grahamd01

Thanks, what hospitals in those areas would you recommend?

I completed my BSN through WGU, western governors university. Its completely online and much more affordable than any other program I researched. Its an accelerated program allowing you to move as fast or a slow as you want to through each course. I held a fulltime job, I have 3 kids and was able to finish this program in 13 months, pretty much stress free. Some courses took me 2 months to finish and others took 3 weeks. I was also very lenient about school so I could be active in my kids sports schedules. I had great support when I needed it, but its important to evaluate your self motivation to be a successful independent student. Many nurses I work with hated the idea of too much freedom and would never complete a course without the traditional timed schedules and deadlines. I personally love the way WGU gave me the opportunity to arrange my studies according to my own lifestyle. In the end, I spent 13,000$ total and I have an accredited BSN degree. Check them out. I highly recommend them.

Thanks for your reply. Good to hear honest opinions before moving. So, what areas would you recommend?

Thanks so much o your reply! Ill take a look at this area

I'm looking for information about the Greenville area. What are the best areas for a family with 3 school aged kids looking for some land and good schools? What about the hospitals. I notice some large hospital systems, but none offer any details regarding pay rates. I'm currently a BSN med surge nurse with 3 years experience. What do ya think? Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm looking to get some info on the best hospitals in the eastern areas of Georgia. I'm currently in New England so I realize a pay reduction is expected but the cost of living seems much lower. Any areas better for a family with children looking for land and good school systems? How about hospital info. None of the hospitals seem to post pay rate information online. Any advice from other peeps out there? I'm looking for the nitty gritty details. Which hospitals offer the best for nurses in regards to pay and benefits? I want to make a good decision based on word of mouth from fellow nurses? I'm currently a BSN with 3 years experience in med surge. I have acls, telemetry, and float experience. What do ya think?

Med Chica: I'm glad to hear that there are others who absolutely do not have time to socialize. I kinda feel bad when co workers want to be chatty with me and all I'm trying to do is think of how I'm going to get away so I can keep to my schedule. Talkative co workers are sometimes worse than the chatty patients.

I suppose I feel bad asking NA's to do things for my patients even when I know they should. Unfortunatly, we are generally always, 'down an aide today,' so I will typically try to do as much as I can when I'm in there. I get a little confused as to what is appropriate to ask them to do and what is their responsibility to do. For example, I know they usually bathe and toilet the patients, but I get stumped sometimes as what other care they can do for me....so I'll usually wind up doing it on my own. I agree, kinda time consuming. I have been better at clustering care. I'll assess, give 0800 and 1000 at the same time if the meds are reasonable to do together, but if I'm starting at 0730, sometimes I'll try and do some 0800 and the assessment, but end up back in the room far to many times and getting behind because I'm so worried about meds being late.

Hi everyone! I'm a May 12' grad and am lucky to have landed a job as a per diem RN float for several different med surg floors in the hospital. I've been working on my own for about a month (I had 6 weeks of orientation). Although for the most part I feel better every shift, I'm trying to figure out why I rarely leave on time? My question for all of you, is what are your strategies to getting out on time? Documentation seems to be one area I fall behind on no matter how hard I try to stay on top of it. Any advice? The other is when everyone seems to be due for meds at the same time. I work first shift, so the trend is 0800, 1000, 1200, and 1400's on 5 patients. I seem to just finish giving meds to everyone nd realize that if I go to lunch, I'll be too far behind by the time I return and end up not eating or taking a bathroom break all day. How does everyone else manage their time and what can I be doing differently? Thanks!

This may be silly to ask, but does Massachusetts require any continuuing education credits when you renew your license? I'm a new RN, and haven't heard anything about this here. Does this requirement vary by state? Thanks for your reply!

Your detailed reply is very helpful, thanks for that. It's so hard to research areas when you don't have a realistic idea about the community. Any hospitals in Fort Worth you'd recommend? I know you have a good knowledge base of this area so I appreciate any info you can suggest.

Thanks for your input not.done.yet! If there's any hospitals around Plano that you've had good experience with, please let me know. I'm trying to do as much research about this area before I plan a trip to visit.

I'm trying to research rental townhome communities in the DFW areas. I've come across many options and wanted to know your opinions. I found affordable rental areas in Plano: 1. West of I-75 and West Plano Pkwy, 2. Medalist Circle areas....are these areas good, safe neighborhoods for a family? Any other areas you would suggest? I also was considering the Fort Worth area. I did find the housing to be very affordable. I was interested in: 1.the areas around 35W and 20 Its around the Seminary Hill Park. 2 the western side of Ft. Worth near Angler Ave and Old Decatur Rd. 3.Calmont Ave and Las Vegas Trail. I really would like an area that is family friendly with as much space as possible in a rental community. I'm hoping to find work in the Dallas area and I have a year to consider different hospitals. I'm a new grad RN this year and am working currently on a Neuro/Stroke floor, but am looking to take every specialty class they offer to get into Critical Care ASAP. Any advice on hospitals would be appreciated as well. Thanks for your info!

Hi and welcome! I was new to New England 6 years ago and had some of the same questions you do. I would seriously reconsider the Boston area unless you end up with a solid job offer only because you can find decent costs of living and very good wages if you look on the western side of Massachusetts. Boston is a great place to live if you can afford to. A previous poster suggested Baystate medical Center in Springfield. This is an awesome facility. Look it up online and although the city of Springfield is affordable, its still a fairly BIG city. The good thing is the highway access is very easy from that hospital, so if you want to live out in the country (The Berkshires, parts of Agawam) you can certainly commute with little problems. Oh, and Baystate has a terrific L&D unit. You can search open positions online and they are usually always looking for nurses with experience. The school systems in the western Mass areas are phenomenal. My children currently go to a VERY small school out in 'the hilltowns'. Coming from a big city where kids go to schools with hundreds of other kids, my kids are among 87......in the entire elementary school. Not that all schools out here are that small, but the education systems in Massachusetts, in general, are terrific. Okay, so the question about mudrooms and basements. The most appealing thing to me when I first moved here was the houses. They are architectual beauties. There are areas that have more contemporary housing, but I'm still in love with the older style that still seems to flourish very nicely out here. The 'mud room' is a small room very close to the front or rear entrance of a house where you can take off your boots (usually covered in ice/snow/mud...etc.) and leave your coat/hat before tracking things into the house. I'm sure someone else may have a much better description but this is the jist of what I've noticed. Most of the older houses have these rooms and they are wonderful in the colder months. Pellet stoves are heat producing stoves that people install inside the home. They are similar to wood burning stoves except you fill them with small pellets.....I'm not exactly sure of the specifics of what a pellet consists of but I think its still wood based. These stoves are cleaner than wood burning stoves and people who have them love them. Sorry for the looooong post,but I couldn't help it! Hope it helps.

what hospitals have you had experience with?