P51Mike1980

In terms of being given more responsibility I can tell you it will come (to the extent a volunteer can get more responsibility), but you need to be patient. Volunteers have a high turnover and nurses don't always want to invest responsibility in someone who is going to leave at any given moment.

That's pretty rude of them, and I haven't seen that happen in the ED I volunteer in. The only time I'd ever interrupt a nurse who is in the middle of making a report/treating/talking to a doctor, is if there is a medical emergency. If you haven't done so, just tell them you're busy and you'll get to that patient when you have a second and if they continue to do so, tell them not to interrupt you when you are busy. If they take offense, too bad, they probably want to become nurses and they can use it as training on growing a thicker skin.

Any reason why?

I'd like to add something else to my previous comment, if you've been trained to, answer the phones! You don't know how much its appreciated if you can give the secretaries a break and be the go between the phone and the nurse/ED physicians. Its not just the nurses you are working with, but the doctors and secretaries too. A lot of volunteers I've seen forget this and only make themselves available to the nurses. Doctors, secretaries, and techs appreciate volunteers that are helpful too! Remember, they can always put in a good word for you when looking for a job!

Tell them to take a flying leap. MANY employers put this in their handbooks in order to scare employees when it comes time to quit. Unless you are a contract employee that has a contract stating you will work for said employer for a specific amount out time they cannot make you stay there for 4 weeks, NOR are they allowed to retaliate against you for leaving in less than four weeks. I don't know what state you're in, but this is how it works in California.

It may or may not count as experience but it does help with networking and getting your face recognized. I currently volunteer in an ED because I want to.eventually work in an ED. I can tell you that doctors and nurses have told me to apply when there is an open ED tech position because they see how hard I work and they'll put in q good word with the hiring manager. Networking is STILL very important in getting a job.

This was a great read and the last couple of paragraphs stated exactly why I left office work. Thankfully both my parents are nurses so I talked to them a LOT about it before going back to school. I see too many fellow pre-nursing students that have no idea what nursing is about and what its really like. There are too few entry level jobs and the hours are long nand hard. Towards the end of my dads career his back was in bad shape, my mom suffered a herniated disk. It's not at all a glamerous profession like TV .akes it out to be, but for some people its worth it. As a second career choice I feel its right for my; I've always been drawn to medicine from a very young agem

I LOVE being an ED volunteer, but what you do will really depend on the protocol at the hospital you volunteer at. Where I volunteer I answer phones, transport patients to x-ray, bring patients to their rooms, wheel discharged patients to their car, bring patients water or food (if the nurse allows it), clean beds, etc. The responsibilities your given will also depend on the nurses on duty. Some nurses love having volunteers, others pretty much treat us like we aren't there. Some nurses will be supportive, others won't. I had a nurse just this last week tell me that I was wasting my time by trying to get into nursing school because no one's hiring and he doesn't see any new positions opening up for 10 years. Other nurses are very supportive and willing to give advice about nursing and nursing school. There are going to be slow days and busy days. On slow days when there isn't much to do, I usually take a walk around the ED every five minutes to see if anyone needs anything or if rooms need to be cleaned. I also like being proactive and cleaning rooms before I'm asked to do so (I'm able to see when a patient is discharged). If its a busy day, I try to stay out of the way and tend to answer phones to help alleviate some of the work load of the secretaries. Basically, some nurses will see you as part of the team others will not. I try not to be too chatty with nurses unless they want to be chatty with me; I realize they have a huge work load. There are a couple of nurses though that love to chat and really do a good job about answering questions I have. The advice given to treat volunteering like any other job is excellent. Although I'm not paid to volunteer I realize that I made a commitment and that I am depended on (I've had nurses and secretaries tell me that they can feel the difference when volunteers aren't around). When I'm sick or can't make it into work for one reason or another I always am courteous enough to call in and let the charge nurse I won' be making it. I used to work with two other volunteers; one was flaky and only showed up every couple of weeks, the other brought school work and did nothing but study. Not to toot my own horn, but the nurses preferred working with me and came to me first. One nurse went as far as to tell me that I'm one of the best volunteers she's seen in a while. Remember, these are people you might be working with one day and you don't want to burn any bridges. I also see it as an opportunity to network and have my face known around the hospital. With the way the job market is today, anything helps...Have fun and enjoy it, the ED is unique when it comes to volunteering because there is much more patient interaction and you see a whole host of illnesses and injuries. Its a great experience!

This is going to be a huge problem in a few years and nurses start retiring again. There will be a shortage of "experienced" nurses. In a perfect world, hospitals would hire a healthy mix of experienced and inexperienced nurses; however, the people who really run hospitals (businesspersons) like to push things off into the future.

Have you tried just applying for ED positions? The ED I volunteer at takes nurses from different departments without any ED experience. Volunteering is a good way to get an idea of how the ED works, but as others have posted you won't get the skill set you need. I started volunteering in an ED before I've even been admitted to nursing school, not because I'll gain experience but because its a way for me to network with different people for a few years. HOPEFULLY this will at least get me an interview. And yes, I've also been trying to find a job in an ED or ICU as a clerk but everyone wants the unattainable one year experience. As an ED volunteer I'm just there to help answer phones, bring patients blankets/food/water, clean out beds, and tasks like that. I will occasionally work with a nurse who likes to impart knowledge and talk about how much they love being an ED nurse, but if you're already an RN just go for it and apply for ED jobs...

I wouldn't give her a second thought. My dad was a nurse for 25+ years before retiring and he's the quietest person I know. His evaluations were great and he was a good nurse. He took care of the patients he had, talked to them when necessary, but didn't find the need to be talkative when it wasn't needed. Sometimes people who are quite are better off because instead of being immersed in their own thoughts and what they're going to say next, they listen more to what others say and are able to pick up on nonverbal cues better.

Although I'm not a nurse, I've seen plenty of doctors in the ED where I volunteer do pretty much the same thing. I don't see either of those as a big deal at all.

Depends on the program you want to get into. If you want a BSN, a lot of the requirements are "hard." The program I want to get into requires: -Chemistry -Microbiology -Psychology -Sociology -Nutrition -Statistics -Critical Thinking -Writing and Reading comprehension -Developmental psychology -Anatomy -Physiology Built into those classes are the prerequesites for those classes such as general biology and the such. In another post, some were lamenting the fact that general and organic chemistry aren't required and I would have to agree. Some schools offer watered down courses such as chemistry for health, but I think students get the best educational experience by having to take the full version of the course...and being the huge science nerd I am I just find it more interesting and fun.

Ditto! I had what most would consider a "good job" before I quit last year. It was in finance, and just like some people aren't cut out for nursing or anything medical related, I am absolutely NOT cut out for finance or anything business related. I started out as a bio major with the intention of applying to medical school; halfway through college I switched to Finance and dropped the med school dream - I still have no idea why. Last year, I decided to go into nursing after realizing that if I stayed in business I'd be miserable. I grew up around nursing - both my parents were nurses before they retired and I didn't go in with any rose colored glasses about the career. That being said a lot of nurses are just plain nasty to me when they hear my story, and most of those nasty people are online. I volunteer in an ED and the majority of the nurses are extremely supportive...like every other career, nursing is cyclical and I believe that a lot of hospitals are doing themselves a disservice by not hiring a healthy amount of new grads. If they keep hiring only experienced nurses, there will be a time in the future where there will absolutely be a shortage of nurses because all the experienced nurses will have retired. That being said, no career is recession proof and I do think that the motivation of those going into nursing as a second career should be questioned. Those going in for job security are in for a massive shock. Nursing is not a glamorous career as shows like Grey's Anatomy and Nurse Jacky portray. There were many days when my parents came home dejected, upset, and wanted to quit. Most of the time it's thankless and you have to put up with a lot of BS from patients, doctors and others. I'm also very interested to see if the hiring disparity pertains more to those with and ADN versus a BSN and also to individual departments such as the ED, ICU, L&D, etc...it seems that everyone I talk to wants to be an L&D nurse and won't settle for anything less. I'd like to do ED/ICU because I eventually want to become an ACNP but I'll take anything that hires me right off the bat. I also take the posts of others on this forum with a grain of salt and take the advice from nurses I interact with as a volunteer more to heart. Sorry, but online I think you often get bitter and angry individuals posting more than those that genuinely want to help and offer advice.

Its a sad fact of life that not all "book smart" people are "job smart," I encountered this on a daily basis in my former life in finance. That being said, as pointed out here, you have MANY options to choose from, such as LTC, teaching, administration, etc. I don't know what department you worked in, but have you ever thought about trying a different department, such as the ER or ICU - one that might be more challenging? If you're like me, you don't like monotony and those two areas are quite UN-monotinous. As to those saying her husband shouldn't have said what he said: a spouses role is not only to support the other but to also give them a dose or reality when needed.