tarotale

I agree with JMCP. Be aware, I made mistake of choosing ms over icu as a GN just to learn the "stepping stone" and jesus how hard it was to get out of it and get ER position. Go to the ER if u want ER.

nights. why? no admin=better life. for some reason, the night crew always have been really awesome people... and quite peculiar too. but really, unless you work at fancy suburbs, there's going to be plethora of patients even at night because people don't have insurance so they come to ER for clinic stuff like cough, abd pain, etc.

there's loads of topics on this on the forum, i suggest using search engine, but if you're like me and just want simple answers, this is what I found and did: I got NSO, $108/yr is a price of joke, so yeah I say get it.

people say nursing has good foundation and job security for one with family, but I say do something else, there are other jobs that can provide as much if not better with less education and stress/bs. my buddy took few weeks course and got a job in oil/radiology related field starting $20/hr, it's little less than what I make but still consider less education, better raises in that field, and you know, there's no such thing as "petroleum satisfaction" survey. there are many jobs, you just have to look and ask around. good luck.

Haha no one is starting controversy. I'm not talking about trauma situation, I'm talking about your everyday sob, cp, abd pain, etc etc. I get what you are saying. But so what if pt wheezes or has rales? Does you knowing this or charting it really have an outcome or any effect? I'm not talking about stridors or intubation, just regular situations. Ya I can tell the doc the pt is wheezing but he probably already knows that and ordered bd. Please do tell, what does it change? That I know what the lung sounds like? So what, are you going to prescribe antibiotics?

I carried my stethoscope when I first started my job on the floor. I was being the "good new nurse" and did head-toe assx, check for PERRLA on a regardless of patient's neurostatus, checked for 4 points pulses, auscultated for breath sounds, APETM, etc etc, then I stopped using stethoscope completely for quite long time. Especially at the ER, I feel that stethoscope was almost of no use. When I was on ER transition, I listened to breath sounds but soon recognized that it was almost waste of time mainly because almost everyone gets chest xray. But I started carrying stethoscope again recently and this is why. I feel that when I actually listen to the patients' lungs and breath sounds, it seems that patients trust me more, they like it more than me just coming in, hooking them up to monitor and asking mundane questions. That is actually the biggest reason I use my stethoscope now. In terms of outcomes, of course it serves no use because doc will order xray and know if there's effusion, atelectasis, or pneumo, but one, I like to be able to depend on skills instead of imaging tools to know what's going on, and two, patients react positively to that. I see that this is why docs put stethoscopes on patients "just as act" even though I know for sure he/she's not listening, but somehow that probably assures the patient. Anyways, that's been my experience with stethoscopes. Do you carry yours and use them, do you think it actually matters? I don't but I use them for above reasons. What do you do?

No its literal. I don't walk in and tell them hi I'm your nurse, by the way I hate my employer and this hospital, but if they ask, I tell them honestly. However the fact that I hate my employer doesn't affect the effort of my job, because I like my charge and my ER docs. I have seen enough to know that most employers don't care about their nurses.

When patients ask me "do you like nursing?" or "do you like what you do?" my exact word is "No". They ask me why and I tell them that I don't mind the work but health care is full of crooks and that I work for crooks so I hate what I do. I have no problem talking smack about my employer, they are out for themselves in the end and their profit, their money, their bonuses.

I loled pretty hard at esme and houtx. Texas.

We get nothing... Well 7 interns for better staffing I guess. I got half a dollar raise... Half a flipping dollar. No wonder why everyone moves q 2yrs, and that's what I'm doing as well. And also why I'm going for NP.

Thanks everyone for your inputs so far. In fact, I decided to continue doing nights shift but NEVER EVER do 4 nights a week ever again. I have been doing lots of 4/wk lately and those weeks literally kill me, but I can withstand 3/wk. I wouldn't sign up for all weekends either because of weekend diffs since I am going to enjoy my weekends as well. I think balance is utmost importance when doing night shift. I need to enjoy my life enough to withstand work.

guess what happens when $ and greed is introduced to integrity of healthcare? thanks nixon (or was it nixon? anyways...)

Great at doing tasks and helping out at critical situations like code blue or stroke. Not so good at other "undesirable nursing tasks" like cleaning pt, transporting cuz they are PARAMEDICS. I kind of get feel them though, they been doing "field doctors" on the field intubating and running codes, and come into hospital, and they are limited greatly. Well we get paid hell lot more so if they don't want to work hard, whatever.

Hey all, merry soon coming holidays, hope you are working hard for present monies :) I have been working as night nurse since my graduation yr and half ago and I must say life hasn't been all that great. I have been hating my job, apathetic at work and patients, always tired, barely have a social life, insomnia has worsened with night shift, irritated/angry at my situation, stressed, under pressure, no energy to workout, and so on. I really want to improve my situation, and I was wondering if switching to day shift ever provided somewhat of an improvement for anyone. I will have better sleeping schedule, regular human lifestyle, more energy, less tired, hopefully less angry, better social life, much better staffing, and so on. Of course there are downsides, and the biggest one would be not getting extra $4/hr night diffs, but if my life can significantly improve and give me a chance for happier life, decrease in money is only an expandable luxury. So for those who made the switch from nights to day shift, have you noticed any big change for the better? Thanks!

At our system flat pool/resource gets paid twice the department rn base pay. Ya twice.

"real learning begins when you are on your own." couldn't agree more... You will feel the same

I got 3 months coming from little over 1 yr ms background. Not to scare you but ms experience is mostly useless at ER, therefore i am glad you didn't waste too much time before having the privilege of working in ER! until 3rd month, i got overwhelmed at the speed and RPM of workload, but you get used to it and get comfortable with unimportant things that can be done later; it's all about priorities, good luck!

some of colleagues think it's probably easy gig where you sit most of the time at infirmary and do minor things like shots, dressings, etc but due the hostile environment in which inmates would likely get some severe trauma, I am sure correctional nurses need some serious RAW nursing in a limited-resource environment. I mean ya you wouldn't have to care about pt satisfaction or charting as much, and you probably can treat inmates like crap if they act up, but with all the stuff that happens there, I see correctional nursing pretty hardcore. I haven't seen one but a nurse from there would fit pretty well in ER possibly.

usually after graduation, if you are lucky you get straight into specialties like ER, ICU, OR, L&D, NICU, NCC, CCU, PACU, etc, etc, but there are some specialties that are unlikely to hire new grads, such as cath lab, research nurse, case management being one of them. most of the unfortunates (former I) go to medsurg floor and gain enough exp to move on. It's really recommended in my experience to go to specialty you want from the get go, but who knows you might like bedside care. I hate bedside care. Then there are clinic, school, doc office, doctor's nurse, insurance nursing, UR, public health and all other sorts of stuff; some people call somethings "specialty" and some people don't. For example, I don't think floor, clinic, or school is a specialty, but others might differ in their opinion, and I respect their opinion. but ya, what do you want to do?

do you refer to face-to-face comm or over the phone or both? I noticed that the doc-to-nurse interaction was a world of difference in the ER compared to the floor. A lot of them are called by first name, we joke around, keep things really light like "hey man, that dude in 6 with hernia is requesting pain med" and etc. On the floor, I felt a wall between nurses and docs. Probably because they kind of review/write orders then move on, but at least we see lots of residents and hospitalists in ER, and they are easy to get to know because we see them constantly. I don't have much suggestions, I don't know why but every time I had to talk to doc on floor, he/she were douches, to the best apathetic, but down in the dungeon, it's a lot better, so... ya move to the dungeon :)

I have been in three facilities so far and none payed greater in ICU or ER, although I heard of some that do, and I really think ER should be payed heck lot more than floors. Not to brag, but ER workload and intensity is a bed full more than floor nursing from my experience. I also feel that ER gets extra special attention and as you called it "hospital revolves around ER" feeling. because we are that awesome :)

never seen ativan given in intubation process... unless they do that in other hospitals

you just told me I don't get to "guide" how you think, but then turn around and criticize me if I live in a bubble because I have an opinion that is formed based on my experiences alone? Well, if it's a bubble, I guess it's the kind where most low socio/ed show certain consistent behavior and med/high socio/ed show certain consistent behavior. Yes, there are lots of posts that are well-written, but there are lots of divergent posts focusing solely on my opinion and criticizing it. There are somethings I am flexible about, and somethings I am not, and this one I am pretty set on it. Many like to focus on these "exceptions" but am I really talking about exceptions here, or the majority? anyways, my coworkers seem to concur with the concept since they worked in multiple areas, but I value your opinion and the other side of argument as well, even though I can't agree with it.... just like you can't agree with mine, but that doesn't make you wrong... or me wrong.

wow thanks zmansc for that awesome account of your story. Although I never had that kind of experience before, I hope to see that one day which could alter my opinion. I admit that my experiences are biased, of course, that's why they are my experiences. can my views be biased? of course, everyone's views are biased to certain degree as other poster suggested, and since I can admit that, I believe that everyone else can also agree that my idea can be different than yours and yours can be different that mine, so we can all live along. I don't mind different ideas or exchange of ideas at all, not at all. I enjoy them, I just want them expressed in thought-provocative, non-hateful way, like how zmansc wrote her post. To me, my opinion still stands because I never had an experience at work that convince me otherwise. it seems that general consensus on the forum suggests that my theory about socioeconomics and education of patient/family member is irrelevant. I don't think you're wrong, I just think differently since that doesn't apply to me. And to answer someone else, yes I want to work in better area since I believe that could alleviate the working condition better? But I haven't had encountered enough of that spectrum of patient type due to my area, so who knows, they could be better or they could be worse. I will find out in future and know if I was right or wrong... for me.

and as stated again, i guess since you skipped that part, let me reiterate it again. this is my idea, which came forth from my own experiences, my own work experiences, experiences from my coworkers, experienced in my workplace that is located in a state and city and region where i live, my daily life, my daily hours, my daily minutes, my daily seconds... hew, I hope that has narrowed down enough for you that maybe, just maybe you and I might not work in the same place or encountered similar experiences. Look, I hate how the topic is getting further from my original intent, so let's focus on it, and I do appreciate the posters who actually decided to think and post before bursting into unfortunate barrage of comments. I kind of suspected a possibility of topics flying off the course due to lot of people overreacting and misreading anything and everything that has even remote relevance to socioeconomics and such. Generalization is a generalization. They change as cultures change, regions change, people change, etc etc. I can't say that certain people is probably like this in Canada or new england because certain people are like that here. As such, I can't say that all people with high ed and socio will behave in such exact manner because if they do here, they must over there as well; doesn't work that way, and that's why I am emphasizing this is based on MY experience. You can tell me your theory/story whatever based on YOUR experience (which you already have and thank you very much). In terms of frequency/consistency, let's say you like apple from company A when you lived in area A. You move to area B and you buy the same apple from the same company, and it taste like crap. You buy it over and over expecting better result since you always had apples from company A when you lived in area A, but they are still crap in area B. So after 10 apples, you say screw this, no more apples in company A. This is generalization. You will very unlikely buy apples from company A ever again because you generalized that they suck. But why? Maybe rival company in area B instilled propaganda to anger workers in company A harvesting apples in area B, so workers do half-butt job so quality goes down, maybe the climate in area B is not as good as area A for apples, so the taste is worse, maybe company A in area B uses different fertilizer, maybe atomic bomb dropped in area B 140 years ago still makes crops taste crappy, etc etc. But see what's changed, your perception and generalization about apple from company A because of frequent, consistent experiences. There you go. I just explained generalization, frequency and consistency, so maybe this can help in realizing that I am saying what I think based on my experiences so now you can spread the wings of your thoughts based on yours? Thank you everyone!