runningbull

I apologize, this was a poorly written post. I would think the same thing all of you are if I would have read this from somebody else. I should not have used the word "lie" when describing my care plans, I have not ever made up information on a care plan or described what I called "bogus" interventions. I meant to say that I have to be careful with the way I word things, such as my interventions, on my care plans or else I will not get a good grade. And yes, I have learned a lot in school. I realized this when I took a moment to look back to my first semester and saw how far I have come since then. The school I go to is actually one of the best in Tx and I hope with everything that I have that I will be a good nurse after it's all over. I guess the stress of nursing school just got to me when I wrote this post. Again, my sincere apology to anyone who read this post, it truly was disgusting and rude.

Any other nursing students out there feel like all you do is jump through hoops? I feel more like a whale at sea world than a college student. All I do is "jump through hoops" and perform tricks so I can get a grade and move on to the next one. Instead of learning, we make portfolios, change projects, process recordings, write journals, etc etc.. Semester one, I figured out the hard way that it's better to lie on a care plan, make up irrelevant data for diagnoses, and say I did bogus interventions than to truthfully put what I actually did that day at clinicals. Semester 2, I talked to my peers and found out each of our professors had been grading the same assignments differently (even though they have a rubric they are supposed to grade by???). So then I learned how each of my sea-world trainers(professors) wanted my tricks(BS busywork) performed so I could please them and pass the class. I seriously don't think I have learned anything important in school the past 2 years since I got into nursing school and stopped taking real college classes. Sorry for the negativity btw, I love actual nursing and can't wait to be a nurse, but am just fed up with school.

Hey everybody! I wasn't sure where to post this so I chose nursing management. I'm getting my BSN soon and have a million thoughts running through my head on the direction I want to take my nursing career. My top 3 considerations include: managing a large medical corporation/business, becoming an NP, and becoming a CRNA. Becoming an NP or CRNA would be the "easy route" in a sense because all I have to do is get accepted into a program so I am not going to talk any further about those 2 options. I would love to get into an administrative role in a large medical company one day but have NO idea how to do it or where to start. I am not referring to charge nurse or nurse unit manager roles, but a larger role such as a hospital administrator or a director of medical staffing agencies. **Nothing against unit managers or charge nurses, I just know I can't deal with the 24/7 headaches that come with the job. If anybody reading this currently has an administrative role or has combined their nursing career with a business role please enlighten me on what you are doing and how you got there. Also, if anybody has the answer to these questions please let me know: 1. Do managerial/director positions exist for nurses in medical staffing agencies such as MSN? 2. Would getting a MBA in the future open any opportunities?

TexasACNP, I'm curious, how much do you get paid/hr on your regular ICU job? Sounds like you stay very busy!

That sounds like an awesome job! May I ask what state that is you are working in? I'm assuming Cali or somewhere in the Northeast possibly. I wonder because I would ideally be working in rural Oklahoma areas (where I was born and raised), and I am positive I would not have some of the perks you are getting such as assistant drivers or anything near 180k. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, that link helped clear up some questions I had. Looks like it might be a pretty sweet gig from the outside. I'm sure this kind of preventative care role for NPs will grow as the ACA (Obamacare) continues to roll out. One of the ACA's biggest goals is to promote preventative care and eliminate unnecessary ER visits, both of which are common goals of companies such as MD2U. It will be interesting to see how these companies grow in the future with the ACA.

Honestly I am not sure. I have read a few posts about NPs doing house visits for Medicare pts and some other insurance companies, but it is rare to see anyone discussing it. I would like to hear about this role as well as any other similar roles NPs have in areas similar to home health, hospice etc. I was just using home health as a broad term to include ALL jobs that entail going to your pt's home. Whats a typical day like? Whats good/bad about the job? Does it bring in less or more money than other NP jobs in UrgentCare clinics or hospitals? What kind of a work schedule can be made?

Hey everybody, I'm not having any luck finding topics over NPs who do home health/house calls. I was wondering what that kind of role would be like. Are there very many jobs taking house calls out there? What kind of a schedule do you have? How do you get reimbursed and how much? I am vaguely familiar with a home health RN role, though I have never worked as one. Working home health as an NP seems like it could be a pretty sweet 2nd job for those extra days off. Especially for people like me that would rather be out and about all day rather than stuck in office. If there is anybody out there who knows what it is like, please fill me in!

Great point, Goose. Even though it will mostly be a narrow patient population, there are many many issues plaguing this population and every pt will be different in their own way.

I think advancing your career by becoming certified to provide more complex care and do more complex procedures is a good decision. You should also consider a Nurse Practitioner role in an acute setting such as ER or ICU. I worked in a hospital with a few NPs and they placed a lot of Central lines, Art lines, Chest tubes, ET tubes, etc, as well as making a lot of big decisions in critical situations. You would also have the option at working in a urgent care or another clinic if you ever got tired of working at the bedside. Another thing to consider is how often you would get to do things like place central lines or art lines as a CRNA. During my OB clinicals in nursing school, I talked to a CRNA who said he had not placed a central line since he graduated from school. Most places want anesthesiologists to handle the big cases that require complex lines. I think it mainly depends on where you end up working at. That would be a good question to ask the CRNAs you shadow if you haven't already. BTW, I am NOT a CRNA or NP so I can't tell you anything other than what I have seen. There may be a lot of hidden downsides I am not aware of in an NPs job so I would suggest finding one to shadow.

Sounds like everyone agrees on the transplant ICU in the larger hospital. The only concern I have is that it is not a surgical ICU. It is more of a holding cell for sick transplant potentials and a place for transplant recipients to come when they require ICU stays (they are considered "service" after Tx and don't go to any other ICU). Thanks for the replies, I think this would be the better job to take in terms of learning experience.

Thank you for the input, it's nice to hear from someone with some inside perspective. It seems like all I ever hear about anymore is how CVICU is the golden standard for crna school, so I wasn't sure which would be best. Thanks again. Congrats and good luck with school

Hey everybody, I am looking at two job offers and was wondering which would be better for CRNA school. Job 1 is in a transplant unit (liver, lung, kidney, pancreas) and deals with pre-transplant pts with end-stage organ failure as well as post-surgical transplant pts and some other pts with acute issues (DKA, GI bleed, etc). The only issue I see in this ICU is that there is a ICU in the same hospital that takes all of the cardiac patients (CABG, Heart Transplant, etc). Would the lack of cardiac pts make me a weak candidate for CRNA school? I will still see Swan-ganz, CVP, Art lines, gtts, many ventilated pts, and occasional ECMO (1x every 3 months) just not "heart patients (IABP, VADs, etc) Job #2 a general ICU in a smaller hospital. This ICU sees a little bit of everything, including cardiac (immediate recovery of post-op CABG, cath lab, valve replacements, MI, Stroke, Cardiac Arrest, IABP). However, this ICU does not deal with trasnplants, VADs, or ECMO which would be seen at the larger hospital. So my main question is, would it be better for crna school to have experience with a little bit of everything including some cardiac patients (CABG, MI, IABP, Artic Sun, etc) and give up some of the things I would experience in a larger hospital (transplants, rare ECMO)? Or would it be better to be in the larger hospital and see NO cardiac cases but have the chance of seeing an ECMO and caring for pre and post-transplant pts? Thanks in advance to all replies and thanks for reading!