miranda819

I hope you find a way to continue to work. I have an autoimmune disease called dermatomyositis. I am on methotrexate, plaquenil, and muscle relaxers. I have been unable to work for over a year now. I desperately want to go back to work, but I don't know if I ever will be able to. Right now I'm under doctors orders to stay home. The only advise I can give you is to listen to your body. Good luck, I hope you have a balance to keep working.

Gained on night shift, lost on day shift. There seemed to be way more food laying around during the night shifts, and more pot lucks. Day shift was just a constant run with hopes of getting to sit for 15 minutes to inhale your food.

Once you have the answer from the company, you will need to approach the directors of ob/gyn, mother-baby, NICU. If interested, the directors would know where to take it up the corporate path to get approval.

I had been working full-time at a LTC, and I really liked it! That is until my health took a nose dive and I had to take leave back in April. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia with small fiber neuropathy. I also had extreme muscle weakness and was dropping things and tripping. The facility had been great, kept me on as PRN by allowing me to attend staff meetings at least once a month. I kept hearing "I can't wait for you to come back", "When are you coming back". Well, now I'm doing a lot better and I'm ready to come back....but, and you know there was going to be a but. I went and talked to the DON and 2 of the ADONs about me returning last Friday. I got this funny feeling that they had been rehearsing their answer before I had gotten there. My ADON looked over to the DON and said that there wasn't anything full-time or part-time they could offer me right now. Funny, because their website says otherwise. I check it before I went in. I pressed them a little harder, saying I needed to get back to work and they said I could come in a few hours a week and do filing and be put on their PRN list for the hall. I was very upset. You see, I'm an RN, BSN and all of the floor nurses are LVNs. I don't care one bit about it, but the people that pay us might, as they pay for RNs is way more than LVNs. So I'm guessing that the powers that be do not want to put a RN back on the floor and pay her for the same work a LVN is doing. Fine, I understand that. So why not just tell me that. Why keep me hanging on if there really is no way for me to work there on a permeant basis? I feel like they think they have a RN in their back pocket that they can pull out whenever the need may arise. This may or may not be true, but it has me fired up. Now I'm job hunting, but I'm worried that starting a new job with my unpredictable health could be a recipe for disaster. My current job saw the onset and know what happened, but a new place would have no idea. I feel like I'm stuck in limbo. And I feel betrayed by my job, a job I thought I was going to be able to come back to (I live in a small town, so yes, this is a realistic expectation). What a bad place to be in!

Thanks for all your responses. I'm going to go by work sometime this week and see what we can work out. Thanks for the ideas and advice! It's nice to know I have a place to come and get some of this off my chest. Thanks everyone

I'm an RN working at a LTAC, and believe it or not, I really like working there. I was full-time with a 6a-2p schedule. Perfect for me and my family. Until bam, out of no where my body started to give out. I had uncontrollable wide spread muscle spasms, numbness in legs and arms, tripping, trouble swallowing. I went down to part-time, but I still just couldn't recover after working a shift. I went to see a neurologist, had several tests and labs, was tested for MS, Myasthenia Gravis, all tests are negative. I have then been passed on to a neuromuscular doc and am awaiting hole punch biopsies to see the condition of my small fiber nerves in June. I am heartbroken that I can not work. The facility did allow me to go PRN, and as long as I come in once every 90 days, I can keep this status, even if it is just for an inservice. I have stopped by work a few times, on my 'good days' to visit residents and coworkers. I want nothing more that to go back to work. I have been at home, unable and not allowed (per dr order) to work. I worked so hard to become and RN and even have my BSN. I know I should be taking this time to heel and rest, but my desire to be back doing what I love to do causes me so much unrest. I am blessed to have a supportive family and a spouse that is able to keep our family financially afloat. I know that I'm lucky with a supportive family and workplace, but I just want back. How have others dealt with situations like this? How do I be okay with taking a break from a career I love and want to get back to so badly?

I hope your surgery goes well uscg2RN.

I do know how to properly hydrate; I've ran and successfully completed 4 1/2 marathons. Please do not insult my intelligence. Everyone's circumstance is different, but mine involved medication that was already taxing my kidneys way too much. So before I even started crossfit, I was unknowingly behind the hydration game. Nurses are known for pushing themselves, and that is just what I did.

I did crossfit about a year ago, for 2 whole days...then ended up hospitalized with rhabdomyolysis. For almost a week I couldn't move my arms and it took almost 8 months before the swelling and pain went away. I don't think crossfit is a bad workout, I just think I wasn't prepared for the intensity.

I think I am suffering from 'the grass is always greener on the other side' syndrome. I find myself searching for jobs, even though I have only been in my current position for 3 months. I constantly go back and forth in my mind, is this what I want to be doing right now, should I look somewhere else, is this the right job for me. I left a night shift position on a horribly busy mother-baby unit to come to a case management/parent education position, and it's like a night and day difference. There are days where I want to be back in that clinical setting and others where I don't miss it at all. I can't seem to wrap my brain around what direction I should be going. When I accepted this current position, I wanted a slower pace, less stress, day time job. I got exactly what I asked for, but now I wonder if that is truly what I wanted, or just a break from the crazy floor nursing environment. A big part of me thinks it would be silly to give up such an 'easy' Monday-Friday, 8-5 position, but the other part wants to be back with other nurses. Right now I work with mainly social workers and I'm the only RN in the group, so some of this could be that I feel like the odd man out. Anyone else have similar feelings? Am I doomed to be a job hopper?

I volunteered a few times at the med stations for marathons and 1/2 marathons. It was only for 1 day, but it was fun and interesting!

While in nursing school I always said I would never do postpartum, nursery, L&D..I had done enough of the patient side of that in my real life. So silly me, fresh out of school I went into Med-Surg and quickly found out it wasn't the place for me. Next stop was, yep, you guessed it, postpartum. Found my true calling in mother-baby and couldn't be happier!

Hi! I too have felt the sting of 'your are not really a nurse', but I think it was more self inflicted than anything else. A few weeks ago I left a very busy Mother-Baby unit to go into a non-profit center doing case management/home visits. I love what I do and love the fact that I work M-F, 8-5, but the day I packed all my scrubs up was a sad day. I felt like I was leaving nursing and I didn't seem like a real nurse anymore. But now, a few weeks into the new position, I use my nursing skills and knowledge all the time. My scrubs don't define my profession anymore. I am just as much a nurse in my business casuals as I was in my navy blue scrubs!

A bag of trail mix, that was it.

Maternal and Early Childhood Health Programs | Nurse Family Partnership - NFP It is a great program where nurses make home visits to first time mom's early in their pregnancy. We provide health support, make sure they are getting to the dr appts, taking prenatals, provide education on birth, breastfeeding, etc. We follow the mom during her pregnancy and until the baby is 2 years old. I will be partnering with social workers and councilors to provide support for these mothers. I can't wait to start there! Nurse-Family Partnership's maternal health program introduces vulnerable first-time parents to caring maternal and child health nurses. This program allows nurses to deliver the support first-time moms need to have a healthy pregnancy, become knowledgeable and responsible parents, and provide their babies with the best possible start in life. - See more at: Maternal and Early Childhood Health Programs | Nurse Family Partnership - NFP

Hi! Next week starts a new adventure for me, I will be leaving the hospital's 12 hour night shift for an 8 hr day, 5 days a week. I will be going from a very busy mother-baby unit to a nurse-family partnership position. While I am over the moon excited about this change, I am worried about the transition from hospital to non-clinical position. For those who have made the leap, how was it? Did it take you a while to get used to the 5 8hr days from your 3 12's? Anyone work for a nurse-family partnership? How do you like it? I know this is the right step for me, but with any change there is fear of the unknown. I know this is where I need to be in my career, just looking for more insight from those who have been there. Thanks for your help! Miranda

I started in med-surg too. I stayed in med-surg for about 4 1/2 months then went into postpartum and now I'm on a mother-baby unit. You will use your med-surg experience. From taking care of c-section patients with wound vacs, to blood transfusions, IV starts, and tons of patient teaching. It is do-able, I'm proof! Good luck!

Ours goes by dates. I was called off last week, so I go to the bottom of the list. It all just depends on who you work with, when it will be your turn. The one with the oldest called off date is the one that gets cancelled. You can say you want to be cancelled until you are blue in the face, but if your not on the top of that list, you are not cancelled.

Not with my co-workers, management might lay it on a little thick when they call you up and beg you to take an extra shift, but my co-workers actually called me a 'sucker' when I worked an extra shift. Sure, they were happy for the help, but thought I was crazy for coming in extra.

I tell my pt to imagine you are sucking a milkshake through a McDonald's straw. To get them to do it 10x an hour I tell them that if they are watching TV, grab the IS and do it a few times every time there are commercials, they usually get 10 in no time!

Yep, sure is. That is why I'm trying my hardest to get out of floor nursing. Will a different environment, out of the hospital, be different? Who knows, but I know I cannot keep going at this pace for very much longer.

I wonder if nursing is killing me all the time. I'm 38 and in less than a year I've had the shingles, rhabdo, and recently was rushed to the ER with stroke-like symptoms. I work nights and recently went part time, but I'm thinking I need to get off nights and possibly out of the hospital all together. I work on a busy mother-baby unit and for the most part I really love what I do. The 'office politics' are really getting me down and now I'm stressed about getting sick again and having to call in...which will be an automatic right up. I have to wonder if I'm just not cut out for hospital work.

Been a RN since Dec. 2011, first job med-surg 4.5 months (was not for me), second job postpartum 9 months (hospital closed the L&D, postpartum and nursery units, not enough births to bring in the $$$), and third, and current job mother-baby 11 months. Not sure what my future holds, but I have gone from full-time to part-time recently.

Become that CNA and see for yourself. Every place has its pros and cons, every person has their own positive and negative attitudes. Nothing will open your eyes more than working in the medical environment. Some days are good, some are bad. Some days I want to be and RN, some days I wish I had never set foot in nursing school. Such is the life of a medical professional.

Hi! Right out of nursing school I landed a med-surg day position. It was super busy and super crazy, too crazy for me. I knew pretty much right away med-surg wasn't the place for me long term. After about 5 months, I landed a position on a postpartum unit and have not looked back. Today I work on a very busy mother/baby unit night position. It has its ups and downs, just like med-surg, but this is the field I belong in. You will use your med-surg experience on mother/baby. I travel 45 minutes to work (one way). I find that if I like my job, the drive isn't that big of a deal. It comes down to what is going to make you a happy nurse and not fearing the unknown. Maybe you can try mother/baby, but leave you current unit in good standing, that way you may be welcomed back if the m/b position doesn't work out for you?