Going2bRN

I am just being realistic to how I feel about it. But honestly, even though I had the second interview, I haven't heard back from the easier job. So it might not even be a possibility anyhow. I have put in over 40 applications the last couple months and of the few jobs that have set up phone interviews, they were usually trying to sell me on a job I didn't apply for. "Oh, thanks for applying, but that job isn't available anymore. But we thought you might like this job. It is night shift, instead of days but we wanted to offer it to you anyhow". This has happened numerous times. AS it stand right now, I only HAVE one job offer. I have another interview tomorrow for a similar job as the offer I have now, but I think it may only be ER which I am trained in. We will see. Oh and I have been sick for 4 weeks straight, and I struggle with constant health issues these days. I don't know why but I need to do all I can to be healthy. I am not sure that even exists. I am doing the best I can with my life right now. God is good. I just need something that I can handle both in the workplace and also with allowing me to still have my life.

So I had a second interview at the Care Coordinator position. The groups seems like a nice bunch of ladies but a few things really stuck out to me. 1.) They mentioned they sit all day. 2.) They stated there is candy everywhere 3.) They mentioned someone brings in donuts every week and patients bring in food constantly 4.) They called the area they work in "the dungeon". 5.) They got excited because they have Thanksgiving off AND Black Friday. For me, I need to do things that promote my health not make it harder. Now the first job is for sure not easy on the health, but sitting all day and being tempted by candy and junk food sounds horrible for my health. Also, I just can't get past working ALL day Monday-Friday. I feel like Saturday will be catch up on EVERYTHING day (groceries, household projects, laundry, cleaning) and Sundays will be rest days. So no just FUN days. ? Also, I know me and working out after sitting all day won't happen. I will be too pooped by the time I get home. I need to workout in the mornings. That is why I am highly tempted to take the first job and see what happens. At least it is 3 days a week. If it really is too much, I could talk to the manager or even find another position.

I am older. I became an RN in my mid 40s and I have been a nurse for 5 years. I am fit, but I do have some autoimmune issues which can cause me some problems. I don't feel like I have had any solid experiences as a nurse even though I have been in the ER for most of my years. It is mainly because I only worked full-time for shorter spurts and always worked in lower level ERs. So... it makes me feel incompetent. I have never had any serious issues with my patient care, but there have been times I have had to look up how to do something or very occasionally ask for help. I am just not a super confident nurse. I thought maybe the 6 weeks training would be enough but I am honestly scared to death it won't be. It would be 2 weeks each in 3 different types of ICUs (MICU, SICU, CCU). I want the 3 (12s), I want the higher pay... I just don't know.

30 years and it was still intense for you? Yeah, I am not even a super confident nurse. What you wrote is my biggest fear. I appreciate your response so much.

I have been a nurse since 2018, mostly in lower level ERs. I also traveled for a couple years in the ER, spent the last year PRN at a small ER about an hour from home and recently decided to get a permanent position. I have two opportunities. Option #1 is float RN at a level 1 Trauma center. It would be floating between ER, ICU, and other floors in this major hospital. It is also day shift, full time. The pay is about $10/hr more than my most recent position I held as PRN at a hospital an hour from home and it includes a sign on bonus. They would train me for about 6 weeks so I could learn ICU and could float there in addition to any other unit in the hospital. I am SUPER nervous about that job because I know in the past this place was super toxic. But I think it could be OK because I'd be in a different unit each shift. I'm also concerned that my skills may not be up to par, as I've never worked in a Trauma hospital. Additionally, I'm unsure if six weeks of ICU training would be adequate for me to be competent and confident. BUT with the pay, bonus and only working 3 days a week, it appeals to me. It is about a 40 min. drive from home. Option #2 is Care Coordinator for a cancer center. Monday - Friday 8a-4:30p. No weekends, No holidays. I am not sure about the pay yet. I would assume standard base pay for an RN with my experience. No sign on bonus. Mostly talking with cancer patients and helping them navigate their treatment and keep them out of the hospital by triaging any issues they may be having. It would mostly be by phone, but I'd work in the office all 5 days. It is a 20 minute drive from home. I love a lot about this job, but 5 days a week really limits how much of my own time I would have. Option 1 - Comes with a high level of stress, great pay, bonus double the drive, 3 day work week, and would be a very active job. Option 2 - Comes with a low level of stress (comparatively), fair pay, no bonus, quick, easy drive, 5 day work week, no holidays or weekends and would be a more sedentary job. I have to work. Debt needs to be paid off. I have struggled in the past with working full-time. I get physically burnt out fast due to autoimmune issues. But I really don't have a choice at this time. Both jobs will be hard of me for different reasons. Please give me your wisdom.

Here is my advice: 1. Buy Perrla for APA formatting made VERY easy. Use the online version. It is super easy and it saves all your references so you can reuse them. 2. Directions are often vague. Always pull up the rubric to see what you need to do to get full points for an assignment. There were times that the rubric saved me from missing points for something stupid, like a specific title the instructor wanted. 3. I always do two classes at once. I make a sheet with all the assignments for the 5 weeks with both classes on ONE sheet. That way I can see ALL the assignments and due dates for both classes on one sheet. I then have a little box with M T W Th F S S and I circle what day I want to do every assignment. I spread it out through the week taking into consideration how busy I was. 4. If you have a discussion board, you will likely always have to respond to two peers. You cannot do them on the same day. So I usually do the discussion board really early in the week and the responses the very next day. The first post ALWAYS requires you cite the main text from the class and one other source. The response posts only require 1 reference and it can be from anywhere. 5. When looking for references, my NO FAIL method is to type into Google "ncbi" followed by the topic I want to search. It always gives me useable reference material. So if I wanted to find something on health disparities I would type in "ncbi health disparities". 6. I don't know why, but the classes taken during Summer session were much easier.

Nobody said this... why not declutter your house and sell of stuff on FB Marketplace, eBay, etc... It is basically a garage sale. If you must, sell in your husband's name.

I have worked in two ED's since I graduated in early 2018. The first ED was a great educational experience with strokes and cardiac arrests pretty regularly. I left that job because I was switched to nights and I could not function. Now I am at another ED that is almost like a glorified urgent care. Yes, we very occasionally get a stroke or cardiac arrest, but we honestly get a lot of n/v, urinary issues, sore throats, etc... I feel like I am not progressing in my nursing knowledge. If I ended up traveling, I feel like I would find myself in a lot of unfamiliar territory. Returning to my first ED job is not something that I can do. I kinda burned a bridge when I left because I have applied multiple times and they never call. There are two level 1 trauma centers within 1/2 hour drive from me. One of them is a no-go. A lot of friends have said they are doing major unsafe ratios and other issues. The second never seems to have any dayshift jobs. I could just start local travel and learn on the job. But I don't know if that is wise either. I want to learn more though. Any thoughts and recommendations?

ER Report Form.pdf

I am the major outlier here. I like to keep notes. I write as I interview initially. I keep the papers and then when a doc gives me a med or whatever, I write it down w/time. It helps me to know without having to log in. It also helps me keep things straight when asked questions from docs about something that happened who knows how long ago. ER Report Form.pdf

I am struggling financially with my current job. The potential is there to earn more, but it is really difficult to build my case load since they are constantly cutting my visit frequency and making me discharge my patients. SOCs take forever with the paperwork so I can only do so many per week in addition to my regular visits. It is super frustrating. The only real perk to this job is the company car and flexibility to work whenever I want. I did enjoy the ER, a lot. It was stressful, I am not going to lie. It was challenging and tiring but exciting and stimulating. It scares me to go back to 12s because I have gotten really used to being home by 4pm everyday. But the pay is consistent and the job is a lot more interesting. It is farther away and I don't have a good car of my own right now, so I'll have to buy one.

I am offered the 11a-11p position in the ER. That is guaranteed. The manager said he would cross-train me in the ICU so that I can pick up shifts there. He made it pretty clear that I can work the shift I want to work. In fact he said he didn't care if I chose 7a-7p, 11a-11p, or 3p-3a. Whatever I want is fine with him. I chose 11a-11p because that was the shift I worked when I was working the ER in 2018-April 2019. They switched me to nights and I quite a few weeks later. The 11a-11p shift was fine. I just really am concerned about 12s and leaving my kids. But my current job in home health is driving me nuts! They have made so many changes since January because of the recent medicare changes. Now we have to call in all our OASIS documents, sit on the phone while they are being looked at for no pay during that time. We also are losing patients because they want us to cut our frequencies and discharge which leads to more problems keeping my visits up and more documentation I have to call in. ?

My stats: 47y female. Graduated from nursing school (RN) May 2018. First job was ER Residency that I loved. I left after less than a year because of inability to transition to nights primarily. I secured a home health case manager position with tons of flexibility, company car, etc... Currently, I am very frustrated with this job. With recent medicare changes, my job has made it much more difficult to see and keep my patients as long as I had previously. I feel like I am always struggling to keep my patient count up without success. I am really having difficulty making enough money to keep up with my bills because of it. My other big issue is the skills I learned in the ER are not the same skills I need for this job. My agency doesn't train adequately and I turn down a lot of the more complicated patients because I don't feel comfortable on my own. I just haven't been a nurse long enough with enough varied skills. I was trained as an ER nurse which rarely dealt with colostomy bags, wound vacs, and such. I just feel inadequate so I usually take the easier patients. What I LOVE about this job is I have incredible flexibility to make my own schedule, no on-call, no holidays, no weekends. Anyhow, I was recently offered a position in the ER at a hospital about 30 minutes away from my house. The position is 11a-11p, weekends are Fri/Sat (no Sun), no on-call, plenty of generous crisis pay if I want to pick up a shift, 8 weeks of training to start and I would be cross-trained in the ICU. I CANNOT decide what to do. If I leave my current job, I will loose all the flexibility I absolutely love. I love being home with my family in the evenings. I love my patients. I love having a company car and working on my own everyday. I feel like a second-rate nurse though because my skills are not up to par. I have tried going in for additional training but it didn't really help because there are so many variables and when your in the field (alone) you will find you still don't know what to do. I also thought I could try really amping up my patient count, but I am not positive I'll be able to... or even if there are enough patients for me to do so. The ER job would be an amazing learning experience and resume builder. It would be exciting and I'd feel like a real nurse again. I'd build skills with other nurses around. But the environment would be long and exhausting. It would be far from home. I would have to miss holidays sometimes. Please give me your input on what I should do. Thank you! Home Health -Try for 40 visits a week to increase pay (currently only averaging about 27) -Work about 30-35 hrs = $1400 per week or $2800 every two weeks = $47/hr (averaged amount pay/hours spent working) PROS Flexible! Daylight Autonomy Lower Stress Time with family Car CONS Case Managing Constant paperwork Constant turnover ER JOB 36 hours with shift differential from 7p-11p $27.50/hr 8 hrs of/shift = $660 $29.50/hr 4 hrs/shift = $354 Total $1014 per week Potential Crisis Shift = $630 (Could pick up 1-2 per pay period) PROS Education Interesting Other nurses to get help/support from Super Career Move No On-call Easier to keep paychecks higher CONS Extremely high stress Loss of family time Stuck indoors Loss of flexibility Make less money per hours spent Have to buy a car

I do not, but the first semester is going to be on... Head-to-Toe check off Medication administration routes/methods ADPIE SBAR Learning how to write careplans using Orem's theory That should get you started. I recommend youtube if you are a visual learner. I love RegisteredNurseRN on youtube... also OSMOSIS and Kahn Academy Medical.

The reason we lose so many is because it is something you have to be 100% invested in. I had wonderful, smart classmates who failed because they didn't put the time into studying for the exams. They worked full time and tried to still have fun. You seriously have to study for hours upon hours for every exam. You'll also have skill check-offs that you have to memorize the order/content and how to do the skill correctly that you have to perform in front of an instructor. You get 3 chances to do it right but after the 3rd attempt you will fail the class. We lost a lot of people that way. I almost failed this semester for that very reason and I'm almost done with school. It was my own fault initially because I didn't study the check-off very well due to exams that week. My second attempt I failed because I had a different nurse checking me off who wanted it presented different than the first. My third attempt I passed but it was EXTREMELY UPSETTING and nerve wracking to get to a point so close to failure. Here is the lesson to take away from that... ALWAYS take all assignments seriously, don't wait till the last minute to study, and don't expect it to always be fair. You are going to have to work and work hard to pass but it will be worth it in the end.