have family members of patients who passed away who still come by to share a hug, a smile, and sometimes tears. It's amazing. I never realized how much we affect our patients until I see these familiar faces show up on the floor to say hello. I hope this helps. Like I said, it isn't for everyone, but personally, i absolutely love it. I feel blessed to have found I job that I enjoy so much.

1. 26 beds 2. Not sure-maybe 30 or so. 3. 5---day, eve,night, AM & PM 4. Seniority doesn't play a role. For days requested off, staff with a higher commitment (40 hours vs 32 hours per week) get first dibs. 5. Sat and Sun, any shift 6. Not unless they choose to. 7. Whoever gets it first. It goes out for the staff and stays out a week or so. We sign up when we can. 8. Georgia We are required to work every other weekend and two Mondays and two Fridays a month. If we need a weekend off, we have to find someone to switch. This system is very casual compared to other posts here, but it works well for us. We have a very cohesive team though. We sign up for what we want and the managers take it, enter it into the computer and see what the numbers look like. If shifts are over or under staffed a lot, they highlight the changes that need to be made, put it back out, and everyone tries to change it to what they want that works for the schedule. If we don't get shifts covered, the managers change the schedule to cover. Everyone prefers to have a say-so in their schedule, so we all work hard to cover shifts ourselves.

I went to nursing school to go into oncology. I've been there over 4 years and can't imagine doing any other type of nursing.

Our unit is closed, and has been since I've worked there. It seems to work well. When staffing has been particularly bad, we were required to sign up for 1-2 shifts extra per schedule. We have self scheduling, which helps tremendously. We never get pulled. When staff start leaving it to the handful of nurses willing to work extra to keep shifts staffed, the threat reappears that we will open our unit and lose our self scheduling. That seems to motivate everyone to cover our own shifts.

On my floor,only the RN's can access and deaccess ports. We can't d/c central lines on the floor.....RN's in the ICU's can.

Our lab is used to called us (an onc unit) with abnormal values. They bring it to our attention if there is a drastic change from the previous day's labs, but I've never had a problem with treatment being withheld due to lab values.

I work with quite a few LPN's. We've had a few come and go since I've been there too, so there must be positions open for them.

I think there are nurses better suited to work in areas where the patients are sedated, and there are others better suited for floor nursing. It may be that you haven't found your niche yet. MAKE TIME for a break. You are one person and you can only do what you can do. It will all still be there after lunch. If I'm having an unusually rough day, I escape outside for 5 or 10 minutes, just to take a deep breath and get off the floor.

He was 22 when he died of AML December 27th. He absolutely touched my heart. I helped him do his Christmas shopping on line. He wanted to get his family some gifts before he died. When they showed up on my doorstep, I wrapped them for him and took them to his family at the hospital. He had been transferred to ICU that afternoon. He had told me he would never get another haircut. Since he had been diagnosed, every time his hair grew back and he got it cut, his leukemia relapsed. He was such a sweetheart.

I am also lucky to work on a unit where our NM backs us 110%. New med students that show up on our floor with a bad attitude don't last long before getting put back in their place. Our fellows and attendings are wonderful about keeping them in line and respecting the pt and the nurses.

We also give ativan quite a bit on our onc floor. When compazine and phergan aren't working, we often go to ativan. We use zofran quite a bit as a premed for IV and IT chemo.

never trust a pulse ox always trust your instincts if a pt says they are going to die soon, or are going "home" soon, believe them

Odd you should ask this. I had a pt this past week that was having neuro changes. She had been on reglan for a few days. They d/ced it immediately. As much as we give reglan on our floor, this caught me off guard. She was back to her usual self later that day. Had some other problems that finally warranted a trip to icu, but the neuro changes they say was due to the reglan.

I work 8's, 12's, sometimes a 16 hr shift. I like the 12's since it gets the hours out of the way and gives me an extra day off. Same with the 16 hour shifts, although I don't do these more than 2-3 times a month....they are exhausting. I work with a wonderful team. We all try to work with each other to get hours we can live with and keep the floor staffed. Our manager is willing to do what she can to help.