NewYorkerGirl

Well finally, Joint Commission did something to help nurses out. Our Docs are lazy, too, and don't want to touch a computer. It's good to hear JC frowns on this.

Pick TN: no income taxes. Visit NC on your off days.

It depends. In one hospital, I spent a lot of clincals in school in neuro and loved it. It was a lot of seizure/Parkinson's/neuro trauma injuries, etc. Very interesting. At my current hospital, neuro is the dumping ground for any and all of the altered mental status patients: end-stage Alzheimer's (the hardest patients on earth if you ask me), alcoholics/drug addicts, Hyponatremia, etc. It is very, very challenging mentally and physically to care for these patients. Our patient ratio is the same as every other floor, but these patients demand you be highly vigilant and never let your guard down. I'm constantly re-starting IV's they've pulled out, shooting them up with Ativan, listening to them scream all night long, dealing with their falls, etc. I want to quit my job yesterday. So, it depends on your hospital.

I don't feel guilty calling out because if the floor can't find someone to cover for me, they'll close the floor 6 patients earlier than they usually would. No biggie.

I have also heard great things about Lakeland Regional.

So what you're saying in this article is... shy introverts stand no chance. Got it.

Simple: they want nurses to quit before they are around very long to demand high salaries and better working conditions. The same thing is happening in many fields of work. Employers want young, cheap workers who can't quit because they are saddled with student loan debt.

I had a professor in nursing school who said working oncology nursing at a cancer center was slow-paced. I have no oncology experience, so I don't know personally.

Stupid. Hospitals in my area are offering double-pay and triple-pay on high census days. No contract. No rules. What is it with the damn contracts these days? You can't just work and get paid anymore. There's always some cockamamie crap to deal with. Administrators must have too much time on their hands.

Also, learn WHO to call. I never bother calling Dr. IDontCare for pain medication. I will wait until that doc goes home and call the on-call provider.

I didn't see any attitude whatsoever in my last profession, public school teaching. A profession full of women, by the way, so I know the NETY attitude ain't from being female.

I know that. But I still don't want to do it for 12 hours a day. It's not what I signed up for. Time to enroll in NP school I guess, even sooner than I thought.

Funny, this is MY pet peeve. If you run a 1000 bag at 1000 (ours don't have an extra 50), then the line runs dry and I have to disconnect, prime it again and reconnect. This is a waste of time and also an infection control issue. I always put my 1000 bags at 960. Another pet peeve is when nurses don't piggyback. Why set up your antibiotic to a large mainline?Then I take over the shift and have to switch them back on their regular fluids, switching to another main line, opening the pump, AND reprogramming the pump?! How annoying! If it were piggybacked, I wouldn't have to waste all that time, not to mention connecting and reconnecting different lines is not a good idea from an infection control standpoint.

I am frustrated with my hospital. We have a shortage of aides, and no wonder because they have a hard, backbreaking job for measly pay. As a result, sometimes when we nurses show up to work, we're made to work as aides. No notice, just here: you're an aide today. This seems really unprofessional to me. I signed up to be a nurse. I never worked as an aide because I know how difficult that job is, and I don't want it. It's confusing to the patients to have two RN's running around. Thankfully, the other nurses haven't asked me to medicate a patient, because I'd have to say no since I didn't get a nursing report, nor did I look up the patients to a sufficient level to be able to take full-on nursing care for them nor did I assess them, but I can see how this could set up a problem in the future for a med error. It just seems wrong on several levels. I guess this is what happens when you work in a hospital with no union. At least I still get my nursing pay, but I still feel that this is inappropriate. Thoughts? Have you ever heard of this before?

Woo-hoo! I wondered which states were the other 18, and found this: AANP - State Practice Environment SOOOO disappointed in my home state of NY!