crashcartqueen BSN, RN

Being a medical student myself, I can assure you that having the booksmarts and social aptitude to get into medical school does not equal common sense. Some of my classmates will have an interesting experience when we get to clinical rotations in thi...

I live on the east coast, so I don't know how relevant my advice is for CA. It can be difficult to get into ER sometimes without ER experience. However, I have had many coworkers at my hospital transfer from med-surg to the ER. Maybe if you can get y...

Med school ? working a couple of ER shifts this week on our block break to keep my sanity ?

So I have been an RN for 3 years now and start med school on Monday. It has not been an easy journey, but I knew where I wanted my career to go so I decided that becoming a physician was the better option for me instead of the quicker NP route. Some...

:up:That is awesome, good luck to you!

Okay, mine is a bit dark. I once dreamt there was a kid coding and I couldn't find any other staff to help. I tried my best to save them and couldn't. Where it gets extra weird and unsettling is I kept dreaming it over and over, and I had a sense of ...

I hope your coworker is never my nurse...

I became a nurse at 20, but I realize that is not the usual timeframe. I must agree with others that there are bigger fish to fry out there than getting upset over them calling a CNA a nurse in this instance. I even look at it as a complement, they l...

OP, if you want to be an ER nurse, you will do codes. Some patients are brought in coding, or will shortly after being brought in before we have the chance to act. You don't always have the chance to address the problem before hand with true emergenc...

If you enjoy patient interactions, a job in a physician practice is usually a great job for LPN's. You have lots of specialties to chose from, OB, peds, family practice, etc. Unfortunately all jobs can have their stressors, however acute care and SNF...

As an ER nurse, I often get patients from skilled facilities who did not need to come to the ER. However, I understand that the nurse responsible for sending them may have limitations on resources. Do you have an in-house physician on-call to advise ...

I would definitely wear scrubs for orientation if it is at the facility. As far as preparation, there isn't much you can do at home. They should provide you with some employee handbooks and what not so start with familiarizing yourself with those. Pr...

Congrats on the acceptance! For a planner, I purchased one at Barnes and Noble that has weekly entries and it keeps my straight. A laptop is not necessary, however I found my iPad to be essential in school. I used it to make notes on the powerpoints ...

Thank you so much! Thankfully I had not taken ANY of my pre-reqs yet so I didn't have to worry about that. But if he goes straight into the post-bacc he won't have to redo anything and his GPA is acceptable for it as is. It is a wonderful "second-cha...

I have taken up to 18 hours of BSN coursework and was still able to manage full-time work as well, but it ultimately just depends on your program and the demand of the courses you are in and what your home life requires. Good luck to you!

I must politely disagree with PixieRN and say you CAN do it and it is not un-realistic. I am now pre-med brought my nursing GPA up from a 2.98 to a 3.37 after two semesters of science classes and will have a 3.4-something after this summer. I totally...

In this case, I would disclose lightly. Need to know only ex. "I had an unexpected reaction to a change in medication that day and I had a really off day".

Yep!! Gotta have their "chest burny" medicine

I believe the most important part of ER orientation is having a great preceptor and learning everything you can from them. Ask tons of questions....some nurses think coming from the floor or another specialty gives them a heads up in general but real...

Honesty will be the best policy, however you do not want to seem like you are bad-mouthing your previous employer. I would be direct and concise on the situation and state that there were some misunderstandings and you have learned from the situation...

Just relax! I know it is tempting to want to study anything you can get your hands on but you are only causing yourself unnecessary stress. You have passed nursing school, so you already know a lot! Try to focus on reviewing things you did not touch ...

Awesome! You will get to see a lot of things in the CCU and it is very interesting! It will be a great learning opportunity and give you the chance to appreciate the critical care/ICU world. So some things to look over: Cardiac Drugs/Drips Insulin/H...

I bet you will be fine! I did Kaplan as well and finished my NCLEX in 75 and was worried for the same reasons you stated. To me it felt like the questions I was getting were very similar, especially towards the end but were not exceptionally hard, de...

Unfortunately that is the way of life in most LTCs/SNFs. I was there myself a few months ago and it was rough. I decided it was not for me as I did not feel safe as a new grad being responsible for the well being of 26 patients with varying acuity an...

Unfortunately this is a common situation new grads find themselves in at LTC workplaces. I myself was there a few months ago! I had four days of orientation and was left to do meds and treatments along with ridiculous amounts of paperwork for 26 resi...