babaloo8

Hello! I am putting together an exemplar to 'set the stage' for my thesis paper on the professional development needs of nurses delivering wound care in the outpatient setting. I have been reading the many great posts that illustrate very nicely the ...

Great! Would you consider this ratio of nurse to beds to be fairly standard? Wound Vacs can be tricky to apply correctly. How is the staff trained? Thank you!

Hello Fellow Ambulatory Care Nurses! I am wondering how many of you are expected to care for chronic wound patients as part of your work and how you developed the skills to assess and manage these types of wounds? On the job training? Thanks!

I am so glad that one of your options wasn't to give up because you had a rough start. You CAN do this! Best wishes future nurse.

Beautifully written my soon-to-be fellow nurse. You will carve out your own career path and hopefully land sooner than later in a spot that is both challenging and rewarding. It takes time to establish yourself in your career, just as it does in most...

It is so true that there are many 'non-traditional' ways to use our nursing skills and presenting them on this forum may just help some that are experiencing bed-side burn-out, consider alternatives.

Hello Lori215! I am sorry for the very delayed response to your great post. You're story is a perfect illustration of what I believe is going on everywhere. I have had some success at getting nurses from LTC/SNF/REHAB to participate in my survey, but...

It's a typical day in an adult ambulatory clinic where a small handful of nurses scurry around caring for a myriad of patient needs that range from a simple injection to a code blue in the parking lot (thankfully, this is rare). With an unlimited num...

This is a fantastic article! Thank you for sharing your work life with us and setting the record straight! I can see how this specialty would be challenging and rewarding every day. That vulnerable patient population is BLESSED to have you

[h=2]Hello allnurses Community! It has been 25 days since I launched my survey. 65 nurses have participated with representation from different countries as well as a wide array of clinical settings! I thought you might enjoy the geographic breakdown ...

Don't apologize! Your experience if very valuable to this study. In my experience, there are very few wound care programs that are 'ideal'. Not enough staff, not enough training, poorly managed, nurses not able to dedicate themselves to learning the ...

Great topic. As an RN, I hear this all the time. Nurses have worked hard historically to be respected as a profession, not a trade and along with that, our level of pay should be commensurate with that distinction . I think also, healthcare organiza...

Thank you! If I get enough participants to draw definitive conclusions, I will absolutely pursue publishing the results. The ultimate hope is that managers/administrators/clinical educators will use the results to enhance wound care training programs...

Thank you both for your interest and YES, I too cannot wait to report my findings!

This is so true! I was so miserable my first two years out of nursing school that I felt often as though I made a BIG mistake. I coped by taking a class or two at the local junior college for fun(pottery wheeling and culinary courses) while waiting o...

I spent a few years pondering going back to school and like yourself, I was confused about the advantages of each type of specialty. I personally interviewed a few who had their masters specifically about the decision to do so and why they chose the ...

Congratulations! This is a fantastic post and extremely relevant to our nursing population who struggle with addiction

oh this saddens me to hear of your difficult situation and like many who have already posted, you need to take charge of your career and begin actively looking for other nursing opportunities. I'm sure it's hard to have the energy to job hunt when yo...

Congrats on the new job! It sounds like you have received some solid advice already. I have moved around in outpatient care for many years and loved ambulatory surgery for the short time I did it. Just as Brownbook stated, ask lots of questions and d...

This is a great idea. What is the name of your Blog?

Thanks for your response! I have found many nurses in the adult ambulatory care setting who were formerly in acute care, struggle with the assessment, documentation and best dressing type to recommend for the md to order. They were accustomed to foll...

So much truth in this post! In the U.S. with the struggling economy, more folks are considering medical(nursing in particular) and I tell those that just assume nursing is like any other job: you gotta REALLY love people and not mind doing very uncom...

I have done phone advice in a variety of settings over the years and having experience does help, but if there are phone triage protocols that are fairly specific and will guide your assessment and advice, then you will be fine. I don't know where yo...

hmm....I would think you should dress as you would if you were working in that role. If not scrubs, then certainly a lab coat over business casual attire would be appropriate I would think.

I'm an RN x20 years. I started at a rural 17 bed/ single story hospital where I spent a significant portion of my week setting up a new clinic with an NP. Moved around about every 2 years from inpatient pedi to outpatient anything and everything that...