sandiLa

I hope everything works out for you and you find something that you will happy with. Again good luck to you and don't let it make you sick with worry. A job is not that important, trust me I know.

I had to switch to PRN due to family circumstances and trying to decide between taking care of my son and getting him to school and sports functions or paying someone else to do it or working all hours and missing out. It worked out fine the first few weeks, then the Nurse manager called me wanting specific dates that I would work. Well I told her that I went PRN and if I could give specific dates I would be able to work full time, that was the whole point. She bugged me to no end. I finally just quit answering the phone. I did go in when another supervisor called on the weekend needing someone PRN. After awhile this NM got on my last nerve and I resigned. I had tried to resign in the first place but it was her idea for me to do the PRN status because she "didn't want to loose me". Well that's what ended up happening anyway. I'm still a SAHM and at times I wonder if I'll ever get to go back to nursing but my son is more important and I will never get this time with him back. We can afford for me to be here so why not. I'm a highly trained taxi driver for a teenager. LOL I won't go back and work there though. They mistreat the nurses there terribly. Good luck with your choice.

I know how you feel. My in laws helped me with my son, getting him to school when I worked nights, he goes to a private school out in another town and it's hard with the shift I worked to get him to the bus so they would keep him for me on nights I worked. Well my MIL got diagnosed with cancer and they were unable to help me, my son had just started getting involved with sports and I interviewed 3 different people who were used by nurses at the hospital I worked at and they all charged very high rates to watch my son, plus gas money if they had to drive him anywhere. I would have been working and handing them my check since I worked at a state hospital and my wage wasn't all that great. It just wasn't worth it. I tried to go PRN at first but that didn't work out because I didn't realize how involved the sports were going to be over the summer break and I wound up helping to take care of MIL too. I'm no longer employed and tried for awhile to find a job at a Dr.'s office locally so I could do M-F 9-5 which would have worked out great but there are few jobs here like that since we live in a rural area. I just decided that for now I will focus on my son and worry about what I want later. I have to have a job before the 4 yr. mark because of the liscense restriction in our state but by that time I'm hoping my son will have his liscense and can drive himself to some of these sporting events. He's so active now with sports, BoyScouts, church youth activities and friends that all I do is drive, everywhere. I'm not complaining, I feel lucky that I'm able to do this for him and my DH is understanding and we can afford to only have 1 of us working at this time. People ask me all the time, why are you wasting your education? I answer them by saying, I'm not wasting it, I'll always be a Nurse, but I will always be a Mother, my Son will be grown and gone, I'll always have Nursing. I don't regret the choice I made and I won't let others make me feel guilty because I'm not "gung ho" and jumping in with both feet. Give it time and enjoy your child. The time will come for you too. I look forward to getting my RN degree one day, I know if I'm meant to have it, it will happen. Good luck to you. You have the most important job right now, being a Mother.

Our school has a Pinning ceremony in December and your family is allowed to come, it's really nice. We all had to wear white, no hats though. They give out awards first, some of the students did speeches, then as we're getting pinned another instructor reads who we dedicate our pins to. We recite our Nursing pledge and that's it. There's a seperate graduation at the school the next week.

Hey, I weighed 11lbs. 4 oz. in 1971 and my Mom had me naturally. She was tall and all baby, never overweight, still isn't and no other health problems then or now. I have a first cousin who is older than me who weighed 13 lbs. and he was born naturally. It can happen. It can hurt I'm sure but can happen. LOL My son weighed 10lbs. 13.5 oz. but I had a c-section, I don't think I would have wanted the natural child birth thing. Kudo's to my Mom for that but not me.

I wouldn't take 10 pt.s unless it was an emergency, like a hurricane. At the hospital I was working at I had been there for 2 months as a new Nurse and was taking 7 on a Med/Surg. Telemetry floor and we only had 1 RN on the floor, she was the charge. She refused to take any pt.s so all the LPN's got 7. We didn't sit down all night. I believe she even got mad at me when I told her I was taking my 30 min. lunch and I was caught up with all my work. She was sitting reading the local paper when I told her this. I no longer work at this hospital, too many shady things that didn't feel right in my gut. I worked too hard for my liscense and some of the things they were doing made me very nervous. No thank you. Right now I'm focusing on my son and taking him everywhere he needs to be since he's involved in sports and I have the choice of doing it myself or working and paying someone else a lot of money to do it for me. I miss working and will go back as soon as I can. Sandy

I LOVE mine. I have over 16 pair. I esp. loved the flip flop ones this summer. I got three different colors to wear. Have you seen the Islander ones in person? I got those in brown. They're comfortable but without socks the leather is a little rough on the heels. I got my husband hooked on them too. He thought they were so ugly when he saw them on my feet for the first time. Now it's all he wears, except for work and that's only because it's a hazard since they're plastic or rubber or whatever. I don't care if they are ugly I wear them all the time, except to church. LOL I hope they keep making them although I do believe they will last forever. Oh and I read one post about someone washing theirs and they shrunk, I wash mine all the time and they do fine although I wash in cold water. The athens (flip flops) are great to wear when you go for pedicures but they get all slick from the lotion. I love the Mary Jane's, got those in brown too. Sandy

You have a sign with a skull and crossbones on it taped to your front door warning people what will happen if they knock or ring the door bell before 4pm. LOL Good one. Sandy

I take Xanax as 0.5mg. as needed for panic attacks and I told them before I took my drug test that I was taking it PRN and I passed the drug test. I also have Diabetes so I did inform my Nurse Manager of this and the panic attacks just in case I had any symptoms from either. She was fine with it and said she was glad I told her so they would know what was going on if something wierd happened to me while I was at work. I wear an ID bracelet too so that helps. You should be fine. Sandy

Tonight I was rubbing lotion on my hands which stay dry all the time and noticed that I have a bruise and some swelling on the underside bottom (closest to my hand)part of my little finger. It doesn't hurt but it's blue and puffy. Weird. I didn't do anything to it and have no clue what it could be. I'm hoping it's not an ulner nerve problem. Anyone have any ideas? I've had previous surgery on this wrist for an injury about 5 yrs. ago and that's why I'm worried. The injury was a tear in my TFC cartilige (on the right upper side of my hand) and a ligament that went down the middle of my wrist. Thanks for your help. Sandy

Thanks Amanda, that's what I did. I also stated that I'd like to be kept on as a PRN employee if at all possible. I may want to return there in the future but I could do some days on the weekends or in the summer when my son is out of school. I wasn't sure how that sounded but I wanted it in the letter so she would forget down the road. Thanks for the help. I appreicate your time. Sandy

I'm turning in my letter of resignation tomorrow morning and am wondering if anyone could offer any hints or things to say other than the usual. I'm leaving due to family issues, long story, but I'm deciding to put my son first before my wants of working as a Nurse right now. I don't have to work so that's not an issue. I typed up a letter already and put that I'm leaving due to focus on my family at this time. I didn't want to go into lots of detail and make the letter long winded. I plan to make an apt. with my Nurse Manager and explain in person my reasons for leaving. I'd appreciate any ideas you can give me. I looked at a few different web sites but most of them require you to purchase something and I don't want to do that for one letter. Sandy

We have 6-7 pt.s each shift. I work telemetry/med surge floor. Once you hit the floor, you're running all day long. I'm so tired when I get home. Very stressfull days. Usually we're understaffed with support. At least one CNA but some days no ward clerk. It's ridiculous really. Sandy

http://www.crocs.com I now own 7 pairs of these shoes, they are all I wear, unless we're going to church. LOL I love them and my feet thank me after walking for over 12 hrs. a shift. Sandy

Can you give me some examples of these prescription drugs? Thanks. Sandy

I performed CPR all the time while working as an EMT. I worked in New Orleans and we got a lot of bad calls there. I haven't had to do it at work as of yet. I'm sure I will someday. Sandy

I LOVE my Crocs too. I own 5 pair. I have one for work, the Highlands that they quit making. They are called Aspen now and look different than the Highlands (the ones without the holes). I have 2 pair of Beach (with the holes all over) and 1 pair of the Nile sandals. All are so comfortable. They are ugly but the new Aspen's seem to be a bit smaller looking to me. They don't make my feet look like clown shoes. I'm waiting for them to restock the Chocolate Aspen's so I can get them for winter. I wear them everywhere, I've had so many people ask me about them and once I let them try them on they've ordered their selves. Oh they just came out with a new one called the islander, it has leather at the top and I believe it's the beach model with holes. Really cute but pricey. I'll have to wait until next summer for those. The ones with holes makes my feet cold even with the socks. Sandy

Glad you are safe and I don't blame you one bit. I'm not working right now but do know that a lot of nurse's at a hospital in Covington, LA lost their jobs because they left. I would have been in line behind them to get to my car. NO job is more important than YOU. It doesn't matter what line of work you are in. In our parish even the policemen were pulled off the roads and put inside a cement block building during the storm. I know my husband volunteers for them. Our parish was hit very hard by Katrina. We had no help at all here for at least 4 days after the storm. Winds in our town which is an hour northeast of New Orleans were measured at 165 m.p.h. with gust of 175 m.p.h. I never thought it would get that bad here. I thought once it hit land it would weaken, it didn't. I stayed home with my 11 year old son and am still having nightmares. At the height of it all we were on my bed because that was the only place I could think of that a tree couldn't reach if it fell on the house. My bed started shaking and our walls were creaking. I was watching the trees snap like toothpicks in my back yard and I prayed the entired time. I will never stay here through another storm, no matter how big or small. If I'm working and they call me in, I will refuse an if they fire me so be it. If they take my liscense that's fine too. My life is more important to me than my job. You can get another job. I refuse to be a hero in any situation. I have a child to raise and who will do that for me if I'm dead from staying behind? Oh and our parish wasn't under any evacuation orders at the time. We left 3 days after the storm and went to north MS. when it started getting bad here. Things are better since the National Guard and other military were brought in. They are still here. I don't wish this on anyone, even my worst enemy. I can't believe someone would criticize you for your decision. That's wrong, they aren't in your shoes, they don't know how you can handle that much stress added on top of the stress of your job. I feel that with some people staying to work in a situation like this can be more harmful than helpful. Good for you and sorry about your house. Sandy

My family and I left Bogalusa, LA two days after the storm hit because there was nothing here, no food, water or gas to drive anywhere. My town is about an hour northeast of New Orleans and once the storm hit land in Buras, LA it started turning east. We got the west side of the eye and I can't even describe what it looks like around here. While we didn't get the major flooding it looks like a war zone. There are armed military walking the streets and guarding every business. They are even walking around in the local Wal-mart with guns strapped on their backs. I'm very gratefull that they are all here because the looting had started on about the 2nd or 3rd day after the storm. The Red Cross was no where in site. We had no communications by phone with anyone outside of our city. No one knew how bad we got hit. We stayed in Jackson, MS with my Dad for a little over a week. I called FEMA and registered with them. I was told by FEMA to go to the nearest RC shelter and they would give us food vouchers and emergency cash. We found the closest shelter and there were two teenagers sitting at the table outside the gym at this church. When I told them why we were there they had no idea what I was talking about and called the head of the shelter who came out and told me the shelter was full, they had no vouchers, and they never ever gave out cash money. She said they had food but couldn't give any to us because it was for the people staying at the shelter and of course it was full. I went back and called FEMA again to tell them this information. They said that is what they'd been told to tell everyone who was registering. Our government down here doesn't have a clue. It seems no one knew what to do. Later in that week we hear on the TV that the RC is now handing out food vouchers to people who are staying in shelters. Well that didn't make sense to me since they had food to feed the people in the shelters, why not give the food to people who had to stay with relatives or in hotels? We got to come back home last Friday. We got electricity to our house because we live 3 blocks from the hospital. The sad part is I was scheduled to start orientation at that hospital this past Monday. Well with everything that is going on it has been pushed forward to sometime in October. Since I'm a new nurse with no floor experience per say I can't go and work anywhere right now. I tried to get a job to help support my family while in MS but when I got the application it asked for all kinds of information that I didn't have access to (ie, transcripts from my school which was closed, a $60 fee to apply, which we didn't have at the time, etc.). The lady there did tell me that if I wanted to volunteer I could get a temporary liscense to work in MS right then but if I wanted to be paid I had to go through the process. I knew I'd be back home before that would happen. It's slowly getting back to normal here in our town. A lot of people still don't have electricity. We have water and the Red Cross finally set up a shelter at the First Baptist Church 2 blocks from our house, that was after the Southern Baptist Convention sent a group of people from IL to cook meals for everyone here. Now the RC Disaster trucks are at least taking these meals out into the communities to people who can't get out and get supplies. It's very sad and depressing to say the least. I'm still having nightmares from staying here during the storm. I'm not sleeping and I'm so tired. I have a lot to be grateful for, I'm not even close to being as bad off as the people of New Orleans, MS and AL are. But it affects different people in different ways. I will never stay here for another storm if I can help it, unless I'm working and I won't abandon my pts. The winds here were recorded at 187 mph which is unbelievable to me. I know at the height of the storm I was in my room on my bed with my son and the bed started shaking and the walls were creaking. Our trees were snapping like toothpicks. I started having panic attacks just from that. I don't think I would have made it if I were in New Orleans. I have a friend I graduated with that works at West Jefferson General Hospital on the Westbank below the MS. river and she stayed the whole time. She's only been able to come home once and her house has 4 trees on top of it. She told me what they had to do and how bad it was. She's much stronger than I ever will be. But I guess if you're in that situation you go into survival mode and do the best you can. Each person's ability to handle that much stress is different so I don't fault anyone who couldn't stay or handle seeing what they saw. I just hope she will have the opportunity to speak with a grief counseler. I praise any of you who are working in this area or voluteering right now. You are heros in my eyes. We've had so much support from the Electricity trucks from North Carolina, the police from AL and ARK. and many other places. I know no one here will ever be able to repay all the kindness that everyone has shown us so all I can do is say Thank you and God Bless..... Sandy

I kept mine. I put them all in those really large binders seperated by the tab dividers. I just can't bring myself to throw them out. Sandy

Good for you. I would have said something too. Glad you stood your ground and I'm sure the little boy thanks you too. Sandy

My husband bought me a gold band to wear while working. I wore my ring the first few days of my clinicals and I have a 1.5 car. emerald cut and it sits really high. It was so uncomfortable with gloves so I just quit wearing it. I now wear my band and don't even realize it's there, very comfortable. Sandy

This is so fun. I think my biggest was one girl in our class who thought because she married money she was the most important person there. She was loud, obnoxious, dressed like a slut, EVERY day and stirred more #$%$ than anyone I've ever met. I so wanted to tell her that even if you have money it takes a little more to have some tact. Her famous last words were, "After I get my liscense I don't have to work". Well she got a job less than a month after getting her liscense. LOL We had the one who knew everything too. She used to be an EMT and worked in the ER at a local hospital. I swear she'd seen every single thing our instructor taught us and preceded to describe it in vivid detail which only led to us getting out of class late. And I agree with the different instructors teaching/grading all different ways. It's insane. We got a new instructor my last semester and this woman came straight from hell. I mean we were in the last semester and she wanted to watch us do every single dressing change, then she would leave the floor. We'd be set up and waiting. I even went so far as to have her paged and she still didn't show up. I finally did the dsg. change alone, she never said a word. Sad. She's no longer there, thank God for the other students. Sandy

Everyone in my class who took it and it stopped at 85 passed so don't feel bad yet. You probably did fine. Sandy

I can't believe she's on the three anti depressants, that's a lot. I know the Advair can cause shaking and nervousness in some pts. My son used to take it and twitched all the time, we changed his med because of that. I know some Dr.'s prescribe Trazadone to help people sleep even though it's an anti-depressant too. And as for ADHD, I thought Adderall was prescribed for adults; I've never heard of adults taking Ritalin unless they weren't supposed to. I really don't see why she's taking medicine for "symptoms" if she wasn't diagnosed with the disease. And some of the symptoms could be from all these meds and she may not really have a problem with ADHD. Maybe she doesn't want to quit taking Ritalin because with the three anti-depressants she's probably sleepy and groggy all the time and this is the only thing that keeps her going. I agree with everyone else, she needs re-evaluation for these drugs. There are other things she can take for sleep instead of an anti-depressant. And why in the world would they give her Wellbutrin and Prozac? That's so stupid. I hope it all works out for her, you're a good friend to be concerned and trying to help her out.