marybethm

You'll want to know how they work the staffing, how many nurses there are. What happens when a camper has to be taken to the ER or for a doctor appt. Who takes them and in what vehicle. When is your time off? Who orders the supplies? Do you have a fridge? Where do sick campers sleep? Do they have standing orders?

I am a former ER nurse who has worked for several years at a summer camp. I've worked with many different nurses and frankly feel that the ER prepares you the best for camp nursing. If you get a camp job, you have nothing to worry about. You will be completely prepared for anything that happens, moreso than any other specialty nurse. Good luck.

In my 24 years as a nurse I have worked overseas, I've worked in the hospital setting (ER, med surg and CCU) it was great when my kids were little and I could work nights or pm's, as a school nurse, been a camp nurse (where I got to take my kids for free) and agency nurse. I don't know any other career that offers this kind of diversity. I have learned so much from nursing. I would absolutely recommend nursing to my daughter....there's NOTHING like a good nurse.

You don't have to know everything before you get to an ER...you just have to be willing to learn. I worked in an ER for ten years and it changed my life. You become much more confident, develop great decision-making skills and don't mind being vocal. It has served me well for every phase of my life and I think in every other job I've had since, I've been a much better nurse due to my ER experience. School nurse, camp nurse, Public Health nurse. It's the best teacher I could ever have had. NICU is great but has a much narrower focus. I would just go for what interests you the most...you don't have to be an expert before you go in...you learn as you go. I took a trauma class years ago at Cook County Trauma Unit in Chicago which was pretty well-known at the time for it's excellence and they liked to hire new grads so they could train them their way. So don't worry about being a new grad. Just want to learn everything you can and you'll be fine.

Loved the earlier poster who remembered the date and the bp...1982! Now we should have a thread with the highest blood alcohol levels of ER patients. We used to take bets when one would come in, especially if it was one of our regulars who we knew tolerated a LOT of alcohol. Or the lowest Hematocrit. A comment often heard in our ER (and many others, I'm sure) was, "This isn't even compatible with life!"

Very thoughtful post. I think that's a great place to start---what are units who are keeping their nurses doing? I will bet dollars to doughnuts that it has to do with two things. Their coworkers and management. Do they all get along? Are they supported by management? It's like war--the young men who fight say they are fighting for America but I believe they are fighting for their brothers in arms. They don't even know it but the Army knows it. I am still good friends with nurses I have worked with on certain units from 25, 30 years ago...units where we all got along and even though we worked harder than I ever have before or since, we had fun and supported one another. If you don't have that, you don't have anything and you're not going to retain anyone, unless it's those working for a pension, tuition payment, nurse manager position or to meet some MD and marry him. I still remember one job, years ago, in an ER where the head nurse talked baby talk to her favorites, and acted like she was the queen and everyone was there to carry out her wishes. It was the unhappiest ER I was ever in and unbelievable that someone like that could be in charge. I lasted about two weeks. Sure, some nurses have specific goals, and work to achieve them. But many of us are just getting from day to day, getting married, raising a family, paying bills and just want a good place to work while life happens. We're open to different units, different areas, different jobs. The basics are important, though: decent pay, decent benefits. Then there are the intangibles like decent coworkers, being treated like an adult and respect from management? That's where you find nurses staying.

Hospital nursing, like many labor-intensive jobs, is a young nurse's job in my opinion. And nursing is one career that offers so many opportunities for the different stages in a nurse's life that a person would be a fool not to take advantage of them all. It's the greatest job in the world, I think. I have worked as an float in all dept. of the hospital when I was a student, overseas as a young single nurse, in the ER and CCU for ten years, then part time nights as a young mother. I took a few years off and went back as a school nurse so I have summers and holidays off. I also worked as a camp nurse so I could take my kids for free. It's a great life, but hospital nursing is still the hardest job I've ever had. You can only do it for so long.

This is a perfect example of nursing eating it's young. The eggheads in the ivory tower have been torturing themselves for YEARS with the thoughts of all the incompetent ADN's running around, endangering lives. Too bad. I think they should just get over it and stick to the important issues. Like how to get more nurses, period. How to keep them. How to get hospitals to pay them what they deserve and mandating a fair patient load.

There are probably a million reasons why nurses leave hospital nursing. The reasons I left were: increasing acuity of patients and decreasing number of nurses. I never worked so hard, with such complicated patients, in my life. The stress is never-ending. Then add the weekends and holidays, shift rotation and doctors who are pompass jerks and managers who think you never do enough and you have a recipe for unhappy staff.

You have to decide what kind of person you are. Then you know what is right for you to do.

How about the term "train wreck". Does any other ER nurse use this term? Very technical.

I think rude is rude is rude and some people would be rude no matter. If it wasn't your degree, it would be your choice of car or where you live or the color of your hair. By the way, I got my two year degree 28 years ago and have worked overseas, in an ER, night shift when my kids were little, as a camp nurse (with free tuition for my kids) for two summers on the east coast, clinic nurse, school nurse (best job in the world but not enough money) and now am working as a "consultant". Not bad mileage from a little ol' two year degree. But I still wish I had a BSN which I am going to start next year. Just because I know I can, not because of what anyone else says. I think nursing is the greatest career in the world and can be adapted to any stage of a woman's life. Or man's. A good nurse is worth her weight in gold.

In the ER, you will learn about all different adult injuries and illnesses, especially if your employer wants you to take advantage of workshops and seminars out there. Your veteran nurses will be able to mentor you as well. In my experience the area of nursing expertise which is the least common and therefore the most valuable is labor and delivery as well as pediatrics---mainly infants and newborns. The nurses who work in L and D, and peds must stay there forever because I rarely met one in the ER. You'll always find an ex-CCU, SICU or med-surg nurse in the ER and it's great to have that expertise available, but nurses that know how to care for a precipitously born baby in distress or a woman about to give birth are about as common as hen's teeth.

If I have to call a doctor "Dr. so-and-so", then he must call me Nurse so-and-so. Nursing has very long and deeply-entrenched tradition of being the doctor's handmaiden and all that. It's a female-dominated field, and females still often think they need to be polite and not rock the boat. It's a hard thing to do. But I believe it's important. Respect is one thing, but subservience is a whole 'nother bag of worms.

What a great question. I also hated working with "I say jump--you say how high" docs. I found a great job, but the pay isn't so hot. It's school nursing. I worked at different schools and am my own boss. It was my favorite job after ER nursing, but in the ER there were those pesky docs who were jerks...not all of them but enough to make you hate it. I did school nursing for four years but had to quit this year to make some real money. Camp nursing is also a lot of fun but it's important to pick a good camp, and not everyone is able to do it. My personal opinion is that if you ever work in the ER for more than a couple of years and you pay attention, learn to be observant and ask questions, you will be so good you can work anywhere. ER nurses are the smartest, funniest, fastest and know how to throw a great party.

Something I learned at camp last year...many docs do not give Pepto Bismol to kids due to it containing aspirin. I guess it's the virus connection. I do not give it any longer, either. Also, I think the best preparation for camp nursing is ER nursing. I worked ER for ten years and good assessment skills, which is what you need when you have no doctor. My co-workers had no ER experience and were really good at organizing and paperwork. We made an excellent team, if I do say so.

To my co-workers,"Another one bites the dust..." Gallows humor, I guess.

My only advice to new grads would be to listen and observe. Think like a detective. Watch your patients, listen and don't talk too much. Same goes for staff....listen to the people you feel are smart...like nurses, doctors and aides. You can learn a lot more from them than you did in school. I believe most of nursing is on-the-job-training.

I agree with everyone else. There is NO excuse for the care that was not taken to treat your uncle's body with respect. I would raise the roof on this one. You have every right. Someone (or three) should apologize to your family.

I know that a lot of the top trauma centers prefer new grads so they can teach them from square one....and don't have to "unlearn" them. I personally think that it's great to have certain experience---like peds or esp. newborns or L and D--areas that are very specialized and not a lot of ER nurses know too much about. But being a new grad is good too. I think the most important thing is that you have a passion for the job. I loved my ER days more than any other job I've had (except the one as a waitress in an Italian Restaurant where the pizza guys were just so darn cute).

Sometimes we can witness things that we don't understand, and possibly won't for years, until you have more experience and knowledge. Maybe if you write it all down and put it away for awhile, looking at it months or even years from now. Not that you'll forget it, but details will be missing unless you write it down. This kind of traumatic event will be rattling around in your brain for a long long time. You did the best you could at the time. You have nothing to feel bad about. Even if that other nurse was a seasoned ER nurse, you can bet your bottom dollar she was unnerved as well as you---when she got there she was alone and had none of the fancy ER equipment or co-workers to help her. You both did the best you could. I would assume that was the truth and leave it at that. And say a prayer for the poor husband.

We just had this problem at my camp. We found three girls with lice on incoming camper day. One girl was not too bad, but the other two were sisters and were absolutely loaded. All three girls said their moms had treated them and thought they were clear. I was willing to treat the first one, but then when the other two came up, I knew it was too much. Perhaps they felt the same way at your camp. I simply did not have the time that is needed to do a thorough job. We called the parents and they begged us to take care of it. Fortunately the directors were able to find someone who could spend the SEVEN hours it took to treat all three of them. I don't know what they paid her, but I hope it was a lot. We rechecked all three of them after 7 days and again 3 days later and all were clear. Thank God. They were nice girls who would have had to go home.

I would not let the kids call home---you're right---it never works, it only makes it worse. The only thing I know of that works is keeping them busy and happy. And with the littler kids, when one is homesick, they all start crying...it's like dominoes. In one cabin at my camp, all the little kids (boys) cried every night for the first three days. There were 10 of them. What a nightmare. But the counselors were great and they got over it and had a great time.

This must be a fairly common problem; I see it everywhere. At my camp, except for incoming camper days, I have no control over the forms that are filled out or not filled out. The directors know some families very well, but if they don't have consents signed, I do not give over the counter meds. I will give first aid, such as cleaning wounds, icepacks, bandaids or water for dehydrations etc, but no meds, not even a cough drop. I have no email or phone either, but if the owners can't get the parents to mail/email something, or I can't get a verbal consent over the phone, the camper is out of luck. It amazes me how parents from Spain, Mexico or France, can send their child thousands of miles away, to another COUNTRY, without the proper forms.

My two older kids had the illness (chicken pox), so for them it was a moot point. But my youngest, who is now 9, didn't. It was a dilemma and I held out in kindergarten even though it's required, but I caved in 1st grade and he got the shot. I wish I didn't, but it's not due to concerns about shot safety. It's because when he's 40 and I'm gone, who's going to make him get his booster? Also, even if you've gotten the shot, you can still come down with a mild form of the disease, so what's the point? But the main reason I had him get the shot was to avoid shingles as an adult--that disease is so painful!