SanskeetRN

Hello to all! I have been an RN for 5 years and am now taking my last two classes to complete my BSN. For my community health nursing class, I have to ask a few simple questions (regarding where the PHN went to school, how the BSN degree prepared you for your job, and what you believe the differences are between PHN and acute care) and was wondering if anyone would be willing to answer these questions. I do not need to add any names and you could reply to me via email. I know the nurses on here are wonderful and with work, clinicals, kids and school, I am just trying to save a little time and not have to start making random phone calls to agencies for these simple questions. Thank you for your consideration!

I know this post was from a while ago but just wanted to interject that per our stroke protocol, we check glucs either q6x4 if NPO or QID for 24 hours ( this is in conjuction to ruling out hypoglycemia vs. stroke upon onset or arrival to ETC) as the other posters have stated) on all ischemic stroke patients as elevated blood sugar affects the perfussion penumbra. Anything greater than 140 usually results in giving insulin. I also agree that pupil checks are part of a regular neuro check and in reality, you would most likely notice a patient being more lethargic or other neuro changes before pupil changes.

I also work at the SCH and love it for the most part, can't believe it will be 2 years since I got hired in about 2 weeks..time goes very fast. As far as hiring, mom2CK covered things very well so nothing really new to add to that. I too thought the new grad orientation was very well put together. Good luck with your job hunting and let me know if I can be of any help!

Congrats on the interview! I started as a new grad on ortho/neuro as well. At first it was a bit overwhelming but now I love it. On our floor we say we deal with backs, bones, brains and boobs (we also get plastic surgery pts as well) so you will see many different things. The experience is invaluable. You will have geriatric to young adult and everthing in between. We have had 19 year old up to 104. You will get experience with new surgicals, trauma, stroke, TBI's, and alot of the patients have comorbidities so you will have some med/surg, and some have mental health issues so psych as well. All in all, it will give you a very rounded background and exposure to branch into almost any field.

I work on an ortho floor and can't tell you how many times this happens- Start of night shift, ask pt if they need anything else, they say 'no', get the pt into full length knee immobilizer with ice packs placed, foot pumps on, pillows proped, tray table placed, then pt says 'oh, I suppose I should go to the bathroom before you leave. I would love to be able to say' how about I just cath you'

I am an RN at St. Cloud Hospital and feel they have a very good new grad program. It is one year long. I had I think about 6 weeks w/ a preceptor, that varies depending on unit though I'm sure and then 5 -6 times throughout the year, the new grads got together in small groups and had an education day (different areas gave presentations and we got to vent, express our concerns, fears etc in a setting where we were all in the same boat). You can check it out on the CentraCare.com website (sorry I can't remember the precise link but it's not too hard to navigate the site).

I worked 72 hours/PP for my first year and went down to 40/PP June 1st and LOVE IT. I have four kids and my husband works 50+ hours a week. I had to wait until a part time position opened up though, I couldn't just say I want my hours cut back. I don't get benefits through my job so that wasn't an issue. Plus, in this line of work, we are almost always short staffed, so I have no problems picking up shifts but when it's convenient for me. Also, now that everyone knows I'm part time, I always have people asking me to pick up for them if I can as about 75% ,I would say, work full time or very close to it.

I work on an ortho/neuro floor and we have a 1-5 scale that goes 5 for normal strengths, (for feet meaning dorsi and plantar flexion) 4 active against gravity and some resistance, 3 active w/ gravity removed , 2 flicker/trace of movement, 1 no movement. Hope that helps a bit.

I have been a nurse for 11 months (almost made it through that first year!) on a neuro/ortho and I had the opportunity to observe a craniotomy and tumor resection for palliative reasons on a patient I had cared for on the floor for days prior to his surgery and had watched his seizures go from two in an 8 hour shift to every ten minutes on day 3. The neurosurgeon allowed me to come close and view this patients brain after the resection and before he closed. It was humbling to say the least. Here before me was the control center for the most complex 'machine' on earth. I was gazing upon the organ that allowed this man to laugh, cry, love, speak, breath, etc but that at the same time was also inevitably going to be his demise as the tumor was recurrent and very soon, no further resection would be possible. It just reinforced for me the maginificent beings that we all are and that we are incredibly resilient yet fragile at the same time.

Congratulations on your interview! yea, the questions were tough last year too! Who did you interview with? I think most people heard within a week or week and a half. I was the one who heard the next day but don't know of anyone else who heard that fast. Let us know what you find out :)

Congrats on almost being done! Can't believe it's been a almost a whole year since I was in your position! I believe they called me in Jan/Feb to set up the interview and they interview itself was in April (on my birthday none the less). Got the call the next day offering me a position. It doesn't hurt to call them and ask what the status of interviews is :)

I can't give you answer about the length before an interview as I started w/ the new grad program so the interviews were all bulked together in the spring. Are you a new grad as well? Starting for an associates was $26, bachelors degree was around $27 plus there is shift differential as well...$2 for evenings, $2.75 for overnights and $2 for weekends. Let us know if you hear anything and good luck!

So what did you guys think of today? I was kind of bummed that since I didn't have to do all the modules and stuff, I ended up leaving at 11:30 Not bummed to be home early, but bummed I didn't get paid for going through the stuff. We did it during clinicals for free but there will be many days in the future that I will wish I could go home early, so I focused on the positive and took a nap LOL

So you get an extra $4 for the 3-11 on weekends? Sweet!! I completely forgot to ask about that during the interview so getting extra is an awesome 'bonus' as I figured the straight salary was good considering my last job paid $8/hr LOL Only two more days!

Woo hoo, I got my ID today...officially Dawn S., RN ortho/neuro now :smiley_aa and I can park in the employee parking ramp :) Quick question for you guys, do either of you know if we get paid a shift differential for our night or weekend shifts? I was reading the info on the pay stub sheet and it says night shift differential, professional and there is a seperate category for straight night RN so I'm kind of curious. Plus, did you get the good news in the mail, we get a raise before we even start :biggringi Can't beat that!