Candidnt

I am, at present, making plans to retire from nursing within two years, assuming other options come forth. My "career" has been an absolute disappointment, and going from an LPN to being an RN with a BSN didn't help me in the end. I have become largely disillusioned with nursing and my experiences with it. I don't know for sure what I'll be doing, but after trying to resurrect my "career" last year, and getting one door after the next slammed in my face, and despite being in the process of reading a book about managing a nursing career, I have one foot out the door, and the other is itching to join it. Were the economy not so bad at present, I'd be out the door sooner.

oops, I looked at the last reply date before mine, and looked at it wrong...hasn't been a year after all...scuse me!

Wow, nobody has posted in here in over a year...it's been two years since I posted in this particular thread, and probably about that long since I posted on the site at all... I have since moved out of the hospital where I worked in the neuroscience IMCU, turned out it was bad for my health (I did learn a lesson from it: Never accept a job offer made immediately during your interview). I have since returned to active status with the private duty home health agency that I have worked with off and on since 2001, before and between trouble ridden stints in hospitals) and waiting for the current hiring freeze situation to end, in hope to return to a hospital setting again (and hopefully the right one, if the third time is a charm). That or I'll go work at Walmart.

Anybody work in either place? What are they like?

currently neuroscience intermediate care...meanng neuro, plus some trauma/ortho and dumpover from the surgical intermediate care unit...plus people who start going downhill on the neuro/ortho floor or some other floor, but they're either not ready for ICU or one of the other intermediate care units have no room in their inns.

I once (way back in 1998) bought some items with the S.C.R.U.B.S. brand name. NEVER again. They all started falling apart and/or developed holes during washing and drying. I usually get my scrubs from Lydia's...Tafford is another good source. If your problem is finding too many places that sell female scrubs, you can't beat going online, as long as you know your size. I knew of a local store when I lived in North Carolina where I also bought scrubs, and one here in PA, but sometimes my size would have to be special ordered (I have a midriff). If you look for the unisex scrubs from Landau, you can't go wrong. And I used to have the URL for a scrubs seller that sold all kinds of colorful prints for men as well as women, plus animal scrubs (and not teddy bear type animals, but the real thing). If I come across that URL, I'll post it in here.

Did you ever take the job at Williamsport Hospital? What's the word there on their planned expansion? What are they planning, what new services? Any new units or beds being added? Just curious. Places that grow/expand always interest me.

Wow... I haven't been here probably since I made that post, over two years ago. I didn't go to Hamot...I didn't even finish the application process. I did leave my old job at Pinnacle Hell er Health, even left PA for a while and returned to private duty for a bit. Now I'm back in PA, and I work at Penn State Hershey Med. I've been there for three months so far, and I'm surviving, and it has possibilities. Will I stay there the rest of my life? I dunno. I could consider Hamot again, if I were inclined to move to Erie, though if I moved, I'd likely go elsewhere. It looks like a nice place from the web site (then again so did Pinnacle, well their old site anyway), though I thought it was bigger than it is, and also thought it would be a level I trauma center and major teaching hospital (and don't know if it's headed in that direction). But there's still supposedly a lot going on there and a lot to get into. Who knows.

I've got tons to tell, having been in nursing since 1990. As of late, I'd have to say the most recent most gross, yucky, disgusting nursing experience I have had, was being hurled on from head to toe while inserting an NG tube in somebody who had an ileus. Thankfully it was at change of shift, the day nurse who I was supposed to give report to, ran in to take over while I ran to the bathroom to undress and douse myself with water (needless to say, I couldn't wait to get home and take a shower; but I did at least get a free pair of scrubs out of the ordeal).

Hamot responded to my resume submission. I'm looking for people who work/have worked there, who can tell me in their own words how things are there, etc. I'm going to return the call from the recruiter tomorrow, so in the meantime, and until I agree to drive there from Harrisburg for an interview, I'd like to learn the nitty gritty, not the hype and hyperbole that comes from a webpage. Any input?

I went into the hospital setting as a nursing assistant (this was back before certification was a requirement) several months after I finished the program, with no practical work experience as a nursing assistant up to that point. In fact, I worked in a 16-bed medical ICU (the same unit in which I would later do my nursing internship in my final semester in nursing school, years later). So yes, you can work just about anywhere as a new CNA. They'll teach you the things you need to know that are specific to your unit. Otherwise, just ask them what you need to know, and if you haven't learned the skill, then they need to teach you. Actually the hospital is a good setting for a CNA, especially if they're going to go to nursing school later on; it better prepares them for the realities of nursing school and health care (as it did me). Good luck.

it sounds like an LTAC (long-term acute care) facility that specializes in pediatric care. I know of critical care nurses who go to work in places like that (and they do appreciate getting nurses with critical care backgrounds) but you don't really need it to work in that type of facility, though it is helpful.

I empathize...I've been dealing with migranes since 1997 (the year I took a break from nursing, incidentally). That first migrane was a godawful experience; I basically had a headache for a whole week, that wasn't relieved by anything. I was also sleep deprived as a result, which worsened them. Finally, I went to a doctor, and after a two week trial on Sedapap (which killed the migrane, and also put me right to sleep; fortunately he told me to stay out of work that first day), I started taking Midrin for migranes. I find that helpful if I take it right away (especially if I first have an aura), but unfortunately that's not always possible. Since it has sedative effects, I can't take it on the job. So then, I usually have to suffer until I get home. Of course if I can't get it under control, and I end up losing sleep, I don't go to work. Better safe than sorry (for patients, job, and self). When I was going from one medine to the other for my blood pressure, my doctor put me on a beta blocker, hoping that would give me additional help with the migranes (it didn't). I have in recent months been on Xanax for anxiety and mood problems, and I have found that that helps too; unfortunately I can't take that at work either (or I'd be a very happy calm nurse. That or I'd be unhappy but I wouldn't care). You just have to find out what works for you. I was always told to look for triggers (I noticed you identified some); aside from stress, and noticing I had a higher propensity to develop migranes with sinus headaches, I never really quite found any identifiable dietary triggers (unless I've missed something); oh yeah, St. John's Wort triggered them. Anyway, don't let them stop you. It's just something you have to manage the best you can, once you find what works for you. Fortunately most of my employers since then have been understanding about the situation. I'm betting you'll find that your future employers will be too, for the most part. Stick with nursing school. We need more nurses. :)

It varies for me...I graduated from 100 mg Benadryl to Ambien....that helped some, but after two back injuries, I graduated to Valium. So that, with a little Xanax on board, helps me get some sleep, but it varies, I can get as little as 5 hours, and as many as 9...if I've had a stressful night at work, I still can't get to sleep right away, even after medication...and I do have a lot of stressful nights...if the cats wake me up, that doesn't help. I've learned to shut off the ringer on the phone. AOL call alert now picks up on all that. Somebody also told me it was age related...and that's probably true. I find I have more trouble sleeping as I get older. Fellow coworkers told me they slept like babies when they were young, but as they got older they were more up and down during their sleep hours...and I guess I see that in the older population that I care for; I've noticed it in my mom...weird thing is sometimes when i do manage to get 8 or 9 hours, i still don't feel like I've gotten enough, and I wake up thinking, "oh god, do I really have to go in?"

I did my time as an LPN, in North Carolina. From what I remember, though the larger facilities said the state board determined what an LPN could or could not do (and that was true only in a few specific things) it was actually the hospital or facility itself that made that determination. The larger hospitals, and of course the teaching hospitals, didn't allow LPN's do perform many tasks (we were basically glorified nursing assistants that could pass meds, if they used LPN's at all); the smaller community hospitals allowed the LPN's to do much more. I never needed an RN to cosign my orders in a small community hospital (or at least not the ones I worked in, anyway). And from what I recall, LPN's in SNF's didn't have to, either. In the hospital setting, a former head nurse explained to me that what the state board wanted, was that a formal policy that said an LPN could perform the procedure, that the procedure (whatever it was) was outlined in a step by step fashion with rationale, etc, and that there had to be documentation of the LPN having been precepted in that particular skill. Since larger places were more geared toward "professionals", LPN's tended to do much better in the smaller community hospital settings. Now that was in NC, and that was back when...I haven't practiced in NC as an LPN since 2002, so I don't know what's going on down there now. Now that I'm back in PA, the h ospital I work at, uses LPN's as PCT's (Patient Care Technicians) who do dressing changes, IV/line dressing changes, ostomy changes, assist docs with line placements, etc...and that's in the ICU; I'll ask what they do on the floor. I don't see why they can't carry patient loads on the floor, god knows the floors need the staffing. I don't know what other hospitals here are li.ke (not yet anyway)