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 som...

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 d...

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 no...

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...

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 th...

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 hav...

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,...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 Re...

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. ...

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, administrat...

I asked my dad about this because he began nursing back when it was rare for males to be nurses (early 1980s). He said he was never treated any differently by nurses or doctors and that all had the same respect for him as they did for other nurses. ...

Since you have a pharm tech job that should help you at least get an interview. I'm always surprised at the number or nursing students who do not volunteer at hospitals. YES, a job at a hospital is ideal, but in certain places (such as CA) all the...

I'm not a nurse yet, but both my parents were. My mom (ultra catholic) always had Christmas off but at the expense of working Thanksgiving. My dad always worked Christmas by choice because he got holiday pay for it. You'll probably have to sacrifi...

It REALLY REALLY depends on where you live. I live in CA, so even for CNA jobs, 95% of places want experience. There are many possibilities for jobs you can do while in school which will help you gain experience: CNA, ER Tech, Unit Clerk, etc. I h...

I'm not even in nursing school yet and I volunteer at two hospitals while trying to find a hospital job as well. I have my EMT license and am trying to become an ER Tech to gain experience. A lot of places say you need 1 year experience but I was t...

In school right now, but from her post it seems like she didn't really know much about nursing so with that in mind she would get a chance to see day-to-day what nurses do. I know how tough nursing is, as I said both my parents are retired nurses......

I was in finance for five years and recently went back to school to become an RN. Unlike most people, I didn't do this out of necessity. I did it because that's where my passion lies (I had a good paying job). Both my folks are retired nurses so ...

I don't know your whole story, but this is why I think nursing students should volunteer in at LEAST one hospital even before they begin to apply to nursing schools. First it gives them an idea of what nursing actually entails. Secondly, one of the...

If you don't volunteer, I think that is a big mistake on your part. I haven't even been accepted to nursing school and I've already been volunteering for a number of months now. The reality of life is that getting a job is not only based on your expe...

Whoops, please ignore my response, it was meant for another thread! Sorry!