Chamae01

I love my Saucony tennis shoes. My Nike Shox used to be comfy but they wore out pretty quick.

I am in Tx. I sent an email requesting a day at the end of October off & I said I did not want to do a change of tour/shift, I just want to use AL & I'm giving plenty of notice. I was already prepared to fight but amazingly enough they approved and gave me the day I requested.

I have spent the last 4 years on med/surg and now I am sooooo ready to get out of the hospital. I graduate from the bridge program in May so I will be exploring my options then. I am glad that I have the experience though. You definitely get to use every skill you learn pretty much on a daily basis when working on m/s in a hospital. IMO I think it's best to start off in the hospital so you can use what you've learned so that you don't forget how to do something and you become very comfortable performing all the different skills.

So far it's been doable for me. I am currently in the LVN-RN bridge program and working full time. I do 12 hour shifts though so I get more days off in a week which makes it easier for me. It's stressful but I'm the bread winner in my family so gotta do what I gotta do. This program is 3 semesters, I'm currently in the 2nd one. I heard the last semester is gonna be killer though so I'm a little nervous about it. Good luck to you!

I am a LVN in Dallas and there seems to be a good market here. I work at hospital making $20/hr (been working 4 years now) and I hear that the nursing homes (no thank you) and home health LVN's make even better money.

$20/hr plus diffs, Dallas, Tx

I work at a VA hospital & on my floor our current manager gives us a very hard time when we want to take annual leave. Mind you, we will ask for a day or two way in advance (a month or two) and have plenty of saved up leave time yet he will not allow it. He will only let us do a change of shift. We get two weeks of vacation a year which we have to request one year ahead of time. Things come up, we do not always know that far in advance what days we really need off. We have the union here but they are not much help at all. I was just curious if any of you out there have similar problems where you are at and what has been done to correct this situation. :cry:

I have been working on a busy med/surg floor for the past 4 years now. This was my first and so far my only nursing job. I love the patients but I am definitely feeling burned out. Most of the time we are understaffed, we don't have a float pull here so they just pull from floors whether they can afford to give them up or not. I do love staying busy though cause it helps the time fly by. I also love doing 12 hour shifts since that equals more days off a week to spend with my husband and daughter. I am sick of tired of how it seems the most important thing around my hospital is just making the managers look good. They don't care about what a good job you do with your patients. We usually have about 5-6 patients a piece although lately our census has been low which has been a nice relief. I currently am a LVN, going to school for the LVN-RN bridge. I realize I need to work at another facility before I totally bash hospital nursing, it may just be the hospital where I work that sucks. Although the other responses beg to differ, haha. I am greatful for hospital nursing though. It truly has helped me enhance the skills I have learned and use them daily. As far as breaks and such I don't have a problem finding a stopping point to pee, get a drink, eat, etc.

very, very unique patient population. i love the patients there, it's really the coworkers and managers that make it an unpleasant place to work.