I_Nurse

Hello there. I am an emergency room nurse in Canada. We have some NP's working alongside the physicians. I am not aware of how all roles work, but for ours it works as follows; We have an area within the emergency called "See and Treat" this area focuses on dealing with patients that are stable, but do have some minor ailments. SNT deals with minor fractures, sore throats, ear aches... typically all the sicknesses that people have that do not fit a true emergency. This area is staffed by two NP's and one MD. The NP's work full time hours from 830-2300 (overlapping between the two shifts) and the MD works within those hours also. The MD also works in the Emergency on other days. The role of the NP is respected by the MD, and the NP does have complete autonomy. The NP's and MD's do consult each other and work as a team. As for the "letting them know they are inferior" business, it wouldn't be any different than how an RN has more education than an RPN or an NP than an RN. It's not necessarily the role the person has, but the person that is filling that role. Some people can hold that stuff above you, others are gracious and treat people below them with dignity and respect. It is about how competent you are, if your practice is respectable, you will be respected.

It's really tough when you have something, and you think you should feel grateful, but then you just aren't. You seemed to really like the casual position opposed to your full time line, and it also seems more in line with your plans of traveling. Only you can make this decision, you seem to already have made the decision, do what you feel makes you happiest.

When I was in school on of the subjects we focused on was Cultural Sensitivity in Nursing. In nursing we are put into similar scenarios with people that come from all different cultures. The care we give to people may vary person to person based on the culture they are from. Knowing that people from this culture may benefit from having the family more involved would aide healthcare workers. We would of course have to ask the patient if it was okay for the family was involved, but we could also encourage the patient to look for assistance from the family. There really should be a patient and family based approach in this situations, especially if what you said was true and it could possibly prevent their children from being infected.

Hey there. Just to start off with, I have never made that sort of switch before, however, I do work with a few co-workers that have made the switch. I work on a medicine unit at a small hospital which doesn't have a psych ward. This usually means that we end up getting many mental health/social related crisis'. The coworkers with the mental health related experience we all find very valuable. Things do get better. Just as any role in nursing, starting something new is and always will be daunting. The main things you will need to overcome are time management and prioritizing. I'm sure that these are skills that you already have. Something that many nurses become worried about are the skills. The hands on skills. In phsyc nursing I'm guessing you haven't had much experience with; PICC's, starting IV's, using G-tubs, inserting catheters, and the like. However, all of these skills are easy to learn through reading and using resources at the hospital. Honestly if it takes a few days coming in on your days off and going through things with a clinical educator or reading through documents of protocols it will be worth it. Things probably seem overwhelming right now, but things will get better. =)