tacomaster

To get back to the OP--I would love to have a mentor at work. That is a great idea and I think that would help tremendously. Should men get special favors? No. I would like to say in an ideal world, it would be nice if us guys were included. In college, practically all the nursing scholarships listed "must be a woman" on them. I would meet 90% of the qualifications and be dismissed by that. Now as a nurse they have all these "women only" nurse organizations. No other industry does that! Yes, we have a men's organization but I don't want to hang out with just guys. Why can't we be nurses? Why use these gender adjectives? Again, no other industry does this.

I graduated there. They have two nursing schools but pay nothing for BSNs. It was $19 when I left and I had $30 grand in student loans.

Mercy, the hospital this bonus is at, and Cox are the only two hospitals in Springfield. They run a duopoly in that region of south Missouri and north Arkansas. They are extremely dishonest and greedy companies that pay their nurses horribly. Actually ALL employees. Techs make minimum wage. Nurses start out with a BSN at $19 and they cap them at $29 (with 25 cent per year raises). I graduated from Cox College a few years ago and most of us left the area. Cox and Mercy have an agreement that you cannot leave one hospital and go to the other for a raise. The hospitals like to talk about the cost of living being lower but it really isn't.

Since I posted that reply comment things have gotten worse. I've been keeping dates and times of conversations in a notebook and plan on going to HR tomorrow. I'm going to try to transfer to another hospital within our system.

I think that was a great article and well researched. So here is my story. I've been in my unit since january and I'm the only guy besides the doctors. The first two weeks I was told by two separate co-workers that men are ran off and that the charge nurses don't like me and want me to fail. Good times. Out of a staff of 13 nurses, 5 have left since March including my preceptor who shocked all of us and put in her two week notice as she was leaving for the weekend. I'll keep this brief. She told me a lot of things that have put a bad taste in my mouth. I'm just trying to survive my year so I can leave. I often get stuck in an OR suite for the whole shift while several people don't get assignments and get to hang out at the nurse's station. I'm scared to ask questions like the author mentioned. My actions are scrutinized and I have anxiety making simple decisions knowing that whatever I do will be "wrong". A few weeks ago a charge nurse told me "shut up and use your f**king brain!". Can anything be resolved? I seriously doubt it. The sad thing is that my hospital is magnet and rated as one of the best hospitals to work at nationally. I miss working with my old unit. This toxic environment is completely foreign to me. I talked to my manager and she apologized and said she would fix it by sitting out at the nurse's station. That lasted about a week and she's back in her office now.

glad you like my analogies lol--my coworkers said the same thing, "I am not eating spring rolls the same way ever again!"

I really want to reply and be sarcastic but will hold back. No one looks at memberes every day. No one is getting turned on by inserting foleys into their patient. I've probably inserted five in my entire nursing career and 4 of those 5 were from patients who requested a male nurse instead of a female nurse. You don't have anything to worry about. Okay, this is the sarcastic and blunt response: the memberes I do have to look at are because their disease process has affected that region of the body. For example, cellulitis and herpes of the member. Cellulitis of the member and scrotum reminds me of those spring rolls where it's translucent and can kind of see inside. Herpes member will scar you for the rest of your life. Pustules with creamy white discharge, etc. If any person can get turned on by seeing those, they need a psych consult.

Congrats on getting what you wanted! All of the branches want OR experienced nurses so I am in the process of switching to that area very soon. Would you mind telling me how much the bonus or loan repayment was? I know it changes often, but still. And ya, I'd still join even without those things. So for reserve Army nursing what type of training will you receive? I'm still shocked you got your package and commissioned so quick. From what I've heard about the Navy and Air Force, it tends to take anywhere from six months to a year.

So the Army only took one month? Would you mind answering some questions for me? what type of nursing do you do? For the Reserves, is GPA a big component of your package? I'm at a 3.2 but I had a really strange GPA system at my private nursing program. What led you to the Army over the other branches? I'm prior enlisted Army (4 years). I just want to commission and serve as a nurse. I don't really care which branch. Thanks.

I hear what you are saying and am really surprised by this. Will they at least take my four years prior enlisted time towards retirement? I would love to wear my previous ribbons again. So being with the Reserves or Guard, do you get to go TDY for training or do they expect your primary job to provide all the training you'll need?

that is redonculous! So, the four years count how exactly? I think mine is exactly four years. I'd have to double check my DD 214.

Lindarn, Great post. If everything goes well, I should be in the Reserves next year as an OR nurse. Ya, my hospital finds ways to "punish" nurses which is why I have a Plan B and six months of cash saved up in case they decide to get really stupid. Recently management told us to clock out and chart off the clock so we don't run into overtime. During a unit meeting in front of everyone in case of retaliation, I asked if the state workforce commission has anything to say about being forced to work off the clock. Like you said, many nurses don't know their rights. So did you stay in the Reserves until you retired? Did you deploy often? I'm an Active Duty Veteran so I'm excited about the prospect of deploying. What are the weekend drills like for medical? Thanks for any information.

I don't want to downplay your discrimination. I will tell you that in nursing school as a guy and also as someone who served in the military, I faced discrimination repeatedly. Well maybe not discrimination, but I did have to suffer from instructors who flat out said they would not teach disease processes that men suffer from and told me they didn't think men should be nurses. For the sake of keeping my privacy I won't go into the issues I encountered because I served, but nursing school was hell. I am so glad to be done with that chapter of my life. Another Veteran in my class sent a cease and desist email with his lawyer CCd in it. Finally, the instructors left him alone.

A few things: The EHR software in the ED is different then the EHR software on the floor so we can't see what you see. I need report from you because at my hospital, about 90% of the time we get patients when the ED nurses are about to leave their shift. They like to hold onto the patients so they don't get more. Last week I got a patient up to the floor, situated, etc and then my charge nurse decided to move him to another section of the unit and I lost them. If I didn't have report, I would have been at a lost. I had an ED nurse, who actually worked on my floor for like ten years up until January, start out the report by saying, "why can't you just look this up?". This was the admission diagnosis for Pete's sake, not the IV site or anything like this. I told her to just send me the patient and I hung up on her. I don't have time for that nonsense.

Typically the photos are stock photos, at least that's what my school used. Your RACE (why did you put that in caps?) won't be an issue. And having a stellar GPA in another field doesn't always correlate to nursing school. It's a whole different breed of school all together. Best of luck.

Agh! Why did I let myself get out of military standards! lol

thanks for the input and the story. I think being a flight nurse would be a pretty cool gig.

As Dave Ramsay would say, "So who's the lawyer or doctor in the household?". There's so many other accelerated BSN programs out there for $30,000. I should know. That's what I did.

Some nurses and I were discussing our PCAs a few days ago at break and this event happened a few months ago. The nurse rounded on her patient and noticed the pump had been turned off. When she asked the PCA, they gave some excuse as to why they didn't think the patient needed it. I think I slammed my head into the wall at that point of her telling me the story. The PCA was talked to by our supervisor very sternly that they are a not a nurse and to stop acting like one. The PCA has four children and is the sole breadwinner so I'm sure that's why no firing took place. It got so bad with this PCA that they stopped charting their hourly I&O for the shift (too busy playing nurse and educating and assessing patients) so I had to take him aside and tell him, "look, I don't have time to double check your work and make sure you are charting. You know what your responsibilities are. I don't need you playing nurse".

Off topic but this is something my unit has been having problems with this last six months or so. We have PCAs/techs who are in nursing school and who are acting like they are nurses. I have had to tell one to get out of the room (politely) because they start educating my new admission patient while I was trying to do my admission paperwork and assessment. And then there was the PCA who stopped the heparin drip and the patient was no longer at a therapeutic level...

Funny. I thought that was just the people on my floor! lol. And I'm so stealing that quote by the way and using it.

Regarding GPA, every school has their own grading metric. For example, I went to a private university and a C was 75-84, B 85-94, and an A was 95-100. I graduated with a 3.2 GPA but if I would have gone to a state school, my GPA would have been higher. I have only had one or two HR people ask what my GPA was for hiring purposes and as long as it's over a 3.0 you can get into the ICU fields (supposedly that's where the smart kids go). I've been preceptoring a new RN grad with a 4.0 GPA (I didn't ask, she just feels led to tell EVERY SINGLE PERSON) and she's very book smart but lacks in skills, communication, and confidence. Those things will come with time I'm sure. GPA isn't everything. The whole package is what is important. Just remember, you just have to get a year of nursing under your belt and then you can go anywhere.

I would never ask my recruiter that question. I am just curious because I read all these posts about people applying year after year and getting rejected for the branch that they want. I'm not overly picky. I served in the Army but worked with all the branches. Air Force gets better housing, better duty stations. Navy seems to promote their nurses quicker over the Army and Air Force.

I know you were in the Army as an RN Pixie. Is it possible to submit a packet for two different branches at the same time? have you heard of anyone doing that? I completed my first step and got an OR job (what the Navy and AF needed but surprisingly not the Army) and am now working on getting back in military standards. I was enlisted in the Army for four years.

Just when you think you've seen and heard of everything. I keep meaning to make a post entitled The Strangest Thing Ever To Happen To Me As A Nurse Is...