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Two points to make: 1: Men are less drama. I've had plenty of female nurses tell me as much. As a male charge nurse, I don't get HALF the drama even from my "problem" male staff as I do my female staff. To people who do the hiring and firing, that's worth something. I LOVE women but would prefer working with men. 2. Men are naturally more disagreeable and assertive, while women tend to be more agreeable in their proclivities. When it comes to salary negotiation and career advancement, this is where it shines. Just look at all the female responses here: They're talking about being passed over for promotions or raises while men with equal experience etc get them. Yeah, because we push for them and advocate for ourselves. Hiring and raises and advancements are not done by computers; they're done by people who can be impressed and influenced and even coerced. Men are more likely to work that to their advantage than women. So its not a gender gap, its a personality gap. And you can change that. If you're a woman reading this, stop with the drama and cattiness and be more assertive and disagreeable. I wrote this buzzed, so factor that into any replies.

I didn't read all five pages of posts, so maybe this was already covered, but I'd recommend a careful assessment of your situation. Your anxiety is expected, especially as a new nurse. It will take you several years of nursing to get to a point where you're comfortable as a nurse. Think of it like when you first started driving at 16. Lots of nervousness and anxiety, but hopefully by now you drive well and relatively safely without much thought. Nursing is the same way. It takes time. Regarding your medication error problem, that's a big thing to start working on. I would recommend, aside from slowing down, is create a list you can look at that lists the five "Rights" so you can go through them for each and every patient. Do that for a week and it'll be second nature and you will get better as long as you stick to those five Rs. Finally, have you considered different fields of nursing? I don't like giving medications. Nor do I like having more than one patient at a time. I also like doctor's close by, and my patients asleep and family far away. So I'm an Operating Room nurse. The only things I insert in patients are Foley catheters. I don't worry about meds or patient vitals or potty breaks or baths or nagging family members or all the stuff that goes on on the floors. Maybe something like that would be a better fit for you. You have to look at your own strengths, weaknesses, and desires and go from there. Maybe you can find something that's a better fit for your strengths? Think about that before you torch your entire career.

BSN programs are notoriously overpriced for the education you're getting. How far are you into the program? What are your options for leaving and seeking out a cheaper program somewhere else? Here in Houston, TX, my ADN cost about $10,000, and my RN to BSN is costing around $9,000 with my hospital paying for it. I don't know how mobile you are, but if you could move to a cheaper state you'd probably save yourself a lot of money and headache over the years. Illinois isn't even a compact state, so its somewhat limited.

Hello everybody, I'm a somewhat new nurse to the OR (just completed my 6-month internship in November) and working on personally becoming more efficient, and also seeking ideas on how to make the OR in general more efficient. I was hoping to get some input and advice from a more experienced pool of OR nurses on how your OR dealt with whatever inefficiencies it has had in the past. For example, one of the inefficiencies we currently have is that we under-utilize our OR aides. We have them clean the rooms in between cases, along with a few other very minor jobs, but not much else. They don't make OR beds, they don't set up rooms or get equipment, and they rarely help in the room while the patient is there. They are very capable, its just not something that's currently in their job description (but something I'm thinking of pushing to change.) So what about ya'll? What experiences have ya'll had where your OR was inefficient in an area and implemented steps to improve on it? Was it successful? Or if your hospital is already very efficient, what makes it so? How do the cases flow? What's your individual workflow that helps overall efficiency? What roles do the board runners and managers play in keeping things running smoothly? What staff roles do you have that help? Thanks!