flymaxwell05

Hello everyone! I am a registered nurse, who is contemplating working in Hong Kong. I have visited the Hong Kong council on Nursing website and continue to pour over all the requirements, but I would really love to hear from others, who have gone through the process. I still do not understand the difference between *enroled* (how its spelled) and *registered* there. Is an enroled nurse like an LPN? or someone, who is getting ready to take the exam for registration? I have referred these questions to the council and do not think they understand my questions on it. PLEASE, someone share your experience, if you have gone through this process! The other piece of this is, I specialize in mental health and I believe there is separate testing for this as well. I know there are two times out of the year to test. One in March for the written and one in August for the practical. I sure do hope I hear from someone. That is a looooooooong way to travel to make any mistakes in the application and testing process!

Ha ha, yeah, you will find all the *judgement* you want in the nursing field and beyond, because the rest of us are such angels.. Listen, none of us are perfect, everybody's got something, believe that! Some of us just have bigger closets than others. I worked with someone, who was seemingly perfect, never did anything wrong in her teen years and looks at everyone else in some kind of disgusted shock, LOL (she was a therapist) and never had any wild stories to tell of her younger years in our snickering little group of co-workers. One day, I saw her get angry about something, weird stuff here, because I actually saw her change physically to this very dark person (eeeek!). Now, I know that sounds crazy, but like I said, everybody's got something. Sounds like you have already dealt with your past, so move on brother, and don't worry about what others think. You may want to be careful about disclosing your personal history, because when you do you will be a sitting duck for all the righteous and religious perfect people. You don't need that kind of aggravation in your life, especially after all the hard work of nursing school! Just be the best damn nurse you can be!

I have a friend who used the term, "watered down nursing" I think nurses lose their skills, when they cannot practice the way they were taught. Nursing sure has changed. In a dire situation, (you know, one where no *specialty* skilled nurse is around), what are you going to do? I would say, stay up with your skills (insist on it!) no matter where you go. If you cannot in the organization where you are, then perhaps think of researching organizations that will allow you to be a nurse! I am a psych nurse and we do not have certain nurses who take care of only depressed people, or certain nurses who take care of acute schizophrenic patients. You may also want to think about working part-time as a staff (bedside) nurse and part time IV nurse, if your organization allows this.

Every new job is kind of scary and rough at first, but the best advice I can give you is stick around those who want to empower and not *eat* their young. Yes, unfortunately we do have older generation nurses who do. I am an older generation nurse, and see how lost a new nurse can be when they first start out. (wow, that was me), LOL! The main thing to remember is you are not alone (or you shouldn't feel like you are). A smart nurse always knows 2 (or even 3) heads are better than one, when making a difficult nursing judgement. Never do something you doubt will have a bad outcome, always utilize your experienced nurses you work with. Your experience will grow with your autonomy. The more you work with nurses, the more experience you gain. Always remember your safety rules about your direct patient care, such as the five rights. I know everything is electronic these days, with the scanners, rovers and such, but the basic rule of safety still applies! I hope where ever you are, you have supportive nurses. Stay as far away as you can from negative toxic burnt out nurses. Your day will come where you may feel burnt out in your job, but there are many ways to prevent and remedy that sort of situation. If you are forgetting things, make sure you are writing notes to yourself, plan ahead, organize and prioritize, just like you learned in nursing school. It all takes practice, so don't be so hard on yourself. We older nurses were all there! Keep on truckin' and keep your head up, you'll be great!

Soooo ~ I am a psych nurse (for many years) and our hospital has decided to *partner* with a company called SUN (Serving Unmet Needs) behavioral, a for profit hospital. Eventually SUN will build their hospital on an already bought site. This hospital will be free standing. Has anyone here ever worked in a free standing hospital for behavioral health? If so, what was your experience? I have many reservations about going to this free standing hospital, and have been looking within the hospital where I am now for another position. I have an interview with a manager from a med surge unit next week and all I can think about are all the questions I have for THAT unit during an interview. I want to know first off, why a manager would consider someone from psych? Is the orientation process THAT thorough, or is the turn-over of staff so horrible that they do not care who comes in. I am not, by any means saying I cannot do this. I know med-surge would be a very busy and acute area, and there would be many days of pure exhaustion, but I cannot help the questions in my head. I worked for a short time in telemetry after an ICU internship, but they had monitors. I know this unit does not. ANYWAY ~ the other questions are nurse / patient ratio, teamwork, definitely turn-over of staff, retention, etc, etc, AND I would also love the opportunity to interview some nursing staff there. I definitely want to get a feel for the team-work, manager/staff relationship. Team work is everything, no matter what type of unit you work on, so if the nurse retention is horrible somewhere, then that makes for a toxic work environment. I would like to hear feed back on any of this subject matter! Thanks in advance! P.S. ~ I have also applied for a PRN hospice position, as I think this would be my first choice. :)

What is the time frame?

Hello ~ and help!!!!!!!! I have a gpa score of 2.72 from the university of phoenix ~ warning do not attend this online program!! While i can take responsibility for my score, whole heartedly, they did not have my best interest at heart in the end. How do i fix this mess? I only have 18 credits to complete. They are costing me more money, making me jump through hoops, now (which i have, so i can re-enter! ) problem: They are very unprofessional (do not return calls) state they did not receive my remediation letter ~ i have proof that it was sent! I document everything!! And now!! Threatening to suspend” me!!! They have always only been interested in the monetary aspect of their enrollement status! After reading the reviews of law suits and poor graduating stats, i can see why!! I am very unhappy with this organization to say the least! I am talking to admission and enrollment advisors right now from schools.

Behavioral health settings are quite different from other settings. I have experienced almost every change which has occurred for shift change report off. Unfortunately, on psych performing bedside reporting is nearly impossible. Our patients have an array of problems from psychosis to severe depression. I keep hearing this is a joint commission expectation ~ which I still have yet to find it on their website! We cannot do bedside reporting as other floors do, where all the patients are tucked nicely in their beds, waiting to be part of the *team* And yes, I am seeing this so called bedside reporting being done in day rooms, (what happened to the HIPPA laws???) We are never going to be like the other floors, so we need to stop acting as if we will fall into the conformity of a magnet standard, joint commission, and all the other regulated, *best practice* acts in nursing. Our care for patients in behavioral health has always been extremely individualized. We are not a one size fits all, it just does not work and yet our managers and directors *INSIST* that we follow this practice of bedside reporting, even though we are hardly ever at the bedside. Our patients are hearing other patient's issues, care plans, medications histories, etc, etc ~ this is the most inappropriate approach I have ever witnessed in all my nursing years. We are violating every single law in one shift change, and no one seems to say anything at all about changing this practice! I am finished with being quiet about it. This approach of bedside reporting on a psych unit is so flawed, that I do not know where to begin with trying to switch gears, because everyone in management and otherwise are following a one size fits all approach. If anyone has any idea or practice which they managed to come up with that does NOT VIOLATE the patients, I would love to hear it!