Just wondering... I know that most departments have their own share of good and bad. But if you could get any job/department/specialty out there as a RN/BSN (not CRNA or NP). Easy hours, easy patients, good (or not) money, good assignments, good co-workers, good departments, good hospitals. Besides good pay and benefits...What have you heard? What would that place be, that you would eventually want to end up in? Dream destination for RN? Who do you think has got it made? Thanks!
P.S. Personally, I am totally flexible and adaptable, I love the old and the young, manage emergencies and slow days just fine, going into nursing not for money, but for personal satisfaction and happiness.
I work on a 20 bed med/surg floor taking care of pediatrics to geriatrics. Having working in high paced areas this job is GRAVY and butter by comparison. I rarely have more than 4 patients. During the respiratory season I'll have 5 at most. I work 7 on and 7 off and LOVE it!:)
Hi exnavygirl, I viewed your profile and saw that you are working at an IHS/Tribal facility. I have an interview for an IHS facility in Arizona and want to make sure I give the best impression possible (especially with this competitive job market). Do you have any tips that you can share with me to help prepare for this? I understand if you don't want to compromise your position, but any help will do! Thanks :-)
My current job is "gravy". I do training and support for EMR systems.
I work when I want, travel where I want and get paid a ton of money for relatively easy work. Sometimes the hours are extreme, i.e 16 hour days, 14 hour days. But with the money I get for what I do, I'll suck it up!
I'm just in my first semester, so I have a lot of learning to do, but at this point I'm interested in learning more about Hospice care. There's no telling what I'll end up doing once I actually get to experience a little of everything!
I do hospice and at this point it is my gravy job. No call lights. Mon-Fri 8-5 but very flexible. I work with a great team, and all my patient care is one on one- rarely am I rushing to see my next patient. I get paid much better than in the hospital. If something is wrong with my patient, for example-pain, I have a great doctor that I like and trust, and our relationship allows us to work as team of professionals that are equal to manage the pain. Also my hospice is not for profit, so we do lots of charity care- it makes me feel like I give back to the community.
A friend of mine schedules surgeries in the OR dept - she has a BSN and an MBA. She told me that she had thought about going back to school to do a NP degree until she found out that she would be taking a pay cut to work as a NP. Since she works for a university based hospital I looked up her salary because I was very curious and now I am very jealous - she made $162K last year for a 40 hour a week job with no patient care.
I am in the trenches BIG TIME right now! lol! Neuro-Tele, 6 patients, HEAVY patients, tele, drips, AMS, a zillion orders, disorganized beyond belief, docs who don't read charts or talk to nurses. . .it is complete insanity! But I am learning a lot and still figuring out what I want to do "when I grow up" in nursing so for right now I am fine with it. The only "gravy" thing about it is that I can pretty much work as much as I want so the $$ is there. The downside is that when I work more than 3 12's I am completely fried!
Sometimes I fantasize about an office job where I can just take vitals and histories. But I know I would be bored :) I love hearing about other people's jobs.
I tell a lot of new grads that there are jobs with IHS if they are willing to move and live in an isolated area. My facility just went "tribal" and we lost a lot of employees. I'm still a federal employee here. We are using a lot of travelers right now. In fact many of the Navajo facilites use a lot of travelers. They will welcome you as a new staff member. The hiring process tends to be long and drawn out.
Send me a private message and tell me what facility you applied to. Good luck :-)
Hi exnavygirl, I viewed your profile and saw that you are working at an IHS/Tribal facility. I have an interview for an IHS facility in Arizona and want to make sure I give the best impression possible (especially with this competitive job market). Do you have any tips that you can share with me to help prepare for this? I understand if you don't want to compromise your position, but any help will do! Thanks :-)
Specializes in multispecialty ICU, SICU including CV.
Our wound care nurse has the gravy job! She doesn't do work! (Ok, that's snarky.) Seriously, she picks a few lucky patients a day if we're lucky, does their dressings, and sees the new patients when she feels like it, writes consult orders, and does chart updates and photos once a week.
OK, have to comment on this one. Our hospital WOC nurses are overworked and they do a DISGUSTING thing for a living!!!!!! I wouldn't call that a gravy job at all!!!!! They DO rotate call on the weekends and routinely stay late to manage their patient load. There are 5 of them, and they run the hospital-wide skin care program, do the prevalence/incidence studies, see the inpatients, see the outpatients in the wound clinic, do ostomy teaching, put on VACs, assess pressure ulcers, dress big huge stinky wounds....gross, man. I wouldn't do their job even if they gave me a huge raise. They would have to double my salary or something to get me in that role.
I do know some people love wound care. I don't mind the "clean" wounds, even if they are big (I'm a surgical ICU nurse, after all) but not the icky huge stage IV ulcers with tunnels and osteo, or the open abdomens with dead bowel, or the ostomies. No, thank you.
I don't know how your wound care nurse gets away with not doing the dressing change she orders after she comes and looks at a wound. Sounds like her job is "gravy" because she's not doing it.
A friend of mine schedules surgeries in the OR dept - she has a BSN and an MBA. She told me that she had thought about going back to school to do a NP degree until she found out that she would be taking a pay cut to work as a NP. Since she works for a university based hospital I looked up her salary because I was very curious and now I am very jealous - she made $162K last year for a 40 hour a week job with no patient care.
You're a liar.
There, I feel better now, lol. But seriously, could the planets align and I somehow score that kinda stress free and yet amazingly paying job? How is it possible she makes so much?! Maybe she has other administrative duties? And yeah, I'm all for education and all, but NP is a step down in this case lol. She could just get the NP for her own enrichment :)
Cruise ship nurse or perhaps a nurse at a resort in the Caribbean.
Cruise ship nursing sucks. The hours are horrible, you can't "mix" with guests which seriously limits your ability to have fun and there is always ONE panty-waist who decides to get sick as you pull into port and GUESS who has to stay with them and hold their hand while everyone else is in nassau? YOU my friend. YOU.
exnavygirl-RN
715 Posts
I work on a 20 bed med/surg floor taking care of pediatrics to geriatrics. Having working in high paced areas this job is GRAVY and butter by comparison. I rarely have more than 4 patients. During the respiratory season I'll have 5 at most. I work 7 on and 7 off and LOVE it!:)