mideb

I was pregnant my 2nd yr., & even tho everything turned out OK, I wouldn't do it again. Too much stress unless your husband is willing to take over much of household duties & being up with baby at night. Some of the homework keeps you up at night & exhaustion easily sets in which isn't good for baby or school.

Bring back the "Baylor Plan" letting staff work wkends only - 12 hr. shifts, the rest wk. mon.-fri. There need to be more incentives to RNs after so many yrs. (20-25?) like - no more call, weekends, holidays, etc. They tell us here that we don't have enough staff to institute any of these, so all of us who have been loyal employees are burnt out & certainly not telling our children this is a good field to go into thereby making the nursing shortage worse. I like what I do, but after 25 yrs. I'd like to be taken off the call list for sure.

I understand exactly what you're saying. I'll be 51 this yr. & as I look back on my life, oh sure, I've been able to support my family, but what has happened to my life? I think we feel this more in nursing that most other careers because we've worked all shifts, numerous overtime hrs., weekends, holidays, & I've always wked in area where we have to take call. I'm very burnt out. When younger people ask me about a career in nursing I do all I can to steer them away from it. With the increase in RN shortage you'd think they could come up with better retention programs, but what's there to look forward to when after 25 yrs. you're still taking call, etc. I wk for excellent hospital & love the people I wk with, like the type of pt. care I do, but really wish I had picked a different pathway in my career.

Any preop or OR Rns out there? I continue to search for info. from other hospitals regarding policy for pregnancy tests of preoperative pts. Also, do any of you continue to do preop lab testing on children other than the AM of the procedure? We cont. to have 2 ped. docs. that insist we bring these children in at least the day before surgery for lab tests. I'm talking routine H & H , possibly ppt/aptt for tonsillectomy. All my research indicates this is not necessary, that these should be drawn am of surgery along with their IV start.. I need your help - any written policies out there to help me?