LoriUSAFRN

Fake patients are always fun to give report on... Esp. the frequent flier who the night nurse hates....

As the nurse manager of an Air Force peds clinic, I bought all my nurses a ticket to the steak sale the hospital was having to raise money for nurse/med tech appreciation week at the end of May ( so our hospital does things a little differently!) Not all managers are bad!! Wish I could afford to do more for my staff. For the hospital nurse/tech week, a breakfast is planned, a cookout or two and a couple of other activities. Not too shabby for a military med center. Leadership heads up all these activities. Even at my last base, the nurses were all recognized and we had our annual group photo taken. Sorry to hear that nurses out in the civilian sector don't celebrate each other!

I've been an RN for almost 18 years and can honestly say I've never puked because of a patient-not to say I haven't come close. The two most memorable occasions I've had- While working as a tech while in nursing school, I was changing out an NG tube suctions canister. Whoever had put it on didn't secure it properly, so when I went to take it off, it immediately released, hit the floor and you guessed it-I got hit with the contents. The RN in the room didn't seem the least bit phased by the whole episode. Second experience: while in a patient room, I placed my hand on the bed then realized I had set my hand down in a puddle of clear sputum.. Gross-no gloves. Sputum generally is the worst, and the sound of suctioning a close second, but I decided early in my career, I'd rather suction the crap out of someone rather than listen to them rattle. Have to admit-some of the GYN situations are right up there too, but none of it has ever prevented me from eating lunch! Unfortunately since I'm a nurse, my husband gives me the honor of cleaning up if the dogs puke.

Excellent poem-it captures the essence of nursing today (unfortunately) I have a presentation to do on issues facing the profession, and I think this poem will be a perfect intro to the presentation. It neatly summarizes all of the major issues we're facing staffing, working conditions etc. Thank you for sharing!!! PS I'll be sure to give you the credit as being the author!

I'm in the Air Force and realized that the only way I was going to get my Master's done was distance learning since I move every three years (actually, San Antonio is my next assignment!)Seems distance learning is gaining in popularity, but since I'm in such a program I'm biased. Anyway, I'm in the Graceland University MSN program. They've even started a BSN to MSN program, so you can get the whole thing done at once. For the MSN, you have to attend 3 two week residencies in Kansas City. For each residency you take seven hours (three classes the first residency and then two classes and a credit toward your graduate project the other two) Two classes are strictly correspondance (hope you like to write papers!) The hard part for you if you are going to be moving around a lot might be getting all the clinical done, but you don't have to do it all in one place. The program is a little pricey, but for my purposes it has worked well (GI Bill money helps some). I hope to be done in Aug after I complete all the work associated with the last residency and successful (?!) defense of my graduate project. They offer three tracks-nursing admin, clinical nurse specialist and FNP. Again for my purposes this type of program was ideal, but you need to be really motivated to stay with it, since you don't have the weekly push of a professor behind you. Good luck! PS All the programs are fully accredited [This message has been edited by LoriUSAFRN (edited January 27, 2001).]

Sounds like an EXCELLENT idea. I've been in the health care field since I was 13 (Candy Striper, hospital housekeeping, student nurse tech, RN)and as much as I love the profession I don't like where it is going and what it is doing to it's devoted members. We need to find inspiration and support from each other and work to push to resolve growing problems in the field. With over 1 million nurses in this country, we have the strength in numbers to make changes, but unfortunately nurses tend to whine and attack each other instead of doing something to make a difference. How many of you out there are members of the ANA? This organization may be our only hope of getting noticed through lobbying efforts in DC and force changes to occur. If you don't keep up with the efforts of the ANA you need to, I've learned much from reading the bi-monthly publication, The American Nurse, and look forward to when I have more time to devote to my state organization. We need to support each other, and a Nursing Chicken Soup book at the end of rotten day may be a God-send, but we need to collectively support our profession in constructive ways. Sitting around complaining about working conditions on a website isn't going to get us anywhere! (even though everyone needs to ***** to someone who has been there, done that!)

It's funny how long this educational requirement debate to be a RN has been going on! And nurses wonder why the profession is in such a mess! But anyway-- I got my ADN, got a job, took boards then started work on my BSN all within four months. I really recommend this route to anybody. I felt that the real world experiences I was gaining at work helped me to be a better BSN student. I was able to combine academic theory with real world experiences, whereas a 'pure' BSN can go through four years of college and get out having a clue about what real nursing is all about. It's also handy as a new RN to have your professors to discuss work problems with. I still think ultimately the BSN should be the minimum education requirement, just because it is the standard for all other professions. But since the profession hasn't made up it's mind in the 17.5 years I've been practicing , I doubt they ever will.

Hopefully I can help- I'm currently working on my MSN grad project on cultural diversity. US census 2000 website might get you the demographics you need. I don't have the exact web site handy, but type US census into a search engine and you'll probably get a hit. The book Transcultural Nursing: Assessment and Intervention by Giger and Davidhizar 1999, Mosby is good. There is an entire chapter re: Chinese Americans that addresses what you're looking for and more. Another book that has a lot of good stuff in it is Transcultural Concepts in Nursing Care by Andrews and Boyd 3rd ed. 1999, Lippincott. I got both of these books from Amazon.com They offer fast service and if you don't like the book, they give a full refund. Good luck with your class. Hope this helps. Lori

From a 14.5 year Air Force nurse corps member, I have to say that military nursing is definately a good choice, esp. for the reasons you cite for not being excited about the civilian world. While I was in my BSN program, two Navy nurses said go Air Force if you join. I never considered the Army-the field stuff isn't my idea of fun and I look better in blue! I joined initially for a couple of reasons, 1) heard too many "I wish I would have" from co-workers, 2) didn't feel like working for "Community General" for the next 20 years waiting for someone to die to move up the food chain, 3) just wanted to do something different. It was only a three year commitment (back in 86) and I figured if I didn't like it I could get out and have VA benefits for the rest of my life. Now, the good and bad. Good- 1.You're always being challenged and advanced. You cannot be a staff nurse in the military for 20 years. 2.You move into a new job every couple of years without losing benefits. 3.I truly feel military nurses are respected more by physicians-the rank structure helps. 4.There are more male nurses in the military, and people won't look at you like you're weird. 5. Continuing education is emphasized and supported. 6. You won't be working with nurses who are only in it to pay for new appliances-the level of commitment is higher- more career minded nurses. 7. Opportunties you'd never get in the civilian sector i.e. learning to use a hand gun! 8. Travel 9. Tuition assist/GI Bill for grad education Negative aspects 1. Assignment selection can be iffy 2. Staffing is an issue-we're constantly having to do more with less and less and... 3. You can't fire lousy support staff without tons of paperwork 4. POLITICS 5. Potential of going into war zones I keep up with the civilian nursing world, and I don't plan on returning to it after I retire. The military has it's problems, but I think the civilian world has more. At least I feel I have job security. Guess I've rambled enough-hope some of it was helpful. Good Luck Lori