Eric Cartman

I second the notion of talking to a lawyer. Urine tests for drug screens have been known to show false positives occasionally, if the person is taking certain OTC medications. In a few specific examples, I've had patients test positive for PCP, but the only medication they were taking was the OTC allergy medicine, benadryl.

I don't think you will have any issues with melatonin. I take it occasionally myself.

You bring up a legitimate concern, but was the labetalol a new medication or one that the patient had been on for some time? Also, was the high BP past medical hx or new?

Fall prevention is a hot topic right now at many acute healthcare facilities. As has already been mentioned in others posts, the biggest questions are why did the fall occur and were all interventions in place to prevent the fall? In my experience most falls seem to have a contributing, controllable factor which is really annoying. For example slip resistant socks were not on, bedside table was too far away, telephone was too far away, call bell fell onto floor, patient was scored incorrectly on the fall risk assessment scale, patient on BP or pain meds, new onset of confusion, family turned the bed alarm off because it was annoying and so on... All falls seem to have a cause, but is the cause always preventable? That I can't answer and don't know if anybody else can. I guess that is the purpose of root cause analysis when we do have falls, especially falls with injuries. Just out of curiosity, what fall scoring system or scale does your hospital use HouTx? Last year our hospital just adopted the Johns Hopkins scoring system. I can't tell if it has really made a difference or not.

I work on a neuro/ tele unit as well and typically it is a 1:5 or 1:6 ratio for night shift, and 1:5 for day shift. Nights were the patient loads are a good mix of neuro patients and med surg/ tele patients are not bad to deal with, but nights with 5-6 actual neuro patients, who may or may not be confused can be quite challenging. I hear bed alarms so often that some times when I get home I still I think I can hear them going off. It's a tough unit in my opinion, but for some reason I really like it.

Supposedly University of Penn, Health system, is BSN, or nothing. The other hospitals that I listed are supposed to be the same, but I could be wrong. I am only going off of the accounts of people that I know who work for those hospitals. Now what I don't know is how many years of nursing experience they are willing to take into consideration before waving the BSN rules. The BSN requirement, to my knowledge, is for new graduates and nurses with minimal experience. I do not know what defines "minimal experience" by these hospitals standards. I do know a few nurses who have been hired by the hospitals that I listed in the first post, who were only ADN nurses, but have over 5 years of experience. All I can say is apply and see what happens.

This is all true and I am aware that this needs to be done. What is unclear though is how the federal funding would be distributed. UTA requires that classes must be paid for, in full, prior to starting each class. I am under the impression that you can register for multiple classes, placing a student at full time status, and maximizing the eligible amount of federal aid, but UTA will only remove the cost of 1 class, from the lump sum of awarded aid, at a time. What happens to the rest of the money? Does UTA hold onto the rest of the federal aid, to be utilized for the next 8 week class, or does the college issue the rest of the money in a refund, and it is the student's responsibility to utilize the refund to pay for the next class? I'm only going by what a financial officer told me and unfortunately I did not get a chance to finish my conversation with the officer, due to being at work when I called and having to divert my attention toward a pressing issue within the office I work. I'm just a little confused at the moment and prefer to have as little hang ups as possible while attending this school online. Thanks for your comment lilkimball05.

University of Pennsylvania, Presbyterian Medical Center, Pennsylvania Hospital, Jefferson Hospital, Methodist Hospital, and Temple Hospital, all require BSN, or a few years of experience. These are the best hospitals to work at in the city. 2 years might not be enough experience to secure a job, but I guess it depends on who catches your resume. If I had to take a wild guess, I would assume that you might have a tough time finding a position, because you do not currently have your BSN. But I could be wrong. It won't hurt to apply, but do so prior to moving.

Congratulations to all who have secured positions at Inova. Hopefully I'll get to meet some of you someday. I'll be starting at Fairfax Hospital at the end of July, on the Neuroscience unit. Say hello if you happen to see a tall, lanky, redheaded guy in his 20's, who is almost always smiling, when you come through during the EPIC EMR transition.

Does anybody know if you can use Federal Student loans to pay for the classes at UTA, for the RN-BSN program? I only ask because I know that prior to starting each class, you must pay for each class in full. I'm not quite sure how this would work with Federal Student Loans.

Depending on what hospital you choose to seek employment at, average new graduate pay is between $25-$28 base rate, an hour, which is not including shift differentials.

Well I was able to negotiate, but not the base hourly rate. I was able to negotiate "X" amount of dollars in a lump sum, after working 90 days. I guess you could call it a sign on bonus, or relocation bonus. I accepted the position because it is on a unit that I would really like to work and money is not everything. Money certainly helps though. Moral of my story, it's okay to try and negotiate compensation. It's a fine line between judging when to push a manager or recruiter harder for something you would like and knowing when to quit, or settle. I have never had to negotiate compensation with a nursing position before, but I have negotiated pay salaries in the past for other positions. That's is why I started this thread. If you are unsure of something ask questions. Also, it may helps others who are in similar situations as myself.

I bet you could.

Well I was offered the job at Fairfax Hospital. Now I just have to decide if I want to take the position. Unfortunately what they are offering me is actually less than what I currently make. On a positive note, it's on a unit that I would really like to work on. Decisions, decisions.

Check out Inova health systems. I just had an interview with them and they are doing a large hire throughout their system. They are based out of Northern Virginia, but it is still basically the DC area.