teriadn2004

How do you get started on Case Mngt? All the posted jobs want you to have experience or certification? Any ideas? I am particularly interested in Workers Comp.

We have a CNM who delivers at our hosptial who graduated from Frontier - she is WONDERFUL!

We are a 4 bed LDRP with total 44 bed hospital - as above, us LDRP nurses are the "rescue squad" for the rest of the hopsital since we sometimes have no patients. Problem is, last week the nurses had both been pulled to Med-Surg where sometimes we are even asked to take a patient - well, women comes in ED c/o stomach ache - LD nurses are called to meet ED on LD floor - barely got her off the stretcher into the bed before the baby came.....if the LD nurses would have had actual patient assignments, there would have been no time to report off - isn't that patient abandanment? Still, they ask us to "come up and help - but no more patient assignements. And as stated before - NO ONE comes to help us?????:banghead

I say get your BSN - I had similar plans to yours when I started - work now in LDRP in a hospital for the past 3.5 yrs and thought that was the only thing I ever wanted to do. However, in my previous career, I only had an AAS degree and found that even though I could do management jobs while my employer looked for a replacement, I could not be awarded the position because of lack of that degree. So, I got my BSN "just in case". I'm not sorry either........I stumbled on to a partime opening for a Newborn Home Visit Nurse with the state DHEC - guess what - I woudn't have gotten the job if I didn't have the BSN, and who knew that I would love doing this kind of nursing as much as L&D.

We are currently struggling with this same issue and are no longer giving bags to our BF moms, but still giving to our FF moms. We are a very small unit - avg 10-15 deliveries per month, really have NO budget for gifts, but a volunteer makes knitted caps for all babies and last year (and this year) after Christmas, I went shopping and found some cute Christmas onsies/sleepers for really cheap - we dressed the babies in them after their bath who were born after 12/10 - Mom's were thrilled. This year I found cute caps and bibs for next year. I spent maybe $10 out of my own pocket, but it was worth it just to see the Mom's reaction.

I think you will find that there are a lot of "non-traditional" students in nursing programs these days. I graduated in 2004 with ADN and in 2006 with BSN and am now soon to be 54.....and I was not the oldest one in my class either. Hang in there, as a rule, we do better too because we really want to be there and in most cases, are paying for it ourselves. Good luck.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the help

Thanks for your comments - we are opening a brand new unit in a brand new hospital and my NM just wanted to know what others are doing. Our understanding is that medical records will be scanning our strips into the record in addition to the recorded EFM. Seems like duplication to me too.....?

Does anyone know of any law or official documentation that addresses writing on the fetal monitor strip? Are people still documenting on the strip if they are doing elelctronic record? If anyone knows of any references, could you please list them? Thanks ahead of time. I am starting in a brand new unit in a brand new hospital - so we are writing the policies ourselves. :typing

We are a 32 bed LDRP and we have mandatory call of 12 hrs per 4 week schedule. Sign up is for 4 hr increments - dates and shift needs are posted when the completed schedule comes out and all are expected to sign up, and if have not signed up by second week into the schedule, will be ASSIGNED. On-call pay is measly 1.25/hr - if called in, 1hr travel pay, + 1 1/2 - however, our on-call satff are really just reg staff - because in 20 months that I have been there, I have NOT been called in ONLY 3 times. Even with the on-call staff, we are still often desparatly going thru the roll-a-dex calling every name - needless to say, with all the call we already do + our 36 hrs/wk - not many takers. Now we have 14 travelors in addition to our own staff - they say this is temporary and the call time will be "going away" soon - but I will believe this when I see it! :rolleyes:Flip side - I love the extra money -but hate all the time away from my family.

Wow! If I didn't know better, I would think that you got inside my head and wrote this post for me. I too am in my last week of orientation (14 weeks - although I lost time when pulled to do PP on three different days) - my preceptor kept telling me the same mantra of "you need to pick up the pace" or I'm concerned about your ability to multi-task", to the point where 3 weeks ago I was ready to resign in anticipation that they were going to fire me anyway.......I am a night shift nurse, but was being trained on day shift - I went back to night shift, and low and behold, my precetor on nights thinks I am doing GREAT! So......hang in there and do your best - I agree, I'm slower than my precetor, but that doesn't mean I don't get the job done. My night presceptor told me that she still has to stay over sometimes to catch up on charting, particularly if baby comes quickly after picking up patient or ir things change (i.e., your C-sect case). All the comments posted really helped me feel better too. Good Luck........:smilecoffeecup:

This is a wonderful post - I just accepted a position in NICU and I'm a little scared - I have 19mo experience as a nurse, but with adult primary care outpatient (basically, doctors office). I thought I always wanted to do L/D - but have never been able to get a slot - so when NICU came along, and they WANTED me, lack of experience and all - I thought, well maybe this is REALLY mycalling ....so thanks to all who have shared and have me now thinking that NICU just may be the perfect nursing role for me - thanks:nurse:

I just graduated ADN 2004 and will complete BSN next month.....I have a 4.0 GPA.....however, I am the sole support for my family, provide the health insurance etc.....I had to work while in school and it has taken me 6 yrs to do this with taking classes at night, weekend, etc. In SC, there was NO help for me beacuse I have a documented income of $32,000 for a family of 2.....my husband was injured in a accident and diagnosed with a brain tumor while in the hospital for the injury.......that was in 2002 and he still hasn't gotten disabilty......meanwhile, we lived on credit cards as I struggled to NOT lose our house, etc and to NOT give up on my dream to get by RN. I applied EVERY term for financial aid & too many scholarship apps to list......all I ever qualified for was "UNSUBSIDIZED" student loans........note, we live in a double-wide trailer, so we are not "rich". I will begin paying my loans back in the FALL......there are lots of roadblocks to getting aid, especially if you are an responsible adult who is not a minority. P.S. I am ADN, soon to be BSN Exp: 1yr, 5mo Work: Primary Care Outpatient Clinic - Fed Agency Location, SC Salary: 40,000 Work: 40hrs/wk Good luck to all who want to be a nurse.......I wanted it badly enough to not let all of the above stop me and I am 50 yrs old....it may take until I retire to pay back my loans, but it was worth it!:monkeydance: :monkeydance: :monkeydance:

I don't know about ADN and BA in something else, but in other healthcare areas there is a difference in 2yr vs. 4yr. For example, in the laboratory there are medical lab techNICIANS (MLT) who went to school for 2 yrs at a community college and have a AS degree and medical techNOLOGISTS (MT) who went college and have BS degree - they both do EXACTLY the same jobs in the lab but the pay is not usually significantly different at entry level, but climbs rapidly as experience level increases - they both studied the same things, very similar to the differences in ADN vs. BSN programs. (I know this because I have a AS-MLT degree and now an ADN degree). As you can see, they have DIFFERENT names and they take DIFFERENT exams for certification. The MT exam presumes that the person taking it will have a better understanding of the theory and tests more heavily in theory and management issues. I worked as an MLT for 25 yrs - and yes, I was a much better tech than a lot of MT-BS people who were hired in the later years of my career, BUT, the bottom line was, the BS-MT's got the pay and they were chosen for the supervisor and management jobs. No matter how good I was nor how often I proved myself by DOING the job in the interim of a vacancy opened up - I never got the promotion. So, when I reached my "ceiling" on the wage scale, I had 2 options, be happy with just COLA or go back to school. I chose back to school, but for Nursing - now I will continue on to get my BSN because I've seen what a difference it can make down the line.