FiremedicMike

I knew the first response would be "leave your partner". What about a post from the other perspective. "My partner is trying to get a job after quitting without anything lined up. They want to move and I really love them and don't want to leave them, but I'm firmly rooted here for (insert reasons)” So many nurses here treat relationships as disposable.

I'd like to follow the money trail on that legislation...

I wish my wife's SNF did this, they just screw over the on duty nurse and they get more patients until someone hopefully (if ever) shows up. "management is available to come help" (they never do).

Standardized testing is not the problem, the entire current state of our education system is. Students graduate high school without the skills needed to study and retain, begin their nursing journey with a minimal amount of low level college work, then get tossed into nursing programs filled with instructors who teach things that worked for them 35 years ago or nurses who rushed to their their MSN in education to get away from bedside. Combine all of this with a curriculum that is only loosely standardized and you produce nurses without critical thinking skills.

That's not a thing in my neck of the woods..

You know.. I can't pass a color vision test, I'm also short, old, and about 30 pounds overweight. No one would dare argue that I have any business being a fighter pilot or navy seal.. One of societies greatest current downfalls is the insistence that anyone can be anything they want to be just because they want to do it.

I do want to add one thing - cardiac arrest is a no brainer. I'm a huge data-nerd for cardiac arrest survival and no matter what toys, drugs, airways, we throw at these people, the ONLY thing that has shown statistical improvement in survival rate is early bystander CPR and early appropriately performed defibrillation.

I see this is your first post, welcome. Like akula, I've been a medic for a very long time (25 years) and an ED nurse for 3. I think I can authoritatively say from experience that nursing school does nothing to prepare anyone for the prehospital setting, nor does pretty much any nursing position other than flight nursing for companies that do a lot of scene flights - even then it's limited because most HEMS patients are already somewhat stabilized and differentiated prior to their arrival. On top of that, modern nursing is highly focused on diagnostic tools that aren't available in your personal car. The art of diagnosing, planning, and implementation are not skills that most nurses possess these days, especially a new grad.

Or we could rethink utilization of LPNs in the hospital and use them to help ease the burden. I've seen it work. When I come in and see my assignment and which (if any) LPN I have in my zone, it makes or breaks my day.

Another point of view- Certainly there is bullying in nursing, just as there is in every work environment on the planet. That said, our culture seems to be hyper focused right now and I think there are a lot of instances of frustration or disagreement that becomes mislabeled as bullying.

Our ED uses zones, each zone has 2 RNs covering 4 patients each and then a tech, medic, or LPN in the zone as well backing up both RNs. When we have an LPN in our zone, they'll be on the board looking for open orders and filling the ones they can (oral meds, labs, IV stuff, etc) and discharge patients. Essentially, they're techs who can give some meds and discharge. When we have a good LPN in our zone, it's amazing.

My evidence is clearly laid out in your two posts. You took coursework to satisfy the graduation requirements of your DNP program that was clearly not accepted by the ANCC. Your program should have never allowed you to take any courses that were questionable. More than that, your program should have provided you with appropriate and approved coursework so that you weren't in a position to find your own patho class, which clearly turned into a disaster that delayed your ability to practice and earn money. For the record, your response was also devoid of evidence. I'm happy to hear your take on how you feel your program didn't screw you, but it'll be a tough sell..

I'll repeat what I said in the other thread. Your program failed you. You likely paid them a significant amount of money and then were apparently on your own for scheduling required coursework. Then at the end when there was a question, where were they to help? Nowhere, obviously.. You should name and shame your program so that no one else wastes their money at that pathetic "college" and finds themselves on a similar island.

I don't think many applicants have the knowledge or access to the "right people" to get the real scoop on a job.

Not to be argumentative but this advice is given a lot and it isn't realistic. Most nurse applicants have no way to know which program is more supportive, which manager is better, which system has the best new grad onboarding, etc .

Just as an FYI, RN diploma programs are still out there. They're not very well advertised or known about, and the ones in my area all require an active LPN license, but they do exist and can be beneficial for LPNs

You seem to be already aware that all of those names will come out in the investigation anyway, so then why do you hold on to the notion that including their name in the notes increases liability?

You took a program in Idaho while living in Utah? Either way, pick Utah or Idaho and take the test in whichever state will let you. Then apply for a compact license. It's not a matter of proving hours anymore, you'll be licensed from a compact state with a compact license which means you'll have an MA license as well.

Your BSN program was in Idaho? If so - test in Idaho then apply for a compact license..

Well, as usual, because there's little to no standardization in nursing education across the nation, it's nearly impossible to compare apples to apples. Some BSN programs incorporate 4 full years of clinical on top of the additional BSN didactics (research, EBP, etc), others are essentially paper-mills that offer nothing to clinical practice. I earned my ADN as a hybrid student at a brick and mortar program then my RN to BSN online from a different brick and mortar program. My BSN was truly 1.5 years of mindless busywork and did NOTHING to improve my clinical practice. My wife has been an LPN for 15 years and is currently halfway done with a 1 year LPN to RN diploma program. When she gets done, she'll run circles around 95% of new BSN nurses and will probably even be a better nurse than me. It's more about the individual than the program and curriculum. Of course, lets not ignore the elephant in the room - modern healthcare and modern nursing is nothing like it was even 25 years ago, yet the education remains the same. Like many, my ADN was very broad with little meat and almost none of it has been applicable to my job in the ED. Between computerized charting, protocol-based medicine, immediate access to providers/pharmacists, self-programming IV pumps, and a myriad of other "improvements", it seems so silly to me now that I was expected to regurgitate the appropriate age when a child should be able to perform a pincer grip, or that rifampin interacts poorly with nearly every drug, or that if "grapefruit juice" is one of your multiple choice answers - pick it.

No one can really answer this but you.. kids.. sports.. significant others schedule.. how bad to you need the money (that's an extra $20k if you haven't done the math yet).

Oh this is popcorn worthy...

Or the ones who want to go through every lab/imaging result during report. Dude you can look at the same chart I am looking at, I told you about the major issues, you can compare their calcium and phosphorus on your own.

All, My wife is finishing up her RN and it was announced that there is no real pinning ceremony, only a class graduation. Pins will be placed on their sash by the instructors prior to the ceremony. When I graduated, pinning was it's own ceremony and it was an emotional event, with students choosing who would pin them, my wife pinned me (she was an LPN at the time). My wife and I are obviously quite irritated by this as we've been looking forward to me pinning her for years. The class told the instructors they wanted a true ceremony and they were told no. So all this leads me to ask. Are formal pinning ceremonies the norm or rare? Are we upset about something that doesn't happen most places?

I think I've concluded that I'm too ADD to work the floor and need the constant chaos and churn of the ED. I get my fill of ICU care when we get critical patients and I can drop to 1:1 stabilize them until we move them up, then I can go back to the rest of my day. I will admit that I get most of my enjoyment out of managing those super sick unstable patients, titrating and tweaking, interacting with the providers, feeling like my assessments and opinions matter. If ICU life was like that the majority of the time then I'd give it a harder look, but the ICU nurses I've talked to have said it's mostly charting, care coordination, and ADLs with the added complexity of 3 IV infusions and a vent. please take my post with a grain of salt though, I've ONLY worked ED. I have zero fist hand ICU experience.