madame_morphine

I have done quite a few on medline university. Yes, most of them are one hour, but they are free and they have a lot of different subject areas. I love wound care and the are 3 full pages of wound care CEUs.

I am still working part time in home health. I wouldn't say it's something that I really enjoy. I'm doing it because it's paying my bills right now. The thing is that I don't enjoy patient care anymore. I still enjoy teaching. I still love wound care. I still enjoy learning about new meds and new treatments. It's not that I completely hate everything about nursing. I have thought many times about being a supervisor. Unfortunately, without any formal supervisory experience, I usually do not qualify for the supervisor jobs in my area. I have also looked into telephone triage, but what I have found requires ER/ICU experience, which I do not have. I am scared to death to quit nursing. I know there are many out there that have done it and are successful. I don't feel like I can start over at this point. Many hospitals are starting to require the BSN, and quite honestly, I'm afraid that if I do go on for the BSN, then I'll end up needing a master's. I seem to always be one step behind where I want to be, and one step behind where the jobs are. And I have neither the money nor the energy to put into a master's degree. I'm just stuck and don't know where to go!

I have been a nurse for over 5 years. I started as an LPN and continued on to get my RN. I really wanted to specialize, and not only can I not afford certification, there are no jobs in my area. Moving is out of the question. The jobs that are available do not interest me. Ive never been a people person, but I'm smart. I truly care, but i hate catering to management. I hate passing meds and incessant charting. I'm tired of bedside nursing. I'm burnt out. I'm sick of long shifts, no breaks, understaffing, bla, bla, bla... I'm also tired of hearing how many opportunities there are in nursing. To me, it feels like there are no more opportunities. Where do nurses go when they don't want to be nurses anymore? Where do we move on to when we don't love it anymore? I can honestly say that I don't know where to go from here...

I've been working 3 jobs and I'm exhausted (mentally and physically). I do both LTC and home health. I'm to the point where I'm ready to leave bedside nursing altogether. Anyone know what's out there for an RN (who used to be an LPN) as far as non-bedside nursing? Most of what I've looked into requires a master's degree (informatics, research, education, etc). I love wounds, but there are very few jobs in my area for wound care nurses. I've played with the idea of getting the master's, but there are only so many ADN to MSN programs out there. (I don't want to mess with the bachelor's if I'm eventually going to get the master's anyway.) What else is out there?

I started out in education. Decided I couldn't deal with 30 screaming kids and got into nursing instead. Nursing was much harder. In education, it was a more general, well rounded knowledge. In nursing, it's every body system, how it functions, what happens when it doesn't function, and how to fix it. Nursing is much more in depth. I wouldn't say it's hard, per se, but it's time consuming and you have to know what you're doing. The grading scales are strict, and as much as I complained about it, if I'm in the hospital I don't want my nurse drawing up my Ativan in an insulin needle or failing the same class 5 times, etc. Not saying that to be rude, but I've seen nurses who just have no idea what they are doing. It's a hard career. It will stress you out beyond what you ever imagined some days. It will take its toll on your body, too. It is also a very rewarding career. When you go home at the end of the day, you know you did something for somebody.

I am an RN and I'm always asking my STNAs to do little things for me. Vitals, stool samples....whatever. My aides are what keep me going! If she knew someone needed a bedpan, why couldn't she have at least put them ON the bedpan? I'd rather go in to give someone their meds and put them on the bedpan than have to go help change a bed 15 min later! Next time, tell her you're dealing with a code brown and unless she wants another one, she better go deal with it!

I am curious about your situation. I have an interview coming up for an MDS position. I was told that the position was split between MDS and floor hours. Not sure that this is the greatest idea, however it is a small, rural nursing home. After reading the comments in this thread, I'm a little scared!

Hmm... I'm curious, too! I need something that looks good on my resume to help me land a job!

Good luck! I've been looking since last May. The job situation sucks in Ohio right now. I had previous LPN experience, but apparently it doesn't count for anything in the RN world. You might try Nationwide Children's if you are into peds. There are also several home health agencies and plenty of nursing homes. Check career sites like indeed, careerbuilder, and monster. If you're willing to pay, there's a site called CareerShift, which I use often and have gotten most of my leads from. Unfortunately, most places want experience. You might also check with some hospitals to see if they offer nurse residency programs for new grads.