SarahRN2013

SarahRN2013 has 4 years experience.

Latest Activity

1. Newer nurse hating cardiac stepdown. Where to go from here?

   SarahRN2013 replied to michigan94's topic in New Nurse

   Days on that type of unit can brutal constantly transferring or discharging to make room for admits from the cath lab means it never ends! Have you considered finishing out your year on nights? WAY easier. At most, one late cath lab patient who needs...

2. Dealing with Guilt and Coping

   SarahRN2013 replied to clouds_creamy's topic in General Nursing

   THIS.

3. Coping with a difficult shift

   SarahRN2013 replied to SarahRN2013's topic in Med-Surg

   Thank you for the suggestions, Ruby Vee. I already do post-shift processing in a variety of forms. I am hoping to figure out some things that might help during the shift too. Some people just seem so chill no matter how much crap is being dumped on t...

4. Coping with a difficult shift

   SarahRN2013 posted a topic in Med-Surg

   On average, my job is quite enjoyable with reasonable patient:staff ratios, fair distribution of acuity in assignments, etc. I like my job and might even say that I love my job. Most shifts, a few unexpected/unplanned things pop up and need to be add...

5. Is my Bachelors degree in another field useful in nursing??

   SarahRN2013 replied to erogersii's topic in General Students

   I have many co-workers hired as ASN-RNs who are now completing their BSN's as part of their new hire contract (75% paid by our employer!) for a magnet-certified hospital. Actually, even nurses who have been at our facility for a long time were given ...

6. What is the Registered Nurse Patient Ratio at your hospital?

   SarahRN2013 replied to LinenP's topic in General Nursing

   I think the NA to patient ratio is just as important as the RN to patient ratio, as well as what type of support staff is available. I recently left a second job (med-surg/med-surge tele float pool) where the NAs routinely had 12 or more patients eac...

7. Nursing @ 32?

   SarahRN2013 replied to Firstina's topic in General Students

   I was a biochemist before I went to an accelerated second degree program for nursing at 38. I didn't enjoy being a biochemist for two main reasons: (1) turns out I love science but I don't love endlessly repeating variations on the same experiment wi...

8. SCD'S with history of DVT

   SarahRN2013 replied to sirwinston1's topic in Med-Surg

   Agreed. Recently some of our physicians have started ordering SCDs for patients currently experiencing a DVT -- and they actually mean for the nurses to apply them (whereas some physicians order them (out of habit, I suppose) and do not want them app...

9. Contribute! New grad offers MI

   SarahRN2013 replied to cazreye's topic in Job Hunt

   Agreed! My first job we usually had 1 NA for 13 patients, no night respiratory therapists, no ECG techs, no phlebotomists and no onsite providers at night (other than an EC doc for codes). At my second job, the we have all the support staff (includin...

10. Don't like nursing at all, what can I do with my BSN?

    SarahRN2013 replied to lostrnugh's topic in New Nurse

    I also think that nursing school prepares you more for the tasks as my clinical instructors never let us have more than 3 patients (except my capstone preceptorship, which for me was in an ICU so I still only had 2-3 patients). Even so, my GN orienta...

11. New BSN With 4 years School Nurse Experience as ADN - Can't Land a Hospital Job

    SarahRN2013 replied to Nurse Beth's topic in Nurse Beth

    Do you have any contacts from your ADN program who might be willing to make introductions (or at least give you a manager's name)? Or maybe from your BSN program? I was initially hired part-time at one hospital. A few months in, I was ready to get ...

12. Advance Practice Preceptorships - Should students find their own preceptors?

    SarahRN2013 replied to husky171's topic in Advanced

    From the research that I have done so far, this doesn't seem to be a problem only at for-profit/private schools. Even many established, seemingly well-respected public university programs are having their NP students find preceptors. Also (not in dir...

13. Night Shift Survival

    SarahRN2013 replied to allrncb's topic in Stress 101

    I don't have any different tips than the ones already offered. Just wanted to reassure you that other people have initially struggled but then thrived once they found the right combination of sleep products (sleep mask, fan, white noise machine, etc....

14. 5 Months in & Frustrated

    SarahRN2013 replied to Nurse4592's topic in New Nurse

    One other tip that I didn't notice anyone else suggesting: If you have computerized charting, find out if your system supports "smart phrases." What these phrases are called varies by EHR system, but they're short-cuts to writing your "standard" prog...

15. 5 Months in & Frustrated

    SarahRN2013 replied to Nurse4592's topic in New Nurse

    I think I have similar learning opportunities on nights as on days - with more time at night for looking up something that I want to know more about, often the same shift rather than doing it at home later (e.g. what's this condition noted in my pati...