soooo...anyway....

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2005

I'm coming up on my last semester and am still without an OR experience. I'm working on a tele floor. I kind of like telemetry but only just kind of. I need something more exciting; something paced a little quicker. As a second per diem position, I was just hired as a nurse intern for SICU (a lucky break I think). Now critical care is something I think I can sink my teeth into. I'm still in the pre-employment phase so I really can't comment on actual experience but I'll let y'all know.

kristen38 · Jun 3, 2005

I love mental health nursing. I thought that I would hate it, but I just finished my clinical in an acute unit, and I can't wait to get back there for my pre-grad.

Kristen

kirbi · Jun 3, 2005

My goal is PICU at a regional Children's Hospital, even though it will mean an 80 mile commute. I also plan to go over to Africa for two years after I have experience under my belt. I haven't had my Peds rotation yet. I do that this fall and I am hoping it goes well or else I may have to reconsider my plans. Thank goodness I will have this opportunity before I become too committed.

My backup plan is easy though. I love working with the LOL's. I worked as a resident assistant in an assisted living home and absolutely fell in love with the elderly folks there. For me, it was like caring for 18 grandmas and grandpas and I told them that. I loved them and they loved me. It was a good fit. I never realized I had so much patience for incontinence and senility and helping with those at the end of life was very rewarding to me.

I feel reassured to know that if one niche doesn't fit there is another one that I already know will be there for me.

kirbi

Stitchie · Jun 3, 2005

It's great to see the enthusiasm and excitement from GN's. I am amazed at the variety of chosen units. Some of you are going where I'd never consider.

When I graduated a couple of years ago, half the class wanted to do peds or L&D to 'play with the babies'. Peds scared me silly.

I wanted ER :uhoh21: because I liked the pace.

BROOK9960 · Oct 13, 2005

I am 34 years old and I just got my colostomy in june of 2005. this was done with the hope that it would be reversible because I was born with an emperforated orifice and no sphincter muscle. I had a gracilis transposition done sept 8th and it failed and I almost died from blood poisoning (i can't spell tonite for some reason). yesterday i found out that i have to keep my colostomy the rest of my life. when i first got it done, i was so depressed. i felt like an alien and my husband still has a really hard time accepting it. i have known a couple of people who just gave up when they got theirs and they died soon after. now i am used to it, and i actually love the fact that i can go anywhere i want and not worry about messing myself. before i could not go anywhere that did not have a bathroom within a few feet of me. now i can do anything i want! the only thing i hate is the fact that it is rare to take a shower and not wind up with feces in the tub, but i am getting used to sanitizing my tub everyday! i am starting lpn school in the fall of 2006 and i too want to specialize in ostomy care because i know how i felt and feel and i want to help others in the same boat. so if you have learned how to go about this, would you e-mail me at [email protected] ? I would really appreciate any help you could give me. thank you, from missouri

All_Smiles_RN · Oct 13, 2005

I had my heart set on peds before I started nursing school. Now I realize I'm just too emotional for it... I would cry when I got home after clinicals because it hurt so bad to see a child in pain.

I thought OB would be horrible, but I really liked it. Fostering bonding between parent and child... teaching new parents about caring for their children... assessing the well being of the newborn... making sure mom is comfortable after one heck of an experience! It just seems like a perfect fit for me.

Case management seems like an interesting position as well. Being able to see care through from admittance to making sure it continues after discharge... That kind of embodies what I have always wanted to do as a nurse.

That being said, I think I will start out on a med-surg floor for a year or two to get some solid nursing experience. I just don't want to jump right into a specialty and limit my options down the road. So we shall see. :)

Never_too_late · Oct 13, 2005

PICU! PICU! PICU!!!!!!

I've been working in that unit as a part-time patient care attendant for the last year. I did most of th eother hospital units (except ER) before that. I don't really want to be anywhere else.

They are waiting for me (nursing shortages strike again!) so I can't wait for next july to come around.

N_T_L

Mommy TeleRN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

brook..thank you for sharing your feelings on your colostomy bag. I am doing clinicals in a med surg floor and so far have not had a pt with a colostomy so I don't know much about how they work. Do you actually empty it or throw it away and replace with a clean bag? I'm sorry to sound so dumb but we haven't studied GI yet and as I said I haven't had a pt with one yet. Is it the same stool you would produce if you didn't have a bag or is it at a different stage? I have been curious about how these work so that when I get a pt with one I won't be totally clueless!

Thanks!

LeesieBug · Oct 14, 2005

I haven't hound my "niche" yet...don't think i will until I have actually worked as a nurse for a while.

I am graduating in May and cannot believe that I am going to work in the area I said I would NEVER work in...Med/Surg:rotfl:

Somewhere along the way it grew on me a bit, and I started to agree with all those experienced nurses out there who say it is a great place to start to get the basics down and get lots of experience with a wide variety of health problems (good heavens, I think I am crossing over).

Never say never, huh?

BROOK9960 · Oct 14, 2005

There are soooo many different types of ostomy bags out there! I prefer the disposable because I am diabetic and I find that using bags I have to clean out always wind up sticky and it is not cleanable, no matter what you use. I also prefer the opaque bags because no one can see your stoma or your bowel through them (i.e. my husband). I have been known to make little bag covers for the transparent ones for my comfort.

It depends on where a person's stoma is that decides what their bowel movements are going to be like. An ileostomy is on the right hand side of a person's stomach and that bowel is very runny and is still full of stomach acid. People with ileostomies usually get infections on their skin quite frequently because of that acid. My ostomy is a colostomy and it is on the left hand side of my belly next to my belly button. If I didn't take glucophage, my bowel would be almost like normal bowel, but my glucophage gives me runny stools often.

If you ever have to change a patient's bag, make sure that you cut the hole in the flange small enough that no bowel will get on their skin. But you also have to make sure you don't "choke" their stoma ( that is painful when the poop gets clogged----it makes you feel like you need to go into the bathroom and try to strain to go poop out of your bottom and can't). Also, when you use the glue, make a small string of it around the hole in the flange about an eighth of an inch from the edge of the hole, but make sure you don't get the glue anywhere else on the flange, because that will make it leak. I had a home health nurse that everytime she would change mine, she would "smear" the glue and it undoubtly would always leak and I would spend two hours trying to change it on my own in the middle of the nite. It is easy to do once you get used to it, but it took me about 3 weeks before I felt comfortable enough to do it on my own. I was afraid I was going to hurt the stoma, but unless you nick it with your nail or something, you are not really going to hurt it. Just always remember, there are no nerves in it, so you have to be careful not to be too rough with it.

Plucker · Oct 14, 2005

I am graduating in May and cannot believe that I am going to work in the area I said I would NEVER work in...Med/Surg
Somewhere along the way it grew on me a bit, and I started to agree with all those experienced nurses out there who say it is a great place to start to get the basics down and get lots of experience with a wide variety of health problems (good heavens, I think I am crossing over).
Never say never, huh?

A big yeah that!! I SWORE I would NOT work in Med/Surg but it looks like that's where I'm heading. I love PCU but not so much a regular med/surg. I too graduate in May and haven't felt like I found my calling yet. I Just knew I would love peds and postpartum/mom baby but I really did not like either. We were in L&D for two days which I loved but I don't think that's enought time for me to feel like I should be there. I just hope I settle on something soon.

klone, MSN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

OB.

I've been working there as an extern since June, and as long as I don't kill anyone in the meantime, I'll be offered a job there as a new grad next spring. It's why I went into nursing, and I feel like I've come home every time I work on that unit (as compared to the Med/Surg unit where I'm doing my clinicals). I'll be taking the lactation consultant certification exam in 2007. I really like ICU, though, and if I didn't already have my heart set on OB, I'd like to work there.