SherBearRN

I was diagnosed May '06 after being sent to the ER during my shift b/c I couldn't see. After the MRI, I was diagnosed with optic neuritis and referred to a neurologist four days later. I was officially diagnosed then w/o the spinal tap; I had more t...

downtownsjb, I took A&P from Michael Heffron, but there are other instructors, too. I personally liked Michael because he was hard and challenged me at every turn in the course. I will say, however, he is not the instructor for everyone. Those th...

Hi, everyone! I'm a nurse with multiple sclerosis (MS). I was diagnosed May 2006 when I lost eye sight in my right eye. The ER at my hospital diagnosed me with optic neuritis after the MRI. I was scheduled four days later to see a neurologist. Fortun...

mkramos81, I graduated from BCCC a couple of years ago, what a small world! I took the NCLEX-PN approximately one month after classes finished for the semester. I finished second semester in May, so I was competing for test slots with graduating RNs....

MuddaMia, When I first moved out here, I moved to Pacifica and really didn't look at the East Bay facilities. I started on the transplant unit and eventually transferred over to the Pre-registration and Learning Center a year ago after I was diagnose...

MuddaMia, I live in Concord (neighbor to Walnut Creek) and work in SF. I ride the BART into work. Although I don't know what John Muir pays, I would say riding the train into work may be a good option for you. My rent here in Concord for a one-bedroo...

HCA is a for-profit hospital organization. A lot of the hospitals in the Midwest are HCA facilities. I used to work for one and I will never do it again. When it comes to making a profit or staffing adequate nurses, the hospital will choose the monet...

My background prior to nursing was sales and marketing. After graduating from nursing school, I accepted a position on the transplant floor at California Pacific Medical Center as a new grad nurse. The position was on med/surg working with patients w...

I agree that talking to your surgeon would be the best. Multiple surgeries do and have happened at my facility. I just registered a patient yesterday who was having a procedure done to her arm and a D&C. Two different surgeons were going to be in...

I experienced the same thing in nursing school a few years ago. I had always been an A student, so after getting a B on the first test and a D on the second, I knew it was time to do something new. Here's the book that helped me get A's: http://onlin...

Suzanne is right. New grads at my hospital start at $41.49, not counting shift differential. Housing is expensive, but you can find affordable housing if you know where to look (and no, I'm not referring to Oakland). I live in Concord and ride BART t...

The best pay in California, hands-down, is San Francisco. New grads start at $41.49/hr not counting shift differential at my hospital. Experienced nurses make around $55-57 an hour and per-diem nurses make approximately $70. The trick is finding livi...

I work in San Francisco and I was hired about 1 1/2 years ago as a new grad making more than $40/hr. Per diem rates at my hospital (I've heard) can go as high as $70/hr. We have several per-diem nurses from Texas and Colorado who work two week stretc...

In March 2006, I was administering insulin to a patient on the transplant floor who was Hep C +. As I pulled the needle out and went to pull the protective sheath up around the needle, I stuck my index finger. I immediately went to the sink and ran m...

I relocated as a semi new grad from Kansas to San Francisco. Although I'm not single (I've been married for almost 11 years), it was a big decision for me, too. I moved in October 2005 and don't regret it at all! I'm still working at the same hospita...

I work in San Francisco, and I can say most of the nurses I know make over $100k a year. At my pay rate and working 40 hours a week, I would make over $96,000. However, I work four, 8-hr shifts, so my annual pay is around $77,000. I'm also a fairly n...

I think it depends on a couple of things. First, location of the country can dictate whether new grads will go to med/surg or to a specialty unit like L&D. Where I came from (Kansas), med/surg was about my only option because I didn't work as a n...

Here's a link to the article I referred to in my original post. It comes from the journal, Neurology: http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/5/838 Conclusions: "These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that immunization with the re...

This post caught my interest. I have been doing research recently on the correlation between Hep B vaccines and multiple sclerosis (MS). The reason I have been researching this is because I was recently diagnosed with MS. Looking back now, I recall h...

This has been an interesting week, to say the least and I guess I'm just looking for information, other's experiences, and emotional support. Sunday morning with the prompting on my charge nurse and husband I decided to go to the ER b/c vision in my...

Thanks everyone for the words of support and kind words. I was able to make it at work fine today...just a little tired. I only had one episode of dizziness and a couple of minor episodes with muscle spasms in my legs, but no headache like I feared. ...

So I went to the neurologist this morning. He did dx me with MS. He wants me to have another MRI next week of the cervical spine and lumbar spine because my gait was off and I have numbness bilaterally in both arms and numbness in the left foot. He t...

Thanks for the reply. I have my appointment with the neurologist this morning. I'm a little nervous. Hopefully I'll know a little more about my condition and when I can return to work (the optic neuritis is still causing me pain and vision problems).

Here's an article that was posted today on the Wichita Eagle's website about Wesley Medical Center. Apparently a lawsuit was filed a year ago claiming a patient died due to an insufficient amount of nurses. Having worked there, I completely understan...

I've worked at Wesley, but only did clinicals at Via Christi while I was in nursing school. My personal opinion is to apply at Via Christi and stay away from Wesley. Wesley is part of HCA, a for-profit hospital. You can probably do a search on this b...