SoaringOwl

Wow, ICU is such a hard place to start. I admire anyone who has the courage to try to tackle that at any point in their career, much less from day 1. hyed, I also can't see something once and memorize it. I'm a former special ed teacher, and all of us special ed teachers know this old Chinese saying: Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand." It's normal to need hands-on practice before you master a skill, watching is not enough. Most preceptors don't have degrees in education, so they don't know this. Your concerns sound normal to me, and maybe your employer is expecting too much from a new grad. I hope you're in a residency and not just an orientation. I believe every new nurse in a hospital needs more than orientation, we need support for a while to become good nurses. Good luck. I'm sending you positive energy.

I live in FL. Everyone who isn't a millionaire gets treated like trash down here. Once I get that precious one year of acute care under my belt I'm so outta here... Edited to add: I sent an e-mail to the US department of labor. I can't find any helpful information on whom to contact in FL state government (ha, no surprise there.)

So I talked to me educator about it this morning. She said we were provided time during orientation to do the training, which is true, so they're saying it's my fault for not getting them done. I had 42 modules to do in 4 hours. This is an unreasonable time frame, as the modules are lengthy. I got through maybe 10-15 of them. I didn't even mention the homework every week. I'm so ****** off about this.

Most decent apartments won't rent to you unless you're making 3X the rent. I was offered a job I really wanted, but the pay was $20 an hour. All the 1b/1b apartments were $1200-1800 a month in safe areas. On $2880 a month, I wouldn't qualify as a renter. Even with differentials, I'd probably make enough to qualify, but it would still be tight. I turned the job down and told them the low pay was why. I agree with you about the roommate. No college-educated professional should be paid so little they need to get a roommate. What is this world coming to? That makes me very angry. It seems that all the other residents in the job I turned down are getting together as roommates, like that's okay. Like it's normal to go to school for 4 years, then still not be able to afford your own place. Unreal! I wish I had some advice for you. It's a hard choice. I ended up finding a job that will easily pay $50,000, so there is hope. There are well-paying jobs out there. Have you tried N. Dakota, Minnesota, and needy places like that?

That is so unreasonable. I can't believe it! Well, I mean I can believe it, but I don't want to. Just despicable! My hospital offers internships as well, but they're paid at the standard rate.

Thanks. That's what I thought. I've got my latest homework assignment sitting here, and it's due tomorrow. I feel like going to the hospital and clocking in, doing it, and clocking out. I wish I knew of some anonymous way to complain, because I'm in an at-will state and they can fire me at anytime. State labor board?

Ouch, the jab wasn't needed. I'm brand-new at this. My last career kept track of our credits for us and we had meetings about what is required for certification and where we could go to get free credits. I guess nursing isn't that organized or thoughtful about it.

Or take a phone call when I'm trying to assess them and expect me to wait while they chat??? What the f?? People, my time is limited. Call them back later. Cell phone blockers should be legal in hospitals. And I should be able to disable the room phone while I'm in there. This phone thing is really slowing me down. (My patients are mostly entitled rich people)

We had that too. They've been talking about spreading ms 1 and ms 2 out into different semesters forever. I guess they still haven't figured it out yet. I felt a little discombobulated that semester, but it all came together during final preceptorship.

Hi, Can someone clue me in to what we need to do to keep up our licence? I have been meaning to ask my nurse educator, but I rarely see her. Do we just keep copies of CEU's and turn them in when due, or as we go along? Does anyone have a website with free or cheap CEU's? How many CEU hours do we need per year? I think we need HIV and med errors. Anything else? I also have a license in another state, so are there any special considerations there? Just mail the same credits to them? Thanks soooo much to anyone who can help.

My friend is at TGH in the acute care residency. She loves seeing the different units and trying them on for size for a few weeks and being able to choose her final unit. That's pretty awesome. Her biggest complaint is that you have to park far away and take a shuttle. It takes her 20 min-1/2 hour to get from her car to her work. That eats up an hour a day, so it's a serious consideration. Especially in bad weather. I get to park in a garage connected to my hospital and will never get rained on. Good luck to you! You must be a great candidate to have options in a time when most new grads can't get one job offer.

I'd rather be at work on Christmas, making time and a half, than a homework assignment that pays nothing. I'm thinking of jumping ship and going to another job I was offered. I really don't want to do homework and readings and online modules off the clock. My thoughts exactly. I'm in a great hospital, and the nurses all get out of work on time and there's really not much else to complain about, but I'm not happy about the off-the-clock requirements. A paid classroom day is one thing, unpaid homework is quite another. I'm not getting CE credit for it, either.

Like the patient I recently had who wanted a free ambulance to the hospital 65 miles away, simply because he didn't like our terrible, no good, very bad hospital. Sorry, it doesn't work like that pal! You can drive yourself, but no free ambulance! He threw such a hissy fit I almost called security. We won't get good scores from that guy. It feels like the majority of people these days are unreasonble.

I hate the waitress mentality we're teaching the patients and their families to have. My last hospital expected nurses and aides to make coffee for the patients and their families. I was dumbfounded when a patient's family member asked me for a cup of coffee on my first day. I told him where the cafeteria was, and that he can get coffee there. He said, "Don't you guys make coffee?" I was immediately corrected by a passing CNA, who made the man coffee at the nurse's station. So from then on I made coffee, and of course there's never enough milk or cream or sugar, and I always had to go get more. And my favorite is when they'd chuck it out, saying it's lousy. Well, I didn't go to barista school so $(%* you! Thankfully, my new hospital doesn't expect us to make coffee. I hope they don't get any ideas...

Holy cow. I'm in my second week of orientation and new grad residency, and I need a vacation already! They've got me working 4 12's in the next 5 days, in addition to homework assignments that are due on Monday, and already they want to meet to discuss my progress. I'm supposed to have time to reflect on my progress when??!!! Not today, I'm spending Xmas today doing homework.... To make matters worse, I'm a nocturnal creature, and I'm orienting on dayshift, and I can't even hear myself think with all the noise and confusion of dayshift. I wouldn't work dayshift if it paid 100 grand a year! Dios mios! How am I going to get through a whole year like this? I'd feel so much better if I were doing 2 12's on the floor and a third day for all the meetings and simulation. It's hard to do 3 12's AND residency classes. Thanks for reading my rant. I know I'll get through it, but I could really, REALLY use a vacation!

I'm in love with my wonderwink. They're longer than many other tops, and are so soft I feel like I'm wearing nothing at all. I also have Landau, and they feel like cardboard in comparison, although I like that landau makes tall tops. It's easy to find tall pants, but the manufacturers seemed to forget about tall tops! I don't want to show belly button... A friend told me to wash them in fabric softener (no detergent) a few times to break them in. I didn't have to do that with the wonderwinks, though.

Aren't the clinical hours are the same for both programs? They were for me, I graduated August 2014. When I applied for my job, my manager was impressed with the clinical hours we had in final preceptorship. Evidently I was competing against people in programs that only required 90 hours of final preceptorship, and I had 180 from USF (14 full 12 hour shifts, plus simulation). That's double the time. My competition had 5 or 6 12 hour shifts plus sim, and some programs didn't even do the whole shift. I think that key difference landed me my job. So there's another tip for you guys: put your clinical hours on your resume and brag about them in interviews.

Me too. Our clock-out system asks us if we were able to take an uninterrupted 30 minute meal break. If we answer no, we get paid for it. If we clock out late, we enter a code about why: late admit, working a code, etc. It is not expected that we will work for free, or fudge the numbers. I love my hospital.

Yeah, but there's also the burn the witches, stone the gays, stone the non-virgin female parts, too. People seem to pick the parts of their holy books they like, and throw out the rest. But it's all still in there.

Be glad you didn't do dental hygiene. I went to nursing school with some hygienists who said dentist won't hire full-time, so they have to work for multiple dentists and can't get insurance benefits, 401K, sick days, etc. To be honest, I'm not planning on doing RN nursing forever. I'm torn between moving on to NP, case management, or PT. I went BSN as a back up, because I could have just gone straight to direct-entry MSN as an NP without ever doing bedside nursing. But I decided to get the BSN and do bedside nursing as a back up, and I've actually met a former NP who went back to critical care nursing because the pay was higher for her than NP. So, yeah, the BSN was my back-up too, and still will be in the future. I'd rather have it than not, because I can always use it.

As a former teacher, please remember that teachers need to CYA. We need to be able to say to parents or the principal that we did try something to resolve a situation. I've sent kids to the nurse knowing there's not much that can be done, but the next day when momma marches in in a huff about her kid's bruise, I can say she went to the nurse and the nurse verified that it wasn't a serious injury that necessitated a call home or EMT's to rush to the school. There's also a record from the school nurse in the system that backs up the fact that I did send the child to the nurse, in case the lawyers get called, which covers my butt. Parent are nuts! Also, teachers aren't experts in medicine. When I was a kid, the whole grade level did get checked when one kid had lice. They might not know things have changed.

You could work in the schools as a substitute RN, substitute clinic health aide or try to get full-time positions. I subbed in schools and met many school nurses who gave me great advice and networking while in nursing school.

He sounds like a selfish jerk. If I were you, I'd suggest hiring a nanny, and see if the loss of $$$ evokes a change in his attitude. How can you work all night and not be given time to sleep the next morning? Perhaps a shower when he's trying to sleep will learn him.

What part of FL? This isn't true for the Tampa area.

There's not much railroad work in FL. No unions either.