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leb388 posted:Does anyone have any experience in psychiatric nursing? I think that may be a field I'd want to go into. I worked as an aide for a year in a dementia unit, so it's not exactly something new for me, but I've never worked in a strictly psychiatric hospital or clinic. I don't have a ton of experience in psych (mostly from clinicals, and working in the nursing home dementia units). From what I've seen, dementia patients usually aren't sent to the psych unit unless somehow that's their main problem that they can't solve using outpatient visits. Usually it's something like they fall and come to the floors for observation and we quickly learn that they have dementia if we don't know already. In terms of what the nurses do on psych units, I've seen a range coming from different hospitals. Sometimes the nurses don't do too much except meds and handle medical issues that come up, etc. In those cases psych techs are running sessions and social workers work with the patients. I've also seen the opposite where the nurses run the whole show, including sessions (with aids helping). Maybe you could see if you could do some observation or volunteering on a psych unit? It really is fascinating.
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Jan 29, 2011 00:56
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I'm finding it ridiculously difficult to get into the workforce in Ontario, Canada. There's practically no "in" for an inexperienced recent graduate. There is a program called the New Graduate Guarantee where the government pays for you to be trained by a nurse on a unit for six months. Most of the time, these jobs end up being reserved for nursing students undergoing their final placement on a given unit, even though they're posted on the provinces' website that's meant to advertise these internships. This is total bullshit, because if your unit isn't hiring at the time of your placement, you're going to be SOL, like I am, in your search for a job. Full-time positions are never available, and part-time positions that would be awesome to start with tend to be absorbed by the old, greedy hens in the henhouse. Screw Ontario.
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Jan 29, 2011 01:43
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Heck, the hardest work I've ever done was on a gen med/neurology ward. I still have nightmares about dealing with 6 full hoist/full care patients with only an orderly and a nursing aide to help. 6 months in that job burnt me out pretty bad - thank god for grad rotations!
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Jan 29, 2011 04:02
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Yeah I really don't think ICU is any harder/more stressful then working on a general med/surg floor. I've worked on a urology/nephrology based med-surg floor for 2 years and 75% of the critical care nurses I talked to when I was doing rotations said it was probably the hardest place to work in the hospital. We are the only nurses certified to do CAPD and access dialysis perm-caths in the hospital so if anyone comes in the ER that needs blood drawn from a perm-cath or if there's a CAPD patient in the units we're required to go down and do there exchanges. Not to mention that on off shifts if someone is having problems inserting a foley or irrigating one and they call the urologist the urologist just tells them to call our floor and have us take care of it. This is on top of having up to 5 patients on days, 6 on evenings, and up to 9 on nights...it can get pretty lovely.
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Jan 29, 2011 04:30
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Hi! So I just finished with a BFA in painting and printing in May and like most art majors i've realised that jobs don't exist for me, as much as I love doing it. I worked at a vets office for a long time when I was younger and know I can handle blood and gore no problem and I love people and have a lot of empathy for people's poo poo situations. Therefor I think nursing would be a good idea for me. North Seattle Community College has a nursing ladder program, LPN to RN. Does anyone have any experience with this? Would a community college be better than somewhere like PIMA? Where do I start? I already have a bachelors, will that save me any time? Should I just send an email to the program director and hope for an actual reply?
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Jan 31, 2011 06:13
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Tigntink posted:Hi! I'm in a similar situation as you. In my case, though, I was considering the ladder program at first, but after meeting with an advisor, it turned out that most of my previous general ed credits and prerequisite classes counted towards the BSN program and it would take me the same amount of time to get a bachelors and my rn as it would to get an associates and lpn. So yeah, talk to an advisor and bring your transcripts.
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Jan 31, 2011 17:57
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mboger posted:I'm in a similar situation as you. In my case, though, I was considering the ladder program at first, but after meeting with an advisor, it turned out that most of my previous general ed credits and prerequisite classes counted towards the BSN program and it would take me the same amount of time to get a bachelors and my rn as it would to get an associates and lpn. So yeah, talk to an advisor and bring your transcripts. It looks like at minimum I can prepare by doing chem120,220,221 and bio118/119 and nutr300 at the community college. Honestly though, It looks like I may as well go ahead and get LPN due to U of Washington wanting ALOT of prereq working time at a hospital. Over 100 hours of paid or volunteer time to get into their BSN program. Do hospitals even allow volunteers any more due to liability issues?
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Jan 31, 2011 18:37
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Tigntink posted:It looks like at minimum I can prepare by doing chem120,220,221 and bio118/119 and nutr300 at the community college. Honestly though, It looks like I may as well go ahead and get LPN due to U of Washington wanting ALOT of prereq working time at a hospital. Over 100 hours of paid or volunteer time to get into their BSN program. Hospitals love volunteers. Just don't expect to be doing anything remotely resembling nursing work. If you're lucky, you might get some patient interaction (reading the newspaper to a patient, etc.) but you'll just as likely be manning a cash register in the gift shop. Also, 100 hours isn't really all that much. A few hours on the weekends and you'd be done by the end of summer.
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Jan 31, 2011 19:03
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Volunteer at a children's hospital. I did that and spent many of my days maybe throwing a football with a little guy with ESRD, or sometimes playing video games with the kids while they got their chemo treatments or dialysis. I also did more of the same during our peds rotation, and it was basically the most fun ever. Many of these kids don't have any real interaction with anyone but their parents and hospital staff, and you get a chance to really brighten their day. There is definitely some things that are hard to see as well. A lot of the kiddos are real sick, but their strength can really amaze you. I honestly found it a lot more rewarding than working with burned out adults who don't give a drat about their health anymore. (which is, honestly, a lot of the population)
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Jan 31, 2011 19:09
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Thanks for the advice. Ill start volunteering as soon as I get a car again. The children's hospital is a bit out of the way (not on a bus line from my house) so Ill look into doing that in about a month. I have to wait to start doing any classes at the community college until after may so I can get instate tuition.
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Jan 31, 2011 21:08
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Tigntink posted:Thanks for the advice. Ill start volunteering as soon as I get a car again. The children's hospital is a bit out of the way (not on a bus line from my house) so Ill look into doing that in about a month. See if there's opportunity for you to work in between semesters, whether as a licensed student nurse (if your state board does that) or as an observer-internship deal that hospitals arrange for students. I'm wondering why someone with an opportunity to go for a BScN would hesitate between an RN or LPN program.
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Feb 1, 2011 00:37
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AmbassadorTaxicab posted:I cannot recommend volunteering in the area that you want to be in enough, especially if it's at the facility that you want to be at down the road. It may be the only thing that sets you and another candidate apart when applying for a job. The hard part is i'm 100k in debt from school loans after interest. I don't have parents so I had to pay on my own and get loans and half was also paid with scholarship. I wanted to drop the art program freshman year but everyone I trusted for advice told me to stay in at least for sophomore year and then by the time sophomore year was over I was 40k in debt and extremely depressed and just decided to finish the program. It was a decision that i'll regret the rest of my life. Half my student loans are private and I can't put them on hold unless i'm going for a masters program. My loan payments are $850 a month. I'm snowballing the payments but gently caress my life right now. I only take home 2 grand a month  edit: oh god every time i think about that I have a panic attack.
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Feb 1, 2011 01:23
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leb388 posted:Does anyone have any experience in psychiatric nursing? I think that may be a field I'd want to go into. I worked as an aide for a year in a dementia unit, so it's not exactly something new for me, but I've never worked in a strictly psychiatric hospital or clinic. This will probably be long winded but hopefully helpful for new grads or folks coming from a completely different area. I've been working psych since I've been out of school. I think I'm the only one of my class that even remotely expressed an interest in this stuff (because I like weird poo poo). I currently work on the detox unit of a for-profit-psych hospital and am bitter and jaded with my current job, so take everything I say with that in mind (currently pursuing a job in psych drug research praise Allah I hope I get it). Depending on what your interests are, be sure to extensively tour the facility you would be working at. The acuity level of psych units go from babysitting homeless folks who have learned to say "I'm planning on running out in traffic" so they can have a place to sleep for a week or so to the lady who bites off the lips of another patient in the day room of a stabilization unit or an elderly gent who forges a doctor's order on a post-it note to have his shoes back. In front of the doctor. The one and only time I worked on what I call the juvie unit, I had to give prn shots of Thorazine to a girl who was autistic to the point of pulling her earlobes so much that they literally had stretched two inches longer than normal. The reason for the prns was that she would spontaneously start slapping herself in the face. She was twelve. The thought of her having tardive by age eighteen or so didn't sit well with me which is why that was the one and only time I worked that unit. Then again, a little kid I knew nothing about or who he was spontaneously gave me a hug after I gave him his meds. The adult units tend to run mild to slightly moderate acuity. They tend to focus more on mental health but sometimes do detox. The female unit is borderline central. There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth until the doctor is finally called and a benzo is ordered. The male unit is similar except with less weeping. The detox unit. It's higher acuity than the adult units. We get some real sick people in there. We also get lots of game players - it's the middle of the month and they spent all their disability check on drugs and booze already so they pull the scratch their wrists slightly with a butter knife trick and get admitted and stay until the checks come out again and leave. Or until the doctor writes them the "to be concerned" letter that they can show to the judge. I'm not exaggerating at all with this paragraph. Our unit also kind of acts like a step-down unit for stabilization when stab's filled up and a bed's needed. Or for geri - when an otherwise fantastic doctor has a hard on for sending eighty year olds with dementia to our unit with the misconceived notion that they will benefit from substance abuse groups. I don't think they're going to quit drinking at this point if they haven't already, but what do I know? I'm just a pill-pusher/secretary/muscle. Stabilization. Bat poo poo crazy. Or acting like they're bat poo poo crazy so a doctor will declare them disabled. Or that was the only unit that had a bed available and the poor guy/gal has to be invisible or risk being attacked. I helped out there for a month and loved it. The regular staff has a thousand yard stare and are very, very edgy. My first day there and I didn't have a clue what I was doing I said: "You know, I can see that guy going off." Eight staff surrounded the guy and he was given a prn. And looking back on it, they were right. Better to take care of something before anything happens. There's also a geri unit. Which is like a nursing home with nothing but dementia patients. Which is kind of pointless since they might as well be in a nursing home. Mental health admissions counselors are sub-human monstrosities. These creatures are prevalent in the psych world. They lie to the patients. "You can leave anytime you want to...just sign this". "You'll have your own room". "Oh God! We Have to Bring Him Down Right Away - He's in DETOX!" No, motherfucker. He's 134/75, 82. And his last drink was in his car in the parking lot before he walked through your door. He's been sitting in that room for the last three hours and you need to get him down before shift change so you can get your bonus. And detox is what we do - they're in withdrawals. And you know, it doesn't hurt to actually do the assessment - the supposed pain the fella's in might actually be due to something besides opiate withdrawals - like the screws that hold the metal plate to his skull emerging through his scalp. Folks will want to keep some basic medical knowledge. You will be dealing with diabetics that don't care. Patients that are prone to seizures. Or that God awful drug Subutex that makes people come down with pitting edema. Or any other bad thing you might find in a hospital, but you won't have the equipment or facilities to deal with it unless you catch it while it's emerging. We've got no ACLS or crash carts here - cpr and O2 it is until the ambulance arrives. I suppose one of the things that gets to me more than anything else is the repeat business aspect of my unit. I had thirty two patients today. One had never been inpatient before. Five had not been there in the last six months. Guess who's the one patient that might be successful and I won't see again? Bleah, I better quit now before this becomes even more despairing. edit for admissions counselors Enigmatic Troll fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Feb 1, 2011 |
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Feb 1, 2011 05:16
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I graduated from University last May with my Bachelor of Arts in History. After realizing that what I hold is useless without massive investment in graduate programs, I decided to get a service job at the local hospital and apply to the Community College nursing program. As it sits right now, I am taking my last co-requisite for the program (Microbiology) and waiting for a spot to open up since there's a waiting list -- working at the hospital gets you put in a separate waiting pool due to a partnership with the community college system, but the list is still horrendously long, so I'm hoping to start the core classes around this time next year. So, that's all well and good, but the wait/horrendous part-time labor pay is killing me. Has anyone been through the same thing, and if so, what sort of work did you do in the meantime? I am taking a medical terminology class in addition to Microbiology, so I'm hoping to land some sort of registration/coding job once that's through - although it'd only be until nursing school starts up, since full-time work wouldn't be possible, based on what I'm hearing from you guys. A couple other questions, too: I'm a guy, and I've heard from friends that work gets piled on male nurses that the others don't really want to do. Regardless of whether or not that's true, if there are any guys in this thread, have you noticed any differences? Anyone have experiences with Medevac flights, and how to get in on those? I'm assuming military experience is involved at some point, but I could be wrong. I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself with wondering what the actual job(s) would be like before I even start the bulk of my schooling, but any and all advice/stories/etc any of you might have would be great. This thread is awesome!
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Feb 1, 2011 09:02
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Finzee posted:I'm a guy, and I've heard from friends that work gets piled on male nurses that the others don't really want to do. Regardless of whether or not that's true, if there are any guys in this thread, have you noticed any differences? I'm not a guy, but a lot of times I notice it's the opposite. Usually I would get called into a room to do a foley on a woman, do a enema/suppository, wound dressing changes, etc. Rarely do I have to get a male nurse to do those things on a man. On my unit there was a male CNA who, if I worked with him, I would have to do bed baths, taking to the patient to the bathroom, etc if the patient didn't want a man doing it. The only thing I noticed on my floor that guys really got pulled into is heavy lifting... or maybe getting the crazy misogynistic patients! 
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Feb 1, 2011 09:59
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Finzee posted:
I'm a male nurse in an ICU and even though I weigh less that half the nurses (i'm 175 lbs) i still get volunteered to do alot of heavy lifting. But I really don't mind and just try and keep it light by saying this is a hostile work environment and that i'm being sexually harassed. Also during codes (CPR stuff) if you are a guy typically you do most of the chest compressions. Other that that i never get extra work piled on. I'm good at my job though so they do use me alot to help with crashing patients etc.but that is more using my mental abilities vs my male qualities.
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Feb 1, 2011 15:49
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Enigmatic Troll posted:Awesome rundown of psych I did a student rotation through the kind of facility you work at and that's pretty much the read I got. Glad to know that my desire to run screaming from psych as fast as possible was merited. As to the question about being a guy, just like in most fields, guys often have an easier time of it. I'm most grateful for it when things get heated and disagreements get nasty. No matter how strongly I'm clashing with someone, things always stay respectful. There's that line between disagreeing and belittling, and most folk just don't cross that line with guys. I have, however, seen tons of asshat nurses, paramedics and doctors tear into 5'2" females, presumably because you can tower above them and be relatively sure you aren't going to get the poo poo kicked out of you for being a douchebag. Just like all fields, there's some bullying in health care. There's a lot to be said for being just intimidating enough that the assholes of the world don't see you as their punching bag, and being a guy does a lot for that.
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Feb 2, 2011 01:40
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Finzee posted:Anyone have experiences with Medevac flights, and how to get in on those? I'm assuming military experience is involved at some point, but I could be wrong. Unless you're a pilot, you need to be a paramedic/EMT, and a fairly experienced one at that. If you're talking about being a flight nurse, most places want someone with a few years of trauma/ER/ICU experience AND (depending on the locale) a EMT-paramedic certification. Military experience is obviously a huge plus. Regarding your questions about things to do in the meantime, look around and see if a local school has a program to get you a phlebotomy license. They usually last 4-6 months, you can make decent money and you can set your own hours. Plus, if you're good at it, you have another skill to set you apart once you get your RN license (IV/PICC teams are pretty much commonplace in hospitals because too many people hate doing it/suck at it).
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Feb 2, 2011 03:04
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Enigmatic Troll posted:This will probably be long winded but hopefully helpful for new grads or folks coming from a completely different area. Thank you for your input. I think I can deal with all of that except the "patient biting people's faces off" part, that would be way too creepy for me. I've seen patients who are aggressive or about to go off the deep end and I know that psych nurses have to be incredibly on top of that as far as monitoring and giving PRNs. I don't know if it's the right field for me, but it's one of the options I'm interested in. Ohthehugemanatee posted:I have, however, seen tons of asshat nurses, paramedics and doctors tear into 5'2" females, presumably because you can tower above them and be relatively sure you aren't going to get the poo poo kicked out of you for being a douchebag. I'm a rather petite female and a lot younger than most of my classmates, and I get nurses who try to just lay into me for no reason. Most of them back off when they see I won't put up with it, but I wish I didn't have to deal with that in the first place.
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Feb 2, 2011 05:47
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Regarding volunteers, my hospital (remember, carolers in Victorian garb on Christmas Eve, and weekday dog visits) has volunteers on most weekdays that push picture carts in the morning and snack carts in the afternoon. Every patient gets a ~24x36 framed print to look at, and when the picture cart comes they get to look through them and choose the one they want on their wall. The snack cart is pretty self-explanatory. The volunteers are usually pretty good about checking with staff before giving anything salty or sugary (gently caress me, is this what I do?).Enigmatic Troll posted:Poetry I'm male, a bit larger than average, and a former Marine Corps Infantryman. I am often a favorite for pulls, turns and transfers. To be fair, our techs do way more physical labor than I do (in general), but we also have great techs who bark at patients to pull their weight. I am often sought for the "special" cases. I generally don't mind getting the totals I get assigned, because I can turn them myself. I work with many shapes and sizes, and I've seen an absolutely fearless 5 ft Filipino woman tear into an rear end in a top hat resident, when deserved, and I've seen a 270 lb. power-lifter get his feelings hurt. It takes a village, I guess. leb388 posted:I'm a rather petite female and a lot younger than most of my classmates, and I get nurses who try to just lay into me for no reason. Most of them back off when they see I won't put up with it, but I wish I didn't have to deal with that in the first place.
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Feb 2, 2011 06:45
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leb388 posted:Thank you for your input. I think I can deal with all of that except the "patient biting people's faces off" part, that would be way too creepy for me. I've seen patients who are aggressive or about to go off the deep end and I know that psych nurses have to be incredibly on top of that as far as monitoring and giving PRNs. I don't know if it's the right field for me, but it's one of the options I'm interested in. The cannibal incident and things that bizarre are (knock on wood) few and far between. Like I said, I'm bitter and jaded with my current job. But that's because of administration/corporate and the way the place is run. I still like interacting with the patients - even the most debased addicts - and schizophrenics can be unintentionally hilarious. A code is called to female stab. I'm bored so I run over there even though I'm in the med room that day. The code was just a lot of hooting and hollering by one female that got the rest of the unit riled up. No biggie - I go back into the nurse's station and take a glance over at the male side. Three manic dudes on the floor doing "The Worm" in sync. I work three twelves a week. Usually by the end of the first shift I've got a pretty good handle on the patients. That may sound lovely, but my unit has thirty two beds and we're nearly always full. And nurses aren't assigned patients here - if you're in the med room you give the meds to everyone. I usually have most of the patients' respect by the end of the first day (I think that is due to me treating each of them like an adult even though most of them are teenagers in fifty year old body). I don't lie to them. If I don't know something I will tell them and try to find out. "No" is also my favorite word. A natural ability for being able to bullshit with people helps a whole bunch. And considering the way the hospital is run, teamwork is VERY important - from nurses to techs to housekeeping to phlebotomy. Egos are a very, very bad thing. Some good things. I haven't had to wipe anybody's butt since I was in school. And staffing was finally increased to five-to-one (probably since there have been several deaths in the hospital this last year and randomly firing people hasn't scared the staff into performing superhuman feats of vigilence - one tech to keep track of thirty eight patients? - can anything good come from that?) Before I go too long-winded again, I would say that the best way to get into psych would be to get a full time job in the ER or anything else that you like and get a prn job in psych. And keep in mind that not every facility is run the way mine is. Ooo. Being a small female, I would recommend that if you did psych, stick to the male units. And I would recommend the opposite for interested guys. I could write many pages about that, but just trust me. Thanks to the other folks for the compliments and I'm going to shut the gently caress up for a few days.
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Feb 2, 2011 19:41
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Enigmatic Troll posted:
Could you go into a little more detail. That seems rather counterintuitive to me. It's not my first choice, but I'm considering psych as an option, so by all means, please DON'T shut the gently caress up.
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Feb 2, 2011 23:53
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mboger posted:Could you go into a little more detail. That seems rather counterintuitive to me. It's not my first choice, but I'm considering psych as an option, so by all means, please DON'T shut the gently caress up. Godammit! Alright. It's probably not as big of a problem for guys as opposed to gals, but I'm going to stick with what I said. leb388 says she's about 5'2" and is petite. I will use female stab to demonstrate. You've got twenty CRAZY females together in one room. If you haven't seen one, watch a late eighties/early nineties gangster movie (I like Colors and New Jack City) - the fine rear end hoes from back then capping folks left and right - what do you think happens twenty years later when they're out of jail and washed up and have no place to stay? They come to us. They also still have the gangsteress personality they've had since age sixteen. These women are Dangerous. They may be fat and fifty, but you don't go homeless giving blow jobs for crack for twenty/thirty years without becoming streetwise to a dangerous extent. Disclaimer: My fiancee is black and from the worst ghetto/broken household you can imagine, so pre-emptive shut the gently caress up about racism. Now. One of these ladies is acting out in some way. I'll use a real life example. About fifty. Fat. Has been doing God knows what for crack and anything else since the seventies. A rich primma-donna is being discharged so she thinks that she can talk some poo poo to Michelle. Michelle starts to nut up. What rich primma-donna doesn't know is that Michelle will gently caress HER UP. I'm 200 lbs and am dwarfed by an agitated Michelle. I tell rich bitch to go to her room and somehow or another manage to calm Michelle down. I think Michelle only paid attention to me at all because I look younger than I am and am male. I also think she would have responded poorly to a female telling her the same things the same way while she was nutting up on the rich bitch - it was a matter of face for her - just like she was on the yard at a prison (THROYE! I NEED SOME HELP DOWN HERE! Hey, Michelle! We got back a funky lab and I want to check your blood sugar and vitals. Come with me to the nurse's station - yes, I know she's disrespecting you - would you be willing to take some pills if I called up your doc?). Now how do I know this much about Michelle? Because she was the first female I ever had to put in restraints a year prior to this incident. Again with the sexism stuff. I'm only 5'6". I weigh 200 lbs due to weightlifting and beer. I'm fairly athletic. I like going to psych codes when I'm bored. I am never, ever the one that's attacked first. I speculate that's because I'm a short dude with glasses. I may be the one that ends up putting the bear hug on, but I have yet to be hit in two years. Other, much taller and larger dudes, have had their noses broken and worse. Female codes are much more frequent, but it tends to be the guys who are more dangerous. So. My summary is this: If you are a female, guys will be more likely to listen if you are in a position of authority. They don't like to be shamed (my mentor is especially good at this). The converse is also true. But with either sex of patient, the natural bullshit/distraction technique is invaluable. edit: I don't even know what to say about dealing with transgendered folks. Having a 6'2' dude/gal "growwlllll" at you might take the cake. Enigmatic Troll fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Feb 3, 2011 |
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Feb 3, 2011 01:01
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I've never had any issues with on the whole male nurse thing, a couple of patients have commented on 'how good it is to see more male nurses'. I think I've been pretty fortunate where I've worked, I haven't ran into much bitchiness at all. On the icu vs other nurses debate, he'll just another argument that proves nurses can be their own worst enemies. I love icu, working with other really skilled nurses, seeing a huge range of cases and really making a huge difference in a patients life. But he'll ive done deployments back to the wards and I've got nothing but respect for med surg nurses who can juggle 6-8 patients and be ready to jump on a deteriorating patient and stop them bouncing back to us. And emergency? I worked there for 5 months as a new grad and I've done a bunch of deployments down there and I freaking love it, not for everyone though. So I've done my third pm-night shift over time this month (1330-0730), after each of those shifts there's a short pm shift 1530-2130 and for each and everyone if these shifts my patient has had a septic shock crash 5-10 minutes into the shift, it's freaking scary how regular it's happened each time.
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Feb 3, 2011 13:05
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Are non-offensive forearm tattoos a significant barrier to employment as a nurse?
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Feb 5, 2011 02:00
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Cioran posted:Are non-offensive forearm tattoos a significant barrier to employment as a nurse? I would say no, as long as you can cover them up (and keep them covered during the shift- old people get offended sometimes).
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Feb 5, 2011 05:04
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I am so excited about this, I have to share: I scored an interview with Emergency Medicine Scribe Systems! My phone screening went well and I've spent all week researching and preparing for my interview tomorrow. I really hope I get the job so I'll have some experience in the medical field before attending nursing school. Have any of you worked as scribes prior to becoming nurses or work as one right now? If so, I know this is the nursing thread but would you mind telling me about your experience? Thanks in advance
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Feb 17, 2011 04:40
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For the people that are nurses, I want to say. I've gone back to the hospital where I was in the trauma ICU before, just to visit Nelly, my wonderful nurse that took care of me after I got terribly hosed up. She was there, diagnosed my ilius, and was so loving and wonderful. Then, after I had stabilized and they moved me to the floor and I had to deal with normal nurses my heart broke. It wasn't 1-1 anymore, and the Ukrainian nurse didn't speak any English and hurt me so much. It was Christmas and they were understaffed... but still... Nelly. I loved Nelly, she was so good, so sweet, I hope I never forget her.
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Feb 20, 2011 15:48
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I posted awhile back about a job shadow. I loved it! The nurse I shadowed was very sweet and patient with me. She showed me around her unit, and I learned a lot about hospitals and nursing. When any of you started, where you worried about the possibility of endangering someone's life? This is probably an odd question, but I'm very scared about the idea that I could harm someone by mistake. Did/does anyone feel that way?
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Feb 21, 2011 18:50
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Anonymous Pie posted:I posted awhile back about a job shadow. I loved it! The nurse I shadowed was very sweet and patient with me. She showed me around her unit, and I learned a lot about hospitals and nursing. Of course. And I'm sure I still do, every day, subconsciously whenever it's not consciously. It's in no way consuming, but it's there. Even the most stable looking patient can decompensate or just flat-out crump, and often bad situations will get worse. But it's a job, and like any job, you can dedicate yourself to it, do the best you can, and succeed, or you can slack off, take your chances, and inevitably it'll catch up to you. I still get a big rush from codes. It's exciting, high pressure, fast, there's so much energy and adrenaline in the room, it's honestly one of my favorite parts of the job. That and really juicy traumas. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't still get that little metallic taste of fear in the back of my mouth when I first walk into one of those rooms. It's just part of the experience for me, though, and I embrace it because I feel like it keeps me sharp. You need to understand and accept one undeniable truth about almost any health care profession: people are going to die. At some point, everyone's time is going to be up. You, your parents, your friends, that patient in front of you with no family, the other patient across the hall with the big family, everyone you know, everyone you don't know, literally everyone on this planet is going to die eventually. Our job is to prevent the possible and ease the inevitable. Now, if you know the job and did it right, there's nothing to feel bad about; it was their time to go. If you screwed up or were negligent, well, yeah, you should feel pretty drat bad about that. This doesn't mean you don't care about your patients or just go through the motions like some sort of robot. Hospitals can be a very dehumanizing experience and trust me, patients deal with enough people like that breezing in and out of their room already. It's our job to care, we're the patient's advocate. But you have to keep it in perspective or it'll drive you nuts. Don't let that fear stop you. Nursing school will do almost nothing to prepare you for the profession, just accept that's it's just there to teach you the most basic knowledge, introduce you to the hospital setting, and get you past the NCLEX. Experience and your coworkers will be your best teachers. You'll probably freeze or freak out the first time something bad happens. That's ok, plenty of people do. These are some crazy situations, after all! Take a breath, shake it off, and get back in there. edit: erm, hope that didn't come across as too morbid and scary. It's not like you walk around thinking these things, it's just a perspective that clicks in the back of your mind. You care, you connect, but you have to be able to let go and move on to the next one as smoothly as possible, regardless of the outcome. Otherwise you won't be any good to anyone. "Cumulative grief" and all that. Digger-254 fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Feb 21, 2011 |
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Feb 21, 2011 23:50
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Digger-254 posted:edit: erm, hope that didn't come across as too morbid and scary. It's not like you walk around thinking these things, it's just a perspective that clicks in the back of your mind. You care, you connect, but you have to be able to let go and move on to the next one as smoothly as possible, regardless of the outcome. Otherwise you won't be any good to anyone. "Cumulative grief" and all that. I'd say we're all emotionally dead on a certain level. I still care, but I'll never care the same way I did when I started health care. The knowledge that you may inadvertently harm someone is always there. Somewhere out there tonight, a rookie nurse is trusting a rookie resident and about to gently caress their patient up something fierce. You have to trust yourself to use the knowledge you have to make the right decisions, and you have to hope that when you run into something you don't know about, one of the checks in the health care system catches you and saves your rear end, whether that's an experienced colleague stepping in or a pesky computer system that won't let you put in that order for 100mg of fentanyl. Mistakes happen though, and it's how we learn. I go to morbidity and mortality conferences with my surgical team every week and it's an hour long talk about all the cases that went badly, why they went badly, and how those mistakes can be avoided in the future. The more responsibility you take in health care, the more certain it is that your actions are going to harm someone at some point in time. Ohthehugemanatee fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Feb 22, 2011 |
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Feb 22, 2011 02:43
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Can anyone comment on the job market for nurses? I keep hearing that the nursing shortage is only occurring in rural areas, and that in fact it's tough to find a nursing job. I want to work in the ICU, and live in southern California, if that changes things any. Also, in choosing a nursing program what should I look for? Is there a difference in terms of BSN and MSN that will help me in the job market? I'm more than willing to move around the country but I just want to know that the sacrifices I make in school with pre-reqs are going to be rewarded with some comfort in knowing that a job will open up. Thanks for the great thread. drawkcab si eman ym fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 28, 2011 |
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Feb 28, 2011 20:17
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Enigmatic Troll posted:Stuff about psychiatric nursing In my 15 years of psych nursing none of this sounds that familiar. Then again I think psychiatry, or mental health as we call it, is very different, and in many ways, miles ahead (although still has a long way to go) here in the UK.
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Feb 28, 2011 22:01
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drawkcab si eman ym posted:Can anyone comment on the job market for nurses? I keep hearing that the nursing shortage is only occurring in rural areas, and that in fact it's tough to find a nursing job. I want to work in the ICU, and live in southern California, if that changes things any. From what I hear it's getting tight or already is tight pretty much everywhere, but especially for new grads. Going straight into ICU, ER, or other specialty will take some luck and/or connections. The shortage is definitely hitting the MMAs as well, cities always have tons of people and most of the best hospitals. It's not nearly as bad as other fields, there's definitely work to be found. It's just probably going to be at an ECF/rehab center or a hospital with a high turnover (read: unhappy employees) rate. Still, a foot in the door is a foot in the door, give 'em a year then move on to a better place.
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Feb 28, 2011 22:43
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Jinjin Bemar posted:In my 15 years of psych nursing none of this sounds that familiar. Then again I think psychiatry, or mental health as we call it, is very different, and in many ways, miles ahead (although still has a long way to go) here in the UK. Could you post a little bit about your own experiences? I'm (hopefully, still haven't heard back from UCAS) going to start a PgDip in Mental Health Nursing this September. I'm particularly interested in both the teaching content of the Common Foundation Programme and what you get up to on your CFP placements as I've just recently discovered a squeamishness I didn't know I had when I was faced with the prospect of having surgery for the first time in my life. I can handle dressing wounds no problem, and I'm sure I'd be able to handle giving injection/taking blood after a while but I'm not sure I'd be ok with incisions and cutting and snipping and gooey fleshy fatty inside bits. I doubt the CFP would go that far, but there are suprisingly few resources on the internet about it. Most just say it "introduces you to the basic principles of nursing" without mentioning the extent of what you'll be doing on your placements in that time.
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Feb 28, 2011 23:38
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Jinjin Bemar posted:In my 15 years of psych nursing none of this sounds that familiar. Then again I think psychiatry, or mental health as we call it, is very different, and in many ways, miles ahead (although still has a long way to go) here in the UK. No doubt in the UK it would be different - keep in mind that I'm in a Southern US state that doesn't have the best track record dealing with mental health/behavioral health/psych. And that this is a private facility where profit comes first. And that you've got thirteen years experience on me. I'd be curious as well to hear how things are run over there - might give me some ideas to put in the employee suggestion box which would be ignored, but at least I could sleep a bit better at night.
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Mar 1, 2011 02:03
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Enigmatic Troll posted:No doubt in the UK it would be different - keep in mind that I'm in a Southern US state that doesn't have the best track record dealing with mental health/behavioral health/psych. And that this is a private facility where profit comes first. And that you've got thirteen years experience on me. Im not sure where to begin, as it seems so different. Firstly mental health nursing training is totally different- we specialise before we graduate. There are seperate pre geistration degreee programs for all branches of nursing- adult, child, midwifery, learning disabilities and mental health (they are 3 year programs). My understanding is that this isnt true in the US- am I right? When it comes to hospitals, things are very different. First and foremost its the NHS, so its all free at the point of dlivery and profit doesnt come in to it. Hospital admissions are also seen as a very last resort, and the majoirty of treatment is done in the community. We have many specialist community teams working with people who are unwell, with the aim of treating them in their own homes and preventing admission. Community Mental Health Nurses play a large role in this, in teams such as Eary Intervention in Psychosis teams (for those between 17 and 35 who are experiencing their first episode of a suspected psychotic illness), Assertive Outreach for hard to engage servive users with a history of risk, Crisis Teams who work 24 horus a day and see people intensively, maybe once or twice a day supporting and treating, and then more generic teams for people who are less acutely unwell but mind need support and treatment over a longer time period. Our hospitals are a mixed bunch, there are stilla lot of older buildings about, but theres been a lot of onvestment over the last 10 years or so and newer places are being built. The emphasis is placed on short term admissions to reduce risk with the goal of eary 'facilitated discharge' which means that the client is picked up by the appropriate support team in the community to ensure as seamless a service as possible. I could probably type loads, but I am unsure of what you are interested in. Dont get me wrong our system is far from perfect and mental health is still the underfunded poor relation, but Ive read so many threads on SA (for what its worth) about psychiatric hospitals in the US (theres one in Ask Tell about the UK right now) and it seems so different fromt he British experience. Ive been nursing 15 years now and have had a wide range of job opportunities- Ive worked in psychaitric intensive care, forensics, acute admission units, community mental health nursing, reasearch posts, hospital management posts and curently working as a dialectical behavioural therapist. Its been a good career for me, and theres always been a lot of opportunity for diversifying my skills.
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Mar 1, 2011 09:03
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Jinjin Bemar posted:Im not sure where to begin, as it seems so different. Yeah, basic nursing school over here is general - you get specialized after you get a job and get some experience. Although this process gets jump started if you do your end-of-school clinical hours in the place you plan on working in. This state's closed down several long term hospitals/asylums and trying to implement more community oriented mental health (home visits to administer meds and so on), but it's woefully underfunded/underpaid - a nurse I used to work with took a huge pay cut to work on one of these teams but she likes it a lot better than where I work. But if someone's in acute psychosis or suspected of going manic, they're likely to be legally commited to a hospital like mine or God help them a state run place. Sounds a bit like the system over here is trying to emulate the UK but is about a decade behind and half as committed.
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Mar 1, 2011 16:23
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Lagomorpha posted:I am so excited about this, I have to share: I scored an interview with Emergency Medicine Scribe Systems! My phone screening went well and I've spent all week researching and preparing for my interview tomorrow. I really hope I get the job so I'll have some experience in the medical field before attending nursing school. Have any of you worked as scribes prior to becoming nurses or work as one right now? If so, I know this is the nursing thread but would you mind telling me about your experience? Thanks in advance I realize that with the time delay, things may have already sorted themselves out one way or another for you but...congrats? I don't want to clutter the thread too much so I'll try to keep it short. Working as a scribe gives you a great chance to experience medicine practiced in the ER and will give you a bit of exposure to just about every job there from clerks to nurses to consulting docs and how the department relates with the rest of the health care system. Your primary work, though, is with physicians, and any chance to experience what keeps a nurse busy throughout their shift is a bit up to chance. If you've got any specific questions about it, you can PM me or drop me an email at my username at gmail and I'll see what I can answer for you.
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Mar 4, 2011 06:33
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After a year and a half of waiting I finally got placed for the Fall '11 program at my local community college! I'm so excited. Now I just need to get all my financial aid in order so I can get out of my lovely food service jobs.
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Mar 4, 2011 06:45
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