J89Mike

sorry to ask a potentially stupid question. My fiance and I are going to be moving back to the los angeles area (where we are originally from). we are both night shift nurses who both work PRN, or per diem, in arizona at this time. In Arizona, we only have 6 shifts a month we are responsible for, but because we are so short here, seemingly every hospital, there literally are opportunities to work 5-6-7 shifts a week if anyone wants to. the hospitals will allow us despite how much OT we can get. we both looked for different hospitals in the LA area and I was curious if we accept a per diem position in los angeles in particular, are there always extra shifts to work? Say, 4 a week? Especially doing float nursing for med-surg tele? we checked at ucla and see they have some positions for float nurses and was wondering if there is any limitation on the amount of shifts to be worked, or if someone wants to work extra, they can? thank you Mike

Just curious. In my state many establishments don't require masks anymore, but each hospital system I've been in is still requiring all staff to wear masks. do you think hospitals will eventually not require mask mandates except when deemed clinically necessary IE flu, covid, etc...? Just a random thought I'd like to get everyone's opinion on.

I find myself in quite a situation and hoping I can obtain advice from nurses who may have been in a similar situation ... or has an opinion based on my scenario. A little background. I’m a cardiac nurse, I work full time on a telemetry floor and absolutely love it. My coworkers, managers, patients and viewpoint of the company is great. Unfortunately, we recently have been short nurses with people moving on to Cath lab, ICU, ED, etc that there’s always plenty of OT available and our hospital has been offering extra shift incentives, even for an 8 hour shift if not wanting to do a full 12. It’s been nearly 4 months since we’ve had this incentive in place and no signs of it ending. Hey, an extra $150 for every extra you work plus OT rate isn’t too bad. Plus we have good ratios, incredible support and routine bonuses throughout the year. So as tough as it is to lose great team members and do more with less, it seems the morale and satisfaction is still high. Alllllll of that to say I have a problem elsewhere. Back around the holidays last year, I applied PRN at a psych hospital as my previous medical experience was in integrated behavioral health and I’ve always found it interesting and ultimately less stressful than a pure medical floor. Now as a night shift nurse, I’ve been blessed to say most of our patients sleep and don’t cause too much trouble during the night. Plus we don’t monitor patients as strictly as we would on a cardiac floor and *knock on wood* ... usually the patients in behavioral are much more stable. Granted, mental health has its days (or nights) to where it can be a mess and yes, I I’ve seen many. But ultimately, my challenge is not those types of shifts but the basis of the job. i recently learned that the unit I was hired for (integrated psych — so think 50/50 medical and behavioral) closed and they want me to float to other behavioral units which I’m not really fond of (geriatric memory care, pediatrics, and pure court ordered patients specifically). I also had a manager change and brief run ins with new leaders. I know beggars can’t be choosers but I haven’t had a shift I’m happy working since my home unit has closed. I don’t really mesh well with the staff, unfamiliar with these types of patients and treatments, and don’t look forward going to work. Ultimately, I am much happier/relieved leaving after a shift than I was even if I had the easiest night known to man. Even for the compensation, I don’t have any real desire to sign up for more shifts than I’m otherwise forced to. I don’t want to sound unthankful, but I realize this just isn’t for me and an extra shift at my full time job would compensate me better than what my PRN job pays. My challenge is that I’m not the best during change. My last hospital, I worked there for 9 years. My current one for just over a year and plan on staying for a long time. But this PRN job, it’s merely been just a few months. I feel better knowing it’s not my full time job if I give it up but still otherwise hard to realize this just didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. Has anyone experienced a job where they didn’t last? Sorry for the excessive ranting above but it’s been on my mind and hopefully I can come to a solution in the next coming days to weeks. Thank you!

I recently accepted a new RN position at another organization and on Monday, I'm going to be giving my notice that I will be leaving the current company I am with. I currently carry about 160 hours of PTO. Since I will no longer be with this organization due to my upcoming resignation, I see that for employees that are resigning, via their HR department, "the PTO balance will be paid out within two pay period after termination has been processed." The company's HR later says "PTO pay-outs are taxed at the higher supplemental tax rate as required by law" I know I will already be hit hard with the taxes, however, is there any adjustments, or anything I could do, to not feel as if I've lost so much of the compensation for it once I resign? Anybody have any prior experiences with this? Can I make any exemptions or adjustments prior to resigning or just accept the higher tax rate? Thank you.

Hi everyone, I'm an experienced registered nurse who works full-time in the med-surg department at a busy hospital working with a 6 patient workload at night. I'm only 28 and was diagnosed with a L4-L5 disc herniation last year. Since that time, I've been hospitalized multiple times for unbelievable amounts of pain and the lack of ambulation ability. I've attempted relief having 3 sets of steroid injections for inflammatory control, been prescribed lyrica, and worked with PT for management of my radiculopathy and sciatica. Unfortunately, at times, I lose sensation down my left leg for a few seconds due to the disc being fully herniated onto the spinal nerve. My concern is to keep living with this without any viable treatment plan. My doctor is concerned and isn't one for prescribing pain medication, he more-so seeks treatment plans that don't mask problems like when prescribing pain medication. He told me that a back brace might help to give my spine an opportunity to "realign" itself but he said if I do that, I shouldn't take part in any activity that can aggravate my back. He threw around the idea of going light duty for a few months, wearing the back brace full time, and working with PT to attempt to get back to my best self. To anyone that has an opinion, is this something I should consider? I definitely don't want to get back surgery due to the complications and I'm not one for relying on pain meds especially at a young age. I'm worried that if I go with a back brace, I won't be allowed any patient care and that might limit my options working at night. Unsure of what light duty options there are in the hospital?? I definitely don't want to be in pain and aggravate my back any more than it has been, but I don't have any experiences with back braces. Just seems I have tried everything else (pain meds, nerve meds, spinal steroid injections, PT, chiropractor, ice/cold packs, and stretches) with no major sign of improvement and this may be my last choice before needing a consult with a surgeon. Because I work with 6 patients a night, the idea of "taking it easy" with a back brace seems challenging. I constantly pull/push/bend/lift/reposition throughout the whole shift and if the goal is to give my back a break, I think my duties as a bed side nurse should be lifted at least for a little time. Any thoughts from those who have dealt with back issues or been on light duty due to any unfortunate circumstances? I would like to know what to tell my manager before deciding which route to take. Thank you!

@lovenursinggg my advisor is ------------------ the acceptance letter recently came in! Good luck!!

hi everyone! Long time looker, first time poster for this thread. I, too, got my acceptance letter for GCU at Banner Boswell. My advisor is ----------------- and the letter came in just within the last half hour. Good luck to all of you! And I look forward to meeting everybody!!! Best of luck to all, and God bless! Mike

That may have sounded worse than intended regarding the title (haha), but my academic prereqs placed me in that situation. I plan on applying into Grand Canyon University either for the spring '15, or the summer '15, whichever gives me a better chance. The application for spring is due by September 15, and they want TEAS score (have yet to take.... probably do it sometime in August so can have more time to study), clean background, fingerprint, etc... and obviously prereqs done. I have all of them done, minus Pathophysiology which is already signed up for the fall of this year (fall 2014). The plan was, take TEAS in August, then apply for the spring if possible. My GPA is about 3.6 for all prereqs, science GPA is about 3.5, and I am a hospital employee which is what they also "look at" when applications are turned in. I wouldn't want to wait a full semester to get into the nursing program (if I could even be accepted *crosses fingers*) just because of 1 prereq class I still need to finish. My problem is, by the time the application would be due Sept 15 for the spring start, I would be done with Patho 2 months later. I'm just not sure if thats allowed or recommended to apply with prereqs not fully completed even though they will be before semester's end. I talked with my academic adviser and he didn't say much regarding it. He said we (the students) could apply with them not 100% finished yet and just put on the application that the remaining classes are currently being finished, but unsure what outcomes are as far as acceptance. I mean if I did get in for the Spring 2015 start, they would be done long before the spring start. Just not done by the application date. I would like to apply, and if I can't get in because of that or whatnot due to the high # of students who are more qualified, thats fine because I would reapply for summer 15 since all the classes would definitely be done by that application date. I just would feel dumb for waiting a whole semester to start because of 1 prereq class that wasn't finished by the application date. Thank you all for reading!

Thank all of you for the responses. Feel much "safer" after reading a lot of the material. I guess the the only other thing I'm caught up in, is the lecture time. For A&P, it's only an hour a day over lecture and we go over a lot. Having this summer micro class be nearly 3 hours long each day, what does that mean? Multiple chapters, multiple quizzes in same day? Never spent more than an hour in any science class for lecture before. Kind of tensed up regarding the amount of time spent in lecture for the summer. Thanks

Hi everybody, this is my first post. Long time looker, first time poster. Just had a question for you guys seeing as how all the previous topics regarding this question was years old. I plan on finishing my pre-req classes to apply into the BSN nursing program at Grand Canyon University here in Phoenix, Arizona. My only remaining pre-reqs are Microbiology, A&P2, and Pathophysiology. This current semester, I am doing A&P1, Statistics and only have just over a month left. Crusing along fine during this semester with good grades and terrific study habits, just nervous for the microbiology class I signed up for in the summer. For our micro class, it is about 8 weeks long. Lecture from 1:30-4:20pm, then lab 4:30p-7:20pm. It is a two-day-a-week class, Mon and Wed with a lot of previous students who had this professor saying lab always got out atleast an hour, if not more early. So just a couple of questions, what am I looking at moving forward towards this class? How does it compare to A&P? Any tips, or study habits you all recommend? Knowing this class being shrunk down from a full semester to 8 weeks, I'm sure there will be a lot of info taught which will require a lot of time to study and grasp the material. I do work at a hospital, and will be working pool (basically another way of saying part time so I can def work my schedule around school and try to fit work in when I can). I also looked into taking A&P2 in summer, but that was Mon-Thurs everyday, and definitely did not want to have all that on my plate for such a shortened semeter and the teacher who teaches it has a reputation of a rough teaching style. So plan is, finish this current semester (spring), take Micro only in summer, then finish up in fall with A&P2 + Patho (online). Any tips or information will be great! As stated, just two days a week, teacher is real cool, but never taken a science class in the summer; trying to get prepared. Thank you all, look forward to continue posting and interacting with everyone. Mike