primarycares

I too made a med error 3 years ago during my new grad med/surg internship with my preceptor standing 2 feet away, reported and owned it immediately, consulted with PA and pharmacy and found that no harm had been done to the patient. The place where our stories diverge is that following inquiries into the mistake and how it was made, 2 supervisors and my manager all approached me during the following shift, reassured me, and then shared with me the worst mistakes they had ever made in their careers!! Needless to say, the stories they told were way worse than my straightforward and (thankfully) harmless med error, and the support that they offered both moved me and helped carry me through the shame and self-doubt that threatened my self-confidence in our challenging work. I carry both the exact details of that med error AND the funny/awful stories my mentors shared with me every single day on the floor, and I know that it makes me a better nurse. Please believe in yourself and that you will overcome and be stronger for the challenge - good luck!

Hello Karen G, As a traveler who is going through the CA endorsement process (my temporary CA RN lic # just appeared on their website Monday!!) I wanted to offer my encouragement and point out that this thread is over a year old :-) Good luck with everything!

I was hired at BMC in spring 2013 with just under a year of experience @ $32/hr. I worked with quite a few new grads, but never asked about their pay. I assume it was slightly lower. I believe it was a supportive environment for them, and opportunities to advance/transfer to other units are increasing there. Good luck!!!

In a very quick nutshell (gotta nap for night shift tonight), here is one newish male nurse's take on the journey. Nursing school (40/2 female/male graduation ratio) overall didn't treat me better or worse than classmates; 2/4 clinical supervisors were tougher on me than my peers but floor RNs and CNAs were a little easier; found new grad med/surg hospital opportunity out of state fairly easily compared to classmates but applied early, often, and in many states; found better job after one year on step-down unit back in home state; and after 6 months feel settled and mostly successful. As you must know or have read, the work is hard and the environment challenging, but I feel incredibly rewarded. I have run into precious few obstacles as a RN, sometimes even helping my patients to feel surprisingly comfortable being cared for by a male caregiver (from 92yo F: "Well I've never been bathed naked by a man who wasn't my husband before...but there's a first time for everything!"). My advice is not to listen to fears, but keep doing what you are doing and find out for yourself how you thrive in care roles. Good luck and strength to you!

With all due respect to the previous poster, Western Mass has an incredible quality of life that makes it extremely desirable for those who value green open spaces; smaller intimate communities; clean air and water; gorgeous places to hike, paddle, and ski; and never spend your precious commuting hours stuck in traffic. For those who value this, eastern mass can't hold a candle to western mass. Pittsfield has a reasonably well-regarded community hospital, a growing arts community, and proximity to only one local nursing program at the community college there. The Pioneer Valley which houses Amherst and Northampton is filled with colleges and their associated cultural riches, as well as several more nursing programs and hospitals. And as far as Baystate, though it is certainly a flawed large urban hospital, it is the only Level 1 trauma center of western mass and, I think, has far more to offer than the crude smear of the previous posting would imply. If you are at all drawn to this area, ignore the biases of more urban folk and do some more research - it is an absolute gem of a region!

I graduated a year ago at 43, got a new grad position at a good teaching hospital, and just started a better position at a bigger teaching hospital in the area where I really wanted to live and work. And though it is the hardest thing I have ever taken on, I love nursing! Don't let doubts hold you back if you really want this and good luck to you.

A good friend worked per diem at South Shore Hospital for year and had a mostly good experience. They seem to have many more jobs on their site than last I looked and I know they are open to "newer" nurses (or have been in the past). Good luck!

Ditto on previous posting. I heard nothing back from Boston area hospitals as I neared graduation from my MA ADN program last spring but found a very nice New Grad Internship in another major city at a University hospital that is more than happy to hire ASNs.

You are absolutely right now that I have put it out there, that obstipation is a real word. But to be fair and a little (maybe a lot) nitpicky, it describes a situation of prolonged severe constipation that suggests an obstruction is near, rather than an actual diagnosis. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Deep breath, this is my first posting after reading for years, but in report the other day my patient's primary complaint/diagnosis was stated and written as obstipation, as in small bowel obstruction and severe constipation. My charge nurse insisted that it is a real term; I'm only a new grad 6-month med-surg RN so what do I know? And I must admit I haven't looked it up. One thing I do know, is that her NG tube suction was bringing up "poopvomit," a term my fellow clinical students and I agreed should be a word back in nursing school. If you have encountered it, you know what I'm talking about!