seconddegreebsn

It's funny because I work at the ER of a not terribly well regarded hospital in NYC, and lots of the nurses I work with have come from these big name fancy hospitals to my dinky little one and they tell me it's pretty much same %&, different day. At least get paid well if you're gonna be in it.

" How can we put patients first if we aren't practicing safe nursing care?" I don't think that's a problem endemic only to NYP. Ratios and patient safety are a major problem at every hospital in NYC right now.

I second all this, and was shocked how badly we were treated by leadership, especially in situations where violent situations arose it was impossible to get leadership and security to the floor. I worked under protest of assignment for months before eventually leaving.

There is no max. I have a minimum of 10, that's on the acute side. Subacute it's closer to 15-20. The only thing you can do is protest your assignment with the union.

NYC finally banned it....in 2016! Don't know what the hold up is. We were seeing a lot this summer. Down to one a week now, mostly older men 50-70, homeless (won't show up in pee test for shelters). My mom works on a vent/total care unit and she's got quite a few there, most of them are paras.

This has been a rumor for a while, at least a year plus. I wouldn't hold your breath, it isn't likely happening any time soon.... As for more nurses, they're always churning and burning through batches of new grads!

Someone who was in for intoxication complaining about "all the sick people keeping (me) from getting some rest!" Sorry that old lady's vent is bothering your precious sleep, mister.

Is this really true though? I've worked at three hospitals in Brooklyn and all three are packed to the gills, admitting a huge chunk of people coming into the ER and very long wait times for beds. The ERs are certainly beyond capacity, putting people in the hallways on folding chairs. I'm an ED nurse and half of my patients on any given day are holds that are waiting for a bed, and have been waiting for 24 hours or longer...

I wish I could have gotten my sleep scheduled sorted out - it KILLED me. I mean, I could not sleep more than an hour or two during the day time and that going on for weeks drove me to the brink. But everything else you mentioned made it pretty great.

Plastic and derm - your garden variety of plastic and reconstructive procedures (face lifts, breasts, lipo, tummy tucks) and some derm (mohs). I think I will join AORN, thanks for the suggestion.

I'm starting a new job working in ambulatory surgery (after 9 months of med surg on a terribly dysfunctional floor) working as a circulating and PACU nurse for a small in-office surgical center. I'll be doing set up, circulating during cases (local, MAC and general) and will be in charge of transitioning the patient to PACU and sending them home. Ideally, I'd like to do this job for a few years and then transition back into the hospital setting, either OR or PACU since floor nursing was really not for me. Will hospitals take my ambulatory experience or will I be stuck working ambulatory if I want to do surgical nursing?

Good luck!

"Can you get all the nurses to line up so I can pick one of the pretty ones. I don't want to have some fatty touching me." Unattractive, middle aged man. Sir, I think you've mistaken us with a brothel.

"I hope your husband regrets marrying such a stupid whore!" after seeing my wedding ring. Well, he bought it so he's stuck with it, stupid or not.

Thank you so much everyone for your input - I accepted a new position today that offers a lot of autonomy and I will need to quickly bring myself up to speed, but it seems like a good challenge. I'm scared but ready for it!

I don't clock out they just refuse to pay me for that time (which is catching up on charting) because I'm supposed to have finished my work in a given time frame, even if that time frame includes being two nurses short and having two RRTs and transfers to critical. Not very realistic...

Unfortunately blocking transfers is the only way she can stop staff from bleeding (more like hemorrhaging) from the department, and there seems to be a fresh batch of new grads constantly flowing in. In my time, a third of the people in my orientation group have left and didn't even make it a full year. Thanks for the words of encouragement, I am going to explore the PRN route should I feel the need to be "nursey" and to help me keep some of my skills, but overall I feel very excited by this opportunity and challenged by the task of what I'll need to learn for this new job.

I've been doing nights in med surg with all of the usual complaints - extreme short staffing (we are often two nurses short), high ratios of acutely ill patients, bad management. When I had started the job I had determined to try and stick it out a year. I've had two consecutive shifts that were so bad I didn't pee in 14 hours and could barely walk afterwards. I just hate working nights and weekends, I hate what working nights is doing to my marriage and how much strain it's put on us. I hate how much stress I bring home with me and how it bleeds into the rest of my life. Day shifts are even busier and still short staffed so it's not really a fix, plus there's the added "bonus" of having everyone's family there. I hate the abuse from management and patient's families. I know this is part of what's in the package deal but it's really bleeding me of empathy and it seemed like a bad sign that I'm burned out this fast. Everything I'm struggling with about bedside nursing comes down to bureaucracy, which is the same everywhere. My manager has refused to allow me to transfer and honestly, it doesn't matter because it seems like other areas are dealing with the same issues. I strongly suspect bedside nursing is not right for me. On a lark, I went through an agency that had gotten me a CNA job years ago and interviewed at several private practice jobs and ambulatory surgery centers and found myself with several job offers, much to my surprise. Money was similar to hospital (benefits unfortunately were not, they stunk, but I have insurance through my husband), 9-5, seemed like the nurses had a high degree of independence and self-sufficiency and were overall happy with their jobs. I just worry I'm kneecapping myself professionally by leaving this job so early. The hospital has a horrible reputation and we're on the verge of a strike, but I'm not closed to ever working in a hospital again - just not in med surg. I'm glad I learned what I did at this job but part of me feels thrilled with the idea of being able to have some semblance of a normal schedule and be able to see my friends. I'd love to hear from nurses who have spent most of their career outside the hospital setting. Is this a great opportunity or a terrible mistake? What are the challenges that come with working in a private practice setting and how does the stress compare to working in a hospital.

Yeah, I'm at one of those facilities who are claiming that - we routinely have 8 fresh postoperative patients and outcomes are not so great. A lot of hospital stays that end up transferred to critical care or stay longer than they should. I end up working closer to 14 hours, with the last two of it being unpaid overtime and I rarely get to take my unpaid break. Their solution is to hire more middle management that refuses to help in any hands on patient care.

I would really like to see this effect some sort of REAL change, like staffing ratios in California brought here. Maybe I'm being optimistic, but we work in violation of the ratios set by our contract more often than not, and the facility I'm at has been sued over it and lost and still it continues. Watching and waiting to see what happens...I'm with NYSNA on increasing staffing over accepting a pay raise.

New York State Nurses Association Threatens To Strike « CBS New York "NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — The union representing 18,000 nurses at 14 private hospitals in New York City says its members could go on strike if negotiations with management fail.New York State Nurses Association members said Wednesday they are fighting for higher staffing levels to protect patients. We believe that our patients' lives depend on this, and we just can't allow this to continue anymore,” union President Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez told 1010 WINS. She said nurses are overworked because hospital are understaffed. We've gotten extraordinary amounts of support from the community,” Sheridan-Gonzalez said. They trust us. They know that what we're talking about is true. Any patient who has been in the hospital knows that there's just not enough nurses to take care of them. Nurses are running around, often working 12-hour shifts without even being able to go to the bathroom.” Sheridan-Gonzalez said hospitals have refused to work with them on the issue. Nurses have been threatened with arrest for just discussing staffing with co-workers. Some nurses have been escorted out by armed security guards for talking about staffing,” Sheridan-Gonzalez said. This desire to intimidate us out of advocating for our patients is unconscionable, and we're not accepting that. We're not going to be silenced.” Four days of negotiations are starting Wednesday. The New York City Hospital Alliance denies that the hospitals are understaffed. NYSNA cannot point to a single shred of evidence that supports their claim that current staffing levels are unsafe or inadequate, which is not surprising given that these hospitals are all nationally recognized for the excellence of care they provide,” said Farrell Sklerov, a spokesperson for the Hospital Alliance. Sklerov said the Hospital Alliance is extremely disappointed” that the union is taking steps toward a completely unnecessary strike.” We have remained committed to bargaining in good faith and have put forward a significant proposal that demonstrates the value we place on our nurses, who are the best in the business and should be rewarded for their essential role in the delivery of excellent care,” Sklerov said. Each of the hospitals has put together contingency plans in the event of a work stoppage. We hope NYSNA rethinks their bargaining strategy at this critical moment, rather than putting the city on a path towards an unnecessary and completely avoidable health care crisis,” Sklerov said. The nurses have been without a contract since around the beginning of the year. (TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc.)" -------------------------------------------- Curious to hear from other NYSNA nurses what your thoughts are on this...I voted yes, staffing has been crushing and I've protested assignment during 75% of my shifts this month. We got a letter from administration telling us that striking would make it "financially unfeasible" to hire any more nurses, making our staffing even worse than current levels.

So let's say I did call the police, against the advice of security and nursing management. The patient hasn't actually touched me yet, he's just threatening to do so (both in the present and in the future "I will find you and make you sorry" variety)- mostly likely they'd come and tell him to stop and that'd be the end of it until he actually did hurt me. And now I've put myself in a position to be dressed down by management for going against their advice, and I prefer to stay away from management whenever possible... Somewhat of a lose-lose scenario here.

Yeah, we threatened to call the police and that didn't deter him at all. I still cannot believe he was allowed to stay after threatening staff, but you know...customer service and whatever. Looking for another job, obviously.

I was recently threatened by the head of a gang and several gang members who were in his room after visiting hours when I asked them to leave (per our policy). They had been calling people and making threats and in sexual situations with a minor and I was fairly certain one of them had a weapon. When I called security, they told me they would not kick out a patient's guests, then came back later and did exactly that once they figured out they were not authorized to stay overnight. Because threatening me with harm was not sufficient to have these people removed? Not according to nursing management. I told them they needed to get a new nurse to care for the patient and I would not enter the room unless I was accompanied by armed security. If they didn't like it they were free to fire me on the spot. My job is not worth compromising my safety. They sent another nurse in to finish out the rest of the shift but when the patient threatened to AMA they insisted he stay. Guess that's just how it is now.

As someone in Brooklyn, I would urge you to probably consider a different career. ADN nurses are struggling to find employment, and most BSN nurses I know are employed but it less than ideal situations (night shift, swing shift) which makes child care very difficult. I cannot underestimate the stress and exhaustion of being a first year nurse - it's been hard on my husband, I can't imagine doing this with small children. There are other jobs in healthcare that pay similarly but with much less stress. If you were to go to one of the accelerated programs, it would be very difficult to hold down a job while in school and most of the mothers with small children in my program were very stressed and had difficulty finding childcare due to the "on call" nature of the schedule - they expect you to be there when they say and sometimes with little notice. Honestly, knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done it.