Aeterna BSN, RN

Just the other day, I had to administer IV Dexrazoxane due to a patient receiving Doxorubicin by IV push. The instructions specifically read that the span of time between starting the Dexrazoxane and finishing the Doxorubicin should not exceed 30 min...

I've been applying to several hospitals in and around the GTA (think the Golden Horshoe, mostly) and have had no luck - not a single call back. I posted my resume in the Resume Help section and got some feedback, but overall it didn't seem like I had...

Trust me, you won't need statistics like that in deciding a nursing program. You're overthinking it The CRNE is not purely an academic exam that tests your knowledge of things like pathophysiology, pharmacology, etc. There are a few questions that r...

Tell that to my manager! It's honestly an on-going problem on my unit and a big reason why RNs are leaving in droves.

I can't tell you the amount of times I've had patients expect me to fix their TVs or get them TVs. Once, on a very busy day, a patient was ringing his call bell constantly because he hadn't received his TV yet. I had to tell him that us nurses don't ...

I'm almost 100% certain it affects everyone in the union, not just the new hires. I was hired in 2010 and was around for the 2011 increase, and I'm pretty sure my hourly wage was automatically adjusted to the new pay scale.

I'm not entirely sure myself. I'm not interested in certain specialties, which I've already listed. However, I'm pretty open to anything else related to acute care nursing. I was thinking either something surgical or cardiac related, since surgical i...

Yes, unfortunately for immigrants, a little Canadian experience is often considered better than a lot of foreign experience in the eyes of a lot of employers (including but not limited to hospitals!) Even having Canadian education is an asset. If you...

Thanks for the insight! I'm feeling not quite so bad about the complete lack of responses. As much as I was hoping to get a job closer to my hometown (within the GTA), I may have to expand outwards. Right now, I'm a several-hours drive away from Toro...

Morale is incredibly low where I am now. It is frankly scary the amount of nurses who are leaving or are applying to other places. If I added up those two groups, I'd probably list about a third of the total RN staff. It's mostly because of our new m...

Throwing my resume up for critique because I can't seem to get any call backs - I've sent perhaps about a dozen job applications over the past couple of months and nothing! As a bit of background, I'm an RN living in Ontario, Canada. I've been applyi...

Thanks for the pointers :) As for my BScN, I don't necessarily have to emphasize it. Here in Ontario, nursing diplomas are extinct now, and even before I started nursing school, Ontario hospitals were already placing BScN requirements for entry-level...

It depends on the facility's policies and the patient himself/the family. I did not know that some facilities require bed alarms. In my unit, there are no bed alarms at all! Literally, they do not even exist. However, it seems like bed alarms are not...

My unit is crazy - it's high acuity, very fast-paced, constantly underfunded (seemingly compared to other similar floors), and chaotic. It's difficult to recruit new staff to our floor because it has a bad reputation for being crazy busy. However, a ...

To err is human! We all make mistakes at some point in our careers. Any nurse who says she/he has never made a mistake is either lying or isn't aware of it! We all miss something or another. We are expected to juggle multiple things at once, so it's ...

Excellent article! I can strongly relate to it, working in oncology/palliative. There is not a single room on our unit that has not seen a death. I can still pass by some rooms and remember a death that affected me in some way, but then I see someone...

"Mosby's Manual of Diagnostic and Laboratory Tests" by Pagana and Pagana. I have the 3rd edition. I'm not sure if there are others or what they're like.

I know a lot of my nurse co-workers don't like students. From what I gather, it's a control thing - nurses have so little control in a typical hospital environment (everything is dictated by patient wants/needs, management, and doctors!) that having ...

What you might want to do is investigate what a CBC diff includes and then investigate what each type of cell does. From there, you can logically determine what a high or low value indicates. At a very basic level, you certainly want to know white bl...

I find myself asking that question, too! I'm honestly not sure. I've only been a nurse for about 2 years now, and going into work stresses me out so much! I mean, there is the occasional good shift where I'm not running around like crazy and manage t...

I agree so much! Many teachers never both to explain why formulas are the way they are, which would lead to an understanding of what you're looking for, what info you need, and how to go about solving it. As a result, so many people get caught up in ...

The wonderful (but also awful) thing about math is that there is often more than one way to look at a problem and solve it. Your way worked and is logical, but I prefer to think of things Esme's way. Choose whichever one works best for you and stick ...

I agree and disagree with the OP. On the one hand, I can certain empathize with a lot of people, and sometimes overbearing or demanding patients/families have a legitimate reason for being that way, even if the way they are expressing their feelings ...

My unit is also in the same boat of high turnover rates. I think it is a huge concern if the unit is a highly specialized unit, such as L&D as monkeybug talked about. Specialized units require good basic nursing skills, as well as specific skills...

I believe that once you've reached a certain age and/or stage in a chronic/terminal illness, then you should be a DNR. However, that is my personal belief. It was actually how I was raised. I remember being just a little kid and my paternal grandmoth...