SoCalGalRN

How do you have time to eat at 2200? I barely have time to eat a protein bar at 2300. I'm still usually busy passing/hanging meds at 2200. If not, that's when dressing changes get done, trying to catch patients before they want to sleep.

I eat dinner/breakfast at 5pm, eat a quick snack at 11 pm, eat my packed lunch at 2 am and eat something around 830/9 am when I get home before I go to sleep.

I had a similar patient a few times over the course of a couple weeks. I was so happy when he went ama. He threatened us with violence as he was leaving and I was just flabbergasted. I'm 7 months pregnant and he was threatening me physical harm. I hate my job so much. I won't be going back. I'm so tired of being treated like that.

I'm making $74,000 a year after 1 year of experience at my hospital. I live in a high COL area. I recently finished an MSN and will be looking for a new job soon.

I will suggest you take a look at the California board. With one year of experience, you may not be able to get a job in Sacramento. If you do, the pay is incredible and the COL is lower than most other areas in California. I'm from California and we are considering a move in 3-4 years to my husband's home state of Missouri. It terrifies me that I would no longer be protected by mandated patient ratios. I can barely provide safe care for 5 patients now so I can only imagine how subpar the care would be if I were given 7-8 patients. I'm thinking I will need to transition to nonacute nursing if I do leave California.

I guess I'll get back to you. I recently finished my MSN and I'll be looking for a new job next year. I'm absolutely not working on an NP though and I'm very vocal about how happy I am to be done with school.

My night shift differential is low for the area at $3.75 an hour. I work nights because I thought it would be a good place to learn as a new grad and $7,000 a year made a big difference for us. I hate it, I feel terrible, and my life is basically in shambles. I can't wait to switch jobs and I will only be looking for day positions.

I don't ever call out "late". I do notice that day shift seems to call out with 2 or less hours of notice pretty frequently. Like it's unreasonable for them to be awake by 4 am but night shift is, of course, up by 4 pm.

I say "RN". Sometimes I add that I work in a hospital. I don't talk to strangers on airplanes. Headphones go in immediately and I pretend I can't hear anything.

You HAVE to continue to the NP portion? I finished my accelerated entry MSN in August as have the option of going back for another year to become an NP, should I choose to do so.

Sometimes you just don't adjust. I've been on nights now for over a year and still feel terrible 80% of the time.

I have a three hour round trip commute for a job I hate. So, yes. :)

I recently completed my MSN and am working at the bedside. Though, to be fair, it was a second career degree for me.

I'm living under a rock so I hadn't hear about this but I would LOVE to see a BSN as an entry level nursing degree. I think it would do wonders for the profession.

If you aren't available to start for another 9 months, I'd say start applying 1 month before your anticipated move but keep in mind that you would still need to fly into town for an interview if you want to be considered, even for a delayed start date.