Pianoforte

First off, most of you missed the point of my posting. I understand that this site is a venue for nurses (and nursing students) to rant and rave. I work with SO MANY nurses that hate their job and I am trying to understand why. I STILL maintain that there are a lot of opportunities for nurses in 2007. I think it's ironic that nursing is a "caring profession" and yet many of the responses to my initial posting dealt with money. I treat all of my co-workers with respect, but I EXPECT it in return. Actually, I just purchased Christmas gifts for the nursing assistants that work at night. I was trying to motivate people to make their situations work for them.

I took ten minutes this morning and read a lot of the recent titles and some of the messages. WHY are nurses SO miserable? I am a new graduate and I OFTEN do not like my job, but I FULLY realize that we, as nurses in 2007, have SO MANY opportunities. My life goal is to see the world AND help people. So, I am starting a master's degree in public health in January. If you dislike your job, try something different...within nursing! If you feel like you're not getting paid well enough, consider going back to school to earn a master's degree or to become a nurse practitioner or... Better yet, take a stand and write the CEO of YOUR hospital. That's what I have decided to do. Why should I earn $20.99 per hour at night based on ideal staffing (i.e. six patients) IF I have eight or, sometimes, nine? I am NO mathematician, but I CAN do the math! Several recent postings addressed "rude" patients, colleagues (doctors and nurses), etc. You're ONLY a doormat IF you let yourself be! I have politely and professionally READ a patient (and my HOLLABACK girls KNOW what I'm saying!). We have two unit clerks (the "nice" one left last week) and I left her speechless last week when I politely reminded her that her reality check OBVIOUSLY bounced because the last time I checked, they aren't giving sign-on bonuses to unit clerks. RIGHT?!?!? I don't LOVE my job, but I do realize that I have to make it work for ME. I may have to work three or four 12-hour shifts in a row, but I WILL be getting five or more days offs before I do another stretch. I hope each and every one of you finds your way in world...nursing or otherwise! Happy holidays! :)

Thanks for your input! I don't mind working steady nights. I make more money and it's not nearly as hectic as day shift. This may sound odd coming from a nurse, but I don't want to work with sick people. My interests are primary prevention and wellness. Ideally, I'd like to work with public health campaigns that are aimed at keeping children healthy. That's why I thought working in pediatrics would be great experience. I'm not sure I see the value in staying more than six months. Several nurse son my unit have told me that my talents (I was a professional actor/singer at one point in my life) were being wasted on our unit and that I'd be ideal for pediatrics.

I graduated from nursing school in June (I'm working on my BSN now) and I passed my boards in early August. I have been working steady nights on an ortho unit for the last three months and I am bored out of my gourd. I had the concept of critical thinking crammed down my throat in nursing school and I feel like I'm simply going through the motions on my unit. I am considering switching to pediatrics, but I have two friends who left pediatrics because the families were awful. I have been feeling very disappointed in myself because, after working so hard and accumulating student loan debt, I don't like nursing. I'm tired of working short and being paid the same amount when we're adequately staffed. I'm tired of being (informally) asked by patients to not only be their nurse, but also, at times, their mother, their father, their psychiatrist, their psychologist, and their priest. I'm tired of asking about same things over and over and charting the same things over and over (Numbness? Tingling? Biceps? Triceps?). My life goal is to see the world. I am considering starting an MPH program sooner rather later. I REALLY want to help people, but I want to do it while seeing the world. Heck, I abandoned a comfortable life to serve in the Peace Corps a few years ago and then went through the hell they call nursing school. UGH! I just needed to vent! Thank you for listening!

Thank you, Jess, for the congrats! As for tips, well, hmmm... Remain calm! Although you may perceive some of the questions to be "easy" during the exam, the folks at Pearson Vue may not. So, DO NOT allow yourself to become nervous if YOU think the questions are too easy. There are only so many ways to ask someone to figure out the correct dose for a med, right? Regardless of how may questions you receive (but especially if you have 75), do not forget that 15 questions are experimental and DO NOT count against you if you get them incorrect. Assuming you have a fundamental knowledge base, try to do as many practice exams as you can. Highlight each topic you didn't know (like, um, Buerger's disease) and look them up in your patho book. Make note cards with the MAJOR points about those items (i.e. circulatory, men who smoke, causes hypertension) and review ten of them before you go to bed. As your exam gets closer (i.e. three weeks or less), focus on the topics, etc. that you don't know and spend less time on the topics that you do. I learned a lot of information from practicing questions...lots of questions! Good luck when the time comes!

Kaplan was part of my final course is nursing school and it looks like we had very similar scores. I passed this week with 76 questions. Ideally, one will have adequate knowledge, etc. to determine the correct answer when debating between two choices. HOWEVER, the reality is that one person could make the correct choice more often than another person. In addition, you may have a lot of questions about disease processes that you aren't familiar with OR you could have a lot of questions on topics that you know very well. With that said, luck DOES play a part in this exam. Good luck on your exam!

Howdy, ALLNURSEers! I learned this morning that I passed the NCLEX with 76 questions! I studied A LOT for this exam and I am SO HAPPY to know that it wasn't in vain. Congrats to those who just passed and good luck to those who are taking the exam in the coming weeks! NOW I can forget about critical care! : )

I just graduated from nursing school and I start my first position (on a med-surg floor) this week. I have a desire to work with children, but I'm not entirely sure that peds (in a hospital) is for me. Therefore, I was thinking about becoming a school nurse. I realize that being a school is more than dealing with health issues. I embrace the opportunity to be a mentor and TRY to prevent some children from falling through the cracks. Where are the best jobs? What sort of experience is best for this type of position. Had I not gone to nursing school, I would have become a teacher. I think being a school nurse would combine both of my interests! Thanks!

I was in the Peace Corps. So, I picked up French and a lot of agencises need French-speaking healthcare providers. However, should I think about heading to the ER or the OR or...?

Howdy! I'll be done with nurisng school in less than two weeks! I have accepted a position on an awesome floor. However, my ultimate goal is to work as a nurse for a large (medical) NGO or the U.S. government in a developing country. What sort of position should I consider after a year in med-surg to prepare me for, say, working with refugees, etc.? Thank you for the advice!

Again, thank you all for your support. I will be meeting with the director on Thursday and I plan on telling her that I would like to be released from my contract. I would like to think that there is a VERY slim chance that this individual will ever intimidate or threaten me again. However, as we ALL know, the world is becoming an increasingly crazy place. Does anyone think I DON'T have the right to ask the health care system to eat the cost of my education and let me move elsewhere to pursue my career in nursing?

Kan (and everyone else), Thank you for your kind words of support. I would be lying to you if I didn't say that, at times, I wonder if these incidents are "much ado about nothing." I left a career in the performing arts to join the Peace Corps because of my sincere interest in helping others. That experience lead me to nursing school. If I were to pursue getting out of my contract in order to move back to New York, my classmate, in some regards, would have "won." At the same time, I have fought the good fight before and, well, it doesn't seem to matter. Interestingly, the head of security at the hospital was at my meeting with the director and he decided to remind me, without taking sides, that my classmate represents a cross-section of the community which I will serve. Need I say more?

Our student handbook explicitly states that both intimidation and threats are grounds for dismissal. As much as this student deserves to be dismissed from the program and barred from nursing, I don't want to feel THAT unsafe. We're eleven weeks from graduation and he'd have nothing to lose (relative to his education) is he was dismissed.

Sadly, this student acknowledged to the course coordinator that he said that he "wanted to punch a hole through my chest and hope that I die" and that "the emphasis was on me dying." He "didn't think anything about it" and attributed it to stress. I honestly don't think that the student will continue to intimidate or threaten me. However, in this day and age, do we really know how people will react? Between the director not moving on this information and my fear for my safety, I am tempted to pursue termination of my committment (and the cost of the education) and move to NYC, etc. (where I used to live).

Wow! Thank you ALL for your support! The lawyer I contacted works for a non-profit organization (with offices in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia) that specializes in issues affecting women. As a lesbian, she also fights for the rights of the gay and lesbian community. She was very supportive. After I met with the director, I had some other thoughts. Per one of the two instructors that I met with initially, she was made aware of the situation. I subsequently sent her (and the assistant director) an e-mail message that detailed, in general, that I had been subject to homophobic threats by a classmate. Shouldn't she have contacted me BEFORE it came to this? I am 99% sure that this student won't be working in the same facility as I will. Wish me luck! I have class with this individual tomorrow at 8a. Again, thank you for your support.