UnicoRN611

We are actually on very good terms now, believe it or not, even after all that happened between the two of us. He is a typical narcissist and he is obsessed with his nice and shiny appearance, especially at work. Now that I have gotten therapy and learned how to hold my boundaries with him, he is very respectful of me and no longer tries to abuse me emotionally, I imagine he is reserving that for his girlfriend at this point. Anyway, I ended up not having him pull strings for me and got the job utilizing my own network that I had created on my own during nursing school :) I apologize for taking offense to Sour Lemon's comment. October is Domestic Violence awareness month and I've been very vocal online about advocating for people in Domestic Violence situations. Of course this hits very close to home for me and I've been re-experiencing a lot of the abuse in my head.. so I'm a little sensitive right now!

Ideally I'd like to keep them in my house since they already sleep at my ex-husbands house a few nights a week. If they slept at 3 different houses throughout their childhood, I think that would be a lot of adjusting for them. Plus I want them to feel like they have a "home base". If my parents were warm and loving grandparents, it would be a completely different scenario, but if they had been warm and loving parents to me, then I probably wouldn't have married an emotionally abusive man and wouldn't be divorced right now! But that's a story for my therapist!! Hahaha Ok, I was hoping for the ballpark of $100/night also. :) Thanks for your help!

I didn't accept his help, but I wouldn't feel "pathetic" even if I did. Its not my fault he abused me, and that doesn't make me pathetic at all.

I just graduated in May and am starting my new job in about 2 weeks. I'll train on days for the first portion of my training, then I'll switch over to nights. I'll be working overnights from then on. My question is for the single parents. What do you do for childcare? If you pay someone to sleep over and babysit your kids, how much do you pay? I have 2 kids, ages 6 & 8. I have the option of having them sleep at my parents house for free, but to be perfectly honest, I really just don't like my parents and their child rearing methods. They make my kids feel guilty and feel bad about themselves, just like they did to me and my sisters when we were kids. I will gladly fork over the extra cash so that I don't subject my children to the lifelong emotional damage. This is an investment for their future, and hopefully I'll save them some therapy bills also. Also, I want to add that I work in Southern NJ, near Philadelphia. I'll be making about $35 an hour when I work nights Thanks in advance for your input!

I graduated in May, passed my boards in July and am ready to start working. A little back story, my ex-husband is a perfusionist in the cardiac OR. He left me during nursing school for one of his students who is now also a perfusionist at another hospital. It was an AWFUL divorce, but time has healed me (kinda) and we get along now (for the most part). So here's my dilemma. My ex husband can pull strings to get me an interview in a few places at the hospital he works at. I am interviewing next week on a cardiac med surg floor on which my best friend from nursing school just started working. BUT I could easily have him pull strings for me to interview on ICU at the hospital. If I work in ICU, I'll be working within his network of friends and colleagues. The chances of me seeing him while I'm working are fairly high, especially if they're running an ECMO, in which case I would see him quite often. We get along, and I would never bring personal issues into the work place, but the last thing I would want is to have some sort of emotional reaction (internally or externally) while I'm on the floor. Med-surg would be in the same hospital, and the chances of seeing him would be slim.. I might see him in the cafeteria or in the hallway. I would be working with my best friend. BUT I'd be working Med Surg, and my ideal preference would be ICU. So, what do you all think I should do? People who have worked on Med Surg and ICU, would you put yourself in the position of probably seeing your ex at work so that you could work ICU instead of Med Surg? (btw, ICU is 2:1 and Med Surg is 5-6:1) Of course I can apply to other hospitals, but this one pays the most, and most of them don't hire new grads for anything but Med Surg. Thanks in advance for advice and opinions!

I graduated in May and I have ADHD. I also had quite a few personal issues to deal with during nursing school that made my ADHD so much worse than it typically is. I didn't have any special accommodations in place because I was diagnosed at a young age and have been able to function pretty well with the coping techniques I used as a kid. However, if you are newly diagnosed, I say DEFINITELY take advantage of any help or accommodation that is available to you. It frustrates me when people say that accommodations in school will be a disservice to you as a nurse, because nursing school and working on the floor as a nurse are two COMPLETELY different experiences, and just because you struggle in school, DOES NOT mean you'll struggle as a nurse. The disability services your school offers are not there to give you a CRUTCH or to push incompetent people through a program, its there to give you TOOLS to handle your disability, and it's up to you to learn how to use them and implement them in your own life. That being said, I wouldn't disclose your disability to many people, because, unfortunately, people DO discriminate, as much as they love to say that they don't. If you're having a particularly bad day on clinical, or if you're having trouble with time management when you're in the hospital, I would most certainly tell your clinical instructor about your ADHD and how it manifests itself in the nursing setting. I had a lot of trouble getting off the ground with nursing because I had trouble figuring out what had to be done and when. Because I struggle with time management, I had to make myself VERY DETAILED "Brain sheets" that had check boxes with every single possible thing that needed to be done in the morning so that I didn't skip a step. Eventually I didn't need to rely on the sheets quite as much, but they were a life saver in the beginning. They also have apps now that do pretty much the same thing, I think one is called "Nurse Notes" for iPhone! Good luck with everything, you're going to do great!

Thank you so much everyone for your tips and encouragement... It's helpful to hear that other have felt the same way as I do! I'm still nervous as hell.. My instructor is really smart and a really good teacher, but she is very tough and gets aggravated when people don't know the answers. I've cried like 3 times at this clinical ay yi yi... I'm just gonna work on being as prepared as possible these next few days and do my best. There's really not much else that I can do!

That's actually exactly what I am planning to do is find a nurse residency program... Well you make me feel better about my lack of experience for sure.. Thank you

The good thing is that when you retake med-surg, it'll be easier because you've already been exposed to it.. You'll be better off for it. I really struggled in Med surg because it was given in 4 weeks and I had a lot of family issues at that point in time. I passed with a B, but I wish I would've dropped out and retaken it the following semester because now I'm in my final semester and I'm REALLY struggling with my med surg knowledge in the ICU... Nursing ain't easy. Keep your head up!

I'm in my capstone of my accelerated program. All of my clinical experiences so far have been on med surg floors and the nurses treated us as techs and basically we weren't allowed to act as nurses. Now I'm in my final semester and I'm in an ICU and I'm supposed to be "flying solo" and I'm just completely frozen when I'm there. I'm overwhelmed by the drips and vents... I don't even know where to start or what to do when I'm there. I'm constantly leaning on my nurse for guidance, and every time my instructor checks up on me, she rips me a new ******* for not taking charge of my patient. And I don't blame her! But I'm so incredibly intimated by this entire experience. I'm afraid of doing something wrong. It's been a rough school experience for me because Ive had a lot of family issues including a horribly messy divorce and having to move myself and my two kids in with my parents... I just don't know what to do. I wanted to be in the ICU so that I could have a more challenging experience, but I'm not stepping up to the plate. My other class mates are so far beyond me, I just feel completely defeated. And it's not for lack of trying. I'm really trying hard, but at this point I just feel like I'm never going to be self-sufficient as a nurse and I just want to quit... In my final semester, no less. Idk what the point of this post is.. I guess I just need to vent. Maybe some other people can give me some tips on how to handle the ICU on my own? Oh, also, I have ADHD, so I'm not inherently organized, and I've come to realize that organization is the key to being an ICU nurse. I've also come to realize that ICU is not the place for me, but I still need to make it through this clinical experience alive. If anyone could just give me words of encouragement or tips for success, I would really appreciate it.......

I'm in my capstone of my accelerated program. All of my clinical experiences so far have been on med surg floors and the nurses treated us as techs and basically we weren't allowed to act as nurses. Now I'm in my final semester and I'm in an ICU and I'm supposed to be "flying solo" and I'm just completely frozen when I'm there. I'm overwhelmed by the drips and vents... I don't even know where to start or what to do when I'm there. I'm constantly leaning on my nurse for guidance, and every time my instructor checks up on me, she rips me a new ******* for not taking charge of my patient. And I don't blame her! But I'm so incredibly intimated by this entire experience. I'm afraid of doing something wrong. It's been a rough school experience for me because Ive had a lot of family issues including a horribly messy divorce and having to move myself and my two kids in with my parents... I just don't know what to do. I wanted to be in the ICU so that I could have a more challenging experience, but I'm not stepping up to the plate. My other class mates are so far beyond me, I just feel completely defeated. And it's not for lack of trying. I'm really trying hard, but at this point I just feel like I'm never going to be self-sufficient as a nurse and I just want to quit... In my final semester, no less. Idk what the point of this post is.. I guess I just need to vent. Maybe some other people can give me some tips on how to handle the ICU on my own? Oh, also, I have ADHD, so I'm not inherently organized, and I've come to realize that organization is the key to being an ICU nurse. I've also come to realize that ICU is not the place for me, but I still need to make it through this clinical experience alive. If anyone could just give me words of encouragement or tips for success, I would really appreciate it.......

We all have the same scope because we paid with them as part of tuition. I do think I will ask my instructor about it though, she may know whats going on in my ears too lol

I read through some of the board posts about tinnitus and stethoscopes but none of them quite had the same problem I do. I have ringing tinnitus, which really doesn't bother me while listening to heart sounds, I can tune it out. The problem I'm having is there are extra sounds (that I know are coming from my ears and not my heart) that coincide with the heart sounds when I'm listening to them.. It's like a quick chirp, or like the sound of someone hitting the bottom of a pot with a wooden spatula at the beginning of every heart sound. I'm trying to train my ear to ignore it by listening to my own heart sounds at night, but tonight I heard a split in the chirp while listening for S2, but I couldn't really tell if there was a split in S2 on the beat itself. I'm assuming I don't really have an S2 split because I heard it the whole time (not just on inspiration), and nobody has ever mentioned it to me before. I also have other strange sounds that occur in my ears with other loud noises, and I've tried to explain this to a few doctors and they've all just basically told me to deal with it, because it didn't impact my hearing in any significant way (except being uncomfortable and annoying). Well, now I would say this is impacting me in a significant way because I'm having trouble deciphering heart sounds. SO basically I'm looking for advice, is there anyone else out there in the nursing world that has this issue? Is it just a matter of learning to deal with my tinnitus, or should I try something else (such as a different type of stethoscope?) Thanks to anyone who has any advice!

I read through some of the board posts about tinnitus and stethoscopes but none of them quite had the same problem I do. I have ringing tinnitus, which really doesn't bother me while listening to heart sounds, I can tune it out. The problem I'm having is there are extra sounds (that I know are coming from my ears and not my heart) that coincide with the heart sounds when I'm listening to them.. It's like a quick chirp, or like the sound of someone hitting the bottom of a pot with a wooden spatula at the beginning of every heart sound. I'm trying to train my ear to ignore it by listening to my own heart sounds at night, but tonight I heard a split in the chirp while listening for S2, but I couldn't really tell if there was a split in S2 on the beat itself. I'm assuming I don't really have an S2 split because I heard it the whole time (not just on inspiration), and nobody has ever mentioned it to me before. I also have other strange sounds that occur in my ears with other loud noises, and I've tried to explain this to a few doctors and they've all just basically told me to deal with it, because it didn't impact my hearing in any significant way (except being uncomfortable and annoying). Well, now I would say this is impacting me in a significant way because I'm having trouble deciphering heart sounds. SO basically I'm looking for advice, is there anyone else out there in the nursing world that has this issue? Is it just a matter of learning to deal with my tinnitus, or should I try something else (such as a different type of stethoscope?) Thanks to anyone who has any advice!

Ahhh!! So glad you found that out! I seriously have like no free time right now I have so many things going on! You just made my life a little easier