moonunit1130

I have been a nurse for 8 years in various inpatient and outpatient settings. I made the switch to hospice 9 months ago and I love it! There is a lot less stress overall, though some days are harder than others. Benefits from a job perspective are that you often have a lot more freedom to arrange your schedule and you’re given a lot more independence. The success/satisfaction of your patient often is not soured by a bad experience with the nurse who just left or was there yesterday. You build a relationship and rapport with your patient and their family. You have the time to do the “nice” things for your patient—fluffing pillows, reading, talking, etc.—because you get to dedicate the whole time of the visit to that patient, and your primary objective is to make them happy. You get to focus exclusively on their comfort, which is what I enjoy doing. I always hated telling someone who was exhausted after surgery and a sleepless night that they HAVE to get out of bed, or a heart failure patient who is thirsty that they “aren’t allowed” to have anything else to drink. Even when you have difficult visits, you have the drive time between to decompress between visits. From a personal perspective, every hospice agency I interviewed with touted a flexible schedule, and that has been my experience. My managers are so awesome about letting me take an afternoon off to study for an exam, or a morning off to go to a kid’s event, etc. The answer is always yes, even when I don’t have enough PTO as long as my work gets done and I don’t abuse the privilege. The only thing I didn’t like about my job at first was being on call, but we have since gotten a call nurse and don’t have to do that anymore. I think a lot of agencies are moving toward having call staff. There are days where a visit you thought would take 45 minutes unexpectedly takes 2 1/2 hours. There are days where we get admissions, or a patient you thought was stable dies unexpectedly, and it throws your schedule off and you work late. In my opinion, though, the stress of those days that come here and there are NOTHING to the stress in a hospital. Good luck with whatever choice you make!

Thank you both so much! I got the other offer, and ended up taking the job with less call and more RNs. Glad to know my instincts were pulling me in the same direction as you guys recommended ? For what it’s worth, both offices seemed to have really supportive management, but I just didn’t feel comfortable going into a job as the only full-time RN without any prior hospice experience.

So I’m new to hospice, with nearly 8 years of acute care experience. I have gotten one job offer, and expect to hear one way or the other from another job later in the week. Since I’ve never done hospice before, I’d like to know the pros and cons of both, from the perspective of experience hospice nurses. At one job, I would get a caseload of approximately 10 patients, aiming for 4-5 visits/day, Monday through Friday, with 1 night of call every 2 weeks. Eventually it would be no call, but until then, they have 13 nurses and a census of 100+. They only have RNs and CNAs, so you do all of your admissions and routine visits, with help as needed. At the other hospice, they have a census of approximately 20 patients. I would be the only full time RN case manager, but they have a team of 3 LPNs. I would do admissions and supervisory visits on approximately 14 of those patients. I would take more call, but be backing an LPN except for 1 night/week and 1 weekend/month when I’d take primary call. It seems like I would have fewer routine visits. What do you all think? Would you rather have a slightly smaller caseload and be totally responsible for all their visits, with less call, or a higher number of patients but work with a team of LPNs? I appreciate any advice!

Thank you for getting back to me! I guess what I'm worried about is I don't know how long travelers typically get to orient to a new place when they get there before they are "on their own." I'm a pretty quick learner and within my hospital have been able to learn different units in 2-4 days, then I am able to function on my own, but I know this will be completely different from anything I've done before.

Hey! I'm thinking of transitioning to travel nursing next January and am seriously looking into an assignment in Vanceboro, NC at Craven Correctional. I have never worked corrections before and my recruiter says corrections experience is not necessary as long as I have acute care experience. I've been at my current job for just over 2 years as a float pool nurse in a Level I trauma center. Do any of you have any experience at this particular facility? I see a lot of listings for it so I thought maybe that means they staff a lot of travelers? Also, any insight into taking a contract for a corrections job with no prior experience? I imagine it's very different from hospital nursing so how long do they give you on the job training? I'm nervous but excited about this new opportunity. I'm determined to go to this area to be close to my significant other and I just wanted to give traveling and corrections a shot so I know if I like the area before applying at hospitals/signing the lease on an apt/ etc. I would also appreciate any advice on getting into traveling in general. My application was with Supplemental Health Care.

Hey guys! I am planning to move from VA to NC some time in the next 3-5 months. I've been looking at hospitals in the area I'm planning to move to, but I'm not very excited because I'm starting to get a little bit of burnout in the hospital environment. I've looked into travel nursing because my boyfriend is in the military and by working through a travel nursing agency, I thought that if he goes on a deployment I can look for assignments in areas with family or friends while he's gone instead of staying in NC alone waiting for him to get back just to keep a job. I also want the flexibility of travel nursing because I plan on working on my bachelors degree. The part where corrections comes in: I found many assignments to work in a correctional facility about 30 minutes away from where i plan to move. I currently have 2 1/2 years hospital experience in the resource pool at my hospital, which includes a mix of med-surg, telemetry, PCU, and some ICU experience, though I really only take ICU patients that are intubated mouth care, turns, maybe a couple drips, never the "crashing" patients. I understand that with travel assignments there is no time for a lengthy orientation as contracts are typically 13 weeks at a time. Would it be too much to try to take on a corrections position without any previous experience or would the experience I have be enough with the short orientation period? For those of you who work with travelers, how do they typically do? Is it a pain when someone new comes in without any experience? What could I do to better prepare and not be a burden, but a productive team member? I really, really want to try something new and am looking forward to new experiences, and I like that travel nursing gives you the opportunity to "try" things without the commitment of a company hiring you, and then feeling as though you are letting them down if it doesn't turn out to be right for you. At the same time, I don't want to be a disappointment or put people at a disadvantage by taking on a position where I don't have specific experience in that field. However, I am a quick learner and enthusiastic so I hope that will help. Any advice anyone can offer would be very much appreciated!

I'm still in VA right now, probably not going to move until late this year or early next year. How do you like CarolinaEast? I've been keeping an eye on their job listings and the hospital is very close to where he lives. They seem to have a lot of listings for critical care and ER. I know everyone needs to put in their dues, but I'm holding out for a day shift position if possible because it's what I'm used to.

I just want to clarify that I did not change the rate. The drip was ordered during my shift, so I initially set it up with the NS carrier. So it wasn't suddenly changed, really, until the other nurse took the carrier down. I guess I just imagine it would be more beneficial to get your medicine consistently even if you get 6cc of fluid every hour, than to have it clot off, wait for the nurse to get there to flush it, get a bolus of medication when they flush, then wait for it to clot off again.

I've tried to research this and wasn't able to find a clear cut answer. I had a patient today that was started on a bumex drip. The drip was to be run at 1 mg/hr (4 cc/hr). Since it was running so slowly, I added NS at 6 cc/hr to run concurrently so that the total administration would be at KVO. The patient had a fluid restriction, but was nowhere close to going over the amount and I included the amount of NS in the I&O log. When giving my handoff report, the other nurse told me that she would need to take down the saline and that NS should never be run with bumex and that, if the IV occludes due to the slow rate, you just have to flush it. I know that bumex is compatible with NS so I don't understand why it would be a big deal, so long as the patient didn't feel "deprived" of PO fluids or go over their fluid restriction. I just want to be better educated about whether it is better practice to run slow fluids with NS to KVO or leave the drips as ordered, even if only at 4 cc/hr. Is there another rationale behind why people use NS with other slow drips?

Congratulations on graduating! I think there might be advantages to starting fresh once you get here. One thing I'm nervous about is the expectations along with my experience. I'm in the habits of my current hospital and don't know how much of a hindrance that will be. I also have social anxiety and I'm finally comfortable in my current environment, so I'm worried about getting to know new people :/ even at my current job, I am cordial with people, but I'm very shy and that's hard to overcome in a hospital environment where it can come off as uncertainty/incompetence, or being stuck up. The whole situation is very nerve wracking so I'm hoping to find a friendly work atmosphere >_>

Hey guys! I've never posted on this site before, but I'm looking for some insight. I currently live in VA and have about 2 years experience at a level I trauma center in their float pool. My boyfriend enlisted in the marine corps and is stationed in Havelock. I still have a lease in my apartment where I live now, and so I don't plan on moving until early next year. What are the best places to look for jobs in the New Bern/Havelock area? So far the main places I see nearby are EastCarolina, Onslow, and Carteret? Any pros/cons? How likely am I to be able to find a job? Also, most listings are for ICU/ ER nursing. I don't have any ER experience, and my ICU experience is pretty limited. I float to ICUs, but typically get the easier patients or the ones almost ready to transfer to PCU, like stable intubated patients or a few drips. How hard is it to transition into an ICU setting with minimal experience? I'm just worried that since I have some experience, when I apply for these positions they will expect me to be more prepared than I might actually be. I'm very nervous about moving, I've only worked at this hospital since I graduated and I really like it here. My fear is moving to a hospital where the nurses are cliquish or unfriendly. Any advice or experience is appreciated! Thanks!