kookinitreal

It's only a few nurses but they ruin the lot...

"Old battle axe" is right on. Let me see how many questions I can ask so I can try to make this guy look stupid. Turnover is the worst part of the job. I feel like I do a much better job than most of the older nurses b/c I don't get bogged down in the details. I don't need to know which arm the IV is in...Do they have an IV? Never mind...I'll check when I assess. Had an appy in '02...are they here for that...no...then I don't care...Why are they here? There's usually only a couple plans per dx per area and once you've been there for a while you should naturally pick it up without someone having to tell you step by step what to do. Give as much responsibility to the Docs as possible. Docs should be looking their own labs up...Nurses are doing everyone else's job. You're the social worker...you call the family...You're the x-ray tech...come get the patient yourself.

One of my main goals at work is to differentiate myself from my coworkers. They all ball-their-eyes out all the time. I'm the only male and they'd love to see me cry. I don't care if my coworkers cry over a pt or something personal. I get sooooo tired of women crying b/c they get their feelings hurt. It looks sooo weak and unprofessional. I don't understand how someone can get so mad they cry. Give me a break...I get teary eyed occasionally, but I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER cry in front of people at work.

OK. Here's the deal...I'm obviously a murse and have a very different perspective from 95% of the people on this site. I've been in the workforce for the pas 20yrs and took on nursing as a 2nd career. I CAN tell you how it works in other fields. Don't be deceived by the "HUGE NURSING SHORTAGE". This is simple advertisement to get people to go to nursing school, so hospitals have more of a selection to pay less money to. It took me about a year to figure this "nursing shortage" out. Yeah, there are a ton of nursing jobs out there and I can tell you there are a ton of people with RN degrees that refuse to work them. I'm not saying this to make anyone mad...nurses are at the bottom of the pecking order at hospitals. We are the most critical link in the healthcare chain and the most undervalued. Why? Because we undervalue ourselves. "We're grateful to have a job. Hospitals have rigid pay schedules." Give me a break. Total BS!!! When looking for a job I took what they offered x 1.5/hr for a counter offer plus bennies. I went to 6 interviews. They all told me "how rigid their pay schedules were", and wouldn't be able to pay me what I wanted. Two weeks later the 2nd hospital offered me a job. Most people spend months looking for a job that pays as well as mine. You get what you pay for. I don't work for cheap but I'm also not looking for another job. I say hospitals should hire all the philipino's they want to. If they're willing to get treated like a dumb a##, wipe old nasty a##, clean up foul smelling goo, be the go to resource for everything for less than $35/hr. Let them...i don't need the ulcer that bad. There's a shortage for lots of job in the US...the only problem with nursing...it requires a license. Trust me if legislators could figure out a way to convince the public illegals could do the job they would. New grads will never get, and don't deserve $35/hr. Once you vested 5yrs in the field you should be able to get $35hr and $1/hr raise per year. Try it. What do you have to loose.

Assume more responsibility for less pay? You're freaking kidding right? Give me a break! I guess if I try to see the silver lining...THERE IS NO NURSING SHORTAGE. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE...There is a shortage of people willing to work in crappy condition for minimum compensation. Anyone out there saying they took a pay cut from ST to RN is doing more to hurt the profession than help. Only a field dominated by women would be asked to assume more responsibility for less pay. Next time your in the HR office ask the HR rep if "they'd like to assume more responsibility for less pay?" May be they should go to school get an MBA get a "promotion" but work for less money. In fact, why don't we ask all our male friends who are not nurses if they'd even consider taking a job with more responsibility "where you get sued" for less money. It's laughable...

I wouldn't even consider a job paying less than $35/hr regardless of where I live. It's only 70K/yr. Truck drivers make that much. (nothing against truck drivers). Never understood why someone would go through 4yrs of college for a job that is "critically undermanned" for $20/hr. I made that much at Home Depot renting tools without a degree. Forget nursing, save yourself the ulcer...costco will pay $20/hr to work the night shift stocking shelves...

I've ben in the Navy for the past ten years of which I've spent the last two as a nurse. Enlisted recruiter can only guarantee a slot in corpsman school (medic tech or whatever service you join). There is no way they decide how you will be utilized or where you will be utilized. Some officers are able to negotiate an assignment. That means the recruiter will help decide where you will be utilized...not how you will be utilized. This is one of the many drawbacks to joining the Navy. I can't speak for other services but it appears to me that once you have complete your initial payback Navy nursing looks like a pretty good job. However, the 1st 4yrs can be hell. Just look at retention numbers. I've worked in two different duty sections at a major command and I've haven't found many non-prior service nurses who plan to stay in after their obligation is over. I can honestly say I would not stay in the Navy if I didn't already have 10 years in. My best friend from nursing school joined PHS after school. He was a prior marine and wanted all the benies of government work without the hassle of deployments. It was soo incredible mismanaged he gave the $15K bonus back and walked out after one year.

Depends on where you deploy and fam circumstances. I joined as a navy nurse so I wouldn't have to deploy. I've sat my a** in the sand long enough to realize if you do deploy...deploy as a nurse. I have yet to see a RN deploy without asking to deploy. We have 500 mil RN's at the hospital where I work and it's considered "a lot of people if 50 RN's deploy in a year." My old job we had 12 people assigned to our shop and all 12 deployed year after year to Iraq. Call in the reserved to man the shop. Cool when you're 21...not cool when you're 32 with kids. Another thing...if you do deploy as a RN you will almost always have plenty of water (hot if wanted), A/C, security, hot food, toilets (not a hole) cot...in essence...in the rear with the gear. People who love to deploy as RN's aren't on the front line and are not in Iraq for 15 months. You will die of boredom in Iraq for 15 months or worse...wondering what you're spouse is doing. Out on a ship for a couple months pulling into a new port every week is probably a lot of fun for a while.

My buddy is an Oncology CNS...not a provider. Still getting bossed around by MD interns. As close to Oncology subspecialty code as I've seen in the Navy. He has his master's degree as a Oncology NP/CNS.

Navy has better duty stations.

There's a huge difference b/w RN and corpsman. Depends on what you want to do. If you want to be a nurse don't join as a corpsman. You can easily get shafted into duty you won't like if your intention was to be a nurse and it can last longer than you ever imagined. If you want the GI bill that's one thing but it's not worth it if you become a nurse. Loan repayment and bonuses for new accessions is 4x as much money as GI bill pay if you're worried about money.

Every nurse on my floor stays min 24 months if this is their 1st command no matter where you want to go. Some who've wanted to transfer to ICU stayed 36mos.

There's good and bad with every job. I've been discussing most of the bad on this thread b/c I'm tired M/S nursing. Let me point out some of the good. If you don't like your work areas you usually won't spend more than 2-3yrs there. If you don't like your coworkers, boss, docs or who ever... don't worry they'll be gone pretty soon too. However, the opposite is also true. (Everything's going great...enjoy it...it won't last long) The only thing constant in the military is change. 10yrs and I haven't paid a dime for healthcare. Luckily, my healthcare needs are minimal. Now that I'm married and raising kids it adds up quick. In 10yrs I can walk away from the military with a pretty good pension which I didn't contribute a dime to and healthcare I'll pay $460/yr. I live in cali and claim Fl as my state of residency(no state tax, significantly reduced auto registration) and I don't pay (fed)taxes on approx 35-40% of my income. If you come to the Navy with prior nursing experience it's recognized and you'll come in at a higher rank or less time to make the next pay grade. (1:2) My friends with nursing experience had one year knocked off to make the next pay grade for every two years of NURSING experience. If you don't like M/S chances are you won't do it for long unless you get suckered like I did. The vast majority navy nurses I've talked to skirted around M/S but never really got dirty. Unfortunately the nurse corps treats M/S nursing like a auto accident. Everyone likes to slow down and look so they can say they saw the accident but no one wants to stop(it might explode or something). I say it's unfortunate b/c large command M/S should be used as a training area like docs do. I've worked closely with several nurses who transferred from small commands M/S and they were stressed like someone straight out of school. But, at least these nurses worked M/S at a small command and were able to take patients. (our floats from peds/psych/OB (RN's) usually end up just sitting 1:1) (I'd love to get paid to read a book and watch one old disoriented person) There are a lot of nurses at large commands who go straight into peds/psych/OB who rarely touch M/S, and from what I've seen it looks like the retention rate is a lot higher for nurses who don't work the heavy M/S so the cycle of not training on heavy M/S perpetuates itself. The point is...if you want to be a nurse without dirty patients...it's pretty easy to get. If you do get suckered into working (or just like it) M/S, the pt are pretty good. Unless they're really out of their mind(this happens a lot), they're cooperative and understanding. We really work our butts off and the patients often state we give the best care they've ever had and they love coming to our floor. Our equipment is old, beat up and doesn't work a lot , the accomodation are meager but the patients are sooo greatful for your service...so, it's rewarding in that aspect.

It's pretty interesting reading through all the posts. Are there any east coast MTF's med/surg floors out there where the age of patients range from 18-100 average = 75? Usual patient load is 5-6 patients ranging from post-op TKA/Whipple/drug-ETOH withdrawl to comfort care and everything in between.

upper left pocket = 2 black pens 1 sharpy lower left pocket = pda, highlighter, brain lower right = alcohol swabs, tape, sissors, 5 flushes by the end of the shift I have IV start kits, butterfly's, blood tubes and a lot more pens