Lukestar

I don't think the newer digital phones cause problems with equiptment anymore. We still have signs up in our hospital but most everyone ignores them. Most physicians have them. Our nurses are not allowed to use them in the units, it looks very unprofessional to see a nurse or RT or other employee in a patient room making a personal phone call from a cell phone. I have gotten several complaints from patients or family members about this.

We get them out of bed with Swanz all the time. No problems.

Probably the same people that do the High School version of Who's Who. Just send them your $75 and they will add your profile to their list.

I agree with you completely in that I have been in nursing for 16 short years and I am totally aware that the patients we see on the Med Surg floors today were in the Critical Care Units when I came out of nursing school. This is the world we live in, as a society we have decided that no one should die with dignity but we must keep them alive at all cost. This is saddly "in my opinion" the world we live in. The concept of RRT in my mind is all about: 1) The Patient 2) Nurses helping nurses. Should we scrap the idea of the system just because preceived staffing levels are not to our acceptance? If that is so only the patients and nurses will suffer.

Shreveport starting base salary is $17.50 with $4.00 evening and night diffs. This about the same in all the major hospitals in the area. There is talk of an increase taking place this summer or fall. If one the hospitals get an increase all of them will match it.

Not trying to sound harsh or uncaring but, If I were in your situation I would definitely contact my state board of nursing and the school I was about to attend and be up front and honest with them. The last thing you want to do is go thru the Hell of Nursing School only to be told you can't sit for your boards. I have seen this happen on more than one occasion, where a person made it all the way thru nursing school only to be told by the state board of nursing they can't take their boards. You need to find this out before you start.

If you do not give proper notice to your employer that you are leaving you can be reported to your State Board of Nursing. I have seen it done where I work. My thoughts is that Nursing is a Profession and if we wish to be thought of as Professionals then the least I can do is to give proper notice that I am leaving. If you don't give notice and the hospital is left short it's the patients that will suffer not the Hospital.

First of all no one is having to make a Medical Diagnosis. The team member is doing what Nurses do everyday, assessing the patients and informing the physician of changes. The theory is that the more experienced Nurse that is a team member on the RRT assesses the patient and faciliates or helps the floor nurse in contacting the physician in charge of the patient. Where I work ICU nurses make suggestions or recommendations to the physicians every day and most if not all of the physicians are thankful and appreciative of this. What do nurses do where you work just pass pills and follow direction. It's called nursing judgement. If the Physician doesn't like your recommedation they aren't bound to have to follow it.

I am pretty sure to check on someone's status you will have to have either thier social security number or their nursing license number. I have to do checks on nurses working at the hospital I work and that is what is required in Louisiana, you can't just type their name in and get information.

what most of the general public doesn't understand is that there happens to be as many germs inside the hospital as anywhere else. besides that, not every person wearing a pair of scrubs these days works in a hospital or even in health care.

I played football and graduated from JCJC many years ago. So long ago that some of my class mates are now instructors at Jones. Best two years of my live, enjoy it JCJC is a great place.

The RRT is not created to go to the floor and help out. It is designed to be an extra set of eyes and ears. They do an assessment of the patient in crisis and make suggestions to the floor nurse. It's still the floor nurses patient. If it is done on a volenteer basis without a dedicated team, the unit nurse doesn't have time to go to the floor just because the floor nurses are busy. You wouldn't want the team being called to come start IV's or insert cathaters.

You nailed that one on the head. Sometimes experience can be a problem.

I am a graduate of NSU Class of 1990. I have taken MSN classes the past two semesters. They are having the same problems today that they had 18 years ago when I was an undergrad. Most of their problems are not enough instructors, problems with admissions between Shreveport and Natchitoches which is a big problem. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. There is little or no communication between Shreveport and the main campus. There are some very good instructors in their program but I think they are need more. They always have problems having enough insturctors and have had several semesters they couldn't come up with enough to hold class. I think they do a good job with those that make it into clinicals but it may be hard to get in.

There are a couple schools of thought here. 1) If nursing ever wants to be thought of as professional they need to be degreeded. You don't hear of engineers or Lawyers with or associated degrees. 2) With the nursing shortage there is no way our profession could ever do without AD or Diploma nurses. I personally am a BSN nurse. With that being said some of the best nurses I know are AD or Diploma nurses. With the title of BSN you do get more diadactic and more background but I believe the AD and Diploma nurses get more clinical background coming out of school. My experience is that AD or Diploma nurses have a leg up coming out of school but BSN have the advantage down the road. I do believe to advance in the nursing world a BSN or Masters is a must.

In the conference I went to there were several hospitals that presented there teams and how they were developed, criteria and who was on the team. It ranged from volenteer nurses in units to hospitals that had dedicated teams that this was their sole responsibility. I do not have the budget to dedicate a team so I will have to go with volenteers. Does anyone know how this was promoted to the nurses in the unit to get participation or was it manditory. I pefer volenteers, I do not want to force this on anyone.

This is exactally what I don't want to happen. I want this to be a nurses helping nurses type experience. I wish for it to be more of a mentoring experience where the less experienced nurses learn from and gain experience from the seasoned nurses. I don't want it to look like the Critical Care Nurses are there to take over as in a code situation.

Is anyone here a part of or does your hospital participate in a Rapid Response Team. Our hospital sent me to a conference a couple of weeks ago and now I am supposed to come up with criteria for a team. The RRT will be members of Critical Care that will go thru out the hospital to the various floors and areas when a nurse has a patient that they are feeling uncomfortable with. Either the patients vital signs are declining or just that the floor nurse feels uncomfortable with the patient and wants an extra set of experienced eyes to look at a patient before the patient crashes. It is supposed to be more of a nurses helping nurses type of program rather than the unit nurses coming to take over. Anyone with any expeirence with a program like this. I am wondering how the nurses involved respond to this. Do the floor nurses feel like they are looked down on if they have to call for help or do the nurses on the RRT feel put out for having to go help. Any input will be appreciated.

I would hire you in the ICU I supervise in a minute. I hire new grads every semester, especially with your internship expierence. We have a 12 week orientation period and then mentor. Most new grads do fine in our ICU's.

Our Policy & Procedure manuel still calls for using an occlusive petroleum jelly gauze dressing. We have been doing this for as long as I have been in nursing 18 years and as of yet nothing has changed.

A question was asked and I answered it. That's where the majority of the money spent for your liscense is spent. The state board of nursing has employees as well as members that are paid to attend meetings. Lawyer fees are paid from this as well. Your state board of nursing more than likely has lawyers on retainer.

$60 every two years is cheap, ours will be $90/year starting this year. The fees collected in our state and probably yours as well go to funding the state board of nursing. Lot of lawyer fees.