Z71RN

some of what you mentioned may very well be true. but i work for a county own hospital and the hospitals finacial records are open to the public. at our last dept meeting the accounting manager laid out everything in a power point presentation in a room full of people including county supervisors, discussing the latest cuts that the hospital might have to implement. its hard to argue your point when all the numbers are in your face and i'm pretty sure the hospital leadership is not cooking the books.

albert einstien was nortorious for messy writing filled with poor syntax and spelling mistakes.

if this country is not careful and dont start looking at the pitifull riembursements for treatment expenditures that hospitals (particularly in my area of the country) are having to eat there is going to be the disapearing of the small rural community hospitals. how much longer can many of these small facilities continue to get only 28 cents back on every dollar charged and still keep the door open and retain quality staff.

you are absolutley right. less reimbursement to the hospital has a direct correlation on everything that affects the average nurse, such as salary, bennefits and hiring.

what town are you thinking about moving town in south ms? im in north central ms.

one sat am about 0700, a healthy looking 20 something guy walks into the triage room. i asked him whats his emergency..he responded that after a night of partying he woke up in a bed with 3 naked girls that he has never seen before. i looked at him and almost asked him why was he in the er and not back in bed?

even pro athletes have unions that dictate the league minimal salary for each sport...

bsn only nurses? I am for it 100%, speaking from a financial standpoint only. considering the state that nursing is in with many new grads not finding jobs, hospitals cutting staff, the general public being fooled to believe that there is a shortage and puppy mill like nursing schools are pumping out thousands of new nurses every semester. this is the only way I can see to where we can bring nursing back to a more favorable balance with the supply and demand. grandfather all non-bsn active rn's, inform all the community colleges and on-line programs to close shop! I also believe that you do not need a higher degree to be a effective leader and to think otherwise is silly.

got that right...they can take every stinking pill out of the med box..but keep your hands off my chocolate milk in the fridge!

come on do-over...we all know hoffa is chilling out with elvis and james dean in the jungle room at graceland. besides a pal of mine said he saw micheal jackson moon walking on the roof not to long ago!

we have 3:1 ratios in icu. it is pretty much the norm and the unit is set up for that ratio with the number of beds. i worked in the unit for 1 yr and ran my butt off. it was really bad when we were full and had a bunch of low sick patients, esp. when you unit manager is awol and the assist manager is pretty much useless cause she is always having to do "pi projects".

no open door here. we have 8 different visitation times throughout the day and night that last 30min each. its hard enough to regulate visitation around everything we have to do as it is, i couldnt imagine having to do it with an open unit! i just dont understand open units and i'll never work in one.

unfortunately csarmedic hit the nail on the head with his post. nursing has by in large dropped the ball time and time again to take hold on how things are done to our proffesion. we continue to align ourselves with weak nsg organizations that really do not represent the front line bedside nurse. if we as a whole or even half of us could get organized to present a solid front we would have legislators shaking in their boots. im still very young in my nrsg career compared to many of yall on this site, so i pray that there will be a "jimmy hoffa" of nursing that will come to the front of our issues and give us a voice, a real voice that will be heard and respected.

we have 4 rns and 1 er tech from 7a-11a, then 11a-11p nurse and tech clocks in. so from 11a-11p ther will be 5 rn's and 2 er techs. thank god we dont see 400 pts q 24hrs! our 24hr avg is right at 94 pts, which about 65 of them will be seen during 7a-7p. our er functions well too, though we have poor leadership over our er. both the manager and 2nd in command are basically absentee bosses. i came to this er about 8mos ago and the ones who trained me have long gone and basically there are few faces still here that were here when i came. im considered a old timer here now!

eriko', i just passed the cen 2 wks ago. i had been working full time in er for almost 8 mos. now and 1 solid yr in icu before. i used laura vonfrolio ccrn cd's (which i used for the ccrn) as a review, though she has a cen cd set too. also i supplemented with mark bosswell youtube videos (which were free on line). i hit the pass cen book a few times and took the cd exams that were provided, always scored in the 70-80's% with them. vonfrolios cd's were alittle aged but the patho review was good. bosswell is great, if you have questions on his you tube reviews you can send him a message and he'll respond. as far as the exam goes, like texan tough posted pay attention to your questions and answers. i had what seemed to be a fair number of toxicology questions and bosswell did a good job of reviewing that on his youtube lecture videos. good luck!

my mom was dx'd with that about 8yrs ago. though she remains as active as she always been, there are still days its a struggle for her to tie her shoes. medication and pool therapy helps her.

offended by the site of a simple jp drain...the smell of bad breath literally "takes your breath away." i would have been laughing my head off at those people in the waiting room!

wooh you are absolutely right!! I always get asked from other dept to do their jobs for them. nutrition comes to the icu, "tells me to find what % of meals is bed 8 eating in last 36hrs"....I tell them to look it up in the computer! resp therapy wants me to hold pressure after they do femoral abg stick for 5 ******* mins..i tell them to get their own staff to do it. Geez, I don't ask nutrition to start my ivs or give my meds out! I don't ask resp to wipe pt #10 stool smeared backside! everyone and every dept has their own jobs to do, meaning I cant do my job well if I have to do your also, and you cant perform well in yours if you have to do mine too.

our hospital has been cutting staff and not filling spots for about 6mos now, and now has informed us that they are reducing hr to 72hrs/pay period across the board. though our hospital census is busting at the seams we will remain understaffed. which also means longer wait times for triage, treatments and discharge, which translates into angry foul mouth patients and families which parlays into calling of security and the local police dept for patient and family removal from er! our last nsg dept meeting we have explained such to the bean counters but they are mute to our concerns, seems they have done the math and figure they can save more on low staffing salaries than they would on getting good surveys.

though ive only been a nurse a short while, I have learned that it is always in your favor to pick your battles. while I am not advocating turning a blind eye to abrupt patient safety...though writing up a fellow nurse or co-worker cause they didn't flush a int or hep-lock is poor form.

I always dilute the Demerol, dose not matter if I'm giving it with an existing iv running or through a int. rationale is I've had iv Demerol before and it burned like fire up my arm. I dilute the Demerol in the syringe and turn the ivfs wide open for a few seconds (if feasible).

virgojd, I for one know you still have something to offer as a nurse. when I first started as a brand new rn which was not very long ago, I was sort of mentored by a nurse that had went through the recovery program. he has since moved across country but the time and knowledge he shared me reflects in what I do everyday as a nurse. I thank god that he took the time for my many questions and his assistance with all the different issues that new nurses have. but he didn't stop there, as I progressed into a more competent nurse and his time in our er was growing slim he shared his stories about his personnel struggles and demons which I think about everyday. now, I have reached a certain level of rank in my er where I am placed in charge of new nurses that come to be employed here, and I find myself telling his stories and trying to give the same helping nudge that he gave me on many occasions in the past.