katiedid53

OK, there is definitely a problem where you are, you have a bad feeling about what is going on at your place of work, they treatinh you like trash, and all of this is stressing you out and you are going to get sick, depressed, leave nursing or make mistakes, is this all worth it to you? Go to someone that can give you some financial advice of how you could pay this money back. This job is not worth what you are going through. If they really are committing fraud or you even think there is fraud you need to report it to Medicare or you can be considered just as guilty for not reporting and you do not want to lose your license, acrue fines and possible jail time. Seriously, start looking for a new job and get out of there and file your report with the Medicare Fraud Hotline, it turns out it is fraud, you may recieve a reward for reporting it and I have heard that it can be a pretty sum. You can do this anomonis (ok, can't spell), but you need to protect yourself, no one else will do it for you. Best of luck, I hope you come to a decision soon. Life is way too short to be this miserable.

I agree, do not give up on nursing yet. There is a honey moon phase and then real life nursing comes and hits you in the face and the reality of the profession becomes real. We have all been through this, really, you are discovering the real side of nursing, unfortunately you are not taught what the real world of nursing is like and so when it hits you in the face, you start to second guess yourself. I have been a nurse for 29 years and many times I have considered leaving the profession. It was not the nursing, but the politics, and pay and benefits or lack there of and stress and work load, etc... I then switched to another areea of nursing until I found my niche, do I still have days when I wished I was in a different profession, oh yeah, but when it comes down to it, I really do like nursing. I would recommend finding a mentor who has been in the profession for a long time to share you thoughts, concerns, questions and frustrations. There is so much that you can do as a RN, it does not even have to be in a hospital or LTC facility. Get you one year experience and look around for something else, it may be that you are working in a bad facility and you need to find a better work environment. Ask other nurses that work other places in other fields what they recommend for a good place to work. Good luck, I hope you find your niche in nursing, because when you do, you will fall in love with it.

I had a friend in college (nursing school) who attended and graduated and she was in her mid 50's and a grandmother and she did well in school, it was hard for her, but she did it and worked until she retired at 65. So honey, you can do it, you are not too old.

I was working recently through an outside agency at an inpatient hospice unit and I had a patient sitting in the courtyard and when I went out to check on her she said,"Do you know why that lady in the straw hat keeps waving at me in the window?' Now this window was a window of an empty patient room, there was no one in there, so I went and got another nurse and she and I went into the room and turned on the light and went to the window to show her that there was no one there, then I went back out and the patient said, " how can you say you don't see her, she was standing right next to you waving, see, she is still there,don't you see her beckoning me to come?" Then the patient died after this experience. I also had the following experiences when I was a nurse manager in a LTC facility. I kept hearing the residents (not just the confused ones) say, someone needs to do something about the children, the childrent need to be taken care of. When asked, they would say it was a boy and girl around 3 and 5 years old, running and laughing and playing and they were concerned that no one was looking after them and caring for them. This only happened when a patient would be nearing death even if we were not epecting them to die. Then when death was imminent they would see "the man in the black coat who wandered the halls and into the resident's room." I asked my staff about this and the one who had worked there for a while stated that the LTC facility was built on the site where a man had burned down his house tieing the children down and leaving them to burn in the house, he later committed suicide in jail. The staff said that this was frequently seen by most of the residents who were nearing death even if it was not evident, and sure enough it was true. Then the weekend supervisor said that one weekend when she was at the nurses station she saw the children and they were trying to play hide and seek with her and she couldn't get them to leave her alone and it was creeping her out. I told her that if that were me I would be gone, my resignation would be on the D.O.N. desk and that would be the last shift I would work there. The night staff stated that they often saw the man in the black coat wonder the hall when someone was going to die. We also had a light it the hall that would flicker when someone was imment and when they died. Yeah, I don't work there any more, but not for this reason, I never saw any of this, but I do believe the residents account for what they saw

it is not about us, it all about the patient and we are here for the patient, so every one needs to get over themselves and be a team and give the best care ever to the patient and support each other, thank each other for help, for a job well done, for a job done under tough circumstances and keep a healthy sense of humor.

I have to say that you may reexamine your relationship with your fiance, because, he is someone who may not be trusted due to his exaggerating stories. You will always encounter someone who has dirty jokes to say and dirty comments, this is inappropriate and unprofessional and as the person before me said, the best way to combat that kind of behavior is to distance yourself from it. By the way it is not only men who talke smutty, I have heard many female nurses do the same, it puts a bad reputation on health care professionals. So do not be one of them, be above them and distance yourself from them. Empower yourself, be secure with yourself and do not worry about this topic, because how your fiance described it is no where how it is and if it is occurring, and it bothers him, he should have reported it a long time ago to his supervisor. OSHA requires that all places of employment provide inservicing about harrassment in the work place which includes harrassment of any kind. I think there are bigger issues here than just whether or not to go into nursing. Examine you life, your relationship with your fiance and wether or not you can be a strong person who is satisfied with herself. If nursing is what you really want to do, go for it, this topic is so minor in the scope of everything else that you will have to deal with in nursing. Oh, and if I had someone slap my butt, yeah, it wouldn't happen again, I would press sexual harrassment charges so fast their head would spin, I do not care if it were a doctor, nurse, management they would do ever do it again. But do understand depending upon the specialty that you go into you can get some really obnoxious patients that will say some off beat things to you, it comes with the job and you learn how to handle them, the drunks and drug addicts in the ER are the best for doing this kind of behavior.

You are a RN, you do not need to work as a C.N.A. In Wisconnsin, especially in the Milwaukee area, the hospitals are preferring to hire the new grads because they are cheaper and they are getting rid of the seasoned RNs because we cost too much money. Maybe you need to change the focus of specialty that you are applying for and apply for some different specialties or consider moving, you are young, this is the time to travel. I Graduate in 1984 when there were too many nurses in the midwest, so I went down to Georgia for a couple of years until the shortage hit the midwest and then I came back. Just to let you know that the nursing shortage and abundance of nurses is in direct relation to the economy. When the economy is bad, the fewer nursing jobs and when the economy is good then there are fewer nurses to fill the nursing jobs because they go into something else, are able to stay home with the kids etc..., so check out your options, you can get a job as an ADN, but I do advise to work on your BSN for job security reasons. Good luck and congrats on passing you NCLEX.

You are right. It is a patient's right to know what they are signing and to have the information provided in the language that they can understand, even if it requires an interpreter. I would not feel comfortable about having a patient sign something that they do no know what they are signing. Your facility needs to take another look at the patient bill of rights. I think you need to take this to your Director of Nursing, because I bet she will never agree with what they are doing and if she does then take it to the Administrator and if doesn't change things then report it to the state or if you facility is JACHO certified, report it to them, this needs to be corrected.

Honey, you need a vacation. I thought I had been through alot, then I read about someone who has been through more than me and it make me appreciate my life. So take some time for yourself and enjoy life, because you only have one life.

I have never been able to work night shift. I would suggest to get off the night shift or are you working nights because of babysitting issues? Even second shift would be better than night shift if you cannot tolerate the night hours. I feel for you.

Oh, Indy, I loved that one, I needed that laugh, he so deserved it. Now for you, sleepdeprived1, I keep a clip board with me and note book paper to keep notes, such as, every time I have to keep calling the blessed (I am being nice) MD who is not returning my pages. I am also just nasty enough to write in quotes what he says when he is being a jerk (yah, I wanted to use another word). Because the person before me who said that he will be the first one to throw you under the bus is right, he will and you have to protect yourself. Make sure you let your supervisor know that a doctor is not returning your calls because she can also help with the calls, not that it will make the MD call back sooner, but it help free you up to do your work. If you are working in an area other than a hospital then you need to just call 911 and send the person out. I always say,"if in doubt, send them out." It is better to be safe than sorry, what is the worst that can happen? The patient is sent back after being assessed in the ER, but you still will have your license at the end of the shift. You do not need a doctor's order to send someone out to the ER. Good luck in nursing, I am glad we have new nurses coming in so that I can retire one of these days.

I have worked in LTC facilities that have had very reliable med techs and they actually were better and had fewer medication errors than the nurses. In my state the course is 6 weeks long. Of course I have also seen some med techs that are not safe, but for the most part, the ones that I have seen are very good and when it comes to nurses, I have seen more nurses that are terrible with med pass in LTC. Besides, the LTC nurses have 30-40 patients and if they have to do their own med pass, that is all that they are doing is passing meds their whole shift and then that is how important patient issues are missed. It is the facility's responsiblity to make sure that the med tech receives an intense orientation. I do not mind med techs, but I am surprised that in a LTC facility that they are aloud to give narcs. This has always been only alowed by the nurse so that she can assess the pain and the effectivenes of the pain management.

The problem with what is being proposed at this time with the change in health care is that it is not a one party payment, it is going to be mandated that everyone have health insurance, meaning that those who do not have health insurance provided by their employer have to purchase it, and most people cannot afford to do that and if they don't, they will be penalized on their income taxes several thousands of dollars. I do not know about you, but I cannot afford that, I am working for a home care agency that just opened and we do not nor can we afford health insurance for our employees (which is me) and I cannot afford health insurance, and I cannot afford to be penalized on my income taxes.

I would be concerned that I was putting my nursing license on the line, you may want to reconsider working there, or "run Forest run!!!"

I never knew that there was such a thing as a med psych unit. Wow, that has to be a challenge. I cannot even imagine the sense of humor that you would have to have for that job. I salute you for working that unit. Although, I think it would be interesting, but then again, I gravitate to the interesting and out of the ordinary stuff.

I have worked, ICU,Trauma, ER, Homecare, Hospice, LTC and when I was in working the hospital I had to float out to the med surg floor once and I thought I would die, I was used to 1-3 patients and even though they were very critically ill, I would rather have been in a code than having 6-8 patients. Then I had worked as a Nurse Manager and Supervisor in LTC and I would sometime have to have to work the floor and and I said, OMG, there is not enough money for me to work the floor, the facility that I was in had vent unit with 36 vent patients and on the second shift all they had was one LPN and One C.N.A. and if it was a good night we would have a RT and if not I was the RT and the Nursing supervisor for the whole building (356 beds). Obviously, I left and reported them to the state. So, I would say, it depends upon where you are working, the staffing, the quality of care provided, the support that you have from your coworkers and from management, and your attitude. I do not think that there is a specific area more stressful than others, because nursing is stressful and we need to support each other and remember to appreciate each other. But I do have to admit, that vent unit for me took the cake, and I am glad to say that the state shut down that vent unit. Too bad they did not shut down the whole building.

This is awesome about the care that your mom receive in the ED and how the nurse in the LTC facility owned up to her mistake in not assessing her diabetics' feet daily. But, I would not tolerate what is happening to your mom in the hospital, this is a violation of her patient rights, and is a dignity issue and increases the chance of skin breakdown, etc... The Director of Nursing needs to be informed of this, I know, I am and Director of Nursing, and if I found out that one of my employees or more were telling the patients to "go in their diaper", I would be livid. This is not acceptable and needs to be addressed, please do not tolerate this kind of treatment by the staff with your mom, she deserves better and so do all the rest of the patients on that unit. I will try to remember you and your mom in my prayers and the staff who are caring for her.

It depends on the holiday. I am more than willing to work new years eve and day. I have missed so many family holidays for so many years because of nursing and now that I have a nursing job that is salaried, I really appreciate having the holidays off to spend with my family.

I have been a nurse for 29 years and it is always the policy that CPR is started if the patient is not a DNR, even in a nursing home. I want to say do not beat yourself up over it, but this is a big deal, CPR should have been started. Now on the other side, the outcome would have been the same, he would not have been able to be resusitated. My advice for you is to never do this again, it can and will land you in court, being sued and possibly losing your nursin license. You worked too hard to get to where you are today. As a D.O.N. I would be having to do major damage control with this if you were one of my nurses. Take this as a learning experience and do not ever do this again. I am saying this for your protection, because if you are making these kind of judgements early in your career, what other unsafe judgements are you making in your daily work day. Stick to the policy and procedures and the Nurse Practice Act and if in doubt check with your supervisor. But if you find someone dead, and they are to receive CPR then do it, there is no exception to the rule. Now go out and be the best nurse you can be, learn from your mistakes because, guess what, this will not be your first mistake that you will make in your career, welcome to nursing.

I have been a nurse for 29 years and it is always the policy that it the patient is a not a DNR, then CPR is to be started. Now, just to ease your mind, if the patient was as far gone as you said, the possibility of him actually being resuscitated is almost impossible and if he had been revived, the brain damage would be so significan