LovedRN

Well I went from correctional to surgery. That's like apple and orange. Totally different. I learned everything new. Nursing school can't teach you that either. Here is how I got in: 1. I know someone in the surgery department. 2. OR manager was looking for someone has a good attendance and I didn't call in for the whole year. OR was shorted of working people. They didn't care much about my correctional or lack of hospital experience. Attendance was more important to them. 3. Also correctional and surgery were in the same health service department. So I didn't quit per se. I transferred, which the process was shorter than hiring a new one from start. I don't wish for anything really. Things happened for reasons. The universe wanted me to start correctional before surgery. What can I do? Correctional is VERY slow pace. Nothing is really change in short amount of time. Neither patients or the department. Everyday is the same. Nothing new. Well that's depends what it's your assignment. But even correctional critical patients who are in jail are not really critical. If they are really sick, they will be in the hospital. OR, on another hand, things can change really fast, e.g. patient or your assignment, etc. We have 8 OR rooms. None of those rooms are the same specialty. 1st room is Opth, 2nd is ENT, 3rd is GYN, and so on. You will be move from room to room. Or other specialty case got moved into your room. It keeps you on your toes. We also do trama, only to stable the patient. It was a gun shot wound. Pt was dumped in front of ER. In OR, it's 1 to 1 ratio. I don't deal with family members. Talk to patient little bit before the case. Well I guess you can see the pictures now.

If you know someone from the inside. That's how I got into the hospital after correctional facility. Talk to your old nursing school friends, etc.

LA county stands by pay just went up this year to $5/hr! Yeah. ?

I am working as an OR RN and if I have to choose between ST and RT. I say go for RT. There are days that I just want to walk away and don't go back.

You have union? Talk to the union if you have it. Supervisors/managers will do something about it when it comes to the union. Good luck.

If you really need to switch, I say go for pre procedural. Does pre procedural needs to be on call? My guess would be no. The distance would be the same. But new set of people. PACU needs to be on call too. So that would not change much except people you work with. Talk to nurses who work on those areas so you will get a better picture. Know what do you want/ dont want too. Me? I am not a morning person. No way I will work in pre procedural area. (I am PM shift by the way) I dont really like dealing with patients and their families so that's another reason. I don't like to work with medications and monitoring so PACU is out. Why am I a nurse huh? Anyway, OR is what I picked. No morning. No family. Pts always sleeping. Not a lot of meds. However I have to deal with what you wrote on the post. Except sending staffs home. I guess you have to learn how to handle those problems. Why surgeons are complaining? Is it something you can do about it? If it's not, then it's not your problem. Tell them to talk to someone else. Staffs gossip much? Dont listen to them. I always have my headphones on when I am on break. When I am on break, I am on break from my co workers too. You get me, right? Grass is always greener on the other side. I am on my 5th job right now. I will look for 6th one when I can't take it anymore but as of now I can handle what is coming at me. 3 years will go by very fast. Just take one day at a time. Good luck.

Easy to be named in the law suit but a little bit hard to lose one. Except if you are at fault. Inmates sue the correction faculty often. Every nurses who came into their contact will be named. If the claim is more than $3000 your name got send to the board. What will happen is the case will be review by the (I don't remember the name) claim? department of the correction facility. They often settle out of court if they think they will lose, to save money. The case then got send to a person who will decide who is really at fault and how much. Let say you did every thing by the policy or you have nothing to do with this case (but you were named). You are 0% and the faculty is 100 %. Nothing will happen to you. The board will do their own investigation. They will sent you a letter when you are cleared. it is hard but try to do everything by the policies. So if something happened you will be OK . Assessment is big. When you chart, cover as many as you can. Plus patient teaching. You also have to say patient verbalized understanding. Treat every inmates as if they will sue you. When it doubt send them out (to the hospital). And no. No supervisor will back you up if you have to go to court (in case patient died and they were the one who told you not to call 911). RNs have rights to call 911. Many nurse's intervention is to refer patient to MD (when patient has health problem) and that's it. I was told that is not enough. When it got to court, they will ask you what else did you do? Source: me. I am new to the correction but got a 3 weeks orientation (on how not to lose in the law suit ). After the orientation I have doubt if I should work in the correction.

My is bad but not as your.

I mentioned the high turnover rate because I wanted to let you know that you can try it out and if you don't like it you can quit.

LTC is my first job too and I don't have any experience. I am sure they will hire you. You can quit any time you want. LTC has a high turnover rate. At my LTC there are only a few people who were there before me.

I have all the keys. But when I opened the supply room, I couldn't find what I need. I asked and the answer was that they haven't order the supply yet.

I know what you are talking about. I work night shift and I have 95 patients. (one LVN to help me, though).

If it is normal, you don't call MD, fax it, and put it in the chart. Write on the nursing note what you did. On the lab paper write date and time when you faxed it with NNO. If it is abnormal, you call the MD. If no one is answering the phone, you leave a message, fax it, and tell the next shift nurse. I work 11-7 shift so I don't call anyone. I might fax lab result if I am not busy.

I have only worked at my LTC for 4 mths. There are only a few people who were there before me (by a few month). My LTC sounds like yours. I will leave if I got other job.

Congrad!!! When I read you post, I was going to suggest that you try to apply for small surgery center position. But you got the OR job. Congrad again.