laceym

I am a SANE and that is completely unacceptable for your manager or even your department to think that your job duties as an ER RN include SAFE. You did the right thing. Your experience in the past is no one's business at work. I wish you well and hope that you can be an advocate for those in need of SAFE, but not necessarily be the examiner.

I really appreciate this topic because I am dealing with crying at my job as a nurse. Thank you all for putting out great tips and ideas-extremely helpful. I cried two times during nursing clinicals-two very sad cases. The first time I was able to hide in bathroom and no one saw-phew! The second time I broke down as we were walking down from the unit to the cafeteria. I appreciated my peers and my instructor-they made me feel validated for crying about the situation my patient was in at the time. Now dealing with crying at my job as a nurse. NOT COOL! I am so exhausted just like you said in your post. I know the reason why I am crying-stress. My managers are such douches they think it is because of things outside of work?!? I can't stand them which stresses me out even more and makes me cry...Right now I giggle because it sounds so ridiculous. Bottom line-find the root of the problem (what is triggering the crying). I didn't see OP-but this can be more than just one thing. Ask for help. BE MINDFUL-listen to your body, slow down, and put you first. We cannot help patients get healthy if we are not healthy ourselves.

You all are cracking me UP! Oh I sooo remember finding my first nursing job! I feel for you and suggest plasma centers, blood banks, dialysis centers (sometimes), community health clinics in your area or a more rural area where you could commute? If relocation is an option-STRONGLY suggest looking out of area/state...it's what I did and I am so glad I made the decision. I love my job now(not my first nursing job...but my second!). You will get hired! I graduated December 2012, took NCLEX February 2013, got my first job offered to me 2,000 miles away mid July 2013. Stop thinking hospital-SO overrated (just my opinion, please don't jump me).

Hey everyone, I am asking for what your thoughts are on this conversation I had with a psychiatrist on staff the other day. Background-I work in a community clinic that sees people from Behavioral Health to General Medicine to HIV Primary Care. I am moving from General Medicine to Behavioral Health. Conversation: Psychiatrist tells me he is planning on (not 100% though) taking another job outside of the clinic, but not to tell anyone about it. I told the psychiatrist I don't know if I want to change departments now knowing he are leaving. Psychiatrist tells me not change my mind and to still come to the Behavioral Health department. My dilemma: I feel like I am put in this crappy position with this information. I really like working in the mental health field and I would still have a strong Nurse Practitioner working in Behavioral Health with me. I just want to make a good decision so it does not affect my career path. Thanks!

I love public health and public health loves me. The PH arena is a great place for you to learn. I'm still a pretty green nurse, but I do not regret avoiding the hospital arena. Would I ever work in a hospital? Maybe. ED sounds rad, but I'm not hot to change my gig any time soon. I love having weekends/holidays off and not working nights. I make ok money, but I didn't become a nurse to make mad cash. I have patients of all types with all types of conditions. Public health work can be hard work, but man is it rewarding.

I think your psych background will be really helpful in public health. I currently work at a non profit clinic which provides general medicine, HIV, Hep C care. We also have behavioral health with psychiatry and even dentistry. The environment can be really chill and awesome since we do not have too strict rules-uniforms/shoes, we can have piercings and tattoos but not excessive, and we have jeans day. Most of the people I work with are working here because what we do is awesome-we help the uninsured (yep, still out there) and the underinsured. The down side is not having things organized-which is really hard for me-I LOVE organization. We also are a learning facility which is really fun as well. Public health is what I love and I strongly recommend getting a tour of what the clinic/agency you are interviewing for. I volunteered at my clinic when I applied-so I knew what I was getting into

I had my first day of work today, which was kind of overwhelming....These posts are making me crack up-thanks so much! It's also really nice to know there are some nurses out there who believe in ACA (I'm currently living in the Midwest and hear tons of crazy babble). Thanks to those out there for being a nurse and defending ACA!

SO TRUE! Good luck-I'm moving back to Missouri to get my one year, whatever it takes to get that experience. DCF/CDCR are great options, but they take forever to hire you on. Hospitals are not really hiring new grads even internal applicants, so sad. Do you have a license somewhere other than CA or an option to live in another state to get the experience? If so, do it. I love living here, but I hate not having a job. The jobs for new grads are where no one wants to live, and also places no one wants to work.

My test shut off at 75 questions and I just sat there. I started to hyperventilate and the person monitoring the test takers came over and said, "Okay, it's over, you're done." I started to cry and said, "I just want to answer more questions!" I passed, but that test made me feel like the dumbest person alive! I guess I didn't follow the rule of staying calm-oops.

Thank you all for your responses. I have talked with SO and kids...went surprisingly well. My SO and his children were so supportive during nursing school and still so now. Thinking about not seeing them that often hurts though . Even my close friends say the same thing, "Go for it-you guys made long distance relationships look easy!" My interview is tomorrow (I guess for formalities) and I am nervous like I was for my NCLEX.

We have been together since 2005, I'm 32. He is moving up in his job and is not willing to relocate to MO, plus all of his family is in CA and all my family is in MO. Sigh...

So I need to ask for advice in regards to a major life decision.... I went to nursing school in Kansas City, MO. I lived in Sacramento, CA before school and it had horrendous waiting lists and lotteries and a high tuition, so off to KCMO I went. I finished school and moved back to Cali as soon as I could. I passed NCLEX, received not only my license in MO, but also in CA. I have applied to 250 jobs with a radius from the bay to Auburn to Stockton to Redding. I graduated top of my class and even received an award at graduation. I speak Spanish and have a wide variety of experience in the medical field. NO RESPONSES in California-I'm sure most people are experiencing the same thing. So I have a long long time boyfriend that lives in Sacramento along with his two children (teenagers). I wanted to be a nurse in Ca sooo bad it hurts, but I don't see it happening soon. I called my old job up in Kansas City and asked if they would hire me as a nurse. They said, "Are you serious? Heck yeah!" The pay is not the best, but it is good, benefits are good, and they reimburse tuition (want to work on BSN). I am so miserable working as a receptionist and hearing people call the MA a nurse along with the rejection letters. Sorry for the word vomit, but here is my question: Do I leave my boyfriend of 8 years and the place I love to live to start my nursing career at least doing SOMETHING? Yeah it's not what I want to do forever, but at least it is a nursing position. I would be dong assessments, helping plasma donors with adverse reactions, giving HIV/Hep B/C positive results and starting pheresis sessions (not really IV, but not really phlebotomy with a 16 gauge). Thoughts? Comments? PLEASE respond-all advice appreciated-even if I don't agree :)

I agree with this completely. I also remember during nursing school we had an OB patient test false positive for meth and the staffs attitude toward patient TOTALLY shifted (which is sooo wrong) and then they retested the SAME sample and it was negative....supposedly her Tagament was causing the false positive? I didn't research it, but I just remember thinking, this is totally messed up. I even heard Ibuprofen can cause false positive THC results. I always think twice if I have a headache...lol. Soooo, I don't know how I feel about drug testing. I mean I do not want someone high taking care of me or someone I care about but I also do not want someone who smokes marijuana at their birthday party to get canned because random drug testing just happened to be the day after it....just saying.

Hella weird....on both ends-hospital having a Facebook page and her responding.

I hear what you are saying Orca in your post. The sad thing is as a New Grad the only people that have responded with a possibility for a position are the correctional jobs for me. I would love to work med/surg for a year. I loved it in school-you learn so much on that floor. I get so many rejection responses from hospitals, it's almost funny now. I just want to work as a RN, in some capacity, and actually the correctional aspect is more appealing than a hospital-that might seem weird, but just how I feel.