AlphaPig

I am hoping so - I am waiting to hear from Humana about this.

I got a job with Humana working from home. The problem - I rent an apartment and my apartment complex won't allow an additional cable line to be run to my apartment (Humana requires my landlord to sign a form saying that they can run an additional cable line) Anyone else run into this problem? It would cost me $$$$$ to break my lease at this point

I start March 2nd as a telephonic at home RN - I am going to their HQ in Kentucky for a week of training. Anyone going up there for training?

I start March 2nd as a telephonic at home RN - I am going to their HQ in Kentucky for a week of training. Anyone going up there for training?

I went and they offered me the job, but they only needed someone PRN and I need full time. She couldn't guarantee hours. I KNOW the ad said full-time. Oh well. . life goes on. . .I have another interview next week with Humana. I consider today a practice run.

So I'm supposed to have an in-person interview tomorrow at a local clinic for a job. They called me on Tuesday to ask for an interview. Just now, I received an email thanking me for applying to the position, but they had hired someone else (!?!?) It's too late to call (they are closed) so do I call in the morning to see if they still want me to come? Isn't that. . .odd?? Sigh. . .trying to find a non-hospital job is tough.

Hello! I am so excited to have landed an interview with Humana for next week. I was hoping to get some advice from you guys regarding the position which is a concurrent review/discharge planner position. I have no CM experience, just 5 yrs bedside. Has anyone worked in a similar position with Humana? Any advice on what questions they may ask me? Thank you

I suffer from this, too - right now it is really bad. For about a year, I had "cured" myself by getting bi-monthly gel manicures - those manicures really do last for at least 2 weeks and look awesome and I wouldn't pick/bite while my nails looked purty. I got out of the habit and now they are trashed! I am too embarrassed to get them done while they look like this. Since acrylics helped you before, I say try getting a bright gel color.

I'm having a hard time grasping what exactly home health RN Case Managers do - do they do patient care?

I applied and they called me back - anyone work for them or heard of them or know someone that has? Thank you!

Seaworld is hiring seasonal RN's. . .for $14.75/hr. Seems a tad. . .insulting. http://careers.worldsofdiscovery.com/Scripts/Home/JobDetail.aspx?title=affpmf&requisition=ac&locationID=1001&prev=~%2fScripts%2fHome%2fJobSearchList.aspx%3f&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed

If I see her MD will ask about her and see if they found out what was going on.

I guess I'm so used to sepsis presenting with tachycardia, low BP, elevated WBCs, elevated temp. . .she had none of those. But I know that a low temp CAN be sepsis, too. Maybe with all of her other issues it presented with the low temperature. She may have been 60, but her body was that of an 80 years old. I noticed that when she got to ICU, they drew a bunch of thyroid labs so maybe they were thinking along those lines, too (I always look to see what orders they put in when the pt is taken to ICU to help me with my thinking)

60+ yr old female patient admitted for hyperkalemia/ARF/UTI 6 days ago is stable on my floor. Multiple co-morbidities including DM, hypothyroid, past ARF, CHF, CVA x 2, COPD, RA and a new 2 cm mass in her lungs found this admission. Pt is 60 but looks 80. Multiple immune disorder markers are found in her blood (all of those funky labs I can't remember right now) and they are hoping to treat the auto-immune disorder to help the kidneys rather than resort to dialysis. Ok. Patient's baseline is AAOX3 with poor short term memory. She is on O2 2L NC with sats 95-97. BP and HR stable. Afebrile. Poor appetite and frequent c/o nausea. Slightly elevated WBCs and elevated but stable BUN/Cr (sorry, don't remember exact numbers). Overall, her daily CBC and BMP looked ok for her. Around 11, patient changed - she became more lethargic and slight slurring of speech. She kept saying "I feel so. . strange". BS 118, vitals WNL, did full assessment and mentioned it to the MD who was on the floor who saw her but he dismissed it saying she was probably just tired. Also, I noticed her legs were edematous so I told the nephrologist (who happened to be standing right there, too) and he ordered some Lasix. She slept for a couple of hours and when she woke up she looked. . .sick. Vitals still fine except. . .I can't get a temperature. I try two thermometers. I try oral and axillary. Won't read. So, I get a rectal and her temp is 93.8. I'm like !?!?!??!?!?!?!??!!? Get the MD back in the room (that got his attention) and a bunch of orders (blood cultures, urine culture, chest xray, ABGs) When I ask MD why the low temp, he shrugs. I ask if it could be sepsis, he really doesn't know. At this point, I called a rapid response (because patient was looking really crappy) so they came and took over and I didn't get to see all of the ABG results, but I did see she had critical acidosis and low Pa02 (couldn't see numbers or anything else) So, they want to put her on a thermal bipap thing (which I didn't know exists) so off she goes to ICU. And here I sit trying to make sense of it all. What would make her temperature go so low? I'm sorry I don't have better data - it was a long day and I don't remember all of the details. Thank you - interested in your feedback. I've never had a patient with a low temperature before so I am curious about it. I've been doing some research on-line and I seem to be going in circles with it all.

I don't work psych (I am reading the psych posts purely for interest :) but I can safely say that my neuro med/surg job affects me GREATLY outside of work - I am so anxious and tired and burnt out after I work. We have a lot of pysch patients (my current hospital has no inpatient psych floor like my old one did) so we, as the "neuro" floor, get all AMS, confused and acute psychosis patients. Tons of psycho-social issues. Just exhausting. this is why I am trying to get OUT of the hospital.

I hope my post didn't come across wrong - I was trying to make the point that while psych nurses may "lose" some basic hands-on skills, they gain so many other amazing skills and in-depth knowledge. I enjoyed the few times I got to float there as a med nurse.

Wow - they don't keep a crash cart on a psych inpatient unit? I thought every place in a hospital had a crash cart. I mean, anyone can have a heart attack or anaphylactic (did I spell that right?) reaction. Also, just wanted to comment that I once floated to our locked inpatient psych unit to work as the med pass nurse (for 26 patients!) and had a great day. It was fascinating being there, seeing how things worked. Also, while I was there a medical doc came over and decided to order a bunch of labs and an IV for some fluids on a patient and the other nurse (a psych veteran) literally had NO idea how to enter them into the computer or start the IV. I was happy to help her and she was so thankful. Then, a patient went completely pyscho and watching the veteran psych nurse handle the situation was amazing - calm, skillful, confident, kept the situation completely under control. Impressive. So, yeah, this med-surg nurse could start an IV and draw some labs but was CLUELESS with the rest of the psych world!

Every single job I look at for any CM jobs wants at least a year of CM experience. But how do I get that year without experience!? Sigh. The great catch-22 of switching career paths.

I have been looking for a clinic job or something a bit. . .lighter. . .but they are hard to find. I need to work (for $$) so I am at a loss of what to do.

I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO burnt out at my med-surg hospital job. I just finished my first semester of adult NP school. I still want to be a primary care adult NP (FAR FAR FAR AWAY FROM THE HOSPITAL) but cannot stomach the thought of working as a bedside nurse for the next 3 yrs. Not because of the patients but because of the environment and hours and management and, well, some of the patients (the drug seekers and ETOH withdrawals) and my body is literally breaking down (back pain, HTN, stress headaches) and I am seriously thinking about not even working as a nurse and just finishing school! Anyone else?

I offered to take the hospital's critical care course without pay but they said No because it contains clinical hours. I talked to my boss (Nurse Manager) and the floor's educator about it (which is kind of a joke position because I have never even met this person before) and they said they are still working on the details about what we are supposed to get on the floor - for example, we are actually NOT supposed to have drips (but have been getting them!) and we are only supposed to get neuro PCU (but we have been getting medical and even some cardiac ones!) I told them I would refuse patients that I felt uncomfortable with and they both sort of stared at me. They are starting to realize how unprepared we are - we have started calling the ICU whenever we have questions about anything (like the drips or trachs) and the ICU is complaining so finally someone is doing something about it. What a cluster-duck.

Holy cow, our charge nurses have NO patients, do NOT help with admissions and rarely help with patient care when the nurses are swamped. This is not because they are lazy, but our charge nurses have SO MANY STUPID tasks to do, papers to fill out, discharge calls to make, rounding to make sure our patients are all "happy" (not getting better, mind you, just "happy"), meetings, etc etc etc they are always running around like crazy. They hate it and it just keeps getting worse Plus, our floor probably gets about 10 admissions a day, so we all have to take them!

Ugh, just a vent. My med-surg floor just started accepting PCU level patients and most of us med-surg nurses who have NEVER WORKED PCU are now expected to be PCU nurses after taking 8 on-line classes that weren't even classes, just a PP presentation with a quiz that literally took about 5 minutes a "class" I feel so overwhelmed. I just wish I could have gotten a few days of orientation on a PCU unit so I would feel more comfortable with the sicker patients, the drips, the trachs, the multiple lines. . just the overall feel of PCU. I guess I will learn.

I LOVE my Alegria clogs. I am on my 2nd pair and they have lasted well over the last 15 months. However, they are losing some of their support and I have noticed my knees/feet starting to hurt after back-to-back shifts which NEVER happened before. The shoes themselves are still in practically perfect shape. I was looking online to buy a new pair and noticed that for $25 I could buy new inserts. . .has anyone else ever done this? I am thinking of trying it since the insole part (it is super thick) is all that is really worn out. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this. . .it would save me $$$ and honestly, I still love these shoes. Thanks. http://www.alegriashoeshop.com/category-s/75.htm

It is a part of the problem - not the whole problem - but definitely a part. They turn in their phones at 1845 on the dot and the techs coming on usually don't get a phone until 1915 or even later so there is this time period where there is no way to get a hold of any tech. It's so frustrating.