Dewman

I am an ASN-RN and I have worked since graduation in LTC (2 years). I've seen a lot of residents with cancer, and I'm considering pursuing oncology nursing as a specialty. What I'd like to know is: what should be my next step? Is it necessary or desirable to get my BSN first? It seems that the curriculum for BSN programs seems geared toward nursing management, and I have no real interest in that. What I DO have interest in is honing my clinical skills and knowledge, especially where it concerns oncology. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Yes, the development of ANY new treatment is incredibly expensive, and carries with it incredibly high legal and financial risks to the developer, should the developer miss something that later causes a problem for a small group of recipients, and those recipients hire an army of lawyers to sue the pants and everything else off the developer. Couple that with very little chance of recouping the tremendous investment, and you have potential treatments and/or cures that languish on the shelf.

To a prog, ANYTHING that makes government bigger and more powerful is GOOD. ESPECIALLY if it involves confiscating MORE of someone ELSE'S money.

Yeah. THAT'LL happen. Not.

Before I graduated, I would have found that perplexing. Now, I understand why it is true.

Thanks for your comments. I've pretty much decided to leave.

Shite always rolls downhill. It isn't the FIRST time the person on the front lines gets blamed for an institutional deficiency.

I heard on the radio yesterday a bit about how many brand new teachers become beat down and disillusioned by teaching, and leave the profession in less than five years. I was wondering if anyone has read/heard any similar statistics about the drop out rate of newly-minted nurses. I suspect it's rather high.

Good for Nurse Castillo! Dr. Frieden has since gotten a raft of shite for that stupid comment, and justifiably so.

Further proof that shite always rolls downhill. A problem with corporate or institutional policies and procedures results in an epic screw-up? Blame the nurse! Yeah! That's it!

As a teacher of mine once said: "That's sick! FUNNY, but sick!"

"Ignorance" can be remedied though proper education. But "stupid" goes to the bone.

The following phrase was either thought or spoken by everyone present: "Holy S(p)it..."

The correct answer is Option 3: Both of the above.

I'm also a night nurse, and I can relate to everything you said. My employer has similar meetings for staff, and they are ALWAYS scheduled in the early afternoon - or from a night nurse perspective, "the middle of the night". Night staff is encouraged to attend, but at least they haven't made them mandatory yet.

IMHO, the need or lack of need for a union follows an evolution. When there is no union, and power is totally in the hands of management, a union CAN be beneficial. For example, though I am moderately anti-union, I can see some benefits to a nurse's union. But as they grow, unions tend to become so controlling that THEY begin to have most of the power. I speak as someone who has seen the collapse of both the auto industry and the steel industry, at the hands of powerful greedy unions pitted against powerful greedy management. And meanwhile, the industry that pays all their wages dies on the vine.

Even if my post WERE patently anti-union, how would that make me a "malcontent"?

The blame for Detroit's downfall is shared by many: management, unions, city planners and the populace. Each had a part in the short-sightedness and greed that ultimately killed the golden goose that was Detroit.

I am not sure what you mean, implying that I am a "malcontent". I was pointing out a basic truth, which seems to be all too often lost on many: That continued spending of more than one has will ultimately lead to economic collapse. It is true for a single person, a family, a city, a company, a state, or a country. Detroit is not the first entity to have learned this lesson, but it is certainly a huge entity currently in the news.

"But out in Detroit here's what they found..." What they FOUND was that you can spend more than you make for only so long. Then everything collapses.

Or as I have heard it: "If Mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy!"

Whoa. What we think the patient needs may not be the measure for determining hospital policy, but are we not supposed to be patient advocates? If our personal thoughts are irrelevant, than why not just hire Joe Blow off the street to do nursing?

I understand that a low thyroid resident needs Synthroid, but why not give it to them at HS? That's usually well after dinner, AND they wouldn't have to be woken up early just to get 1 pill.

Oh yeah.... That's one of my pet peeves as well. Elderly patients come in and the family say things like "We don't want Mom to have any narcotics because it makes her 'loopy'." So, you don't want your mom - who has Stage 4 terminal cancer - to have adequate pain meds because she gets "loopy"? That's when you wish people could be arrested for public stupidity...

Off topic, r/t your avatar, purple roses: Saw a t-shirt with the saying: "Keep calm" Then there was an EKG showing a flatline... then "OK. Not THAT calm!"