sra27

We put the "fun" in dysfunctional

Hello, Congrats on your first travel assignment. I did travel nursing for five years until I decided to settle in one place for a while and I really enjoyed it. Since you asked, here is some advice for you. First of all, be aware that you are just at the travel location to fill a hole in their staffing matrix. While most of the nurses I got to work with were kind and welcoming, some staff nurses may treat you harshly or be resentful of you simply because they are jealous. Don't take it personally, it's their problem, not yours. After all you earn the "big bucks" and get to leave in 8-13 weeks while they are stuck in their permanent positions and probably unhappy. Most hospitals that hire travelers hire them in groups, and have them attend a group orientation. This is a great opportunity to meet other travelers and make some new friends to hang out with outside of work. This is especially important if you are traveling by yourself and want an activity partner. One thing I always did was to look up the location I was traveling to, and make a list of all the interesting tourist sites within about a 2 hour driving radius. Then, on my days off I would refer to that list and go exploring. One last thing, every location has it's own quirks as to how they provide nursing care. What is acceptable practice at one location, is taboo somewhere else. You should avoid saying things like "at xyz hospital they did it this way and it was better." Many times I came across hospital policies that struck me as completely bizarre, or unnecessarily time-consuming, but as long as there was no patient safety issues I did what they wanted me to. I hope you have a wonderful time on your first contract.

One night on med/surg I was taking care of a 76 year old retired nurse. Helen (not her real name) was in excellent physical and mental condition. She had actually JUST retired 3 months before her hospital admission. Up until her retirement she still worked a full 36-48 hour work week. She never married, or had children- she dedicated her whole life to her career, she had been employed as a nurse for over 50 years. Helen told me that she decided it was time to retire so she could travel, party, and enjoy her life before she got "too old and feeble to have fun." Helen had come to the ER with complaints of abd pain, N/V x3 days and generally "not feeling well." She told me that she thought it was probably her gall bladder. An abdominal CT was done in the ER, Helen told me she was looking forward to the doc coming in the morning to give her the results, and schedule a lap chole. Later that night, I noticed that the CT report was available to view in the computer so I read it. I wish I hadn't. It showed a large pancreatic mass, probably malignant, also a mass on the liver. She had pancreatic cancer with liver mets, and she had no idea. Helen had worked hard her entire life to have a good retirement, and now she couldn't even enjoy it. I gave the oncoming day nurse the heads up that Helen was going to be receiving some life-changing news, and then I went home to cry and have a drink.

1. Florida 2. 9 years 3. med-surg/tele per diem (no benefits) 4. 35/hr 5. 3rd shift 6.00 dollars an hour 6. non-union

I have many different themes, but the most repetitive is the theme song to the old children's show "Fraggle Rock". I had a co-worker several years ago who always pronounced the antibiotic "flagyl" as "flaGull" (hard g sound). To this day, every time I give that medication, the song pops into my head. Yes, I know I'm kind of warped.

When I was still doing travel nursing, I worked at a hospital that was 90-95% staffed by travel and agency nurses-that is aways a HUGE red flag. Some nights on the unit I was assigned to, we were all travelers and drew names at random to see who would be stuck doing charge.

Just to clarify, they were not roommates; both of the patients were in private rooms about three doors away from each other. I wish I could have moved them further apart per the son's request, but our unit was full.For what it's worth, I work nights and can say that both patients slept all night.

Just when I think I've heard it all from patients' family members... We have a young patient with Downs syndrome on our Med/Surg unit right now; he is very sweet to take care of and has a nice smile but unfortunately he has expressive aphasia and will yell out at random times even with a one-to-one sitter, he has been on our unit before and this is his normal baseline. Anyway, I was on my way home from work when the son of one of my other patients came up to me, pointed at the room with our Downs patient and said "when can we get rid of that nuisance, it's been 2 days already!?" I just kind of looked at him (I was tired, it was the end of a LONG 12 hour shift, after all). The son went on to say: "This is a public hospital, we should not have to be subjected to that kind of harassment. People like that (again pointing at the other patients' room) need to be removed from the rest of us. My father doesn't deserve to listen to that *expletive*. Get that thing out of here and away from us normal folks." I had a lot I WANTED to say at this point, but I just apologized again for the noise, and told the son that I was sorry, but as this was a public hospital we cannot refuse to treat anyone, all patients who come to us receive the treatment they need. I then walked away. What I wish I could've said but couldn't due to our customer service model, was "How DARE you? What is "normal" Who are you to judge who is or is not a person (calling the mentally handicapped patient a 'thing') So you want to segregate all mentally challenged people away from the general public, great idea (sarcasm) Do you know who else thought that was a great idea? Adolf Hitler."

I was in your exact situation when I was in nursing school. I also had to be at 12 hours or more due to financial aid requirements. I took the opportunity to take "easy" classes that sounded interesting to me: physical conditioning, introduction to drawing, reading and writing t.v. sitcoms etc. I discovered that these "fun" classes were actually a welcome break from the intense nursing school courses. That may be an option for you as well. Good luck to you in your schooling.

I just got a job offer for a position in Florida starting January 4th. I really want to take it because I have a lot of family in Florida and the timing is perfect for me. However, I found out today that THEY REQUIRE PBDS TESTING!! I am scared to death that I will fail it again. To make a long story short, last year I failed it and ended up stranded in North Carolina with no job and no money (after driving all the way from MI). I thought I was prepared when I took it last time ( I had several study guides that I had downloaded off the internet). If anyone has any good advice or a really good study guide (is there one that tells you what the scenerios are ahead of time?) Is there a website where I could take a practice version and have it graded beforehand? Please help me. I'm freaking myself out here.

I also believe it is time for me to change careers. I'm feeling what can only be described as apathy towards nursing. I do my job well, but I'm only going through the motions, my heart just isn't in it anymore. I started travel nursing a year and a half ago to try and get my passion back, but it just isn't working for me. So now my plan is to continue working until I have all my credit cards paid off. Then when I can afford it, I'm going to go back to school.

The hospital was Craven in New Bern, NC. But.... I already have another contract!:w00t: This has got to be the fastest turn around EVER. I'll be working at Civista hospital in La Plata, Maryland.

So, I foolishly took an assignment that requred pbds testing. I had heard all the horror stories but figured "hey, I'm smart, I passed nursing school and the NCLEX, I've been a nurse for 4 years and this is my third travel assignment, how bad can it possibly be?" I studied, even did some practice scenarios... Yep. I failed. I drove all the way from MI to NC for this assignment. At least my agency has been nice about it. I can stay here in the condo they set up for me until I can get another assignment- hopefully in a couple of days. There's nothing else in NC that doesn't require pbds now, so I'm being submitted to hospitals in SC and MD (both walk-through license states) I know I'll never accept an assignment at a hospital that requires pbds again.

The Petoskey, MI strike was an embarressment for everyone involved. It broke a national record as the longest running nurses' strike in US history. ( I attended nursing school at the college in Petoskey, about the same time the strike started so I know a LOT about it, unfortunately.) There were pros and cons on both sides. With such a small community, everybody knew everybody. I had friends on both sides of the picket line. I tended to stay neutral and not give my opinion about anything to do with the strike. Luckily the college was able to reschedule our clinicals at different facilities. Eventually it sorta "fizzled out" and the few striking nurses still remaining (by this point most people moved on and found different jobs) voted out the teamsters and finally agreed to a contract, although the details were never made public.

One of my all time favorite verses is 2nd Timothy 2:23-24 "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful" (NIV version)