hrb25

What is a PN? In my surgical ICU of 16 beds, the RN goes with their patient and your "neighbor" watches your patient plus their 2 patients while you are gone. The lead/charge RN might go with you but only if your patient is critical. Usually, this is not a problem as I work with a quality group of nurses. Having a RN from radiology come take your patient or a resource nurse for each hall (as mentioned above by ICUPrincessNurse) sounds like a dream!!!

I have not worked med/surg in over 5 years. What is the current nurse to patient ratio for most hospitals? And do you have a nurse tech in these ratios? As a new grad, I was very overwhelmed with 6 patients. I was at a small hospital which so the variety of patient diagnosis could be quite different. Also, sometimes we would have an intermediate care patient thrown in to the mix but still have 6 patients. Looking back I wonder if that was really a big load or was it overwhelming just because I was a new grad?

I worked at a transfer center (just like what you described) for 2 years and loved it! Definitely need to like costumer service because the sending facility is basically your hospital's costumer and you want them to be happy with the way your take care of and transfer their patients to a higher level fo care. A nice break from direct patient care if you are burned out but you are still helping patients. If you thrive on adrenaline this might not be exciting enough for you, however, it can still be very busy. As noted by someone else, the volume is very unpredictable. Sometimes I would have a phone up to each ear and be working in multiple computer programs all at the same time but that was the part I thought was fun. I also found that there was often a conflict resolution to be done at my organization-usually between physicians- so you have to like dealing with doctors. A moderate amount of data enry required. I also did follow-up calls with patients which was nice to have that direct contact with patients still. Not a great job for maintaining your clinical skills but you could always work PRN somewhere to keep up that aspect of nursing.

I am talking to a recruiter about applying for a Telephonic Work From Home Case Management Position with a large insurance company. I think it may be BCBS. What can anyone tell me about the flexibility of your day to day schedule when working for a large company such as this? Mainly, I am wanting to get more info about breaks, lunches, can you schedule your own or are they at set times? Also, the case load. Is it reasonable? Can you step away from your desk for 5 minutes or do you have to log out and take a break etc? Are you really done at 5 pm or do you have to do work after hours? Is it easy to take a vacation day (or a half day) here and there? I have done a telephonic RN position in the past, I loved it and want to get into Case Management and this seems like a good way to start but I am concerned about the work from home, daily grind, aspect of the job. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!