Matthew_RN

Just wondering what are some outside of the box jobs that you do when not teaching? I love my faculity job, but the truth is it just simply does not pay the bills. Most of my co-workers still work bedside PRN or part-time. I would really like to do something besides bedside -- just a little burnt out on bedside after all these years. Bachground: I have a MSHA, MSN-ED and I have an accidemic cert in Healthcare Quality and Safety. I worked in quality for about 4 years, prior to teaching, and I working in nursing informatics about 15 years ago. I feel like I have a lot tp offer in a lot of different areas, but it is hard to find something that is not fulltime and willing to work around the school schedule. I truly want to keep teaching, and I knew it did not pay the best, but..... Thank you in advance.

That can be a little hard to answer as a lot goes into that. Adjunct clinical instructors in my area tend to make about $5-8K per class. Meaning, if you have a 12 hour medsurg clinical with 10 students that meets weekly for a full semester you should expect around the upper end of that, maybe even more. I have even seen some subjects pay more (such as mental health) due to the lack of people. Fulltime faculty in my area make between $60-75K on a 9 month contract with a masters. A PhD tends to make $100k ish on a 9 month but, they also have research requirements as well. --- Hope this gives you somewhat of a starting point.

I am seeing a new trend in my area and was wondering if you are seeing it in yours? There is one local large hospital network in my area that has started providing nursing educators to the local collages. For example, this semester the local university had 6 open positions in the school of nursing. The hospital gave them the staff to fill them. These instructors are paid by the hospital but are seen as college instructors. They are using them for clinicals, labs and didactic classes as well. The idea is that it will increase the number of grads and reduce shortages. All that sounds good except, it has somewhat flooded the market for academic nurse educators. I am feeling this firsthand as I just finished my MSN-ED. When I started my program there were tons of jobs. Now, not so much. I just accepted an academic job at one of the local collages and was lucky to find it. When this happened, it also lowered the pay scale. In one semesters time, I have seen the pay decrease 12K on a 9 month contract. I hope I am explaining the well enough. I guess I just feel a little crushed as I have busted my butt over the last year to obtain my second masters in order to shift to acidemia and the market is drying up (somewhat). --- Anyone one else seeing things like this?

Hi, I am a nurse who in the last few years joined our systems QM department as a Quality and Accreditation Specialist. A small group of us have been asked to develop KPIs for this position --do any of you have such, or a clinical ladder, for a similar role? Not all QAS (our title) are nurses, but everyone has some level of clinical background (RT, Srub Tech,....) TYI for any help you can provide, Matt

So, like those above, how do you get started? There are 3 mentors for my state (SC) and the closest one is about 2 hours away. I applied and interviewed with a local clinic last year and they were willing to work with me however, they required I have my CDE in 6 months. I just did not see how that was even possible from my understanding of the 1000 hours. I am an ICU RN with about 5 years of ICU and an additional 3 years of HIT. I love what I do but, I just don't think I can do this for years to come. (health and physical issue). If i understand it correctly I cannot use my ICU hours. Is that correct?

If you google there is a whole forum related to dysautomonia and POTS. my gf was dx with dysautomoniaa, POTs and EDS just over a year ago. That is after having spending her whole life with headaches that put her to bed. She had doctors tell her she was lazy, this was in her head etc... (by the way, she has a JD from a top 10 law school that she attended on accademic schalorship, point being she is not a lazy person). Anyway, by an odd twist in her life she moved to Nashville (one of the few places with a clinic dedicated to this). Well she was at work and they found her on the bathroom floor and sent her to dr. Because of where she lived and the medical focus in the area they diagnosed her within an hour. We have spent a year of trail and error things to help. The biggest thing is salt loading. Because there body uses salt differently they require lots and lots of salt. Labs always come back low noraml Na but she eats and craves salt. She drinks piedalyte (dr recommended it) and adds salt to that. Then we started the beta blockers. Also, avoid heat. She cannot be out for more than a few minutes when the temp is above 75 without feeling bad. It has been a year but, we are starting to figure this out and what to/not do. I will be happy to share more if anyone is interested. Matt

A card is nice but, consider sending an email thanking them while also highlighing some of the positives you bring to the table. When I receive these I take note when the person makes mention of one or two of the things I talked about with them. Also, near the end of an interview, ask them for a tour of the unit/area. The more time you spend with them the better your chances. When I am being interviewed I close with "Is there anything I need to do (or skill) to be a stronger employee for you". This tells them I want the job, I am willing to work on weekness if they see one, and it makes them view me in the position. I had one boss tell me that is what sealed the deal for him.

My first question is do you know for sure the standing order is not in place? Both of us have said we have seen this but, its rare. As far as trouble... Where do you work? If it's a larger facility or teaching facility I would be surprised if anyone would say anything. If it's small then your director may ask you to explain your actions. If that happens then just explain the clinical scenario to them and gentle remind them this was a non-invasive procedure. You may have to eat some crow and say sorry. I would be surprised if it went further assuming this was not the norm.

I do IS nursing for a large hospital system. I have seen some MDs like the one you said but, you would think they would come around to "helping the patient" by having the dx stuff done asap so they can treat the cause. However, with the way reimbursement is working I know some smaller hospitals could not absorb the cost if it was done and not needed. I still think it's an ego issue tho.

I would be ve ry surprised if there is not a standing order. If there is not one I bet it would be in place so fast after you bring it to light you could miss it.

Just wondering if you looked up dysautonomia and POTs. My GF has it and we really had a hard time finding a MD to believe something was wrong until they found her passed out at work. If you are interested I will share some of te things that has helped her. It's been just over a year of trial and error with meds, suppliments, and things to avoid. Vandy has a clinic for it but, we she has not had much luck getting it as they have people coming from around the world to this clinic and the hand full of others like it.

I think your best defense would be what one of the posters said about electronic documentation. Documentation systems are setup to pull information foward to save time. Seems that is what you did. One big question that I think you will need to stress while explainng: Did you sign each chart or did you copy your signature. If you copied your signature then I can see where it looks false. But, if you took the time to sign each one then you took the time to say I standbye what I have documented.

After sending a follow up letter to the director thanking him for his time and outlining what I bring to the table he called me last night and said he filled the position. He found someone with over 10 years of dialysis experience. However, he had another position open up and he was going to go forward with me. He said to expect the offer letter today or Tuesday at the latest. Good thing I sent the follow up letter

from what you are saying it sounds like i work in the is deployment department for the parent company to your facility.

Another idea for jobs. Look around your hospital at all the equipment you use on a daily basis. These vender's also need healthcare professionals for sales, install and training. Who do you use for drug dispense? How about Rad? Who do you use for PACs Suppliers of products that need people to educate hospital staff. (Defibrillator, surgical preps, beds, etc..) These may not be true IS positions but, they will get you introduced to doing product training with endusers. Not such a far jump to doing software education. Also, get involved with your hospitals educators.

QA QA is mostly testing. Most places have scripts (fake charts) telling the tester to enter a X here or Y there and you should see this result. Did you Y or N. If you are doing a full conversion from one product to another you also look at parallel testing. Take a chart from medical records, enter all the data into the new system. Does the basic info look and feel the same. You may have some report differences (layout and such) but, is the info there and is it in a layout the endusers can use. In both cases of conversion and upgrades you also have to look at revenue. Did all charges flow as expected.

I have mostly worked with McKesson and HMS. I also have a Cerner background tho not as deep as the first two. I think I mistyped in my first message. I have not done system sales. Normally you have to have a strong sales background for capital equipment sales. I do not really want to put who I work for on here. I will in a PM but I do not want to send praise or complaints about my current position on an open forum. The hardest challenge and peev is the silo effect. We tend to work with specific modules within a product. For example you may work with order entry modules and your co-worker may work documentation modules. We tend to silo. The silo can be great because you become a specialist but, it can be bad because people tend to shy away from task or issues that fall into a gray area of two modules. For example: when documenting an assessment you may want the system to trigger an order for a wound consult based off the braden scale results. For that to happen you need a conditional order to occur within the ordering module. Depending on how the order is built it may or may not show in a portal product. This can be good or bad. As you see I am outlining how you have to have a team approach and a lot of the time that just does not happen. My best advice to OP who wants to move (I believe it was to Boston): look at what systems hospitals have there and try to find one in their area with the same system. Try to work there or with the vender.

So I have received a couple of PMs in the last few days. As I stated above I am new to the site so I cannot respond to them until I post 15 times. But, here is what I can share to the open forum. I started out as a super user at a very large facility (almost a 1000 beds) when they were going to electronic documentation. One day I put my resume on one of the major job web sites and a recruiter called me. To be honest I had never even considered doing this as a career. 3 years later here I am. Couple things to know. You either work for 1. software companies (Epic, McKesson, HMS, Meditech, Promed, Cerner, and others) 2. A healthcare system (HCA, Baptist, CHS, Tenet etc...) 3. You work support for a local hospital. 3. A contract company (almost like how travel nursing works except you return home on the weekends.) You get contracted out to the people listed above. You can work in different roles depending on who you work for. I can do support, training, deployment of new products, sales, QA the list goes on. Some jobs allow you to work from home while other require a lot of travel. Pay depends greatly depending on what role you play. If you travel expect more. Some applications are harder to learn than other and those pay more. Also, you may need to be certified in the specific application by the vender. One way to get certified is to work for the vender which normally requires a contract. (We spend a year training you, you work for us for 2 years) kind of thing. This is somewhat of a hard role to break into unless you are willing to travel or move while cutting your teeth. Hope this helps and I will reply to PMs when I have posted enough to unlock that option. Respectfully, Matt

Take a look at dysautonomia. The syptoms you describe sounds a lot like POTS. Its a real problem that a lot of medical professionals ignore or just think the patient is making it all up because the symptoms vary greatly from person to person.

I am in the middle of a career change and looking at a $25-30K pay cut to return to the bedside. I have worked in the corp sector for the past few years in a leadership role. Now I am wanting to go to NP school and I need to return to the bedside to up my skills set.

I am new to the site so, I cannot send PMs yet. As soon as I can I will reply to the PM I got. Thanks, Matt

I started by taking an IS travel position. From what I have seen over the past 4 years is you have two options: 1. work for one of the big guys and travel every week as a consultant or as an FTE. 2. work at a local hospital which is sometimes very political. Send me a PM if you want more info. Thanks, Matt

I think it went well. It was for an acute unit which has a 4 month training peroid. Turns out I know some people working there so I think that will help. He told me the position will not be filled for 2 weeks so its a waiting game now.

Thanks for help-- I have an interview tomorrow on a dialysis unit as a staff RN. I have been away from the bedside, but not nursing, for the past 3 years. I have an ICU background and commonly did SCUF dialysis when I worked in the MICU. So, I am not totally new to this but, it's been 3 years. I know the typical interview question like why and strong/ weak etc... What I need to know is what type of dialysis questions to expect on this interview? Thanks for your help, Matt