Stella_Blue

Its all a out getting a good recruiter. I work for Aya and I have had nothing but great experiances. My recruiter has had my back 100%

Hey guys! So I just signed my first contract to travel, and I start next month. I've been an RN since '14 and an LPN in '11. I've been in the ER the last 3 years, and thats all I'm interested in if I'm doing acute care. Our hospital system has been horrible at retention since the pandemic. I'm extremely burnt out, as we all are. I've lost my passion, and am suffering severe compassion fatigue. All of this mentioned above has led me to look into traveling. If I'm going to be doing this job bedside for awhile, I might as well get paid my worth! I'm sad to leave my coworkers and comfort zone, but also super excited to start this journey. My first assignment is super close to home, so I'm technically not traveling. I will be working a much much smaller hospital, and getting paid 3x the amount I make now. I'm just dreaming of finally getting those student loans paid off. I'm hoping to stay PRN at my current role, because I'm highest in seniority, and I hate to lose that. So to anyone out there thinking of making the switch to travel...DO IT!

Im so torn on what I should go back to school for. I know I want to go back sooner than later. I %100 know I don't want to be a NP. I recently intervied for a nurse educator in my department, and I think if I am hired it may help sway my decision. Anyways, I feel in my heart of hearts the CNS is right for me. I've wanted to do it for years. I also know bow difficult it can be for CNS roles, especially here in rural Indiana. My hospital system utilizes them well though. The only school near me that offers the program is rather far and its a mix of online and in class, but again I can manage that. On the other hand theres the educatuon route. I know you can do so much with a MSN in education. I don't want to teach in university, I want to work with nurses. I feel like an education degree is a little more flexible. Also, I can do this degree online at home. Im driving myself crazy and cant decide which route to go. Any insight from anyone who has experience with either is so much appreciated!

Im so nervouse. I just finished my peer interviews for the nurse educator position in my ED. I've worked ED for about three years, so I know its not a lot. There was an opportunity and I went for it! My interview with my director and my manager went really well, I think. My peer interview is a little harder to gauge though. Im super excited and probably even more nervous about what is to come. This is totally out of my comfort zone, which I think is good, but frightful at the same time. I 100% plan on going back to school eventually, and if I nail this position it will happen sooner than I planned. Probably even sooner now regardless. Bedside is killing me. I will miss the excitement of the ER, and those codes. I've finally reached a level of confidence in myself where I can find my footing in situations with a patient coding or circling the drain. I probably even ran the best hemorrhagic stroke of my life yesterday, with the help of my team. So I will miss all of those things tremendously. This is why being and ED educator will be great. I'll still be there in the department, helping coach my coworkers although some of them may be far more experienced than myself. Has anyone ever stepped into a similar role, without the 20+ years of experience to back them up? How did that go for you? It sounds like Ill be a lot like my mangers right hand man. The nurse who left this position was amazing, and if I do get offered this position, I have very big shoes to fill ?

LOL a break in the ER, what is that? I work midshift and I am the break relief, but I often never get one myself. I sign my book no lunch more often than not.

Hey guys, wondering if anyone has any experience working for Anthem out there? I have an online self paced interview set up with Anthem. I'm going to do it Thursday, which is my first day off of work. Any advise/tips. Any insight on this job, or working for Anthem? I've been applying to them forever and this is the first time I've heard back. I was invited for an interview via text and a link. I like it, very easy and stress free. Thanks for any input. I currently work in a super stressful ER and just need to step away from bedside for awhile.

Thanks for the great advise. I have already text my manager and told him we need to have a conversation tomorrow when I get back. I a normally the person who stands on the sidelines and never says a peep. I am also a very paranoid person and am unsure how my peers feel about me and how I perform my job. I'm just now nervous that I'm looked at as incompetent, which I've felt this way many times before. I mean no one has ever said anything, but its just always a feeling I have. It could just be my anxiety. A few people I trust, that I've confided in, luckily have told me they feel confident when they are working with me, so there's that.

Okay so let me start out by saying when it comes to attendance I get an A+. I never call off. In 5 years I have called off maybe three of four times total. I have been starting to experience burnout like I never have in my life. I have been exhausted before, but this is on another level. I cried at work yesterday, and I simply don't do that. It took my patient almost coding before someone would come help me. Unfortunately, I also let my vulnerability show at work, which again, I don't do. Fast forward to today, I called off because I didn't sleep at all last night, I had a terrible migraine from all the stress at work yesterday, and yes I'm so burnt out that my mental health could not take another day. So here is where my problem gets worse. I caught wind from a friend at work that the charge nurse was telling my manager how incompetent I am at my job (which is not true guys) and how she had to do my job for me yesterday. This is also not true. I was left on my own yesterday in the fast track area of the ED with tanking patients all day, and my charge nurse did not come to help until my patient was unresponsive, and I broadcast overhead that I needed help. When I was done helping that patient, I come back to my desk and she said I called the family for you. I thanked her and mentioned I had to call another family member for another patient and she offered to call them, so I let her. Today, she tells my manager that she had to do my job for me because I was too stressed. I know she is just trying to cover her own butt for putting inappropriate patients in the fast track area, with one nurse, when I voiced my concern with how sick these patients were. Now, I'm just concerned with how I will be perceived by my peers, my manager, etc. I feel like I should have just bit the bullet and went to work, migraine/bad mental health and all. Today was supposed to help me reset, but now all I'm doing is stressing more.

THIS! I literally almost came to tears reading this because its so spot on! I just hate it because I love the ER so much. I feel like I could never go back to just bedside, because like you said, the excitement. The one thing I am thankful for are our group of providers. Our docs, PA's, and NP's are all so amazing. There are just a small handful who do not listen to us. This is my only ED job, but I've been told by much older and wiser ER nurses that I will never ever in my life work with a better group, and I believe that.

So I've said it for years now, I've been in a toxic relationship with nursing for over 10 years. I love my job, but I also hate it and find myself often browsing for new ones more and more frequently. I currently work ER, my dream job. I love the ER and everything about it. I'm burnt out too though. I mostly blame COVID and terrible management. If I have learned anything from this pandemic, it is how much our company does not care for its nurses. I work for a major hospital system within my state, and currently during COVID, nurses are being treated like a child conceived from a relationship of infidelity. I'm sure many of you are facing the same issues I am, and I know I am not alone. Lets just start here with the basics. PPE, our PPE is locked up in our momagers office and we are not issued new PPE until ours is literally falling apart. I've even been told to staple mine back together in order to get more use out of it before I could get a new one. I've been using my same N95 for months now, and I have been wearing the same barrier mask for weeks. Secondly, again just like everywhere our nurses everywhere, on every unit are getting sick. Luckily, I have been fortunate so far. Now our management is telling us that basically if we catch COVID, it is our own fault and none of the companies. We will be faulted for missing work, and it will be counted against us. In the beginning people were getting paid time off that was not their PTO to stay home if they get sick, and this is not longer the case, we will no longer be paid, and faulted for missing work. The issue here is now I can foresee a lot of people coming to work sick because they can not simply afford to be pointed for missing 2 weeks of work, and they don't have the PTO accrued for 2 weeks off as well. I have never been more verbally abused by patients as well as almost physically assaulted by patients as well, than I have during all of this. This has all stemmed simply from me asking them to wear a mask. Yes, I was almost punched in the face and spit on for asking a patient to please put on his mask, but luckily security was close by. COVID has put the sourest of taste in my mouth. We are more short staffed than ever, and this is before we have four nurses out sick. Running an ER with two nurses TOTAL and each nurse has a load of 7 to 8 patients, all while your manger won't answer their phone to help is physically and mentally exhausting. Then your staff and manager wants to know why you don't pick any extra shifts. I want to help, really I do, but I mentally don't think I can take it. I'm drained, I'm tired you guys. I seriously don't know if I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry for such a long post, but I have all this bottles up. I don't have many nursing friends and no nursing family. I vent to my BF and friends, but they just don't get it. I cried over my job the last 2 days, and I NEVER cry over work...EVER.

A PCC is what our charge nurses are called. I have tried something along these lines with them and the manager, but it just feels like I'm a broken record. I generally get "well these are our needs at the moment so this is the assignment you get." In retrospect I will see them change assignments for other nurses so they can not spend so much time in triage especially.

So let me just start off by saying that I do work the 1300 to 0100 shift, so I understand that this in itself is half the issue, but I am constantly either working triage or fast track. I hardly ever get a room assignment in the main ER. There are other nurses who work my shift who do not experience this to the level that I do. It has gotten to the point where I now am starting to keep a log and will present it to my manager when I feel I have enough data. Has anyone else experienced this? I feel it's one particular PCC who always sends me away, as others tend to be more fair with me. Advice on what to do. If I wanted triage or FT all the time I would get a clinic job.

I'm my ER (Indiana) nurses are not allowed to bolus propofol for sedation. It must be pushed by a physician. We can push any other sedation med but propofol. We can manage and start drips, just no bolus.

It's that time in my career when I think I might be coming to a major crossroads, but I'm so conflicted. Here is some background. I've been an RN for 5 years, I was an LPN for 2 years prior to that, and a CNA for several years before all of that. All of those years combined I've worked some type of bedside for almost 11 years. Fastforwad to today. I work in a small, but very busy ER. My dream job. It took me many trials and tribulations to get to the ER, and I still love the ER as a unit. As a matter of fact I'll probably never work any other acute care unit. I've been in my ER for almost 2 years. However, recently I can just feel that burnout approaching. Its unlike anything I've every really experienced before. I find myself withdrawing a little more and more at work. I'm starting to make mistakes, and then these keep me full of disgust with myself on all my days off. Theres been a major shift in management at work and it just seems as if everything is changing for the worse. No need to explain to you guys, you know the scenario (not enough staff, taking away incentive pay, more mandatory educational requirements, ect.) So this leads me to a very difficult decision...leave bedside now or tough it out and hope for a brighter day? I applied for 2 jobs today, but I highly doubt I'll hear anything as they are very sought after. My other question is, do I finally have enough ER experience to hop back in if I want to come back. It took me almost 3 years to get an ER gig and I dont want to jump those hoops again. I work with great nurses (for the most part) and even better doctors, but I can just feel my gut telling me something. Sorry for such a long post, but I have no nurse friends and no nurse family. No one understands ?

In my ER all of our IM epi comes in a small anaphylactic kit that contains the vial of epi, dosages by weight chart (although almost always 0.3), syringe, and an IM needle in a prepared kit. You literally pull it out under anaphylaxis kit in the Pyxis. I feel like this is a nice setup for this reason.

I'm looking for advice from any travelers out there. I've worked ER for almost 2 years now, with a prior 2 years of acute care experiance on top of that. I also have to LTC experience, but I know that doesnt exactly apply to what I want. I'm thinking of traveling specifically to ER's. My question is bow has traveling been for you so far? I've been friends with travelers and they either love or hate it. I dont have any kids so I'm able to anywhere luckily (I'll just miss my boyfriend and dog ?) I've heard that taxes and insurances can be a pain in the you know what. Is finding a gig or an agent as easy as a Google search? I've been considering doing this after maybe another 6 months or year or experiance in the ED. I currently work a smaller 15 bed ED of a descent sized town. Stroke and MI certified, so we at least see some things, but not a lot of trauma patients. They are either flown immediately or in and out within 20 minutes. I have ACLS, PALS, and am working on TNCC. One of my biggest reasonings for wanting to do this is I want to relocate so badly, but cant get my boyfriend on board. I think doing this will help broaden or maybe narrow down where it is I would like to settle to. Not to mention I could potentially make good money and learn new dynamics while doing so. Any feedback would be appreciated. The only thing I'm not willing to compromise on is leaving the ER. It took me 3 years to get there and I love it!!

Our house supervisor documents codes in our hospital. This is for the ER and for the floor. The ER docs do not respond to floor codes or rapid responses anymore, but house has always documented even when they did.

Often times that's just how nursing can be. I've worked jobs where we have been in mandatory over time for almost a year. It sucks but it's the nature of the beast. That job then is the reason I never pick up any extra shifts now, it burnt me on OT.

I have a bottle in my cabinet right now and that stuff is MAGIG! I mainly use it for burns, but I once cut myself pretty bad with a brand new very sharp knife. That stuff had it healed up in no time. I've also been told it is MRSA resistant.

Every once in a blue moon CNA work for a shift is nice. It gives my brain a break. I always say CNA work is physically demanding and nurse work is mentally demanding. When I worked in a nursing home and would be assigned as an aide, I always felt relief when the nurses had an admission or something and I was simply toileting someone =)

It took me 2 years to finally land my ED job. I was finally able to transfer about 6 months ago. Luckily I had some help. A friend of mine put in a good word for me, plus my persistent applications finally landed me an interview. Then once I got the interview I flat out told the manager that of he didnt hire me I would continue to apply until he did lol. I applied and interviewed for several ED's before I finally landed this gig though, so dont give up. I worked 2 years on a PCU floor prior.

So I'm just curious how many of you guys get raises? I work in a hospital network that is well known throughout the state as paying their nurses well compaired to others. I also generally get a yearly raise with my performance appraisal. Last year I got about $1.27 raise and this year was roughly $.80. We also get a team pay bonus each year that is anywhere from $500-$800. After being part of this forum for many years I'm starting to feel like this is not normal.

This hit the nail on the head. Being new to the ER myself I always try to ask the docs for clarification when something doesnt nake sense. I do this for two reasons one is to learn for myself and the second is in case the patient asks any questions I can answer them properly. I am fortunate enough that almost all of my ER group of docs are super nice and easy to talk to. I dont really care to look stupid, I just let it be known that I'm fairly new to the ER world and trying to learn what I can.

Trauma if I had a choice, but I am an ER nurse! I absolutely hate sx, but when I did my rotation for school the anesthesiologist was super cool and let me stand in his spot while he read the newspaper! It was during a total hip replacement. I was at the patient's head the whole time and had front row seats basically. Luckily the surgeon was super cool too. I still have 0% for sx though. I cant stand to wear masks and gown up for that long. I get too claustrophobic.