ClassOf2004

Has anyone joined NOVA? Just curious if being a member is beneficial if I'm already part of the union at the VA. I was reading the website (https://www.vanurse.org/) and don't see much of a benefit for $171/year. I also want to get my Nurse 3 so I don't know if being a NOVA member will make a difference for my proficiency. Thank you. ?

New VA hire here trying to get through the whole onboarding process. Can anyone share a copy of the proficiency with me please? Thank you. I swear this shouldn't be so complicated and I feel completely dumb for struggling so much with it. [email protected]

Can someone explain the VA pay scale to me? I applied for a job and this is what they emailed me: Pay Plan/Series/Grade: VN-0610-00. What does that mean in the Chicago area for a BSN with 16+ years of experience. I tried to Google it and even got an Excel spreadsheet with different salaries but I can't find the pay plan/series/grade thing I was given. https://www.VA.gov/ohrm/pay/

I've been an RN in Illinois since 2004 and have been at my current (non union) employer for almost 10 years. A few weeks ago we were all told that the hospital had a "great" way for us to engage with our patients more. Since we are wearing masks all the time administration thought it would be great for us to have our pictures taken and put on the wall in the patient rooms so they can "see" who is taking care of them. Several staff members on my unit are completely uncomfortable with that. Do we have any recourse? Can we be fired if we refuse? We have our work ID badges with our pictures on them so we're not sure why we need pictures of ourselves in the patient rooms as well. A compromise would be to change our ID badges and make our pictures bigger and easier to see but that idea was rejected. We were told that our pictures being in the patient rooms was "not an option, it is mandatory". Help!

She said that by me refusing to take care of the patient and calling in sick that I abandoned the patients (who weren't even patients on MY unit). So then with that reasoning aren't we all abandoning our patients when we call in sick?

It was my night to work but she called me 90 minutes before my shift started to tell me that I was floating to L&D and taking care of 2 patients. One of the patients was on continuous monitoring. After I refused, another coworker of mine was told that she had to float to antepartum to take my place yet her assignment consisted of only 1 patient who was not being monitored continuously At the meeting my unit manager said that what I did constituted abandonment in her eyes because I abandoned the patients. How is it abandonment if I wasn't even at work, didn't swipe in, and didn't get report? I swear this hospital is very highly ranked in my state and gets very high patient satisfaction scores but if the public knew how the nurses were treated they would be shocked. I am so frustrated with my clinical leader, my unit manager, and HR I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose my job I just don't want to be forced to work in an area I haven't been trained to work in. Is that asking too much?

I'm in IL and I don't know what our Safe Harbor laws are. I was not on call. My clinical leader (who knew how upset I was at work last week Weds and Thurs when I was forced to float to that unit and who I have been telling about my discomfort with the other unit for almost a year) called me 90 minutes before my shift started to tell me that I was going there again on Monday. Funny thing is when they wrote me up there was no mention of why I refused to come in that night. I had to squeeze in my explanation on 2 lines while their explanation of the situation took up 11 lines. No wonder so many nurses leave the profession. I'm on the verge of being a greeter at Wal Mart.

Forgot to add that I got a final written warning today at the meeting. Not sure why it was a final one because I have never been disciplined before today. Oh well, guess managament really doesn't care about their nurses.

Met with my manager today and she wrote me up for refusing to go to L&D to take care of a patient I am not properly trained to take care of. She then informed me that I will not get my yearly bonus and my raise will be cut in half. Way to treat your employees ________ Hospital.

Thank you all for your great responses!! I am meeting with my manager tomorrow (I'm sure I will be written up for refusing to go to L&D the other night even though I was at home when I got the call and refused) and I will definitely bring this up again and I have no problem going over her I was just hoping she would be decent enough to deal with the issue without getting the higher ups involved.

I've been a mother baby nurse since graduation. At my current hospital they have 25+ nurses who work on my shift and 7 of us float to L&D to take care of their antepartum patients. I am completely uncomfortable going there and have addressed the issue with my clinical leader and my unit manager. Their response is that I have to go there despite the fact that I fear losing my license because I am not properly trained to go there and I was never asked to take on the task of being an antepartum RN. The other RNs on the unit do not go to antepartum just the 7 of us. I called HR and was told that the hospital can make us float anywhere if the census requires floaters. I have no problem floating to the NICU or even going to L&D and being a baby RN or recovering a postpartum patient but going to antepartum and having to read the continuous fetal monitoring strips scares me to death. 3 of my antepartum floating co workers feel the same way I do but it feels like it's us against the world because management and HR won't back us up. Is there anything we can do other than get new jobs elsewhere?

**Totally stupid question here** I live and work in Illinois in a non union hospital. Does anyone know how a hospital can become a union hospital? I e-mailed the Illinois Nurses Association and have yet to receive a response. We are having some major issues on our unit and our unit manager and upper management don't seem to care about the nurses on our unit. I'm going on maternity leave in a few months and if nothing changes I won't have much choice but to leave.

I am TERRIBLY sorry for your loss. I think it is wonderful that in your time of mourning you want to show your appreciation to the nurses who cared for you. As much as I hate to sound greedy or unappreciative I don't think we get the thanks we sometimes deserve. I think a thank you card is perfect. We always love to read thank you cards or letters from patients. I wish you the best!

She delivered this morning via c-section. She ruptured at 0225, she was contracting, and they took her to L&D where she delivered 2 baby boys. One is doing great, the other has hydrocephalus

I am also pregnant and I work night shift whereas the other RN works day shift. Therefore I wouldn't and couldn't have volunteered to take on the patient for her.

Sounds like you work at Loyola.

What is your policy on a pregnant RN/tech/etc taking care of a patient who is CMV+? We have had a CMV+ patient for 8 weeks who is currently 32 weeks pregnant with twins. We have a list of who has taken care of her and we all take our turn. One of our nurses found out recently that she is pregnant yet the charge nurse still assigned the patient to her stating that "It was her turn to take care of the patient." I don't care whose turn it was I don't think it was right to assign a pregnant RN to a patient who is CMV+. Am I overreacting?

Thanks so much!

I work on the mom/baby unit at my hospital and we wear hospital issued scrubs but we can buy our own jackets. I've been looking online for weeks and I've only been able to find 3 different baby themed scrub jackets (one was the special delivery by Cherokee, and the other 2 were from Landau-baby faces and nursery). I'm also looking for a baby themed retractable ID holder but I can't find one either I've looked at allheart, jasco, life, marcus, tafford, nursesstation, amazon.com, ebay, scrubsxpress, and many of the other sites that come up in my searches. Am I looking in the wrong places? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Our policy is to check the infant's blood sugar 30 minutes after birth, 1 hour after birth, and 2 hours after birth. The glucose level has to be 35 or above in the first 3 hours of life and 40 and above after that. We need a series of 3 consecutive sugars above 35 (or 40 depending on how old the baby is) and if one is low we start the series of 3 again.

I'm a little late but I'm in the western burbs of Chicago.

Thanks for the info! Do you know what the shift/weekend differentials are? I interviewed for a 7p-7a position with every other weekend rotation. Which hospital do you work at? Which unit? How do you like it? Sorry for being so nosey LOL :)

Wow! That pay seems too good to be true :) I hope it is true and now I REALLY hope I get the job LOL

Thanks : ) I am definitely interested in Maternal-Child nursing. I live in the western burbs of Chicago and I accepted a position at Loyola in OB last week (starting Nov 15th) and I interviewed at Rush last week (they will get back to me in 1-2 weeks). Would there be a problem with me accepting the job at Rush if I already completed the preemployment physical at Loyola? I didn't sign a contract or anything.

Does anyone know what the hourly wage is for new RN grads at Rush? I interviewed there last week but salary was never mentioned and I didn't feel comfortable asking (silly mistake). Thanks :)