moldyoldyrn

Not going to really give you an answer but just a few thoughts. 1-the rehab job lets you set a schedule that fits your family now. If you take it then you have time to learn more as an RN and simply delay for a little time moving to a more challenging job without disrupting your family. 2- the ICU job is really attractive, high learning curve, lots going on, the excitement of the work and the interest in learning and doing. But would the ICU job add stress to an already stressful situation and, as a new RN, might that impact your family even more? My only feeling, and I do not think you would be wrong in either job, is to stabilize your family situation and work outwards from there. You do not want to be on a job that makes demands on your time and energy that you cannot handle. There are a plethora of exciting, challenging jobs out there that will still be there in a year or two. One thing you can always do is move into different jobs in nursing. Besides in a couple of years your family situation may change and give you more latitude. I worked with many new RNs and they found where we worked unexciting, we worked Hospice and Palliative care. I always told them work here to fulfill your requirement of two Years on the job before moving, go to every class and CEU course you can find on your area of interest. Take courses on Diabetes, Heart disease, Neurology, Communicable Disease, you name it, take it. Then when you have been on the job 18 months start applying to transfer to all the different medical or surgical units. Once you get the transfer, do the same thing with the classes and after about a year start applying for ICUs or other specialty areas like GI procedures, Clinics or what ever trips your trigger. The classes and education will only help you and it makes a big difference in your self image and confidence. The classes while working on specific units also help you incorporate book knowledge into the care of the patient in front of you. Whatever you decide, and I do not think either area would be a wrong choice, I hope you find a good place to work and have great success.

Who uses pens any more with computerized medical records? I am sure there are a few places that have written records but so few. Why not a meal break, provided by the facility, you know pizza or sandwiches? I have thrown away so many "gifts", pens, pill cases, coffee mugs, badge holders. Most of them were junk anyway.

Why not just offer your sincerest apologies? Would be easy to ignore her and just go on about business. I often wonder if people who say things like that realize how Unprofessional is sounds and is. Met some like that in my practice. They never had an original idea, only read from the script. They were, however real good at taking staff ideas and presenting them as their own. Unfortunately they were ineffective, they only did what upper management told them to do and ignored problems at a lower level. That meant the staff pretty much had to solve their own problems the best they could with out any help or resources. Sort of a worthless position in the scheme of things. Toothless tiger?

RNs are so under valued especially in schools. Kids need a nurse, so may kids have terrible home lives and RNs can only help them. We need more.

Just like so many places that serve populations no one wants to deal with, understaffed to the max. No one cares if you work yourself to death and no one cares if the patients get any kind of care. Despite what most people think if someone in any facility complains you have to address it and do something about it. If you do not and there is a negative outcome then it is a failure to rescue. No RN can fail to address complaints in any setting. Yes it is a pain especially when you know that the chronic complainers take advantage but you cannot let the complaints go. And to the person who called prisoners "scum of the earth", regardless of feeling towards felons, every one in this country is entitled to health care. I found it counter productive to make value judgements about anyone. Certainly prisons would not be a place for that person but keep a professional perspective. I cared for some felons that were discharged from prison because they were terminally ill and the prison did not find them a threat anymore. The staff I worked with provided good, compassionate care to those people even though we knew they had robbed, killed or done some other horrible thing. It is the essence of nursing to do what ever you can for the person in front of you and not judge them. I know when we cared for the felons their families were always grateful that we cared for them in a professional and competent manner. I had more than one family member hug me and tell me that they appreciated my kindness and professionalism to the felon and to the family. If they can recognize it then it's OK with me. No one says we have to be saints but no one says we have to judge others for their bad choices, that part, the judging is not in my job description, I leave that to a higher power.

I had a wide range of reactions when EMS was called to various facilities that I worked in. I called EMS for transport on a lady having chest pains and the fire trucks and everyone responded. They listened to her and to us and had the best attitude ever. Yes she was in her 80's but chest pain is chest pain and should be treated. After all DNR does not mean DO NOT TREAT. Then I worked in a rehab place attached to a hospital, if we had any emergency we had a fight on our hands. We were not covered by MDs at night, only by phone. The MD gave the order to send the patient to the ER and then the fun began. We were yelled at, demeaned, held up in ridicule, told we did not know what we were doing. One night we had a hemodyalsis pt come out of his room and his access had blown a hole in it and was spurting blood with every beat of his heart. My fellow RN and I put him in a wheelchair, as one of us applied pressure and held the arm up the other pushed the wheelchair as fast as we could go to the ER on the other side of the compound. The RN that met us berated us and told us we should have been able to take care of that. This was at 3 AM mind you. Thank God for the resident who stepped in and said "they could not do anything for him, he needs emergency intervention." I wanted to kiss him. I would say in my history the reactions have been mixed and highly variable. I do think it is better now than it was. There are some newer EMTs and RN in emergency rooms who see the world a little different. The nurse that talked down to us at that 3AM sprint was disciplined for what she said as she said it in earshot of the patient. He was blind but not deaf.

Good old med-surg is hard and tough. After you have worked med-surg I think you get more organized and it teaches you about coordinating care, setting priorities, the sort of thing that everyone needs. Nothing negative about wanting ICU and yet why pass up what might be a good experience? Where I worked they brought new nurses in usually to a rehab unit where they learned the computer systems and the routines, after 6 months to a year it was expected that they would move to a med-surg unit, telemtry, neurology, for 1-2 years and then they could go to any ICU they wanted, neuro, cardiac, medical or surgical. Most of the RNs I ever worked with appreciated the broad experience they got this way. I started out on Pediatrics, and PICU, neonatal. Where I worked then they had 4 Pediatric units, Medical under age 3, Surgical under age 3, Medical age 3-16 and Surgical age 3-16 in addition to PICU. I worked them all and was so glad I did. If you concentrate only on one area you miss out on some tremendous opportunities and experiences. Besides if you work on a unit where you transfer patients in and out it helps to know what some of the other units experience when a transfer comes in. I worked on one med-surg unit that took primarily Renal and Aids patients in the late 1980's. We got so many transfers from the ICU that hit our floor and died. They had been made a DNR prior to transfer but when you get someone like that who passes as you are pushing their bed into place it hurts the relationship with the family. At least in my experience it sort of pushes the patient out the door without a care for their situation. If someone who is from the transfering unit knows how things like this impact staff and families then you have a little more empathy for the people involved and can apply that to decisions you make and the kind of care you give. I know that ICUs now retain more people who are close to death but there are still places that push them push them out of the door. You got to think about the whole, big picture and maybe a little experience helps that.

I would check out with the other students and find out if there are others in your situation. If there are and these changes are causing a problem for all of you then take yourselves, all of you and present your concerns to the school and ask for help from them to remedy the situation. If there are enough of you is key here but even if it's not the entire student body they need to listen to your concerns and how the changes are affecting you all. If there are not enough of you to do the above then I would start looking for a program that will accommodate your needs. It seems to be a bad situation, the school should think of students when they make changes but still I think a heart-to-heart with the Dean of the school ought to be in order regardless of how you have to handle it. In this day and age there are many RNs who are trying to get their BSN and they cannot be ignored, schools have to consider the fact that many of them are working and financially responsible for families. The nurse who has no attachments/responsibilities is a thing of long ago. Besides we need these nurses and we need BSN nurses.

Seek help and depending on the state you are in you may be able to claim against workers comp. It's called a stress claim and you have to prove the reaction you are experiencing is related to the incident. Sounds simple but can difficult to prove. Sort of has to be a "blam" this happened and now I have problems like sleep disturbance, PTSD-like responses, anxiety, depression, etc.. But get help at a minimum, there are many counselors and MDs who specialize in such things.

The last patient I had on a Clinitron was a young diabetic who was in renal failure and was broken down from waist to foot. She wanted to live so bad but had never cared for herself the way she should have. But we took good care of her. Unfortunately the Clinitron was her life, she never made it out of the thing. It is a terrible memory for me because all of the staff I worked with tried so hard for her. The bed made her life a little easier and our work a little easier but it was a hard case to deal with. I hope I never see another one, I am sure they went the way of the world.

Amen. I worked with some who "hung out" while I worked and intervened with their patients because there was a need. I will not let a patient be neglected, ever. I was considered hard nosed because I said anything to the new RNs. They could have come to me asked me for help and not dumped on me and the patients. What really scares me is that they might be taking care of me sometime and then we might go head to head. How do you go to an MD's office or NP school when you have never worked a med-surf floor? How do you prioritize, how do you know the chain of command, what do you do in an emergency(throw up your hands and call a code.?). All RNs are not equal. I like the ones who stick their noses in and put the proverbial foot down, but you got to learn that.

I spent 43 years stomping the halls doing direct care, doing clinical education and caring directly for patients. I tried admin and fled, yes fled back to direct care. I have a BSN and Masters and am retired now due to orthopedic issues that stop me from "stomping" anywhere. If I could I would be back at it. I loved working directly with patients, managing care, planning, working through problems, tapping into the wider medical community to help people. It was a blast, I worked all over the country, had some beautiful, special experiences. I think some RNs need to get out of themselves, stop focusing on the minutae of their lives and what social activity they are going to after work and hone in on what is important. Sometimes when you do that all the social opportunities and personal worries take care of themselves. There are so many opportunities in nursing it's mind boggling. You can do anything but you got to want to get it. I married, raised two kids on my own because my husband died. Nursing gave me the flexibility of schedule and the salary I needed to raise them up, send them to school and get them independent. One is a University Administrator the other is an EMT/fireman. Both HELP PEOPLE in their own ways. I'd call that success. My daughter the administrator even says, "you did good for a mom working night shift for 20 years". You gotta want it and do whatever it takes to get it.

Being with only those like myself is very boring. Diversity is the core of creativity and richness in life. I will not live in a world nor a place that is not diverse. I love all the opportunity and newness that meeting different people brings. Neil Diamond had a song that spoke of the "the beautiful noise", that is what makes life interesting. All the noise and clamor, the different smells, foods, accents, colors that can be found. As an RN I took care of who ever rolled through the door. I met some of the most interesting people ever. It was always a great experience.

I have always maintained that one should ACT like a Nurse rather than "look like a Nurse". After all anyone can buy scrubs or white costumes at a costume store. What matters is that we perform like a nurse. Telling people what you are and having a big RN on your name tag speaks loudly enough. Wearing a costume not so much, you gotta have the soul of the the Nurse to do the work of a Nurse. It takes so much more than what you wear.

In a word NO.