LisaMR

Nursing started out using this approach and it was with the hospital-based programs. Most of them were about 3 years long, and you pretty much worked the floors as your clinicals. By the time the nurses graduated, they could easily step right into the role of an RN. I don't know if any of them even still exist. My mother went to one, and graduated in 1960. So....they used to have programs like you describe, but it's all changed and turned into more classroom experience, much less clinical work, and even that is very limited in it's scope of practice compared to the hospital-based programs.

I'm finishing up the online training modules to work flu shot clinics soon. The injections are the easy part, but the paperwork seems completely confusing and am wondering if it's easier in person than it appears? Anyone done this, and what has your experience been? I'm afraid of messing up the paperwork, especially the payment/insurance parts. There seem to be a lot of steps and contingencies. Lisa

I recently completed an RN Refresher course that included 8 shifts (12 hours each) in a hospital. What a humbling experience, lol. I was treated for the most part like I'd never stepped foot in a hospital, and was a student, even though I had 10 years experience in the past. My goal was to learn as much as possible, do as much as possible, be helpful to the staff, give the patients good nursing care, and show enough work effort and skill that I could get good references from the RNs and charge nurses working with me. To nursing students, I'd suggest: Take every opportunity to help out the nurses. If the RN you're working with is sitting and charting, or doing something you can't help with, then ask another RN or the charge nurse if there's anything you can do. Maybe doing blood sugar checks, VS, bladder scans, or something else with the CNA's. These are all skills you need to know, too. Don't look down on the non-RN staff. You could learn a lot from them. Just because you've checked xyz off of your skills checklist, doesn't mean you say No Thanks if you're offered another opportunity. If you've already done a skill and get the chance to do it again, do it. Practice makes for proficiency. Remember that the ultimate responsibility for these patients is with the RN that is assigned to them. If you say you'll complete xyz, then do it or let the nurse know if you can't for whatever reason so the patient's needs will be met.

I never took care of diabetics when working but do remember in school clinicals having patients that were diabetic. We gave sliding scale insulin based on urine glucostix results in the early 80's. What shade the strip was determined how much insulin was given. The early accucheck machines changed all of that for the better. Now as the mom of two kids with diabetes, the thought of giving them insulin that way makes me shudder.

"Almost 100 percent of the safety features introduced in the 1980's came about due to AIDS. Sadly ironic benefit of that awful disease" Sad, but true. When I first worked in ICU, we didn't wear gloves to start IVs, suction patients, empty gastric suction containers, any of that. Most gloves were sterile and then just used to protect the patient from infection, not the staff. Within a few years, we were all wearing gloves, masks and even goggles/eye shields. Even when working in L&D at first, gloves weren't mandated or widely available in boxes like they are today. I remember having to scrape the vernix from a newborn from under my fingernails after a delivery, when I was the one to dry off, assess, band and print the baby.

I graduated from college in 1984 and we had sharps containers at that time. Most of them had you cutting off the needle and then putting the rest of the syringe in another container, sometimes it was made of heavy cardboard....and occ something sharp would poke through, not the best design, lol. The biggest problem was when there was a code and we'd use a lot of syringes of meds. There were needles everywhere, and it wasn't uncommon to see a nurse or resident in a hurry, uncap the needle with teeth, inject, and put the empty into the mattress. NOT accepted practice, but it happened pretty often. IV pumps were widespread at that time, too. My first job out of school was in the SICU of a large teaching hospital, and the pumps were actually pretty similar to what I've seen used recently when I did an RN Refresher course. In the mid-80's the only patients I saw that didn't have an IV pump were the ones with an IV with a very slow rate, just to keep vein open, that sort of thing. The pyxis was after my working time, and I last worked fulltime in 1993. In both ICU and L&D, we kept stock drugs on the floors and would even add our own KCl, MgSo4, Pitocin, and other meds to the IV bags ourselves.

I've been thinking about hospice nursing for years, since my father died and had excellent care with hospice. Is is possible to work part-time or prn for a hospice doing home visits? What are the pluses and minuses of working in an inpatient hospice unit vs home visits? If any of you know the Broward, Florida area, what are some hospices to check out or ones I should stay far, far away from? How to best apply for a job with a hospice....is it all online like most everything I've seen (I'm returning to RN work after time at home), or can you actually walk in and apply in person, or better to call and make an appt? I'm enjoying reading this site and thought home health was where I wanted to go, but am leaning toward hospice now.

I live in Broward county , Florida....the Ft Lauderdale area. I took the RN Remedial class at Capscare in Lake Worth. It was a bit of a drive doing the clinicals but much easier than the other closest option of Miami.

I'm an RN that's returning to work after being home for 17 years. My previous experience was in SICU and then L&D. For a variety of reasons, I would like to work Home Health at this point in my life. Any advice for breaking into this field? I'm in South Florida, Broward....any agencies I should go to that are open to training a motivated, energetic, compassionate and efficient older nurse? Any agencies I should avoid? How did you get your Home Health job? Should I start calling all of them and make appts if they'll let me, or just show up with resume in hand? I've applied to a couple online, but haven't heard anything yet. It doesn't help that right now is the time of year all of the snowbirds are up north, so many agencies are very slow. :)

This is to Neliii: Two of our kids have type 1, one dx at age 18 mos and she's now 8yo. The other is our eldest son, who was dx just over a year ago at age 22yo. I highly recommend a great website: http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com It's full of very good information, research, advice and btdt experience. Their CWD Forums are the best and you can learn a lot from reading there. They have one for adults too. One of the reasons it's common to gain weight after a type 1 dx is because once you are getting insulin via injections or pump after your beta cells have quit producing it, your body no longer has to burn fat for fuel. That's a basic way to explain it. Get a good carb counting book, a scale if you want to weigh your food for more accurate carb counts. I think the Calorie King book is a good one. I've thought about becoming a CDE eventually, since I have personal experience with 24/7 management of a child with diabetes. I'd have to learn a lot about type 2's and the other aspects, though. Good luck to you!:)

Best advice on how to go about this? I've been applying online to everything I am remotely qualified for, and have had one interview that I got through the recommendation of a friend, but unfortunately they can't hire right now due to low census and financial issues. Are most job applications done online now? Is it best to call HR at the places I want to apply, or just show up with resume in hand? It's been 20 years since I've applied for a job, so wondering how it's changed. I would rather not work in a hospital setting, so am not looking there for now, but will reassess in a few months if I need to do so. Home heath and ambulatory outpatient surgery centers are what I've applied to so far, any other suggestions?

I'm re-entering the workforce after 17 years at home. As an RN, I really don't know what to expect for salaries in my area, since none of the job listings will say, and I don't know any currently employed RNs to ask about it. I live in Broward County, Florida, west of Ft. Lauderdale. Looking for part-time or prn jobs, hoping for Home Health but applying for everything except acute-care hospital settings. Does anyone work in this part of the country? What about out-patient surgery centers, how do they pay? Thanks for your input. :)

Hi all, I saw some older threads about this, but thought I'd bring it up again. I'm Lisa, a "mature" RN returning to the workforce, hopefully. I have 7 kids ranging from 23yo down to 5yo and our youngest is getting ready to start Kgarten in a few weeks. I worked for 10 years, SICU and then L&D, then have been home for the past 17 years. I was not too bright and let my RN license lapse, so had to take an RN Remedial course to get relicensed. It was 80 theory hours online and 96 clinical in a hospital. I'm looking for advice on where to even look for jobs at this point in my life. I have some restrictions on my time availability because my husband travels frequently for his job, plus our 8yo has type 1 diabetes and I have to be available to go to school as needed (school nurses here are few and far between and not too good, from what we've seen). Me being a school nurse isn't an option because our district only uses LPNs from an agency in a few schools and then medical assistants in other schools, if anything. So....all this means hospital nursing would be very difficult because I can't work nights and leave my kids, and have to be available by phone at all times. I was thinking home health and even had an interview, but right now patient census is very low in our area and the DON told me new Medicare stuff is making it hard on them, but she'll call me as soon as things pick up. I'd prefer a job sooner than that, and want part-time or per-diem, about 20 hours a week. I've applied online for home health agencies, flu shot clinics, and an ambulatory surgical center. Any other suggestions? Are all job applications online now, or should I start to walk in and hand resumes out in person? It's been so long since I've done this, and in the past, you'd just walk in, have the right experience and they'd basically hire you on the spot. Any suggestions or btdt advise is very welcome!:)