Kaylight

No. I am an ARNP student as well looking for preceptors in the Tacoma Area. I did find a good website. She has loads of information on there. https://www.melissadecapua.com/your-guide-to-finding-an-NP-preceptor/

Did you ever find a preceptor near Olympia? Have you tried Tacoma?

I was wondering how it compares with Med-Surg. It sounds like it could be fast paced since the patient only stays 24 hours, but they don't have the patient load that Med-Surg has. My med-surg unit can discharge two-three patients, and get back that many patients from the ED sometimes all at once. Thanks everyone for responding.

I just got offered a night position in a cardiac short stay unit. I am currently in a non-tele med-surg unit, and I would like someone to tell me what a short stay unit is like. I am wondering how different it is from what I do currently. Thanks.

I just had this happen last night. It is usually an older "more experienced" nurse who does this. They want to simply look at the notes and don't care about my experience with the patient. I find this arrogant, but I am not sure what to do about it. I guess if they know so much, I'll just stop talking.

I work on a corona unit that is a combination of Med-Surg, PCU, and ICU all in one unit. All of ours are positive except that we did have one guy come in for a heart attack (the unit was previously a coronary unit), and he was tested for Covid. He had some symptoms, but we weren't sure yet. They did use PPE because they weren't sure. We had one negative test, but we try to get them off the floor as soon as possible. Normally if we have someone who has lowered WBC's or immune compromised they are placed on neutropenic precautions, which means they wouldn't have live flowers, and fresh fruit. I sometimes wear a mask to protect them from me.

Our governor was begging for nurses to come to Washington State to work not volunteer. I am still helping nurses orient on the floor.

Governor Inslee indicated that although private companies are gearing up to manufacture PPE, and ventilators, they are also charging exorbitant prices for these items. The governors are trying to get Trump to use his power to lower the prices on these items. The reason that some countries' death toll is higher is because their hospitals are overrun. If they are overrun then the normal crew of chronically ill patients will be bypassed. Only the very ill will be treated, and thus the death toll for all illnesses will go up. The point of keeping the curve down is to prevent a run on hospitals. Right now my hospital has low census (or did), and this is probably people staying away from the hospital. Some of these people will inevitably die at home. Some scientists have claimed that people stayed away from the hospital during the Ebola epidemic as well.

Yes. I agree. We actually have a relatively small ICU, and we will need to train Med-Surg nurses in critical care in order to handle the situation. Nurses need to be trained in handling respiratory distress at least.

Our hospital is locking down visitation. One visitor per patient in a 24 hour period. Each visitor has their temperature checked. We have Covid-19 patient in the ICU, and another floor is being designated for Covid patients. The hospital has created a regional pool of nurses to prevent overworking of the nurses. I have already worked with a Covid rule out patient, and I tested him. Fortunately, he was negative. They only had droplet protection on Covid patients at the time, and we had to reuse our one droplet mask all day.

I have been bullied multiple times. One job that I worked at was notorious for bullying. The whole hospital was toxic, and at my new job I have a charge nurse that likes to make my life miserable. It happens. Some hospitals are more toxic than others.

I am a new grad also working on a med-surg floor, and I hate it. It seems I am overloaded with work, and the charge nurse gives me the difficult patients all the time. If I am drowning she just glares at me and says that I am expected to take 5 patients no matter what their acuity is. I don't get breaks, and sometimes don't get lunch. There seems to be some type of crazy thing going on all the time. I have been hit by a patient, and had an excessive number of psyche patients to deal with. Some of the charge nurses are bullies, and I am tired of working there already.

You are probably right about this. I did know another nurse who left the state hospital so that he could regain his acute care skills. I am afraid of being pigeon-holed, but I should hang in there a bit more. I can say that one good thing about my hospital is that it has a good balance between male/ female, and we have a very diverse team. I will say also that we have some very good techs, and some wonderful nurses who keep the milieu going. It's a bit more difficult on graveyard, but I might have the one person waking up who may need to speak to someone in the middle of the night. It does get very slow, and I feel like I don't have enough time for bedside care.

We are on guard. We have census every 15 minutes, and I am well aware that I am working in the most dangerous facility in my state. Yes. The techs have more contact with patients than I do. It does not mean that they get to insult me whenever they like, however.

We won't do those. We have a medical team that does this. It would be nice if we did though. The entire hospital is psyche. I would float to another psyche ward, possibly forensic.

On the psyche ward this type of behavior earns a removal of grounds privileges. It does him no good to cater to his foul behavior. Remember your Skinner, folks. He don't do what you want he either gets no reward or a "punishment". He does what you want, he gets a reward. Not saying he's a pigeon or anything, but this type of thing work wonders on the psyche ward along with loads of Ativan and Haldol.

I just started a job fresh out of nursing school as a psyche nurse, and I have a couple of concerns. First of all I don't use my nursing skills that I learned in school. I don't even pass meds. The LPNs do that. We basically sit in the back and type on an old DOS system, and do paper charting. I have some graduate work under my belt in Counseling, but I don't use any of it as a psyche nurse. They also put me working graveyard, which means that I don't even see patients at all. I tend to be rather hyperactive despite my age (55), and this is boring. I will be starting a leadership Master's Degree in the Fall, and my current job is working as basically a charge nurse on a psychiatric ward. Further, there seems to be some horizontal violence in regards to --NOT the Nurses-- but the CNAs (they don't even have a CNA, but they are similar) tend to bully the nurses. I have been on the floor for two weeks and every ward I have had to deal with a loud, obnoxious, bullying Tech. I had heard that nurses do that, but I never expected this from Techs. Any ideas that would be helpful?

I once had a job (not nursing, but the reason I switched careers into nursing) where I was harassed, sent nasty e-mails, and given excessive duties because of the way I voted in a rural town. I had unfortunately failed to join the union that year which would have given me legal counsel. Because of the harassment and panic attacks that I was having, I left before the year was up. It ruined my career. I would suggest that you 1) get legal counsel or get that legal insurance policy thing 2) hang in there for at least a year, and then go somewhere else where you are not uncomfortable. I would also like to send you the best.

Great topic and very appropriate. Ageism is very real, and happens all the time. I think your suggestions were good ones. Some of us need to (me especially) not mention our age at all. Sometimes it feels like I am being left out or ostracized, and while in nursing school I even had comments from a younger individual saying that no one wanted to be around me (because I was older). I was trying to keep my age secret, but it is difficult while sitting in a room full of twenty somethings. The school I was in announced it in a powerpoint which I think was inappropriate. I have begun running 20 minutes a day, and using luminosity to sharpen my brain and reactions. I have also started looking at what the hip crowd does, and dress my best staying stylish without wearing things that are uncomfortably revealing. I have had all sorts of age discrimination. I could write a whole book on it. I was bumped out of teaching during the recession, because they would not hire older teachers. I switched over to nursing, and I have had to struggle with science and keep up with younger folk in this field, but I wanted to hang in there and keep studying nursing, because I want a career that I enjoy so much that I would not even want to retire from.

You could do an entry level master's degree or you could do an accelerated BSN. You would need to get your pre-requisites out of the way first. If you have not been in the field of science, you might need to take your time making your way to the top and not be in such a rush.

You could also go for an entry level Master's degree if you already have a Bachelor's degree. They will give you some money to live on. Another good way is to reduce your bills before you go. I went back at the age of 53. You are in good company. Get rid of credit card bills. Get rid of huge mortgages. I sold my house, and moved into town. Then if you can get your bills down, you might become a CNA. Being a CNA really helps in nursing school. If you go in there cold, you are going to have problems. You also might consider a cheaper route through like the community college route.