ItsGonnabeOKAY

I started in the ER as a new grad in 2007, I was lucky and got to go through a 6month residency, which made the transition from a new-grad to ER nurse very smooth. I enjoyed every day of the 7 years I worked there. It was, and to this day has been my favorite job. There is something about the ER that gravitates certain personalities to it more than others, you will notice as you start working how people tend to fall within the stereotype of their respective work environment (ER, ICU, OR, L&D, etc...). From my experience, people who liked ER, loved it from day one. Those who didn't left quickly. Here is how I would describe ER work as a nurse: Your work flow comes in unpredictable waves, you can go from 0-100 in a split second! This happens because there is no agenda, no rules, and no schedules. Patients come when they choose! The flip side is, there are down-times as well! Your weakest link is the unknown, the brewing cardiac arrest in the lobby, the four people coming from a car wreck by ambulance, the suicidal teenager, the girl that's giving birth as she is walking in. These things can (and will!) hit you all at once. This is what makes the job so exciting, dynamic, and unlike anything else. You get to work with every single kind of patient. You get to develop amazing relationships with your coworkers, who you will depend on, and they will depend on you. You WILL be a team player; else you wont survive. Your role is critical, because meanwhile there is a doctor right next to you, you will be seeing the patients long before the doctor gets to. It is your job to figure out which ticking time-bomb you need to diffuse first. ER nursing is procedure oriented, you will be starting IVs, getting labs, and EKGs on just about all your patients. You also get to participate in tons of procedures, traumas, airway control, bone reductions, chest tubes, wound repairs, the list is long. You will hone your assessment skills, you will be making judgment calls on what's going on, and how to address it long before you have anything objective, sometimes not even vital signs. What you will not get to do in the ER is a whole lot of actual nursing. You will have absolutely no concept of what a medsurg nurse does, you will not learn how to follow a patient along their hospital course, how treatments impact patients long term… And as such, you will be doomed to misunderstand the frustrations of an inpatient nurse, simply because you two are looking at the same thing from completely different angles. If what I describe sounds like something you would enjoy, then apply for the job and enjoy the ride! One more thing, as a new grad its not your skills or knowledge that will get you the job, it's the attitude that you bring to the table. Be positive, teachable, and fun to be around. Leave the attitude at home.

I will open by saying, this is something that has been on my mind for a long time, and I just need to vent. I'll keep it as concise as possible: For those that don't know, a DNP project is not original research, its basically a project where you synthesize existing literature to create a recommendation in a niche area. It includes the actual research part, a dissemination, and a defense. Are there benefits to learning how to sort through literature, evaluate it, and make a judgment call based on the merits of your research? Sure. Should it take you six months to learn how to do this, and should it cost $30k?? I do not think so. Do I think it benefits you as a clinician? Maybe. Is the time vested worth the investment? I do not think so. How do I think this time should be allocated in CRNA programs? I think there are major deficiencies in our clinical education. Here is how I would rather see us spend that time: (1): MORE REGIONAL ANESTHESIA!!!!!! Send us to off-sites where we can actually learn how to do these procedures on people, not just work-shops. (2): Give us pre-op clinic screening experience!!! I want to spend time out of the OR learning how to evaluate patients, and optimizing them for surgery. (3): I want to learn how to manage patients in the PACU!!! Here is my biggest issue, there is such a push for this "D" - NP, which means more reading, more writing, more research, and less time learning actual anesthesia. I think its great that our profession wants us to be involved in clinical policy, national policy, etc. etc. However, we need to be clinicians first, and I hate the idea of spending hundreds of hours on research at the expense clinical experience. Screw the DNP if it means I have to lose out on clinical experience to learn how to write a paper. Give me a certificate and let me focus on becoming the best clinician I can be. Rant over.

I will open by saying, this is something that has been on my mind for a long time, and I just need to vent. I'll keep it as concise as possible: For those that don't know, a DNP project is not original research, its basically a project where you synthesize existing literature to create a recommendation in a niche area. It includes the actual research part, a dissemination, and a defense. Are there benefits to learning how to sort through literature, evaluate it, and make a judgment call based on the merits of your research? Sure. Should it take you six months to learn how to do this, and should it cost $30k?? I do not think so. Do I think it benefits you as a clinician? Maybe. Is the time vested worth the investment? I do not think so. How do I think this time should be allocated in CRNA programs? I think there are major deficiencies in our clinical education. Here is how I would rather see us spend that time: (1): MORE REGIONAL ANESTHESIA!!!!!! Send us to off-sites where we can actually learn how to do these procedures on people, not just work-shops. (2): Give us pre-op clinic screening experience!!! I want to spend time out of the OR learning how to evaluate patients, and optimizing them for surgery. (3): I want to learn how to manage patients in the PACU!!! Here is my biggest issue, there is such a push for this "D" - NP, which means more reading, more writing, more research, and less time learning actual anesthesia. I think its great that our profession wants us to be involved in clinical policy, national policy, etc. etc. However, we need to be clinicians first, and I hate the idea of spending hundreds of hours on research at the expense clinical experience. Screw the DNP if it means I have to lose out on clinical experience to learn how to write a paper. Give me a certificate and let me focus on becoming the best clinician I can be. Rant over.