DeBerham

1) Yes, the VA hires LPNs... That being said the VA system is somewhat difficult to get into, so much so that I stopped bothering (both as an LPN and RN). Go to usajobs.gov to look up VA jobs in your area 2) Army, 91C then 91WM6 (LPN) (ETS'd in 2006) 3) Couldn't tell you, my LPN course was AIT 4) I got my LPN because I didn't know what I wanted and my recruiter made it sound pretty cool, but it turns out that I really enjoy the this work. After being an LPN for 8 years I went back to school for my BSN because there is such a narrow difference between the two licenses but a significant pay increase. Now I am working on my MSN as a FNP. I would SERIOUSLY consider skipping the LPN and going right for your BSN, especially if you want to do flight nursing or the ICU...

I work 3 days a week, 12 hour shifts. Generally I'll pick up 2 or 3 extra shifts/month for extra $$$$. To handle it I compartmentalize. I keep my work stuff at work and home stuff at home. What results is you absolutely develop a work family, with all of the associated personality quirks and dysfunction. The ER is an interesting area because you see A LOT of self diagnosis which I think certainly contributes to the "apathy" and "rude" impression that may be given. You're in the ER for N/V but demanding to have your chinese food.... let me get right on that. There is also the time management issue to deal with. We exist to get you stabilized and either up to the floor or out the door. We're not there to hang out with you. We need specific information and when that is not given in a direct manner I may begin to direct the conversation so I can find out what I need.

I'd suggest a WIRED network LASER printer. You don't have to worry about wireless configurations and you can plug it directly into your wireless router. With the laser option (as stated above) you get more pages/$. Also, if you have the money to pay up front you might look at business class printers vs consumer. Long term they tend to last longer and the ink is cheaper.

I say own it

"Thank you my *****" after starting an ultrasound IV on a sickle cell patient

Medication errors occur when when of these things occurs during drug administration: Wrong pt Wrong route Wrong time Wrong drug Wrong dose Now I'm unclear as to if you'd recapped the needle or not. If you were you may be written up for that, and you should regardless of if you were injured or not. Still, that's not a medication error by any stretch of the imagination. Protocols are in place for a reason and there is no reason to ever recap a used needle. As I interpret it though you were throwing away the needle and the cap when you accidentally got stuck. If that's the case your shift supervisor is an idiot and suggesting that people get written up for an accidental on the job injury is asinine. These things happen, and you cannot realistically remove all risk from this job. Her type of attitude only serves to not have staff report these types of injuries, and if a lawsuit comes down from an employee who gets sick because they feared that they would be fired if they reported this type of injury your facility will be paying through the nose in court. I PROMISE you, odds are that anyone who has been a nurse for any length of time HAS been stuck. I stuck myself once several years ago... it sucks, got checked and moved on. If you get written up for it, file the incident away as a thing to be careful about. I would also seriously consider moving to another floor/hospital as this type of attitude is dangerous.

LOL, yes.

Jenni811 hit the nail on the head, it's about $$$. Shockingly, inexperienced nurses (those with 1-3 years of experience) are cheaper to hire than an experienced nurse. Additionally, those coming out of nursing school are typically young and attractive as 22 to 25 year old females are apt to be. What I'll also say is that as a male I never had to deal with the garbage that the more... experienced... nurses dealt out to these new grads. That isn't to say I didn't hear about it, probably since I wasn't viewed as any type of threat to the pecking order. I even had one nurse tell me that the nurse manager was purposefully hiring attractive people to work the floor. That made me chuckle a little bit. What I'd suggest is to get over it. NOTHING good will come from being so superficial. Is it their fault that they're attractive? No. Is it their fault that they are young? No. Are you liable to let your jealousy over SUPERFICIAL things ruin some potential relationships? Yes. If you see that they are not acclimating the the job/culture (ie cell phone use while patients need something) let them know. I'll say though that you may need an attitude adjustment just as much as these new nurses because your feelings will translate in to actions in how you treat/interact with them... and then we'll get to read new posts about how we continue to eat our young.

I worked antepartum for a few months (assigned by the military, def not my choice) and that was pretty miserable. Currently work ER. I've also worked on a surgical floor and psych. You can find males just about everywhere except the above mentioned units.

This will come with time, and you will likely not get a really good grasp of this until you are actually hired on at your first job. Part of it comes with knowing the routine of the floor that you are working on, and part of it comes with getting knowing your own routine. When you master both of these things you'll be able to manage your time. You're a student, it's expected. ASK QUESTIONS and expose yourself to new situations. If you're able to practice a skill, do it. Start IVs, place foleys, do assessments, and get feedback on those skills that you attempt. You're not going to be perfect the first time, and maybe not even the second. Given enough experience though you will get better. Also, don't think that this is going to stop when you get out of school. You will be expected to use new equipment and learn new skills... get used to it and have fun. Don't be intimidated by new knowledge, look at it as a new skill that you can bring to the table when it comes time for an evaluation or for you to move on to another job. Hmmmm, I think this is the hardest thing to address. What I'll say is that those who GENERALLY fear being incompetent rarely are in my experience (just like the patient/family member who says they don't mean to be a bother rarely are). Refer back to the first two points that I made. Put the patient first, put yourself in their shoes and treat them accordingly. I think if you do this you really don't have to worry too much.

I failed several classes in high school and was very close to not graduating (had to take summer courses between my junior and senior year). I went into the military, was given some discipline that was sorely needed, pulled my s*** together, went back to college and received good grades. I got into a bachelors of nursing program and am now working on my masters. I was young, foolish, made a LOT of mistakes, and if anyone asked me I would admit as much. The grades that you have earned in college should redeem whatever mistakes you made in high school. If your school asks you explain how you've changed since then and that your grades reflect that.

Not a new nurse, but have had some experience with this on the other side... As a one time LPN my advice is to talk to the LPNs. There is nothing worse than coworkers who think they are superior than you. Make an effort to treat everyone as a human being. CNA, LPN, housekeeping, everyone... They're all people. You will be respected for it and it may in fact effect a change. Be their friend. Foster an environment where they are comfortable with you. You said it yourself, you are there to work together. Start by creating the environment that you want to work in.

Not sure, but I think I would call that a 3 lead in Maryland...

The BVNPT is a bad joke. They are traditionally the slowest board to send out license information to requesting agencies when I file for reciprocity in other states. They also sat on my (and the other California resident's) application for 6 months post graduation. When I say sat on, the application sat on someone's desk because my school failed to stamp a page. Apparently calling the school or us was too difficult a task so there it sat. I lived in Sacramento so I was doing weekly trips to their office to see what was taking so long. Good luck

nevermind

I certainly don't, but there are a couple of things that we can do. For example... We can see what your last visits were for and we notice patterns... If you come in with a preprinted sheet of the drugs that you want administered... If you consistently leave right after receiving your narcotic without being dispo'd... If referrals are made to treat the underlying source of your pain but you can't bother to keep them... If you get mad when I hang a narcotic in a 50ml bag of saline because I have noticed the above... There are people who present to the ER with pain issues, and their pain is treated quickly and effectively... There are also narcotics addicts who cannot be bothered to treat the underlying source of their pain or their addiction... we deal with both. Thanks though for voicing your persecution complex here though

I have to travel out of state for TNCC and will do so again when I take ENPC next year. I don't know that it's really ENA's fault, more that there aren't enough trainers/classes where you live.

I would remove the section on what you did in nursing school and expand on what your duties were as a corpsman/working as a civilian. We all know what your clinical experience was in school and this is fairly redundant for most employers. You have a fairly robust medical background for a new grad due to your military and civilian experience... tell us what you did and what your responsibilities were. Were you in charge of people, were you an NCO? Were you deployed? What did you do in the civilian facility, what were your responsibilities there? I would definitely expand on your military background. Not all employers know or understand what exactly you were trained to do... tell them

I believe it's more facility driven than state mandated. I imagine it probably comes down to liability, most nurses wouldn't be doing enough intubations to remain proficient, and the last thing you want in a code is someone who is not confident, or even worse over confident in their skill set attempting an intubation. There are hospitals, where I do believe that SOME nurses can intubate a patient, but these are few and far between. So long as they are competent I have no issue with this. That being said, the typical nurse on a floor or unit has no business sticking a tube down anyone's throat. In the hospital setting, quite frankly, bagging a patient will get you by for the couple of minutes while you wait for the code team to arrive. The LAST thing that I would want is some cowboy (or cowgirl) who works in an outpatient clinic attempting an intubation on a patient simply because they believe that the can or should. I would rather have that person using a good old fashioned BVM, provide adequate breaths, and begin whatever protocol is appropriate in that situation. When it comes down to it, in a code, time to intubation is not a factor when saving someones life so long as an airway is maintained.

I was in a similar situation coming from a surgical unit to the ER. I would suggest the ENA online training course (I've been told it's rather expensive if you have to pay out of pocket for it though). There are roughly 60 individual programs and they cover just about everything that you'll need to know to get a good baseline knowledge of the ER and emergency nursing (as a side note, it's also a great prep for CEN). ENA also offers free online CEU classes which cover a pretty wide variety of topics and might serve as a good refresher/knowledge expander. The ENA's Emergency Nursing Core Curriculum book is also a good go-to reference.

I guess I'll defend myself here, lol. Long story short, I don't complain about my work in public forums which is where I see a lot of people getting in trouble with posting identifying information about themselves. If you know me outside of this website, great! If that's the case you should know I'm the same person here that I am at work and nothing that I say here should be a surprise to my coworkers, employers, or patients.

It really depends on how much they want you at the job your are thinking about leaving and what they need. If they have spent the time training you they probably would not tell you that you could not to go part time (ie either you are full time or you don't have a job there) but I really don't know. As far as the new job is concerned I would keep it to yourself until after you're hired (don't tell anyone at the place you're working at until AFTER you get a offered a position that you are looking to work elsewhere). Good luck!

Mistakes happen. You generally will not be penalized unless you: 1) Make them frequently/make the same mistake repeatedly or fail to learn from your mistakes 2) Make a HUGE mistake (ie 1mg dilaudid is ordered and you decide that it's not enough so you give 100mg requiring you to pull out multiple vials of a drug disregarding safety mechanisms in place) 3) attempt to cover up the mistake or lie about the mistake She's doing her job. Everyone has felt this way at some point, you've got to get over yourself though. I presume this person hired you and so something about you that he or she liked. There is a learning curve/growing pains associated with new hires (from the employees point of view and the employers) and mistakes, at some level, are expected to be made. Again, in all likelihood you will not lose your license. As far as seasoned nurses helping newcomers this unfortunately is a fact of life. You will work with people who are very good at teaching and mentoring you and others who are not. I would suggest you remember this feeling and when a new grad/employee comes to you for help act accordingly. Be that person you wish that they were. BE VERY CAREFUL HERE. I can not overstate this. If she wanted to "ruin you" she would have done it. EVERY hospital that I have worked at has had a probationary period in place to remove problematic employees, I doubt that yours is any different. If she wanted you gone you would be gone by now. Unless your supervisor is doing something dangerous as far as a patient's care is concerned I can just about promise you that if you go around tattling on your her your career will be over. I doubt you have any idea about the relationship that your supervisor has with her manager, and you are heading into very dangerous waters right now. Simply put you are more easily replaced than she is. Your statement also smacks of immaturity. Your supervisors mistakes have no bearing on yours. They are completely unrelated and I'm not sure why you would bring them up unless you are trying to divert attention from your shortcomings. You need to grow up. I would suggest that you develop some thicker skin and accept the criticism as an opportunity to improve yourself. You will deal with difficult people/situations WHEREVER you go and in whatever field you choose. It turns out that you're in a profession where your mistakes can kill people very quickly and as such mistakes are (rightfully) remedied quickly. Again, try changing your attitude and accept the criticism as an opportunity to grow. If you really don't like working there look for another job elsewhere, but keep in mind that no matter where you go you will be expected to meet standards.

A new grad is usually viewed to be someone with less than 1 year work experience regardless of job status. It shouldn't disqualify you, but at the same time I'm not sure that I'd mention that I'd just been hired someplace else unless asked directly (and they probably won't).

I can't see how this is much of an issue. It would surprise me that there would be a $2/hr pay difference between an ADN with experience vs a BSN. Simply put, that ADN is more valuable than you from the hospitals standpoint (they are not training her up to do a job and last I heard it costs around $10k to train a new staff nurse). I suspect more that (and you'll learn this working in hospitals) that his or her pay increases has not matched those that HR is using to attract new staff. That being said a couple words of advice:1) don't ask coworkers what they make. It's generally viewed to be rude. 2) when asked to, unless it's a close friend, I'll usually give a nondescript answer and change the subject. It's really none of their business