Purdue_Nurse

ahh the good ol' neuro unit! my previous position was on a busy neuro floor. i agree with the above poster, watching experienced nurses do neuro assessments is a great learning experience. the assessments you perform will be varied based on why the patient is there. i'm sure you will be certified in the nih stroke scale as part of your orientation, the stroke scale will be a big part of your assessments with tia and stroke patients. with your new back surgeries, denny browns and assessing your extremities for sensation are big pieces. back and neck patients often get a support device to wear such as a lumbar corset or miami j collar. the easiest way of learning how these devices are put on is to have an experienced nurse talk you through it and help you. i don't know about you but i learn best by doing so i never really felt comfortable with a device unless i actually applied it myself a few times. good luck and feel free to pm me with any questions!

I had to do a project similar to this when I was in school. I did a presentation on smoking for 10-12 year olds. I used a lot of visuals and statistics and they were really into it.

I do the exact same thing. I am absolutely horrible with names. Not just at work but in every setting! Sometimes I think all of the confused patients with dementia I end up taking care of are rubbing off on me.

Thanks for all the replies!

Hello everyone, I have an upcoming interview for an insurance company. I was wondering if any of you have worked for insurance companies and what your role was, what type of things were asked in the interview, etc. Also, if why I want to leave bedside nursing comes up just how honest should I be? (Because I despise it!) Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

:roll :roll :roll LMAO! It seems like my off days are always the first shift back after a long stretch off. Today was one of them!

Don't sweat it. I had the hardest time in A&P and pathophysiology out of all of my nursing classes. I did fine after those were out of the way!

This is an interesting thread for me since I too am desperately wanting to get out of nursing. I'm very interested in the business field. The only jobs I see either require a bachelors in business, or require no degree at all. While I do have my bachelor degree I haven't had any business type classes. I'm not sure if they would consider me for something like that. Any advice on what to put on a cover letter applying for a completely non-nursing job? I'm afraid they will think "why on Earth is a nurse applying for this job?" and not even consider me.

I feel the same way. It is very hard to keep up with household jobs when you do 12 hour shifts. I usually try and group my days I work together if possible. It's a long haul, but then I get four days off together. The first of those days I usually have a sleep in/laundry/pick up around the house day. The next I try and run all my errands (groceries, bank, bills, etc). A girl I used to work with would spend Sundays she had off cooking. She would put together a few different casseroles, do all the preparation except for baking. Then during the week when things were crazy they could just throw one in the oven and have a good supper. When at work, I usually have some caffeine around 1400 or so to get me through the rest of the shift. I've also found that staying hydrated by drinking lots of water through the day helps. I know, some days there isn't time for that but keep a big bottle of water by where you chart and at least try and grab a drink from time to time as you run by. If there's no time for lunch (which there usually isn't) I eat at least a little something as I chart. Eating usually revives me a little. I also have found that I feel the best at work when I have caught up on my sleep on my days off. Some weeks there is too much going on to sleep in and I can tell, I am WIPED OUT the next week. These things help me some but I look forward to hearing what other posters have to say. I still find that I am often tired.

Thanks for the "news flash". I am aware there are many other religious holidays not observed by hospitals. With Easter coming up it has been a topic of discussion at my facility and I was just curious what was done in other parts of the country. You are probably right!

:yeahthat: Good song! I know some people it describes pretty well. mammaoftwo: Sorry you had to hear that ignorant comment. LPNs are just as important to the health care team as RNs no matter WHAT some people may say!!!! :angryfire

No, I wouldn't. There are a lot of other careers out there that I feel would suit me better. I didn't grow up always wanting to be a nurse like some previous posters, I didn't decide on nursing until my second semester of college. I don't feel I took enough time making that decision.

At my facility, Easter is not considered a holiday. It is just like any other Sunday. I celebrate Easter as do the vast majority of others at my facility. I feel if we are working that day we should be compensated the way we are for other holidays. I was just curious if Easter is counted as a holiday at any of your facilities or if it is commonplace among hospitals to ignore it.

I hate when people use double negatives. "She don't have nothing to drink." That drives me crazy! :trout: I Also Hate When People Post Like This It Is So Hard To Read For Some Reason.

I used to work in an ICU with open visitation and I think it is a horrible idea. In some cases it worked out alright but there were always the families that constantly hovered over the patient and agitated them. There were several occasions when I had to ask family members to leave for awhile so the patient could rest. No matter how much we tried to explain how important rest is for these patients they just didn't get how it wasn't a good thing to be in grandpa's face talking to him and touching him 24/7. They also didn't understand why 10 loud family members and a screaming child weren't allowed to cram into the room all at once. Also, as a previous poster mentioned, the families usually expected us to take care of them as much as the patient. The hospital policy was that only food for the patients could be called down and ordered from the cafeteria; families had to go down and get something for themselves if they wanted it. Some threw a fit about this. Also, while running around like crazy dealing with a different patient who was crashing they would come up and ask, "Can we have 3 cups of coffee with sugar and cream please?" On my list of priorities right now your coffee is about number 99! :angryfire Sorry, just venting here!

Thank you for all of your good advice. I did forget to mention I am still prn with the education department. I didn't think about it that way, how it would look a lot better not actually having left that department but just adding something else. I have applied for a numerous number of positions that some of you mentioned. I have applied to several doctor's offices but never got a call back from them. I figured that was probably due to my lack of experience compared to other applicants. (and I'm sure there were several others, jobs like that around here are a hot commodity!) I also have interviewed for a school nurse job in the past. They called me back for a second interview and said they liked my "energy and enthusiasm" but ended up hiring a nurse with 15 years of hospital experience. I can't compete with that. There is no way I can stay in the hospital environment for that long. I do enjoy the patients, I guess it's just the constant interruptions, demands and lack of respect that I despise about working in the hospital. I do get the occasional wonderful, thankful patients who appreciate everything we do. Those few are the reason I've been able to stick it out for as long as I have. But, I'm reaching the end of my rope and either need to find a different job or reduce my hours and head back to school for something else. My health and relationships are starting to be affected by this....

Hi everyone, I have been a nurse for around 2 years now. I am currently on my third job and am thinking about switching again. My first job was on a unit at a local hospital, I hated it and made myself stick it out for at least 6 months but ended up leaving soon after that. Second job, an education department at a different hospital. I absolutely loved it, but the department went way over budget and hours were reduced for me and several other new ones. Some weeks I only was given 10 or so hours of work so I had to find something else ASAP to support myself. So I went back to bedside nursing, in a very different type of unit than I was on at my first job. That is where I am now. I have given it some time, but I am still miserable and dreading each day I have to work. I just don't think bedside nursing is for me. The stress level and constant demands from patients/families/doctors really is taking a toll on me. I am a caring person and genuinely want the best for my patients but I am extremely unhappy. It is starting to take a toll on my relationships with my family and boyfriend. I'm pretty sure it is job-related since I was much happier while in my education job. With my first job I thought my unhappiness was partly due to being a new nurse and that's why it was so hard but now with 2 years of working I feel relatively comfortable but don't enjoy what I do at all. I'm sure there are other types of nursing jobs out there that I would enjoy but in the area I'm from these are very hard to come by unless you have several years of hospital experience. I am considering going back to school for a different type of degree. I hate to leave another job, I am afraid it will be hard for me to get hired having had 3 jobs and only being out of school for a couple of years. I never would have left the education position if it wasn't for my hours getting reduced by so much. Has anyone else been in a similar position and were you able to find something you enjoyed or did you leave nursing altogether? Also, will having had so many jobs in a relatively short amount of time hurt my chances of getting a different job?

Nooo! I don't have kids but when I do I definitely won't encourage it. If they had a genuine interest in it, I probably would have them get a job as a CNA in a hospital for awhile so they can be exposed to nursing. Then I would let them decide if that was what they really wanted to do. Looking back at my first year of college when I was still trying to decide what I wanted to do, if I had known then what I know now, I would probably be in a different profession right now! There are some things I love about being a nurse but right now there seems to be a lot more not-so-good things. By the way, I am contemplating going back to school to get a different degree but have no idea what for If anyone has any advice let me know!

I absolutely hate when that happens...after 12 1/2 hours of working and knowing I have to be back the next day I'm ready to get the heck out of there

Dear Co-workers, quit talking about each other behind your backs, get off the phone with your boyfriend and DO YOUR FREAKING JOB so those who actually work hard don't have to pick up the pieces!!!! :angryfire Oh yeah and we could care less about your sex life. (Sorry, it's been a bad week!)

Sleeping 2.5-3 hours per night during your shift? Maybe we should all move to Canada! I have worked both days and nights. At my facility sleeping is strictly prohibited and people have gotten fired for doing it. If policy allowed, I wouldn't be totally against sleeping on our unpaid break as long as another nurse took responsibility for the patients. But, usually there is no time for a full break anyway! On the other hand, there is a day shift nurse on our unit who frequently leaves the unit for long periods of time and no one has any idea where she is, even when she is put in charge! This is in addition to her long lunch break. I don't see how that is going on when people are being fired for sleeping. Just my

If there were more managers like you there would be a lot fewer burned out nurses in the world! I left a job with a wonderful manager and am kicking myself now for not realizing how great we had it. The staff was actually happy for the most part! People got their vacations and the unit was staffed well. My current unit....yeah that's another story!!!! I won't get started! How about one of those margaritas instead? :biere:

Being only 24 and looking really young for my age, I get asked that all the time except it is usually phrased as, "so how long have you been a nurse for anyway?" (I guess they think that is a more polite way of finding out my age/experience) or my all-time favorite, "are you a student? when do you graduate?" despite the RN, BSN plain as day on my name tag. Yes, I know so many students who run around with a name tag that says RN I have learned to talk my way around the age question or do as some of the other posters mentioned and say something like "how old do I look?" Bottom line, it really isn't any of their business!

:yeahthat: i work with a few people like that. it really gets old listening to them diss each other all day and then be all fake nice when they see the person. i try my best to tune them out and just go about my business when it starts up!

Boy did I lose it one day. I was just off of orientation at my first job and was having a horrible day. Two of the nurses that I often went to with questions were tied up on the other end of the unit. I went to ask a nurse who was in the next room for help several times but she pretty much left me on my own. I went in there again and just started crying hysterically! I think everyone has these moments, especially in the first year or so as a nurse or after moving to a new area. Hang in there though and don't give up. I left that unit not long after that day and am still regretting it!