Returning RN

I'm a new grad currently in orientation and I just want to say congratulations on your new nursing position!

Sounds like you have a great orientation....it's longer than mine!!

Best of luck to you.

You're story is similar to mine. I graduated in 5/97 and never worked as a nurse, chose to stay home with my daughter who I just adopted after graduation instead. I did do some medical transcription for a year and a half which I could do out of my home, but that was all. You probably heard the first year is the toughest, so I figured in my situation it would be even tougher and it is. I took a reentry course even though I had studied so much on my own I passed the boards to get my license in 11/04 and passed with 75 questions. It was after that I took a reentry course as I really did not feel ready to work on a floor. So much has changed. The cost was about $2,000.00 but I'm now working at the hospital that offered the course and will be reimbursed in December. I'm 41 and work with a lot of mid-20ish girls. They are amazingly immature and it can be tough. I don't have a problem working with younger people, but the attitudes are terrible. They know EVERYTHING yet some have only a year or two of experience. You probably get that regardless where you work. I do however, find things extremely stressful and do not enjoy my job. I was thinking about getting a year behind me on the med-surg floor and then do some work in a SNF, but am unsure. I really want to work 12 hour shifts. My nurse mgr doesn't like to hire new nurses for 12 hour shifts, yet I've been asked to work extra sometimes and LOVE it when it turns into a 12 hour shift. I just put in a request for this and just need to meet up with the nurse mgr to discuss it further. If I got my 12 hour shifts, I couldn't imagine leaving....just two 12's a week and every other weekend would give me 32 hours/week and I'd be considered full-time. How can you beat that? Keep in touch and let me know how you're doing? We could support each other as I haven't found too many of us in our situations!! TAke care and good luck to you.

I think it would be great to keep in touch I am starting on monday the 17th and will be in a general hospital orientation for that week then I get to go to my floor on the 24th. My nurse manager is VERY flexible on the hours! I was hired for 3 -12's but asked for a 40 hour week so she asked me if i wanted 2-8s and 2 12's so i said yay.. If it gets to crazy i'll just go back to 3 12's. Do you work at a magnet hospital ? The nurses at my hospital (I'm already calling it mine LOL ) self schedule and do not rotate shifts or units. there is no mandatory overtime either. I just hope i'm ready I mean my manager knows of my absence from nursing almost 9 years and she assured me of the great orientation that the hospital offers sooo...

I did buy one of those PDA thingamajigs. and I bout the RN Notes to carry around with me so we'll see.. there are so many things we can do with our degree if things don'tm turn out at the hospital.

My situation in similar to yours. I also graduated as an RN in 1996. After I graduated I went to work at a board of MR/DD as an Early Intervention Specialist. I did that for two years and the the state opened up home health for medically fragile kids to independent providers. I got my IP provider number and started doing home health on my own. In this position I was completely independent. I had to observe the guidelines the state set forth but other than that I was all on my own. I had to devise my own system of documentation, formats for plans of care, plans of treatments, and to get all my own orders from the appropriate doctors. I also had to do all my own billing on the HCFA 1500 forms. I usually billed medicaid but sometimes I had to bill insurance companies. Believe me, getting payment at times from insurance companies was difficult. In this job, over the course of 6 years I took care of about 4 or 5 different kids. Most of the time I just had one patient and did shift work. At times I had more than one overlap but mostly I just had one patient at a time. Anyway, this was a great way to do nursing. One on one with a child with special needs. I became very familiar and very adept at taking care of specific problems with each child. And believe me, the patients I had were very different for what one might usually run into in the hospital setting. Anyway, I did this and early intervention for too long after graduation from nursing school. Recently I decided to jump into hospital nursing.....my first 6 months I did in OB at a wonderful hospital in a different state. I worked there for about 8 months....I had a wonderful orientation with very understanding and competent preceptors. I did L & D and postpartum. Dusting off the cobwebs and coming up to speed was an awesome task since I had never worked in a hospital before and my skills were what I had learned in school years ago...and limited procedures I had done on the children I had taken care of in home health. I mean, suctioning trach tubes to clear mucous plugs and giving g-tube feeds doesn't translate very well to OB. I guess suctioning slightly applies since newborns sometimes have to be suctioned to removed meconium...but really, I came into the hospital very green. Well anyway, the group of nurses in this Oklahoma hospital took me under their wings and helped me to get up on my feet as a hospital/OB nurse. Since I only did it for 8 months I only got a taste of it but my confidence as a hospital nurse was blossoming.

Then I had to move. I moved back to Ohio and decided to med/surg at the hospital that is in the small town I live in instead of driving a fair distance to continue with OB. I have been doing med/surg for 6 months now. It's been another huge transition. Can anyone say STRESS! All I can say is this...it's been a challenge. My preceptors have been fairly good but the work is most of the times grueling....running for 12 hours straight just trying to keep up with all of the work and various problems that come up during a shift. Some of the staff are pleasant and helpful but most are either neutral or just downright nasty. I don't know what it is with nurses...I thought we were supposed to be in a CARING profession. Anyway the support of a new nurse on my med/surg unit is less than optimal and probably about half the time downright ugly. I'm sticking it out because I want the experience under my belt. I want to be able to say I did it. I get enough support from a select few nurses to make it tolerable. I know that I provide good care to my patients and they appreciate what I do for them. I will never be one of those nurses that pick on their young or inexperienced. When I've been in the trenches for years, I will remember this experience and always be supportive of new grads and nurses returning to the ranks after hiatus. For now, I'll just keep plugging along and try and not let a few nasty nurses ruin it for me.

Congratulations and welcome back! :)