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I talked to Cirrus Medical Staffing; free furnished private housing (except linens, pots and pans), the recruiter quoted $27.

Free housing is the only other thing we discussed. I didn't like the 23 dollar an hour thing, so I didn't ask a lot of other questions. Thec reruiter sounded very pushy.

I talked to a recruiter from AMH, told her I wanted to travel to Denver. I have med-surg experience. She told me the two hospitals she had listed for this position paid $23 an hour with no shift/weekend differential. She stated that Denver was such a popular spot that they didn't need to entice travelers with the pay. What do you all think of this?

Thanks for the responses. My main concern is giving the meds without a dr.'s order. Allele, you are right about never knowing what resident is on call!

When a patient is made npo for a procedure, the resident's never address the medications. So nurses will tell the LPN give this, hold that, etc. Is this "nursing judgement" to decide what meds to give and hold? I think if the resident makes someone npo, they need to place an order "npo-meds with sips". I had one nurse tell me that for CT's with contrast, abdominal echos, they will give meds. If they are scheduled for surgery they hold their meds, saying they are strict npo. I always thought the definition of npo was pretty black and white:) I guess what I'm asking is; is it in a nurse's scope of practice to decide what meds to give to a patient who is npo? One more question for anyone that has worked at both a teaching and a nonteaching hospital. How would you compare the workload/stress of working at each. Being a new grad, having 9 patients, and working with resident's is so stressful for me. It takes up a lot of time to page them, question an order, have them tell you to go through with the order, page the resident's supervisor, you get the picture. I know MD's write questionable orders too, but not every order! (ok maybe not every order, but it sure seems like it!). Any advice would be appreciated!

I would like some input from anyone will to give it:) I want to move to Denver. I currently work for the VA. I could either transfer to the VA in Denver, or find a hospital that will relocate me and hopefully have a sign-on bonus. Another thought I had was to work for a travel nurse company and take a 6 month assignment in Denver. I can't decide what to do. I will have 14 months med/surg experience by the time I would move their. thanks in advance for any advice!

The pharmacist calculated the concentration:) Pharmacists are a wonderful resource (when they are here!). They are out the door at 1900. My sister works at a small hospital and she said she's lucky if they have a pharmacist from 8-12! The attending was probably home sleeping. Yes, this is a teaching hospital....lucky me!

Thanks for all the responses. I actually called another hospital last night that has a pharmacy 24/7 (how nice!), and she figured it to be about D15%. But the patient was able to drink the oj and milk with no problems. The pt was npo for an upper gi. Too bad for the pt, but I learned that anytime a diabetic pt is made npo, ask the dr. if they want pt to supplement with iv fluids. that seems so obvious now:) The response that you couldn't believe the MD supported the resident: the 1st yr residents supervisor was a 3rd yr resident! The resident that placed the initial order is one that we continuously have problems with. Our residents rotate thru at the beginning of each month. hmm...its gonna be a loong month...

I need to vent about my shift last night. I hope this makes sense. Here goes. A patient had been having low blood sugars all day (even after D50 given IVP). They were fingersticking him every hour, he had D10 infusing at 100cc/hr, blood sugars in the 40's. The resident wanted two amps of D50 injected into the liter of D10 and run at 100ccs per hour. I thought this order seemed odd. Our pharmacy closes at 1900, so I had no help there. I talked to the nurses in ICU (that have been nurses forever) and they said they had never done that before. So I called the dr. and told her that was out of my scope of practice. She still wanted the order carried out. I called her supervisor who said "give one mg glucagon im in addition to what the resident ordered" (glad i called him). so I finally had to call the nursing supervisor at home who stated we don't mix solutions like that. Now I understand why the resident wanted him to have more sugar in the solution, but she couldn't get it through her head that I couldn't mix the solutions. (the patient's sugars stabilized as we gave him juice and milk, so he was ok!). My question is where do we document that we weren't going to carry out the dr.'s order, right in the nurses notes? Now what made me the most upset is the dr.'s supervisor came in the morning and he was talking to another dr. and said " the reason his sugars were so low is because the nurses were giving the pt glipizide when he was npo" and then kind of snickered. :angryfire The deal was that the pt got his 0600 dose of glipizide and then was made npo later that day for a procedure the next morning. The glipizide was held that evening and the next morning. I guess nurses are supposed to have ESP and should have guessed the dr's would make him npo that day!! If you can't guess, I haven't been a nurse very long, and neither has the other RN I worked with. Any input on what I could have done differently would be appreciated. I just feel sick about the whole situation. Thanks for letting me vent.

Hi, I am thinking about transferring to the VA in Denver. Does anyone work there that can tell me what its like (nurse to pt ratio, etc.) on med-surg floor. I was also thinking about working in the ED. any info would be appreciated

What if someone charts that they told you something about a patient, but they really didn't. The patient dies,the family sues and they see you were told about what was going on, since it was put in the chart, and it looks like you didn't do anything about it? If you can't tell, one of my biggest fears is being sued!!

To the person that asked if nursing assistants can place foleys; they can where I work with the proper training. To Jason, this is a chat room, I am posting things to discuss, that's what chat rooms are for. do they really teach doctors to be rude in med school? Thanks to everyone else that gave thoughtful, insightful replies. After reading the "whys" to charting people's names, it makes more sense to me.

thanks for all the responses. I too chart "charting nurse saw" or "LPN" reported to me". One of you responded you chart the person's name cuz if there are 5 nursing assistants on duty how would they differentiate who they were talking about in court" I just don't see putting a person's name down and making it easier to get someone in trouble. Just like when you have a med error. you don't put it in the patient's chart, you make out an incident report.Does this make sense to anyone?

thanks for all the responses. I too chart "charting nurse saw" or "LPN" reported to me". One of you responded you chart the person's name cuz if there are 5 nursing assistants on duty how would they differentiate who they were talking about in court" I just don't see putting a person's name down and making it easier to get someone in trouble. Just like when you have a med error. you don't put it in the patient's chart, you make out an incident report.Does this make sense to anyone?

Hi, Quick question; when you all chart, do you put a name to a person? Example: Bob, nursing assistant, placed foley. Or do you just chart nursing assistant placed foley? I was taught not to chart the actual person's name in the chart. Also, does anyone know of any professional websites on legal issues related to charting? thanks in advance!