darliff

I've been with them for about three years now. To my understanding, your experience can vary greatly based on your location/office. They are notorious for hiring warm bodies for a shift in my area, putting new grads right out into the field fairly quickly. I live in a fairly rural area and I've had no problem with receiving hour, I actually have to turn down extra shifts on cases fairly regularly to keep myself around the 40-50 hours a week mark. The pay isn't the best, but I'm also an associates RN and this has been my first job so far. Basically if you're competent and realistic in skills and have a good office they can be a good full time job, or somewhere to pick up extra hours as a side gig.

I'm not seeing near as much service/restaurant industry as I thought I would. Something like half my classmates when I was in nursing school were servers, bartenders, or BOH. Or maybe those jobs just rock. I might be biased. I still work part time in a bar/restaurant on top of my nursing job. Been cooking for 16 years no reason to quit now. Lol

I actually just found that app the other day when I was looking for a better e-reading app for my Kindle. =)

Threads like this always make me feel better. After so many years of jobs that involved a lot of running around, the ides of down time initially stressed me out. I always felt slightly guilty doing leisure activities on company time. Thank god I got over that. I've almost caught up on reading going all the way back to graduation.

I helped a friend on a tree service startup. I was grunt labor and advertising, he was the skilled labor and equipment/insurance. My second day on the job he handed me a set of climbing hooks to attach to my boots and a chainsaw. After the first week I found out he had never finalized the liability insurance.

I don't have too much experience yet, but the company I work for seems to have the least amount of work hours dedicated to the scheduler. I can't imagine that keeping track of who is covering all shifts on all cases and training and what nurses are certified for what, plus personal preference.... This might be particular to the company I work for, but I would imagine having 2-3 people organizing staff, payroll, and scheduling as their sole duty would be more helpful and productive, if less profitable overall.

I've been an RN for almost three years, and I've worked for a single private duty peds company since shortly after I received my degree. Other than 6 months of administrative leave during a claim I've been on anywhere from 40-80 hours per week with 2-3 clients. With all that in mind, I'm curious about the level of behavior I see from other nurses I work on cases. On my first case I was trained by a nurse who would frequently sit and read her Kindle while caring for two active children, 3 and 5. The overnight nurse frequently slept on shift, and another nurse that came in later would nap on the couch with the kids when she couldn't handle 12 hour shifts(which she agreed to) and drew the family into her own personal life by helping them rent a new home from a family member. I've seen pay for the family to go on vacation and just "work" max hours per day during the vacation, aka chart while the family took care of themselves. Nurses buying expensive presents for the kids, having a drink with the family after the kids were asleep, buying groceries for the family, showing up on holidays to see the family, even if they were no longer on the case. I'm not sure if 3 years is enough experience to be this judgemental but it seems like people find it impossible to distinguish the boundaries between being a professional and not being one. I understand it's hard to spend a lot of time with the family without being drawn into their dynamic but isn't that a part of the job? Are there actually professional private duty nurses, or is this the eventual evolution of working with a family for years?

Getting yourself on a good sleep schedule helps a lot. I'm a night owl, and frequently was awake until 5-6 am on nights off, but those extra 2-3 hours made a huge difference, in addition to "wind down" time after shift. When I first started I kept a 64 oh ce thermos of coffee with me, and finished it every shift. Now a few cups over the 22 hour and I'm fine. One of my cases involves me being in the dark room with the pt, and that took a while to adapt. I starting bringing my Kindle and the brighter light while reading vs a book light in a book also helps quite a bit imo.

Its funny, I have far more time to eat as a nurse than I did in my previous job as a cook in a busy restaurant. I picked up fast eating habits there that still hold true now.

I didn't start nursing school until my mid-20s and I graduated just before 30. I had a job within 6 months and just celebrated my year anniversary. Its not the easiest field but its a lot of fun, and there's always something interesting or new to do or learn.