InACedarGrove

Hello all I've been working as an ER nurse for 13 years and the last year I've been working as a Vascular access nurse doing PICCs and IVs. I really like the work, it's sort of my dream job. I walk a lot for the job, like 13k steps per shift. Right now I'm 2 days a week, 2 twelves. I also make guitars in my spare time and I'm on my feet a lot with that. I've had intermittent knee issues, fairly minor, for years. In the last 1.5 years they have gotten significantly worse. I went to an orthopedic doctor and he told me I have bone on bone arthritis. I feel like that term is not helpful...seems to describe a lot of things. I got fitted for an expensive custom knee brace which he said might help. I am going to get that today. He suggested I would need a knee replacement at some point. I've done some physical therapy and starting with a new one this week. I use Voltaren gel, and I'm taking supplements, etc. I can't tell if anything is specifically helping. I can do kettlebell exercises and ride on a bike with zero pain. But walking really exacerbates it. I have not had to take any time off work thus far, sometimes though after a shift I'm really feeling it. I've had a couple weeks off, in general my knee feels better, I think it was pretty inflamed, but I'm definitely not out of the woods. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone is working as a bedside nurse with a knee replacement and/or battling arthritis in their knees and how is it going? I really like this job, it suits me in a lot of ways, and I don't really want to do something different, but it definitely is a lot of walking around. Thanks!

I've worked in 16 ERs over the last decade and I've never been specifically assaulted. I've been involved in restraining people where things were out of control but never have really taken a specific hit. Never been in direct contact with bodily fluids. I definitely have anxiety about it happening and try to be aware. One of those things. If it's your time it's your time. Lately it bothers me more than it used to. If I was getting assaulted regularly I would not be working there.

Just wondering, I'm working a contract at a hospital that has Latex foleys and uses latex sterile gloves. I'm not 100% sure but after working a million contracts it seems like most places I've worked have been latex free (at least the Foleys...not sure about the gloves). I could be totally wrong. Just wondering. TLDR: are Latex foleys stocked as standard at your hospital? What is the current standard of care?

If anyone reads this, I have been travelling for 2 years since this happened, never had a problem since. I think one of the charge nurses at that hospital didn't like me A LOT, the feeling was mutual, she would dump the sickest patients on me when everyone else was sitting around and then give me dirty looks all the time. At the end she said "you've come a long way" which was nice, but really she came a long way...I was the same guy. Anyway. Got through it, it was a tough time but I'm working in world class hospitals these days as a traveller and doing pretty ok. Tough job but I keep doing it. Thanks for the advice back then.

Thanks. At the job previous to this assignment, the educator and my manager were so nasty to me, I left really shaken. They told me things like "you don't have the skills of a new grad nurse" "we could never train you". Things like that. I spent so much time there trying to make it work that when I finally got fired I felt really awful. It took me a month to recover. I've felt pretty good about my work on this travel assignment, but I'm still left with some lingering paranoia about my skills or the way people see me after what happened. I was hoping to get the contract renewal because I thought it would take the sting away from being fired. It didn't happen though. I guess it will all wash out. I appreciate your encouragement. I was hoping for this renewal as a way of washing away the previous experience. But I guess just finishing it out is something in itself and I'll just have to keep working on being a better nurse. I learned a ton at this job and feel pretty comfortable there.

So long story short, here's my career in a few sentences: 1) Went to accelerated program with no previous hospital experience. Not fun, but I did well. We had minimal clinical experience. NCLEX on the first try, no problem. 2) No jobs even to apply to when I graduated. I wanted an ED new-grad program, but I ended up getting a med-surg job at a small hospital out of state. I was very green when I started, but I did pretty well there. 3) 10 months into job #1, an ED job opened up at a really tough hospital back in my home state (poor hospital, lots of drugs, rough patients, crazy experience). I did not get a great orientation and ended up getting pushed out pretty green. It was a really tough place to work, but I loved working in the ED. I always felt like I was catching up and I was working on a basic level, but I also trusted myself enough to know when I needed to ask for help, when I was over my head. Never really had a problem there. One of the charge nurses used to ride me pretty hard, said I was inexperienced, which I was. 4) pretty much exactly a year after that, I got offered a job a BIG NAME teaching hospital. You've probably heard of it. This was my dream job and looked like it was going to be a great situation. The training program that I was looking for (3 months). The educator there seemed to take a dislike to me from day 1 (started calling me her "problem child" from the day I met her, which I thought was bizarre. She bounced me around between 8 different preceptors. She said they all said the same universally negative things about me. I worked extremely hard to make things work, but eventually they fired me (after 3 months). I honestly have never been so depressed or felt so bad in my life. I never even anticipated that it was a possibility to get fired. Ok this is more than a few sentences. Thanks for reading. 5) So I was at a loss. I did not want to go back to the floor. I thought I'd done pretty well at my first ER job. I made the mistake of asking a lot of simple questions at the dream job, stuff I knew but just wanted to make sure I was doing everything right. Apparently that bothered the educator. I felt like it was really unfair. She said "you are not very experienced, you only have two years of experience and you come from an accelerated program" all of which was on my resume. Anyway, getting-longish-story short, I ended up getting a contract job at a local hospital. I really liked working there, and everything went pretty well. I generally liked everyone I was working with, and felt like I was doing a good job. One charge nurse occasionally would act impatient with me, but generally things seemed to be going well. No complaints from the staff or management. I was really hoping that I would get my contract renewed, because it's a wealthy hospital and there are a lot of women who are pregnant there. I've been asking them for two weeks if my contract would be renewed, but my boss was out of the office for a week. So I've been waiting. Today I found out that I'm not going to be renewed. I'm really bummed. It's way better than being fired, but I'm concerned about my resume. I thought if I did 6 months there, I would feel a lot more confident about my career. I feel a bit like I'm out on the skids again. If I'd never taken the job at the teaching hospital, I'd be coming onto my 2nd year of good ED experience at my original hospital. But because I made that jump, I feel like I'm really struggling to get my resume to look good. I remember the interview process to get this contract was minimal. I'm hoping I can get another contract shortly and just move one with things. I'm just a bit confused about how to proceed. I really don't want to move out of my city, but I guess I might have to depending on what's available (I live on the east coast). Any advice or thoughts? On the good side, I wasn't sure if I would be able to survive a travel contract, and I did. I feel pretty good about the work I've been doing. I know that I'm a new, greenish nurse, but I think my instincts have been good. And it was just a three month contract. I'm just stressed out about being a green nurse with another job jump on my resume and no end in site. Thanks for your thoughts.