PnutButterJelly

My dream job is in a PICU. I have been a nurse for 2 years, but I am not there yet. I took a job right after graduation in dialysis. Finally a position opened in a pediatric ortho hospital. I love my job and most days feel like I have hit the nursing lottery! My precepting (Peds post-op) pretty much landed me this job, where I have been a little under a year. By the end of the year I plan on getting my CPN and applying to any PICU opening I can find. I wouldn't leave my great job for anything else!

I felt this way too! I am coming up on my second year of being a nurse and it is sooo much better. For me, it involved getting out of a horrible job with even worse coworkers. I was depressed and cried most days. I finally made a decision to quit by a certain day regardless of if I found new employment. Luckily I hit the job lottery and was hired for the best job ever before I reached the "quit" date. I seriously thank heavens for my job almost every day. So my advice to you is this--remember why you wanted to be a nurse, get your resume out there, and try a new position!

I assume you are still in school? If your nursing program offers remedial math take it! I never needed it and everyone thought I was crazy for going to a class I didn't need at 7 am. But dimensional analysis was something I didn't really understand. I was doing math in my head and it worked, but dimensional analysis made life sooo much easier! If they don't offer this, see if you can find online tutorials.

A nurse practitioner made this transition while working for my company. It went well from everything I know. Her patients were slightly thrown off, but nothing negative was ever said to her that I know of. That being said, she did move out of state later because she thought it would be easier to start over in a place that no one ever knew her history.

I work in outpatient dialysis. Most of our patients see our medical director, who is there once a week. However, the other patients see doctors from a large practice. They are legally only required to be there once a month. That practice is pretty notorious for doing as little as possible and only coming when required. They come in, see there patients, sign off all of their verbal orders, and aren't seen again for another month.

This isn't illegal so long as it is being put in under your name and just putting in the doctor that ordered it. I work in an outpatient clinic and our doctors are only required to come in and see their patients once a month. If I need something I have to call the doctor and place verbal telephone orders into the system. If verbal orders were illegal I would never get anything accomplished and my patients would truly suffer because of it.

I think it depends. I work in a chronic dialysis clinic. My patients know I have kids and their names and ages. They know my husbands career as well. That is really as far as I go though. I do see the same people all week. If I were in an acute setting, I wouldn't share as much.

At least where I work it is the culture. I work in a small clinic with around ten employees. Our nurse manager prides herself on coming in when she is sick and never missing. Because of this she expects it from everyone else and makes the environment toxic when someone does call in.

It also depends on how you are moving. Is you husband a Swedish citizen? If not finding a job (after you get a BSN) will prove difficult. As a member of the EU, Sweden hires citizens of the EU first.

It really depends. I have a full sleeve and several other visible tattoos. They had to be covered in school for clinicals. No big deal. Long sleeves and band aids worked fine. At work I can show all of them and it isn't against the dress code. However, I don't work at a hospital and expect that if I do switch to acute care it will be back to long sleeves.

Love the UU church. I am an atheist and attend. Everyone knows and it doesn't bother anyone. In fact several members are atheists or secular humanist I love that I leave thinking about ways to improve my life that I can relate to. Even if it is a bit of a far drive, I hope you go and check it out a few times.

I am a new grad that has been working at Fresenius for three weeks. So it does happen. This is far from where I wanted to be in nursing, but I think it is perfect for me right now. I am learning so much. And I really feel I am working in an environment that is so supportive of learning. Just a piece of advice--don't underestimate how overwhelming dialysis is. It is a completely different field of nursing than nursing school teaches. But it has already taught me so much! Good luck.

I wear prescriptions lenses. However I really have thought about getting LASIK and wearing non-prescriptions. I like the way I look with glasses but not needing them would give me the options to own lots of them and not worry when they get broken. Most likely I will do this within the next year. Work offers a discount! If that makes me a hipster, whatever. I have been rocking frames since middle school.

I still wouldn't go into details. When asked why just state that the facility wasn't a good fit for you. Why would you ever tell someone you cursed at a patient and expect them to give you a job? For what it is worth, I do have behavioral health experience. It is never okay to withhold food or curse at a patient.

Our only policy is to wear company scrubs. We don't have to cover tattoos. I don't know the policy about piercings though as I don't have any.

I just bought some Danskos today too. They do flip-flop but I was informed this is how they are supposed to fit. It allows for your feet to swell as they can do after a 12 hr shift. Haha. So far I love them. I just think it is going to take some getting used to.

There is a hospital that I have applied to that does this. I have still had applications referred to the hiring managers, even when I answer "no" to some of them. I am a new grad ADN so I answer no to the BSN and experience questions. But so far I think it just gets better qualified to the top of the pile but doesn't necessarily rule others out.

I can't speak for everyone. But here is my reason for doing ADN then BSN and possibly MSN. My husband was in the army. We had no idea if we would be at our duty station long enough for me to finish a BSN program. This was even more true because we had been at our duty station 2 yrs before I even went back to school. At least by doing the ADN first I could work as a nurse while continuing my education. I have always intended to finish my BSN, but doing a BSN program was never an option.

Looking back, studying for the NCLEX seems overwhelming. Do as many SATA questions as you can and then study infection control. Those would be my suggestions. It is impossible to know everything, but practice questions should help. Read all the rationales, even the ones you get right. I did about 150 questions a day for a week from Saunders and Rhinehart. The Saunders CD has an option for just alternate item questions. Use that!

I took the NCLEX on 5/23 and found out yesterday that I passed. I only had 75 questions, but at least half were SATA so I was a bit worried. I did get the good pop-up on PVT but I wasn't relying on that. Just so excited! Good luck to everyone that still has to test! :)

My husband has a radial pulse, but it is really low. He is a runner and I have never known his pulse rate to be above 45. When he did an exercise tolerance test his pulse would not get above 50 even. So while I may not treat him with a pulse of 90, I would be somewhat worried.

Oh no. Don't lose hope. Something will work out for you. I am surprised at how quickly they responded though. I applied to a New Grad program two weeks ago and they are still deciding.

I would apply. The most they can say is no! No one here can really tell you if you will get in or not. Go for it, if you don't you won't stand a chance of getting in anyway. :)

I don't really have a lot of advice. But, coming from someone with a full sleeve tattoo, if you go that route you will still probably have to wear long sleeves. I self injured as a teenager. Luckily as it has been over ten years, my scars aren't really noticeable enough for anyone to ask about, at least the ones on my arms. If I were you I would probably wear short sleeves. If anyone asks just say your scars are from a long time ago. That should be enough for people to leave it alone.