guest2314

You know, you sound like you're young and lack quite a bit of life experience and common sense. You don't go making accusations without definite proof that someone is compromising patient care, acting recklessly, diverting, etc. You can easily ruin an innocent person's career this way, and I assure you the majority of your coworkers will resent you keep you on their radar. Also, I want to go ahead and give you a piece of advice since you are not even an RN yet. Don't you ever think you are better than others or high and mighty because you have a nursing degree. Us nurses, we do it all. We're nurses, CNAs, lift team, social workers, custodians, a jack of all trades. Don't you EVER think you are better than your peers.

I second this. OP did not use a great deal of common sense in this case. Unless I have definite proof that someone is compromising patient care, I say nothing. I prefer to keep my nose out of other people's business otherwise. And believe me, I have zero tolerance for poor patient care and lack of patient safety.

I would get a job at a union hospital and when my manager says they need to speak to me in such a manner, I would politely tell them not until my union rep is present. Man it is so different at a non-union facility!

Also, I am certain all of the travel nurses there were compensated very well, although I'm sure pay varies with the travel company. Don't live in Mountainview, Fairview, Government Hill, and be cautious of parts of Muldoon, Spenard, and midtown. Go travel there in the summer months! Work 6 days in a row and go experience the land on your 8 days off :-).

Go work for Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage, AK. It is an HCA facility. All of the travel nurses there said we were a breed of our own in the HCA realm. CEO Julie Taylor remodeled the whole facility, every patient has single rooms, using EPIC charting, have hover mats, lift machines, every ICU room has an overhead lift, Alaris IV pumps are being implemented recently, Nurse patient ration in ICU will never be more than 2:1, ICU stepdown/cardiac step down is 3:1, PCU 4:1, medsurg/ortho 5-6:1. They are very strict about their standards, drips you might see on ICU step down/cardiac step down would include nitro, dilt, amiodarone. Anything like dopamine, dobutamine, insulin, and of course all other vasoactives they are going to ICU. They put a very strong emphasis on patient safety. Now, if they don't have adequate staffing and high census, they will shell out 300/day bonus plus time and a half for RNs, 150/day bonus plus time and a half for CNAs. In ICU you might see as high as 500/day bonus plus time and a half if they are short on cardiothoracic nurses (it is a small mixed ICU and not everyone is up to snuff on CT nursing, so if you have those skills they will snatch you up in a heart beat). As a three year nurse I was making just over 36/hr. With overtime I made around $76,000 for 2015 and 2016. Rent is expensive in Anchorage, if you don't mind making an hour commute then live out in the Matsu Valley in Palmer or Wasilla. Rent and property is much cheaper out there.

I want to move out of Alaska SO bad because of the miserable weather and seclusion, but the one thing I will tell you- Alaskan nurses get paid a decent salary (It's almost three years I've worked as a nurse and I made $76,000 last year. On high census days they will ask us to come in extra for time and a half plus bonus (bonus is an additional $25 dollars/hr) Providence and ARH are both union hospitals, so you get paid by years of experience - I never got paid more to work in the ICU when I transferred. BUT, you get CNAS, you get Lift Team, we have ample supplies, and you will NEVER get three true ICU patients during your shift. I think it's the same at ANMC, also (they are owned by the federal government). No wonder why we have so many travelers come up here and never leave!

Here in Alaska, even if all three hospitals in Anchorage are on divert, all three hospitals will NEVER give a nurse 3 true ICU patients. You will only ever get three patients on the unit if they are borders (awaiting to be transferred to step down, PCU, medical, etc). AND we don't even have laws in Alaska that dictate how many patients a nurse can get! This is what scares me about working in the lower 48 - the UNSAFE nursing staffing!

Believe me BrandonLPN, I've never tried to correct my coworkers pronunciations who were from Canada, Ireland, and British commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa. They have impeccable grammar and they pronounce many words differently.

I ABSOLUTELY agree with this post. I live in a city that is a cultural melting pot. I work with people from Russia, different parts of Asia, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, South America, people from various parts of the USA south, and many people pronounce words differently. I've heard vitals pronounced V-it-als, but does that make it incorrect? Absolutely not! That is how the word is pronounced in her home country. Someone had made the comment earlier that pronouncing arthroscopy Arthro-scopy was incorrect. I think that is a very IGNORANT and close-minded comment. Good lord, we had a saying in nursing school, "Fl-ay-tus, flat-us," just like the saying "Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to." Anyway, right on Mr. Murse! :-)