Quick Interview with an RN

53 female

I work in Intensive Care and Infusion Therapy

In ICU, I take care of critically ill patients...everything from trauma to neuro to vascular patients...sepsis patients...most all are on ventilators.

In IV Therapy, I work for a Doctor part time....I infuse Remicade and Orencia in the dr. office...two days a week...

In my ICU job, I am a staff nurse...I sometimes do charge nursing...but prefer to not do so...I like just taking care of my patients.

In my IV Therapy job, I am the only nurse...so if I get sick or can't be there, it's a PROBLEM!

I graduated from a co-partnership nursing school program with Stanford and University of the State of New York Regent's Program....

B.A. Music; Associate Applied Science Nursing; CRNI;

My first job as an RN was in a small community hospital in Oregon...the whole hospital had about 50 beds...med-surg unit....I started at a whopping $12.00 per hour and thought I had died and gone to heaven!

The most memorable day in my nursing career was: (this is a hard question for me....there have been so many!!), when a patient I had cared for for over two months...went to rehab...then came back to hug me and thank me for saving his life...when a doctor I worked with said, "you're damn good!!" when I got an IV line in on a crashing patient;....when one of my patients was in tears when transferred off the unit to another and said, "I am crying because I cannot take you with me."....when my dying patient smiled when I whispered into her ear, "it's okay...you are going home to heaven now...and I will be here with you until you take your final steps."

My grandmother....she was a midwife.....and she inspires me to this day...eventhough she's been deceased for many years.

Forget most of what you learn in nursing school....your real learning begins and continues everyday of your life from here on out.

I would want to change the carnivore mentality that nurses sometimes have for one another....I would like to see a de-briefing program for nurses in facilities where they can go and let down their hair and work through the issues of their day....so they don't keep carrying it day to day...and they don't take it home with them....I would like to see hospitals offer better working conditions and invest in staff retention programs, rather than spending millions on marketing themselves as a top 100 this or that hospital...

Hope this helps....

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it!