Redhead,RN

I agree with GonzoRN, Deanna Gillingham's book CCM Made Easy really is the only book you need. I have been a case manager for 6 yrs and briefly flipped through that book, focusing on Medicare because I don't deal with that much, and I passed the test in a little over an hour on my first try. I think that if you are a working case manager, you will know most of the information on the test. It is supposed to be practice focused...and it is. So just focus on what you don't normally do and spend your time studying that. Good luck!

Exactly! I'd never take anything above Cardiac/Pulm Tele. That's what I'm experienced in and competent at. A previous hospital I PRN'd at tried to float me to the ICU, I refused assignment and let the DON know I was there to help people not hurt them. I know my limitations.

Although I agree novice nurses should not take travel assignments, I see a lot of the staff nurses are extremely jealous because travelers make big bucks doing the exact same thing. Lots of bitterness there...I can see why it's frustrating to have the newbies, but I don't understand the negativity directed at the experienced nurses who travel.

After 6 yrs of applying, I'm a finalist! Found the email in my spam folder by chance and confirmed interest. DTI ~120%, RN at FQHC w/site score of 24. Now the anxious wait for the co-signature begins.

I thought there was a 75 question minimum...

Whatever you do, don't work in a nursing home. Once you do that, you will most likely never get a hospital job. I have several nurse manager friends who told me this when I graduated. It gives you a bad reputation even when undeserved. Keep looking and good luck!

Get out as quick as you can. However, consider that once you leave bedside, it will be harder to get back in. So you better be sure! I left hospital nursing after 4 months and have never looked back. That was 15 years ago. I've been lucky enough to try several things before setting into working in public health. Don't waste your time being miserable! The old "requirement" of staying for a year is antiquated just like not being allowed to have tattoos. Times have changed.

This whole program needs to be restructured. There needs to be some kind of cap. Sorry, but it makes no sense to award it to a few with super high debts instead of awarding it to a lot who have normal debt amounts. It encourages irresponsible borrowing. I do not understand that logic...

I'd be furious if I applied for one position and was given another. As a new grad sometimes you get what you can, but not experienced nurses. I have tele experience and I'd never work med-surg either. No way I want to end up with 8 patients. Med-surg units rarely have decent staffing ratios. By the same token, I'm not interested in the stress of ICU either! If I specialize in something and think I'm applying for that, I wouldn't accept anything else. Life is too short! That's dirty of that hiring manager to pull a bait and switch on someone whose moving so far. Dirty! Personally if someone did me like that, I'd quit on the spot before accepting patient assignment.

The MSN informatics degree nurse I work with can't find a job anywhere here in KC in that field. I'm not sure the Masters is worth much. I did a year for an NP then started working with NPs only to see how little they are respected in the private sector except at FQHCs. I will probably not waste the money completing my graduate degree...

I'm getting my coding and billing certification. That will be my side hustle.

You've tried nursing homes? They hire anybody and it's better than nothing. Or move. I would.

If you are going to give the lab results then you have to be able to act on it, i.e. adjust meds, reorder tests, etc. I've never worked at a place that allowed nurses to give out labs that weren't resulted by Doctors, NPs or PAs first. I'm clinical, perhaps bedside has different rules...

Life is too short to spend it doing something that makes you unhappy...No, it's not wrong to leave. I left two hospital jobs during orientation. I learned hospital nursing is not for me and that's ok. I now work case management and have for 10 years and I LOVE MY JOB!!! If I listened to other people and stayed bedside, I would have been miserable and made my family miserable. Not worth it...

I will always aspirate the way I was taught. As a clinic nurse, I hit vessels twice giving flu shots. That's two people whose lives could have been forever changed had I not. I also had another patient who received a flu shot at a Minute Clinic and that night he had a stroke. Could have been coincidental, but CVS nurses don't aspirate.