Snowbird17

Staff will quit because of it and it will self resolve! Sounds like a crappy place to work, have you looked elsewhere?

I just renewed my CCRN cert. Everything went through online and I received a congratulatory email from AACN. Does this mean I will not be audited? Has anyone experienced an audit, if so, when were you notified. I have all my paperwork in order, just in case. Just curious about the timeline. Thanks!

Have you thought of just going back to school to be a PA? Nursing is not for everyone. Some love it, some don't. Nothing bothers me except peoples deliberate nasty attitudes, you can almost always control your attitude but not your bowels! If you do a PA program, I don't think it really matters where you work in the healthcare field.

ICU and pick up extra shifts if you need extra money... Just my two cents. I would do cardio, but because burns are just not for me. If it's your thing, it's a great opportunity! You can never go wrong with a solid Cardio foundation!

You're welcome. This is a forum for opinions and experience. I shared mine, you shared yours. NO where did I say you didn't know what your were talking about. Getting the last word in is not very useful for this OP. I will continue to share, like now. Obviously, your personal experience was very influential in your thoughts of the floor. My experiences have left me with a different thought. Let's not hijack anymore of this person's inquisitive post. Like I said, glad your husband improved. Neither of us is wrong, and I am pretty sure we both are competent in our thoughts.

Regardless, Glad he improved quickly! I would have to think having you to advocate for him was very much am important factor in that. OP- I hope you have some insight into the differences in the two units. Here is a nifty little article that provides much insight into the ICU patient... http://www.learnicu.org/docs/guidelines/admissiondischargetriage.pdf I can tell you these are followed for the most part with discretion from the docs! Hope this helps!

Like I said, in a nutshell. No offense taken, however, I would venture that our definition of stable differs. If a patient becomes critically unstable, and cannot easily/quickly be stabilized, I would bet that the majority of doctors would transfer them to a higher level of care. No one fights for their life in med-surg! If they are that sick, they need to be moved to an acute area immediately. That is why there are rapid response teams and code yellows, to prevent such things. And why there are ICUs and IMCUs. We put septic patients that are even remotely tittering in our unit so that they can be closely monitored. Otherwise, they end up in an IMCU. Should a truly septic, patient remain on the floor to the point of instability- someone is dropping the ball big time.

Wow. That is a bummer! I have admit I turned down a couple nannies for my baby after scoping their FB page. That being said, your post was pretty benign. No one wants a long commute, what's wrong with admitting it. I doubt whatever unintended damage can be undone, but am glad the hiring manager was upfront with you so you could prevent it from impacting future opportunities. Have you applied to other places outside of that hospital network? I would start there, even if the commute is longer than you would like or it is not your ideal job. Get some experience, then apply back with that hospital group PRN. With experience, I am betting they would either take a chance on giving you a PRN gig (very minimal training=low cost to hire), or they will have forgotten about it. If you can get in their door PRN in a couple years, it is an easy transition to fulltime once you show you are committed to working there long term. Or you could work with a current employee who can vouch for you if needed. Also, I doubt they hacked. When FB converted to timeline, it made almost all posts public, unless you specifically changed it to private. Poor timing, but perhaps all part of a bigger plan! So sorry, they are way more appropriate reasons for not hiring someone!

In a nutshell, ICU is where patients go if they are very sick. The floor (medsurg) provides basic nursing care. ICU nurses need to be well versed in caring for critical patients, titrating vaso-active drips and working a kazillion pieces of equipment. However, they generally only have a couple of patients to care for. The Med-surg nurse has to be adept in caring for many patients, frequent admissions and discharges, and more assisting the patient with ADLs.They really are night and day. I would rather care for a coding patient, than have 6 or 7 "stable, floor" patients. Did you not rotate through an ICU in school? ICU is not floor nursing. Floor nursing can be called medsurg, surgical, medical, ortho, neuro, GYN the list goes on. It is basically for stable patients. The names can be divided by sub-specialty. ICU, IMCU, PACU, and ER are considered critical care areas in most facilities. If your patient "goes bad", in other words, becomes more ill, vitals become unstable, they need any aggressive airway or blood pressure management, they go to the ICU. The inverse applies. When a patient stabilizes and is well on the road to recovery they transfer to the floor for management.

I had chicken pox, a positive ppd (means i can't ever have one again), MMR series was completed when I was a child. TDAP is not mandated (I am current anyway by choice), I actually had positive titers to Hep B initially, but later a negative set. So I took a fourth Hep B vaccine. Don't think you have immunity just because you took three vaccines...can we say false sense of security. I am not against vaccination, and I do believe you can opt out of all of these at my facility......meaning, it is your choice to protect yourself or not. FYI. I posted the original discussion. I ended up taking the vaccine, haven't thought about it since. In regards to everything you listed, I fully support the use of vaccinations... I think prevention is key. But no one should be able to mandate it for condition of employment or else. If it is to be required, then an alternative should be offered. I really feel strongly that the government should stay out of it. It's a slippery slop. Obviously people have strong opinions about it and for the time being, we all should just agree to disagree :) My personal opinion is that it will lead to other requirements, that will eventually ruffle some of the feathers of those who support it.

I can't even remember my first, last, or the many in between. You'll get over it. There are better things to obsess over during nursing school!

Smile a lot, be pleasant and just listen. Most patients want to talk about themselves, because most people want to talk about themselves. If they do, ask a follow up question, all the while doing your job and then get out when you are done. Explain what you are doing and why, that is a big time filler and you will come off as knowledgeable and proactive. If you appear comfortable in what you are doing, it will go along way! I am not shy or introverted, just don't come to work to be friends with patients or their families. I have a hard time faking interest in them personally. You can be successful with a shy personality. The trick is not to come off as rude. Read How to win friends and influence people. Sounds stupid but it gives you pointers on engaging people without putting any of yourself out there! My brother recommended it to me and some of the ideas help. If all else fails, go for the intubated and sedated.

I hate to deviate the topic but this is interesting to me...All your patients are 1:1? Back to your questions, plenty of vents in a neuro ICU. A low enough Glascow score alone will buy someone intubation.

I would love to work in a unit where the hospital furnished and laundered my nasty, germy scrubs.... Enjoy the luxury! Save your money and buy cute clothes for after work!

Phone interview! Or go out as a traveler.... see if you like it, let travel comapny pay expenses, then interview while there.

" I do not plan on outing the nurse because I believe every nurse has their own way of working. She has been a nurse for over 20 years and probably knows what she is doing. Her way of prioritizing is different from what I learned in nursing school and clinical." Really?!?!?!? You do not plan on outing a nurse who lies about assessing patients, gives all meds at once and then changes the times, and sits on her butt surfing the internet while her patients lay in urine.... because she has been doing it for 20 years??? Her way is different from what you learned because it is wrong, illegal, and shows really crappy character. She is jeopardizing patient safety, care and outcomes. Wow. Don't be afraid to stand up for what's right and report her all the way up the ladder. Regardless of whether you leave or not, don't allow this behavior to continue because you are afraid of burning a bridge or looking bad. Because we all know that is the real reason you would let this slide. You know what they say about Karma.... "I believe every nurse has their own way of working.". isn't fooling anyone.

Twice... I checked for a pulse, if that counts. It was a yes or no type of inquisition, not a time to count. That is the only circumstance where I see it would be relevant...not like I carry anything to treat with if I were to find something abnormal. A good nurse call tell someone is in distress without vitals and the appropriate response would be to offer help, assure they are safe from further harm and call 911. If they don't look distressed, I am not offering a vital check.

I don't think I would back out of the interveiw at this late of a time. Definitely ask which shift you are interviewing for while there. They may have more shifts than you realize available! If it doesn't fit with your schedule, don't take the job. Also, if it would ease your mind- ask how they handle employees who have spouses deployed. They may be willing to work with you if that time comes or let you take a LOA. Or don't mention it at all. Go through the interview process and just don't take the offer. If you are absolutely sure the job will not fit with the needs of your family right now, don't take an offer. But interviewing should not pose any issue. People interview for multiple jobs all the time and only take one! Bailing last minute is kind of a No-No.... Good luck either way and Thank you, your family and husband for his service to our country!

I think the GRE scoring system has changed recently. I know when I took it, I wanted greater than 1000. So I am hoping that is the case for the OP's sake.

Our Intensivists always suture, never come out. Anesthesia never sutures, on occasion those will be pulled by patient or inadvertently with turning. I ditto the question of cinja, why are they not suturing? Just a random thought, but were the patients hypertensive? Maybe the added force contributed. But I have to think the lack of securing is the biggest factor.

The OP asked who we used. I used Parallon, they paid far better than the two other companies I traveled with in Colorado. Also, they have a lot of jobs in Colorado. Seems like you had a bad experience with them Ned. I did not. Many of my friends also traveled in Colorado with Parallon (All About Staffing). OP if you find a company that has jobs at a HCA facility, you will make more going through All About Staffing. It is perfectly fine to contact them and ask their rates, etc. Just don't commit to anything until YOU have looked into it. They have "over 50 subcontracting companies", each one will take a cut of what they are willing to pay..... What's your specialty?

http://allaboutstaffingcareers.com/ They directly staff HCA hospitals, and pay better than a middle man company.

What?

Was he bradycardiac? Often happens with heads that are herniating. Otherwise, sounds like a personal preference by the MD. Also, not shocking he dropped after an OR. They often give a bolus of Neo to has stabilize vitals to get them to unit and I see quite a few patients have sudden hypotension shortly after anesthesia leaves.

Then why waste your time reading any further or posting? Half the threads on the site are redundant to some extent. Required flu vaccines comes up each year because they are still an issue, therefore doesn't the topic have a place on this forum? Certainly, less informative are the infinite amount of threads seeking admission advice for school.