LibertyTX

I am new to the Emergency Department. The last three women (65+yrs old) I had to straight cath, I could not get it. I need advice. I really hate to put these patients through multiple attempts. My preceptors couldn't do it, either.

I went from two years of PACU to Endoscopy for a total of 3 months. Hated endo! The only reason I took the position is because I moved to a new city and wanted to stay with my company...that was the only position they had available at the time. In endo, if you are circulating you are in the room labeling polyps and listening to farts and smelling bad bowel preps. If you are in recovery, you are just waiting for your patient to expel all of the air in their colon and then doing discharge teaching. The only part of it that I could tolerate was pre-op because at least I got to keep up my IV skills. Some endo centers use RNs for sedation; mine did not. I've been in ER for a month now and I'm really enjoying it!

The endo center where I worked, the pre-op and circulating nurses never gave narcs. Anesthesia did all the sedation. Fentanyl was used very rarely in post-op for the occasional liver biopsy patient. You just have to interview and talk with managers about the specifics of a position.

I had a warning on my license for a year from the Texas BON, and I'm currently in an ACNP program. I was worried about the same thing, so I called the DEA. An investigator told me that previous disciplinary action wouldn't keep me from getting my DEA #, as long as the case was closed.

I shadowed with DaVita once and they said they never give narcs. An endoscopy center might work for you. They might keeps narcs in the pharmacy just incase, but would rarely administer them. Also, working in pre-op, OR, or PAT at a surgery center or hospital.

I've read that, too, about breathing the fumes. When I had to use hand sanitizer the couple of times when in monitoring, I held my hands far from my face until they were dry. I really worried in the beginning about what other nurses would say about me not using hand sanitizer. No one ever said anything, but I had decided that if it were to come up, I'd just tell them that I'm highly allergic.

I have heard that you would have to bathe in or drink hand sanitizer in order to come up positive for EtG. I had to use it once or twice in desperate situations while I was being monitored, and it scared the heck out of me. I never came up positive, but I don't think you should risk it if at all possible. Oh, also there are alcohol free hand sanitizers out there. You could buy some and bring it to work.

Also intraoperative neuro monitoring, which I always thought would be interesting. They require at least a BS, and BSN is one of the preferred degrees.

Get all the info you can from your old school regarding if they reported you to the BON, and if the reason for your suspension from the program will be available to other universities. Since you successfully completed their requirements, and are in good standing, they may have wiped your record clean. If that's the case you absolutely do not need to disclose that information to anyone else. Find any other reason to explain all those Fs. You do NOT want to mention a positive drug test to anyone in nursing unless absolutely necessary. It can be blown WAY out of proportion, and I assume you don't want to go through that again!

Medical device sales or pharm sales. Many have BSN listed as preferred educational background.

If you are in good standing with the university you were suspended from, do you even have to tell another school about the positive drug screen? Of course you'd have to give a reason if you were currently suspended or on probation, but you aren't. Don't be too quick to volunteer too much information to people unless it's required. When you meet with your school ask them these important questions.

Also, if you answer YES to the addiction/mental illness question on the licensure application, you will most likely end up in a 3-5 year (depending on the state) super-strict, expensive, time-consuming monitoring program that will make it almost impossible for you to get a job because of all of the restrictions that will be on your license. In Texas, that program is called TPAPN and it is 3 years long.

First of all, if you don't have a substance abuse problem, do not tell the BON that you do. You were given an evaluation that found that you do not have an addiction problem, correct? Leave it at that and answer NO on your NCLEX application. If your school did report you to the BON, then in Texas, you would probably have to do EEP for your first year as a RN. EEP is for nurses who have tested positive on a drug test, but have been found by a licensed chemical dependency evaluator to not have a substance abuse or addiction problem. Maybe you should ask your school if they reported you to the BON, that way you won't have to guess about it.

Did your school report you to the BON? If they did, you will most likely have to do some sort of monitoring program for a time period as a RN. If they didn't report you to the BON, I'd think you would be all-clear. Monitoring programs are not a career ender. I just finished a 12 month monitoring program through the Texas BON, and I start an Acute Care NP program this month. I am working on putting it all behind me!

Do not tempt fate with your monitoring program! Yes, the rules suck and many of them are plain silly, but just imagine how much worse it will get if you test positive (or false positive).