- Hazard Pay
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Did I get the job?
I just went through 3 different interviews over the last few weeks and heard close to the same thing at the end of each of them. The difference with the job I was offered and accepted was the manager mentioned sending my information back to HR. Did you go through a recruiter? All mine went through recruiters for the hospital so I was able to keep on top of things asking them questions if I needed. Good luck and I hope you get the job.
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how do you find your niche?
In my 12 years as a nurse I have done: 1 year Oncology floor. I liked it but was physically attacked by a patient and for reasons to detailed to go into here I left that job. 2 years Telemetry/Intermediate care floor. Stayed as long as my sanity could hold out. Very disorganized floor with to many nurse cliques. 1.5 years Interventional Radiology. Loved this job but was constantly put down and bullied by a few of the nurses. 3 months pediatric psych. Just no. 4.5 years Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging. Loved this job so much but the call was getting to the point I had no life except work. The paycheck was nice but having a family and never seeing them was miserable. 2.5 years Radiation Oncology. This is my current position until the end of the week in which I am transferring to the ICU. This is also the job I thought I would retire from because it felt so right until about 3 months ago. However being an office nurse is a whole different world. I love my patients and my coworkers but I am the only nurse and it is extremely draining and I have zero chance for any type of advancement. I also realized I'm not cut out for the 8-4 world. Luckily nursing is a career with so many choices that if one area doesn't fit you can try a different one. I keep searching for a "home" and I'm hoping the ICU is it. If you would have asked me back when I first became a nurse if I'd ever work in an ICU I would have told you hell no but now with years of experience behind me I feel a calling to go there. I still have a list of areas you won't see me in (ER, L&D, OR) but there's so many options for nurses now the sky's the limit.
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New Job, Did I Make a Mistake?
Going from floor nursing to any outpatient setting is a complete change but going from a floor to an office setting is a massive change. Four days is not even close to having a true feel of what the job should be. I currently work in an Radiation Oncology office setting as the only nurse in my office and my job responsibilities are weight, vitals, updating medication lists, working up consults and follow-ups, phone calls, obtaining pre-auths, IV's on occasion, scheduling tests and procedures, and whatever else needs to be done in the front office or whatever a patient comes in complaining about. I've done this job for just over 2 years and I'm getting ready to transfer to the ICU in a week. While it's nice working 8-4 M-F and having holidays off it's also very draining. I love my patients and it was a heartbreaking decision for me to decide to leave but I honestly can't see myself doing this any longer and am looking forward to feeling like a nurse again. My best advice is to give it some time to see how you truly feel in a few weeks or even months. I know some places don't let you transfer for so many months after you transferred so you may have to wait out that time frame if you're wanting to stay in the same system you are in now. Seek out the office manager and ask them what they feel the responsibilities of your job should be. I went into my current job with the very basics of what other nurses before me had done and then just developed my role to what my doctors needed and what the office needed. I wish you luck in whatever you decide and sometimes it just takes trying jobs to realize what you like and what you don't. Luckily with nursing we have many opportunities in many different areas, not many career choices have that.
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if you hate nursing, what would you rather do instead?
I really would love to do hotel/motel management and tourism. I have looked into the program and as much as I'd love to do it I really like getting a paycheck and not adding more debt to our lives. Maybe someday I can do what I love and not what I have to.
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General question
Welcome Bashair. I am finding this post very interesting.
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OK to let nursing license expire if you have one in 2 states?
I have 2, one in the state I live in and one in the state I work in. I went through hell to get the one from the state I live in so I refuse to just let it lapse. I did put it in inactive status the last renewal since I just couldn't see spending money on a license I don't use and I didn't do the CEU's required by the state anyway.
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Do these types of nurses require specific degrees?
I'm a pediatric MRI sedation/Radiology nurse and I have an ADN. I have worked in Interventional Radiology, Pediatric Psych, Telemetry, and Oncology all with my ADN.
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Would YOU recommend to a friend/family member, etc..
No. I would never discourage it if someone had their heart set on it but I will never recommend it and will steer my kids far away from it.
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per diem job
I don't think it's a federal law but I know some hospital systems are like that. I am per diem right now but I can work as many or as few hours I want and not worry. One place I worked for made you take a permanent position if you continually worked hours they considered part/full time.
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Do You Use an MRI Compatible IV Pump for Peds Pts?
We use MRI compatible pumps. We have 3 pumps so if a patient is coming from the NICU or the PICU and has multiple drips and requires sedation the intensivist has to decide what drips are the most important and what can be turned off for the span of the MRI. Normally it is our responsibility as the sedation/radiology nurse to switch the pumps since these pumps are in MRI only and no one else in the hospital uses them.
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Experience for Interventional Radiology
I got my first IVR job with 2 years telemetry/ICU stepdown experience. I learned how to take care of vented patients very quickly because we took care of a lot of them and the ICU nurses very rarely stayed. I say go for it and apply. I'm glad I did because I found out how much I love radiology and all the ups and downs that come with it.
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Children's Hospital MRI's
I work in MRI at one of our Children's Hospitals and I can tell you we are nothing like that at all. Everything we have is pediatric specific so we have all sizes of equipment from neonate to adult. We only have 2-3 pumps that are MRI safe so if a child is on multiple drips we have to have the resident or Dr. decide which drips are the most important that can't be stopped for any reason. We do our best to get the pumps up to the unit prior to the scan and we switch the pumps over since the floor nurses aren't familiar them. Ours also can do the micro numbers like 0.26 and such. It takes us about 5-10 minutes to get the baby on the table once they hit our department and most of that time is just switching them to MRI safe monitoring components. Our NICU nurses are awesome and usually have the baby papoosed before they come down if they aren't vented and if they are respiratory has already come down and everything is set up and ready to go. As for coding it may seem like a hassle but it is so much safer to have them out of the room. Think about people coming to a code, they aren't thinking about anything else but the patient but if they have anything in their pockets that is magnetic it instantly becomes dangerous, imagine scissors flying at someone for example. You can't just hit a switch and turn of the magnet it actually takes days to do it properly and that still damages the machine.
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Have you read The Psychopath Test?
I'm thinking this is the book the OP is talking about. It sounds interesting. BARNES & NOBLE | The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated | Hardcover, Audiobook
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Going back to the OR
I thought I wanted to go back to the floor at one point. I went to the interview where I proceeded to hyperventilate and break out in hives while being interviewed. Needless to say they never called me back. I tried psych nursing but even though I loved the kids and the job I couldn't take it. I am back in radiology where I will stay. Floor nurse have all my respect. I love dealing with patients for a couple hours and then sending them on their way whether it be home or back to the floor.