RN416

Does anyone have any general guidelines on when to call a doctor? I know it seems like a basic nursing skill but I still have difficulty deciding when to call and when not to. We have such sick patients with multiple comorbidities like heart disease,...

I'm a fairly new nurse struggling with critical thinking and being detail oriented. I'm working on trying to notice details and small changes in a patient's condition and feel like I'm improving at it. But the struggle that comes with that is, when I...

Thank you all so much for your helpful replies!!

Thank you all for your advice! ?

Hello, I have a patient going through chemo/RT for head and neck cancer who is not eating and losing a ton of weight because food tastes horrible. I've tried giving this pt recipes for different high calorie smoothies and other things but the pt say...

I'd love to hear from some hospice nurses about the pros and cons of this field, and your experiences with it. I have home health and oncology experience, which I think are probably good experiences to help ease the transition to hospice nursing. I l...

Thank you all for your responses! How were you able to transition from having a curative perspective to having a palliative care outlook? Have you guys been fulfilled as hospice nurses even though you can't help your patients get better?

I was burned out after a year of working in the hospital, and honestly I feel like I could have written your exact post two years ago. My solution was to get out. I worked in home health for a year, and now I'm working in a cancer clinic. I'm so much...

There are some things I like better, and some things that I miss about bedside. I love the consistent schedule of a clinic, M-F 9-5, never any weekends, holidays, or call. I love only having one patient I'm responsible for at a time, instead of 5-6 l...

I have a question for all you radiation oncology nurses. How does your facility manage side effects of treatment, such as burning to the rectal/perineal area from rectal cancer treatment, or mucositis/mouth and throat pain from head and neck radiatio...

That is very helpful! Thank you for your detailed response!

So, I have had two different patients' family ask me this week about if they'll survive cancer treatment. Both patients have been on treatment for a while and they were both not tolerating treatment as well as they were when they first started. I was...

Hello all, I was hoping to hear from some nurses who work or have worked as an RN in an oncology physician practice. I have an interview at a large cancer center for a position in the MD's offices, and I have never worked in a doctor's office before....

What is a typical shift like in a medical ICU? What types of patients/diagnoses do you see? Is it more or less stressful than a med/surg floor? Any insight appreciated... Considering looking for a job in the ICU at some point in my career and I don't...

I'm a home health nurse looking into hospice nursing. I was just wondering how it compares to home health, other than the obvious difference that hospice is focused on comfort and home health is focused on healing. For people who have worked both, wh...

I am in a similar situation and have had similar doubts as you... I am also under 25 but I am not a hospice nurse, I work in home health. I LOVE home health and like you, I was burned out after just one year in the hospital and frustrated that I coul...

I have a year of experience in inpatient oncology and I am Chemo and OCN certified. Currently working in home health. Two years of experience as an RN total. Hated the inpatient setting but loved the oncology part of the job. I've applied to outpatie...

I am a home health nurse and I've found that I really love the wound care aspect of my job. I love education and to me wound care is the perfect combination of clinical nursing skills combined with patient education. I'm thinking about becoming WOCN ...

I've been a nurse for 2 years, my first year was in a hospital and after a year I moved to home health. I still sometimes feel like I don't know what I'm doing. My preceptor at the hospital (who has precepted many new grad nurses) said that it usuall...

I really miss it too. I've been out of the hospital setting for 9 months and I want to go back. My husband thinks I'm crazy because he remembers how miserable I was due to the stress of my unit constantly being understaffed yet having such high acuit...

I live in a semi-rural area, but the closest big city is 45min-1hr away and the commute wouldn't be too bad. I'm just curious as to what are some perks of working in a big city hospital compared to a smaller, more rural area hospital? Other than bett...

I am having trouble with the autonomy as a home health nurse. Particularly, if a patient has a problem, knowing whether to educate/monitor or call the doctor or send to ER. It seems like I have to make a lot of decisions because I'm the only one seei...

Hi everyone. Home health nurse here, used to work in hospital. I love taking care of people and helping people but I can't handle patients and families taking out their stress on me. I'm an extremely sensitive person. I understand that when people's ...

Hey everyone. I'm new at home health (less than 6 months) and I'm struggling with discharges and recerts, specifically how to make the decision whether to discharge or recert when the patient's certification period ends. Obviously if the patient has ...

Thank you so much, this is very helpful!