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

Now having said that...before all the hate mail starts to bombard me. I'm not trashing/downing talking bad about fellow sailors (especially pm). It's been an honor and priviledge serving and I look foreward to serving out my time. I'm merely pointing out there is a HUGE workload disparity in nursing and I think new nurses joining the navy should have some insight before they talk to their detailer. Large command med/surg you WILL ABSOLUTELY work your tail off. You will look foreward to the few days when you only have 4 patients two of them is A&O and can walk.

Sir, This could go on forever. Again, I agree with you 100% I say send all accessions to one of the big 3 hospitals and make them all work the med/surg floor. Once you've worked the floor for a year then you can go to peds/mother-baby/psych/ED/OR/ICU or whatever your fancy. Your right...I've been on the busiest med/surg floor in the Navy for 18mos and I can work circles around just about every nurse regardless of how long they've been a nurse. When I float to another floor "hey, just tell me what patients I have...and the combo to the med room" and I'm set. Here's the unfortunate reality check... Ens pm (I don't know this person) he/she probaby a great peds nurse...does everything he/she is asked...great all around sailor. (I'm just using her/him b/c she/he has a lot of posts on this site) (not trying to single you out p.m. so don't get mad. just using you as an example for danzrn) PM is a (7p-7a) peds nurse. This is just a blind guess...But I'm willing to bet this nurse has what I would call an extremely easy patient load. So here's a pm peds nurse with probably not a lot of nursing skill (nothing personal p.m.) who has been sent out to the fleet and has been told she/he will be able to crosstrain to a specialty area after she/he has worked the peds floor for a year. OK...Now here we have all the nurses that work up on the upper 4th & 5th deck. A lot of great nurses with a lot of skills who are taking care of really sick people day and night. (barely enough time to pee and go to lunch) I haven't seen any of these nurses have any priority when it comes to going on deployments/or crosstraining. So here we are...doing the real dirty work with no incentive...want to go from peds/mother-baby/psych to the ICU/ED/OR...(no problem) even though the folks on 4 and 5 take care of these patients everyday. Want to go on a 3 month cruise(with only peds pm experience)...no problem. You and pm seem to really love navy nursing, and that's great...(I wasn't there so I don't know for sure) but when asked by the hospital detailer where you wanted to work I doubt they said "we are overstaffed in the med/surg dept. Could you pick some other dept to work." It probably went something like this "I'm really excited about being a Navy nurse. I have such and such experience. I would really like to work in (blank) dept." I don't understand how being a peds night nurse makes for a more qualified ED/ICU/OR nurse...but it really doesn't matter... If the navy was serious about having more experienced general nurses they would send everyone upstairs for a while. You wouldn't have the opportunity to be a pm peds nurse(1st year out of school) and go on a float(pm I'm really not trying to pick on you). Who's dodging what? I'm sure you and pm had the opportunity to go med/surg...and you didn't...that's ok. Doesn't sound like it held either of you back. In fact, you're both doing better than me. Why would the viewers of this post not want to follow yours and pm track? GO TO A SMALL COMMAND...OR YOU REALLY WANT TO WORK WITH PREGNANT WOMEN/CHILDREN/PSYCH....

I'm behind you 100%...Your duty stations are exactly what I'm telling the viewers to do. You went right into a specialty area then stayed at a small command. I didn't notice anywhere where you said you worked med/surg in a large command. I don't doubt for a second you're a great nurse and now you're reaping the rewards of DUINS. I'm not angry at people in peds/psych/mother-baby. I'm jealous...They get all the same benefits (salary, promotions, training, deployments) I'm telling the viewers not to believe the old guard..."you need med/surg experience before you can work in specialty areas." The current climate is where management is not letting anyone into specialty areas out of school. So, your next best option is peds/psych/mother-baby. Work smarter, not harder...There's a long orientation for nurses going into ICU/ED/PACU specifically for people who work in peds/psych/mother-baby. Like Nurse06 said, people are leaving the floor in one year. Why spend an extra year in med/surg working your butt off? You'll end up working a lot harder,transfering later and for what? I've only met 2 out of about 50 nurses in the last 18 months that wanted to stay med/surg one minute longer than they had too. I'm not complaining. I'm advising the unsuspecting. Go to a small command. If you have to go to a large command, "you really enjoy pregnant women, children and psych ." just ask ens pm...

This thread is nothing personal toward you. I don't know you and you're probably a real nice person. You offer the truth according to a peds nurse and I offer a different view of the Navy than you. It gets exhausting when I come up to the hospital to do my R status on my days off (of course) and I see peds/psych/mother-baby nurses (nurses I know) just milling about the hospital b/c they're bored. "Only two or three patients and mom or dad is with them." Your deployed with just a couple nurses from the 5th deck and trust me...the line was long...b/c deployment = to the ER/PACU/ICU. Not to mention you can't be on a ship and on the floor at the same time. Don't think they're not bitter...they've just learned how to smile, turn the other cheek and say "thank you may I have another." For all those out there who are wondering about the Navy...It's one of the best deals going and I wish someone had told me the following... FIRST DUTY STATION...GO TO A SMALL COMMAND...you may have 15 patients but it'll be 15 easy patients. Jg's and Lt's with lots of experience bragging about "how they had 15 patients" struggle with 4 patients in my work center. It's not lack of prioritization you just have that much to do. It's nothing to hang blood/discharge someone/admit someone/administer chemo within one hour. Don't think the other four patients laid off the call lights for that hour either. And if you have to go to a big command "you love pregnant women/kids and psych." You'll end up in a speciality area sooner and the road to get there is a lot easier. The detailer will tell you how you need med/surg experience to go to the ICU/OR/ED/PACU. Just smile and say "my passion is with kids." And if they say well..."we really need med/surg nurses"..."you believe the best fit for you would be in Telemetry." 9/10 chest pain patients are walkie talkie = easy day.

You're not getting into any branch of service as a nurse without a BSN.

Join the AF for better quality of life(shorter deployments, better chow, nicer facilities). Join the Navy if you like to live by the beach...diarrhea is diarrhea...simple as that

Some of what you say is true. However, OIS IS knife and fork school. I've been through bootcamp. I never once had the opportunity to go drinking at the club/downtown or anywhere. Bootcamp you sure as hell have a lot more than one roommate. After being in bootcamp for a month your allowed to drink chocolate milk...which is the best feeling you could imagine. No one in my work center is allowed to work perm nights. Furthermore, we all work 4 days a week every other week...and we work every other weekend...we are on call once per week and if they call you in you don't get paid anymore or additional days off. You can take leave, but you will don't work less hours. You're scheduled to work around your leave. You want Mon, Tues, and Wed off? No problem...You'll work Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. Most days at work you barely have enough time to pee. There's no time to do any personal stuff. I never heard of a job where I was expected to work 13hrs with no break. We've even have a charge nurse hounding us to hurry up on 30min lunch. People in my work center would love to leave in 1yr. To this day I've never seen/heard of it happening. I see you work at NMCSD...you obviously don't work on the med/surg floors. Tell the peope who read these threads the truth. If you can go to a medium size command do it. Stay there as long as possible. We've had several med/surg nurses come to NMCSD that have all this great med/surg experience. They don't know spit from poop and beg and whine to get off the floor asap. You can't have Lt's and Jg's complaining the work is too hard so they get sent to peds/psych/mother baby - something much easier. And if you do get sent to a big command. Tell the DNS how much you love kids, or how you've always wanted to be a psych or mother/baby nurse. You'll get paid the same and no where near the same amt of work/responsibility. Don't be fooled by the "you need med/surg experience." Most navy nurses run harder from med/surg than they would from the inside of a burning building. NavyNurse06 if you love navy nursing soo much why don't you join us up on the 5th deck...we could sure use your help...I've floated down on your floor. Felt like I was on vacation/had the night off. The only problem was...I knew how more needed I was up on my floor...my coworkers were really suffering.

Some of what you say is true. However, OIS IS knife and fork school. I've been through bootcamp. I never once had the opportunity to go drinking at the club/downtown or anywhere. Bootcamp you sure as hell have a lot more than one roommate. After being in bootcamp for a month your allowed to drink chocolate milk...which is the best feeling you could imagine. No one in my work center is allowed to work perm nights. Furthermore, we all work 4 days a week every other week...and we work every other weekend...we are on call once per week and if they call you in you don't get paid anymore or additional days off. You can take leave, but you will don't work less hours. You're scheduled to work around your leave. You want Mon, Tues, and Wed off? No problem...You'll work Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. Most days at work you barely have enough time to pee. There's no time to do any personal stuff. I never heard of a job where I was expected to work 13hrs with no break. We've even have a charge nurse hounding us to hurry up on 30min lunch. People in my work center would love to leave in 1yr. To this day I've never seen/heard of it happening. I see you work at NMCSD...you obviously don't work on the med/surg floors. Tell the peope who read these threads the truth. If you can go to a medium size command do it. Stay there as long as possible. We've had several med/surg nurses come to NMCSD that have all this great med/surg experience. They don't know spit from poop and beg and whine to get off the floor asap. You can't have Lt's and Jg's complaining the work is too hard so they get sent to peds/psych/mother baby - something much easier. And if you do get sent to a big command. Tell the DNS how much you love kids, or how you've always wanted to be a psych or mother/baby nurse. You'll get paid the same and no where near the same amt of work/responsibility. Don't be fooled by the "you need med/surg experience." Most navy nurses run harder from med/surg than they would from the inside of a burning building. NavyNurse06 if you love navy nursing soo much why don't you join us up on the 5th deck...we could sure use your help...I've floated down on your floor. Felt like I was on vacation/had the night off. The only problem was...I knew how more needed I was up on my floor...my coworkers were really suffering.

I have a question for you Dan...I've noticed there are people who can't stand the Navy and there are people who love the Navy and I've pretty much narrowed it down to work centers. Where did you go for your first tour of duty? I'm prior service and loved the Navy until I became a nurse. Navy nursing is the worst job I ever imagined.

I think you're buttering it up a little.......