tx2007

I just graduated from UTEP in May and have two kids age 11 & 7 and worked a FT job and a PRN job still graduated with a 3.8

Yes it is Universal City TEXAS on northeast side of SA. I will be joining my hubby as soon as we got our house sold where we live now. I applied at northeast baptist and the next day got a "thanks for applying but unfortunately....blah blah blah" I will look into stone oak methodist any other suggestions?

ok update hubby got a job in Universal City and I am looking for a job anyone know where to look, where not to look any info?

There are so many factors into "how many can you do" are they all in the same town? just been discharged from hospital? trainwrecks? I have done 3 admits in an 8 hour day on paper and 2 admits in an 8 hour day in the computer with each being an hour driving distance apart and an hour away from the office. So total 1 hour to first admits home, admit time, hour to next admits home, admit time and hour drive back to office plus time at office to finish computer charting. 4 could be totally doable depending on conditions.

Thanks for all your great ideas!! I had KCI do a wound vac inservice, wound care center came in and did a different inservice and I am also having a company that does provider services come do an inservice. LOVE the documentation suggestions :) Here in texas nurses must have 20 CEU's every 2 years so I like to throw in a few during the inservices when possible. I think requiring CEU's is a good idea to help mandate up to date care.

what inservices would you as a home health nurse want your job to offer you?

Ok I am looking at moving to SA within the next year or sooner if my husband can find a job first. I have been an RN since 2007 and have my BSN been working as an ADON in home health the past two years and trying to find out what are the best places to work in SA and what to avoid at al costs. any info is MUCH appreciated :)

Yes the $1.50 in town and $5.00 out of town is mileage reimbursement. I am not oppsed to pt care so thats fine with me. They did tell me its ALOT of teaching. It sounds good to me I just didnt know if that was the norm for HH and wanted to make sure it sounds right to those of you who know HH. Thanks for the reply!

I am new to home health, just accepted my first FT position. They said they will train me until I feel comfortable enough to be on my own. Rate of pay is $25/hour hourly rate. I will not do pt care as I am a case manager and will do the OASIS paperwork and supervisory visits. Call once a month for an additional $150 if I actually have to go to a pt's house while on call its hourly at time and a half. They pay $1.50 per stop when visiting pts homes here in town (small town) and $5.00 per stop when visiting pts homes in the next town over (20 miles away). Company provides your cell phone. 401K, insurance and all that. They said approximately 14-20 pt visits per week. Does that sound like a normal HH job?

We just started using the power PICC's and we would be doing over the wire exchanges in the event that we didnt trim the catheter long enough or short enough. Also we had an incident the other day of a nurse pulling the PICC out about 6CM while doing a dressing change, this PICC was 48 hours old, and since it was pulled out of the SVC we had to go do a whole new PICC. Of course we would NOT do a cath exchange for suspected infection, occlussion, ect. Just wanted to know about these instances that I stated above.

What is your facilities policy on an over the wire PICC exchange??

LMAO loricatus I can picture it now, falling over from exhastion and someone yelling "quick go clock her out until she wakes up!" We have a joke at work that you MUST remember to fall backwards if you pass out from exhastion or holding your pee so long you might die, that way you wont 1) fall on a pt and 2) if your in the OR at least you wont ruin the case by falling on the sterile field. I am taking cheese crackers and fruit juice as my grab and go "lunch" so at least I wont pass out. We have 25 surgeries on Tuesday and 27 on Wednesday this week. Monday we have 5 retina cases so that will be about a 10 hour day as well....UGH just thinking about it makes me tired! I hope you have a good week and thanks for the laugh!

I know thats alot of pt's for one person and I do the 20 or so required drops per pt plus all the IV's by myself, so at least I have become super quick and effeciant at starting IV's LOL! I really hope I like infusion services, I need a decent job. You are so right GIRN that management makes all the difference, if I was treated like a person and not a machine I would probably have stayed at my job. The Dr's are even worse than the management they could care less as long as we get the pt's in and out like sheep. Like I said it's all about the $$. I could not believe that even for Christmas we got NOTHING not one thing from our surgery center or from any of the Dr's. We busted our butts at the end of the year doing approx. 100 surgeries per week!! Loricatus I hope you find a new job soon too, we all DESERVE better than that. Can you believe my DON said to me on Friday that we shouldn't be upset about how we are treated, but that we should just be grateful to have jobs. @@

I know I am quite upset about leaving (the hours were pretty good!) thats the only reason I have lasted this long. But the attitude of the people I work with, plus my boss and the CEO were just too much. I am planning on telling them (in a nice way) why I am leaving, but it wont change a thing, this place has been run off and on by the same people for the past 15 years and the bottom line is $$. We do about 300 surgeries a month and only have 2 other full time nurses other than myself. On a typical day I am the only nurse in preop getting 20-30 people ready (we do mostly eye surgery like retina and cataracts.) So there is me in preop, one nurse in postop, and one nurse in each OR (2 total). We have one srub tech who goes back and forth between rooms. On days like tommorrow when we have only 5 surgeries I will be pre and post op and only 1 other nurse will be there for the OR. But yet our CEO says we are OVER staffed. @@ I plan to give my notice tommorrow and I expect the Sh*t will hit the fan, I figure they will let me work this week (only cause they need me since we have over 50 surgeries scheduled.) But the week after is spring break and we only have one day of surgeries and I am sure they will just tell me not to bother coming in that week. I would like to finish out my two weeks so I can get paid, but whatever, I just need to get away from this toxic enviornment before I decide I dont want to be a nurse anymore

Well I have accepted a job at the hospital where I first worked but this is as an infusion nurse (8hour shifts, every other weekend) it is part of the hospital but it is mostly outpatient type stuff like antibiotics, remicade, chemo. I start in two weeks and I am nervous about going back to the hospital type setting but I am also excited as this will be something new and hopefully I will like it much better. I figure anything has got to be better than where I am and if I try it and dont like it I can always look again for something else. I hope this job works out though.

Thanks so much I will make sure to find out about our PICC placements. I will also look for the book you mentioned. I hope this is a good fit for me, I have always been very interested in Infusion therapy and quite honestly was shocked I got the job. I am sure I will be coming here more often as I have questions. I am a BIG researcher and must know the ins and outs and whys of things.

I just accepted a position today at my hospital as an Infusion Team Nurse. I will be trained in PICC insertion and Chemo Therapy. We do all the in house PICC's, Chemo and have outpatient IV antibiotics, Rhemicade, ect infusions. I am excited and nervous about this position and was wondering if anyone had any pointers, words of encouragement, ect. I have been an RN for 2 years now (1year bedside nursing and 1 year outpatient surgery as a circulator and preop nurse.)

Thanks for the replies. I am still looking for another job, I never thought it would take this long to find something!! But I am still trying to hold my head up and think that this wont last forever, just until I can find something else!

I am a relatively new nurse about 1 1/2 years so far. I worked at a hospital for the first year out of school and HATED it so about 6 months ago I took a job at an outpatient surgery clinic. At first it wasnt bad but now I HATE it!! The nurse manager is nice but thats not effective she lets all the other nurses walk over her and do whatever they want. I NEVER get a lunch, and I am talking about up to a 13 hour day!! I work M-F and that is the only plus to this job. I am looking for another job ASAP but cant find anything that isnt at the hospital or just part-time and I NEED full time. Just venting I guess. I just feel unapprecited and over worked. I asked for the day before Thanksgiving off since my kids (9yrs and 4 yrs.) need someone to stay home since they dont have school and my boss gave me the third degree about didnt I have anyone else to watch them?? Keep in mind we have NO cases scheduled this day and I have NEVER asked for a day off yet!! She finally said "well I guess since you have kids we HAVE to let you have that day off" and stomed out. UGH!! I am just sick of it and getting up at 5 am and not getting home till 6pm, with no lunch this makes for one MAD wife, mommy, and nurse!

I am new to the PACU I have been a nurse for one year med-surg at the hospital and realized I HATED it. I recently got a job at an outpatient surgery center and would like to know where do you all get your PALS, ACLS certifications from?? Do you take the classes at a local hospital or where? I have ACLS that expires this year and need to renew, looking for classes and then I will ask if my work will cover some of the expense. Thanks!

LauraMT I agree I will not give AMbien to anyone unless they are 100% with it and then only 5mg. I dont tell pt's they have it ordered. If they ask they may have it otherwise nope, a cool dark room usually does the trick. Our docs are good about ordering something besides ambien.

I am sooo glad to know I am not the only one feeling this way!! I am tired all the time I work nights and can come home and sleep all day and all night if I could. I am not depressed I just dont feel like I have any energy. My house looks like crap, I am taking two classes at the college this semester and I will be lucky to pull a C in them both. I was always an A-B student I just dont care anymore sleep is more importnant!

Ethelbsnrn Maybe that is with your BSN because I just double checked my email about the recent increase and it said 20.19 starting immediately for new hires and starting Jan 6th 2008 for current employees. Unless they changed it since my email I got last week. I wish it was 20.61 we are still under paid.

WOW I'd like to know where in Midland you work. I work at both a hospital in Midland rate as of Jan 2008 WILL be $20.18 and I work at a hospital in Odessa rate NOW $21.00 I work a tecnically med surg floor at each hospital and have NEVER had more than 6 pts mostly 5.

I did not call the Dr because this particular doctor will ALWAYS yell if you call him at night. Respirations were fine normal 18-20, O2@2L O2 sats 98%. Never thought about urine dip what does that check for?? Yes dr was aware of temp frmo previous shift his response "give tylenol and I will see the pt in the morning." I did speak with my charge nurse and talked about the possiblity of something being wrong such as PE, UTI whatever. This is amoung one of the MANY reasons I will be leaving this hospital Dr.s are catered to and we are told not to disturb them unless your pt is going down hill. BS that's why they became Dr's and if they don't want to be woken up then they got in the field. I hate that the Dr's here can treat us like crap and we are expected to take it. This particular Dr I called last night for a similair situation and his respons to me was "why are you calling me at 0100 you better make sure no one else needs me for the rest of the night I Do NOT want another call tonight." I HATE this Dr I swear he thinks he is GOD and we should bow down and kiss his feet (um no not me!) Sorry this turned into a rant!:angryfire