DONN

.I was hired 2 years ago and am in the acute care setting on a very demanding floor. There are few of us LPN's there but IMO that is only because the LPN practice acts are old and worn out. I'll give you an example: If I have someone who needs blood I can: verify the blood with another nurse, spike the bag, prime the tubing, get the 0.9NS up and primed, monitor the pt during the transfusion, dispose of all the crap when Im done running it, BUT I cannot make the final connection to a peripheral line and start the transfusion. Does this make any sense? NO! But that is the way things are currently written here in Pa.. If some of the nurse practice acts were modified then I think that LPN's WOULD have a greater role in a hospital setting. I feel lucky to be where Im at but I'll agree with everyone else: the pay sucks. When new GN grads start at $ 7.00/hr more than I make I just cringe, but staying there is my choice and no one is holding a gun to my head to stay there.....

That sounds really sweet................................lol

Just make sure you are ready to be on your own when the time comes. If you dont feel ready ask for more time, after all they are willing to work with you so obviously the potential is there or they wouldnt be interested in you in the first place.Good luck and let us know how you are progressing from time to time...

Good for you. My advice from here is: keep your eyes open and DEMAND a significant orientation of at least a couple of months. You are going into one of the hardest places to practice so you will need all the training you can get. Now go get em....................................

Im going to be blunt here so I apologize right up front for what Im going to say. As someone who was in management (in a different field) there is virtually no way I would hire you for a nursing job. Lets face facts, your skills,which were only marginally developed while you wee in school, are now gone. There is no way that you would still be able to say with dead certainty that you have retained anything that you learned in school as far as; treatments, drug knowledge, physical assessment, etc.. I have seen RN's that have been out of the workforce for a couple of years and they struggle with the basics especially if they are in the hospital setting. Frankly you are to commended for passing the NCLEX but this job requires that you maintain and improve your skills on a daily basis. You are an RN but its like an NFL quarterback, even though you still feel like you can do the job, its dam hard to get back out on the field after long absence, and even harder to make a go of it once you get there. Why not try a doctors office or some setting where you can reacquire those long forgotten clinical skills then strike out from there.... sorry if this seem insensitive but I think you already knew what to expect before you posted on this board. Good luck

It bit. Not one person would let the few guys in our class do anything for them. The only positive thing was that the school had virtually no choice but to pass us thru the rotation because it was not our fault that we couldnt do anything there.

Ditto what they said. Keep your eyes open for opportunities and you will be fine. P.S where are you located in NODAK. I hunt in Harvey every year and would move there in a minute if I could get the wife on board. The sky at night in NODAK is just incredible, looks like it did 150 years ago without all the light pollution of the cities.....

Dont come to Erie Pa. there are so many schools here that are cranking out nurses we are now in a situation that I never thought would happen.....very few jobs avaliable and way way way too many applicants for the few that are here. I picked this profession because I thoughtthere would be lots of opportunities but thing have changed radically in the last 2 years and not for the better. Im only glad that I have a job in the best hospital in town and I have no intentions of giving it up anytime soon....

I work on the floor and we are never busy. We just sit around the nursing station and wait for the ER to call and then we delay delay delay until w are finished with our card game and beer. We are only there to fill water pitchers and tell the people we cant help them with anything. We also know that the ER is the only place in the hospital that actually works hard so try not to be too ticked off with us floor nurses because we are busy doing "other" things and we try to work in a little nursing during commercials, or right after our naps...................................

Go with your instincts on this one. If you dont think you can take the physical demands of the hosp. then I would look at the clinic. The hospital is a brutal place and sometimes I think the old bod just cant take anymore but thats where I am happiest. You have to do whats right for you and no I dont think they will "blackllist" you but they may have to think harder about you when and if you apply there again....

My Chesapeake bay retriever is alone for 12+ hours 3 days per week and he never has a problem with an accident in the house. I would never give my dog up! I would quit my job before the dog goes. As far as giving the dogs up for rescue I think thats the sleazy way out and it says a lot about people now days: when the going gets tough........just bail. Not the solution in my book but its amazing when you go to a pet rescue site you will see the nature of people who had a pet for years then just dumped it on rescue because they can no longer deal with the pet. Keep your dogs, they are better off with you than without you.

Last pt. I had with lo NACL the DR ordered her to drink glasses of salt water thru the day. You can imagine how that went over with the pt.. I personally thought it would be better to order a "stat Ramen Noodles" because the sodium content is so high in those things. But what do I know........

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Why the rush to RN school? You havent even worked as a nurse and yet you are now running headlong into something that you are uncomfortable with. My advice is to drop school for now, MAKE SOME MONEY, enhance your clinical skills and then apply next year whne you have gained both confidence and experience. Just my opinion but to not have ever worked as an LPN seems like a huge expense for virtually nothing. JMO

I am on the Vac team at work and we seldom, if ever, apply the powder. The vac dressings can be somewhat intimidating to the first time user but it sounds like you did a good job. Its highly unlikely you would be fired over this IMO. Let yourself off the hook, its the weekend so now go out and enjoy.....

Hospital if you can get in. You will never learn/see as many different things as you will see working med/surg ,and the education there will be many many more times better than anything you could get in school......JMO

I dont understand the question. Are you saying that a DR has signed a blank prescription and then YOU basically " fill in the blanks" with meds that are on some list or MAR someplace? If that is the case I wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot pole and frankly what DR signs a blank prescription and then hands it over to someone else. I could see where this could be a huge can o worms, say he wants to order 15 Lortabs and someone puts down 75. No way would I ever do that. The DR fills out the RX entirely or else the pt. doesnt get the meds in my book.......

They just started this at our place last week. Our ratio at night is 8:1 and last night I got hammered with6 pages of new orders for a direct admit. How I do it is, I do all the meds and the labs for the a.m. and then as far as I am concerned I'm done. I dont care what the NM says I just dont have the time to hunt and peck my way thru all that crap. I told her that was all I was going to do and so did the rest of the night staff so if they dont like it thats just too bad.... Language edited per TOS

You are right tat girl. Have the vitals, chart, med list, allergies and an order sheet ready so you can get it all done at once when you call those nice friendly doctors.......

I work in an acute care setting in a hospital med/surg, get in at 6:30 p, print my rounds report, organize my papers,take report from the tape that the previous shift dictated, then hit the floor and run run run all night long. Last night was particularly brutal with 8 pt's, 2 with chest tubes, a post op, an ER transfer, and only one aid for 24 people. Its a tough job but I wouldnt trade it for anything. Oh yea I didnt get out til almost 9:00 this morning

Thanks for the info.. I dont anticipate any problems with making it thru, however yyou are right about the B.S that goes with any course and Im not really looking forward to doing more careplans but I work in acute care med/surg and all of our care plans are on computer so I think that will be of immense help when we start in with those things. As far as whats necessary for school I would say you need to be CPR certified, high school and LPN school transcripts, the standard shots, child abuse clearance, and some other things that elude me right at this moment. Of course if you are certified in telemetry, ACLS or Pals would also help out. I am really anxious to get my RN license but the thoughts of facing school again, well I just try to blot that out of mind......

Will be starting there this fall in the LPN>RN bridge program. Anyone done it or attended the RN program there? Any insight would be helpful.....

I cant take it anymore! At the end of the 12 hr+ shift my feet are killing me. I have just purchased a new pair of Nike running shoes, got the DR Scholls inserts and my feet feel like they are going to fall off at the end of the shift. I need a good pair of shoes, regardless of the cost, and want your input as to what you wear. Let me know what you have .....please.

Southern: I am truely sorry for you with regards to losing your husband. I meant no disrepect to you personally and my comments were not directed to you or your family. Again I am sorry for your loss..

We have a pt on the floor right now that c/o ab. pain rated 9/10 and unrelieved by any pain med we have given up to this pt, which includes Dilaudid q1hr, pt had an epidural for 2 days and he said that it didnt work, morphine iv, Lortab elixer, and the list goes on and on. This pth has had numerous tests that have all come back negative and frankly Im at the point where SOMEONE needs to get this pt out of the hospital and into rehab somewhere IMO. I asked the pt the other night if the Dilaudid iv helps and he said no not at all so my next question was" if it doesnt help then why do you want it?". He just looked at me and said "so you think im a seeker too". I didnt say it but thats exactly what I and every other nurse on the floor feels. Im going to talk to the Manager and see what can be done about this cause this has been going on for 3 weeks and frankly we are just feeding into this guys addiction. In this case we are the "enabler" and that is just not right.