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Same here, there are times that I am really glad that I have the senses of an 80 year old.
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Apr 7, 2012 19:07
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It takes the stinkiest melena to turn my stomach now! That said, sputum still makes me squicky.
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Apr 7, 2012 22:39
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So I got accepted to both of the BSN programs I applied to. One is a top 10 nationally ranked school for nursing at the campus I currently attend and enjoy. All my friends are here so living arrangements aren't a problem, and I have a decent part-time job (Though I really should probably quit and get a health-care job with my CNA cert). The other is the from the state college which I've also heard very nice things about but I literally know one person that goes to the school. Base tuition costs for the two are about the same and I sent in scholarship applications for both schools that automatically apply me to every nursing scholarship each school offers. I honestly think my chance of getting some money is way better at the state school since the number of applicants is much lower and I wrote a much better essay. This could all be a moot point if financial aid covers everything like it did last year or at least enough so that I don't have to take out ridiculous loans. But of course I don't find out any of this information until long after the acceptance and tuition deposit deadlines. I know the next two years are all about the extracurricular things I have to do to make myself the best candidate possible but I still feel like just having the name recognition on my degree is going to give me an extra leg up when it comes to landing that first job. I guess the only question is how much I'm potentially willing to pay for that. So yeah that's my long E/N rant. Dirp fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Apr 9, 2012 |
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Apr 9, 2012 23:18
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Dirp posted:I know the next two years are all about the extracurricular things I have to do to make myself the best candidate possible but I still feel like just having the name recognition on my degree is going to give me an extra leg up when it comes to landing that first job. I guess the only question is how much I'm potentially willing to pay for that. I'm just about to finish up nursing school, I graduate in 5 weeks. For the past year, I've worked as a Patient Tech. The manager is holding an RN position for me, just have to pass my boards. In my experience and from what I've seen of others, landing your first job is much more about who you know. My advice would be to go to the most convenient, accredited school and pick up a job as a tech at whatever hospital you wish to work at. Either way, best of luck.
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Apr 10, 2012 02:16
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Hughmoris posted:In my experience and from what I've seen of others, landing your first job is much more about who you know. This times a million. From my graduating class, the people who were the worst students (and people in general) who never did poo poo for our class got hired first because they knew someone who worked somewhere. It's really really disheartening.
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Apr 10, 2012 04:28
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I've been elbow deep in poo poo and piss and all sorts of other bodily fluids but the only thing that has actually bothered me was a patient with an anoxic brain injury grinding her teeth. For hours. Loudly. 
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Apr 10, 2012 06:31
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Hughmoris posted:I'm just about to finish up nursing school, I graduate in 5 weeks. For the past year, I've worked as a Patient Tech. The manager is holding an RN position for me, just have to pass my boards. In my experience and from what I've seen of others, landing your first job is much more about who you know. My advice would be to go to the most convenient, accredited school and pick up a job as a tech at whatever hospital you wish to work at. This is good advice. Even if you aren't offered an RN job on your tech unit, the environmental and cultural familiarity will be invaluable. roboshit posted:I've been elbow deep in poo poo and piss and all sorts of other bodily fluids but the only thing that has actually bothered me was a patient with an anoxic brain injury grinding her teeth. For hours. Loudly. Those loving trumpets, and the crud that flaps in the breeze...
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Apr 12, 2012 13:42
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I'd like to pursue a career as a registered nurse. I'm 25, prior military, currently working overseas as a military contractor and I'm absolutely sick of what I do and I think it's time for a change. Unfortunately I have basically no college to speak of and it's of course been several years since I was in high school. I have the GI bill to cover costs for about 4 years of school and I've saved a lot of money as a contractor. If I'm going to go through with this I need to commit soon, as I've been accepted to the school I want to go to to cover my prereqs in the fall. As someone who has no college experience (outside of 60 credits in an unrelated field I got from the military), how long can I expect to be in school to get a BSN, assuming I take a normal course load? Is the field still looking pretty good in the foreseeable future for career opportunities? Basically, is it a terrible idea to quit my 80 hour a week high paying job that makes me miserable in order to jump feet first into this during a bad economy? Inab fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Apr 13, 2012 |
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Apr 13, 2012 22:29
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Double post, sorry.
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Apr 13, 2012 22:34
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Inab posted:As someone who has no college experience (outside of 60 credits in an unrelated field I got from the military), how long can I expect to be in school to get a BSN, assuming I take a normal course load? Is the field still looking pretty good in the foreseeable future for career opportunities? Basically, is it a terrible idea to quit my 80 hour a week high paying job that makes me miserable in order to jump feet first into this during a bad economy? About four years give or take some prereqs. Yes, and only getting better. The average age of a nurse right now is high forties to low fifties, and when all them geezers retire its going to be a sellers' market. Depends on if you want to kill yourself with despair or love your job but occasionally make contact with terrible bodily fluids 
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Apr 13, 2012 23:22
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Just started my final rotation last night at an acute psych floor. For those of you that work psych and love it, I have all the respect in the world for you. That was by far the most mentally-exhausting night I've ever had. I spent most of my time interviewing someone with schizoaffective disorder, and trying to keep them grounded and focused was easily the hardest thing I've ever done. The science behind psychology intrigues the hell out of me, but I don't think I could ever do this for a living. Sucks too, because as a guy it's like an instant job after I graduate (the psych floors at our local hospitals have a really high turnover rate).
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Apr 14, 2012 14:16
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JAF07 posted:Just started my final rotation last night at an acute psych floor. For those of you that work psych and love it, I have all the respect in the world for you. That was by far the most mentally-exhausting night I've ever had. I spent most of my time interviewing someone with schizoaffective disorder, and trying to keep them grounded and focused was easily the hardest thing I've ever done. Different strokes. One good thing I can say about my job is that I've never had to wipe anyone's butt since school. But in psych you don't always have to deal with straight-up crazy - I ended up in a niche working with winos and drug addicts more (and tend to like these patients better - but it's still dealing with crazy folks - they're not doing what they're doing because they're sane). I've only been doing this three years, but the acuity does seem to be getting worse - we're getting crazier folks who are more medically compromised. I don't know if that's because the economy is going south and people can't afford their meds or if people are just engaging in more bad habits in general. Another nice thing about my job is that every night I learn from the patients a new way not to lead my own life.
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Apr 15, 2012 21:19
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Phew. I got into my school's nursing program. On top of that, they restructured the program so that I graduate in only 3 years because of the anatomy/microbio/etc that I took in the meantime. Next fall I finally get to start 
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Apr 17, 2012 16:11
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dissin department posted:Phew. I got into my school's nursing program. On top of that, they restructured the program so that I graduate in only 3 years because of the anatomy/microbio/etc that I took in the meantime. Next fall I finally get to start Congrats! Getting in was one of the biggest hurdles for me, since our program was backed up. Getting out early to boot is just fabulous.
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Apr 17, 2012 17:59
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Donkey Darko posted:It takes the stinkiest melena to turn my stomach now! That said, sputum still makes me squicky. Same here- poop, pus, gangrene, blood- barely faze me, but deep suctioning a really juicy trach? *gag*
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Apr 18, 2012 02:42
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CardiacEnzymes posted:Same here- poop, pus, gangrene, blood- barely faze me, but deep suctioning a really juicy trach? *gag* I watched a janitor chisel dried sputum up off a table one because it could not be removed any other way. It was like cement!!
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Apr 18, 2012 07:20
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The only thing that gets me is teeth grinding.
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Apr 18, 2012 15:37
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Peeling large yellow plaques off of neglected tongues with tweezers. My nursing super power is that I found this satisfying rather than revolting.
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Apr 18, 2012 23:25
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Donkey Darko posted:I watched a janitor chisel dried sputum up off a table one because it could not be removed any other way. It was like cement!! Ewwww I just shuddered I do postpartum nursing now, and whenever my healthy young patients get all self conscious about me taking care of their bleeding or whatever I explain there is really NOTHING they could do to shock me after years on my old intermediate care unit.
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Apr 19, 2012 02:26
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After a year of working as a patient tech on a busy med/surg floor, there isn't much that grosses me out. Two things come to mind though: - a full sputum spit cup. Makes me gag just thinking about it. - emptying bed pans. Not sure why this gets me. I can clean up the dirtiest patient, but when it comes to actually emptying and cleaning the bed pan, I get a little gaggy. Thankfully it only happens when no one can see me in the bathroom.
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Apr 19, 2012 02:30
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Purulent bile. This was a new one and I won't forget it for a while.
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Apr 19, 2012 04:11
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Adding another vote for juicy trachs. Giving someone a really good suctioning is satisfying, I just wish I didn't have to smell it. And the sticky stuff that occasionally bubbles out of the trach that leaves long stinky strings when you try to wipe it away... Uggghhh. Last week I had a patient who had severe thermal burns on both legs and back, and the shift before gave her two doses of lactulose and didn't do anything to prevent the explosion that happened soon after I came. The smell of burned flesh, pus, lactulose diarrhea (everywhere), and the floral scent of peri care soap was pretty nasty. The flexiseal is one of the world's greatest inventions.
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Apr 21, 2012 01:50
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Koivunen posted:Last week I had a patient who had severe thermal burns on both legs and back, and the shift before gave her two doses of lactulose and didn't do anything to prevent the explosion that happened soon after I came. The smell of burned flesh, pus, lactulose diarrhea (everywhere), and the floral scent of peri care soap was pretty nasty. The flexiseal is one of the world's greatest inventions.  That poor patient! In that situation wouldn't you opt for a rectal tube or SOMETHING to prevent contamination of the burns?
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Apr 21, 2012 18:29
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Koivunen posted:Adding another vote for juicy trachs. Giving someone a really good suctioning is satisfying, I just wish I didn't have to smell it. And the sticky stuff that occasionally bubbles out of the trach that leaves long stinky strings when you try to wipe it away... Uggghhh. You really shouldn't put in a flexi seal though until you know what's gonna be coming out/after the crapping starts. Full all you know there is an impaction in there and a flexiseal is just gonna block it from being expelled post lactulose.
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Apr 22, 2012 00:15
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Hey there's a nursing thread?! Aussie RN here, I work in a large teaching hospital ICU and am loving it. Smells have never bugged me but the combination of smell and image of a fungating lesion has always gotten has had me cringing inside.
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Apr 22, 2012 13:07
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Baby_Hippo posted:
I'm not sure what ended up happening to her since I haven't worked on that floor in a couple of weeks, I've been very curious though. If it weren't for her husband trying to keep her alive, she would have gone to hospice (alcoholic encephalopathy, she set herself on fire by passing out on the toilet while smoking a cigarette and was still largely unresponsive five weeks later). Bum the Sad posted:You really shouldn't put in a flexi seal though until you know what's gonna be coming out/after the crapping starts. Full all you know there is an impaction in there and a flexiseal is just gonna block it from being expelled post lactulose. She had been having regular formed BMs prior to the lactulose, good bowel sounds, yadda yadda. At that time I was more concerned about preventing infection and getting poo off those burns. The flexiseal was something that I could do right then and there and then clean and redress the patient as quickly as possible.
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Apr 22, 2012 15:12
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Any other students due to graduate this term? I have two final exams and I will be done! Hopefully, I can schedule the NCLEX for sometime at the end of May or early June and start working as an RN at some point in June. I have a job lined up on a med/surg floor at a regional hospital here Pensacola, Fl. The pay is poo poo in this area but I figure it will be a good place to build a skill set until I figure out what direction I want to go in.
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Apr 24, 2012 21:13
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Does anyone know where new graduates have a fighting chance of getting work? I'm in CA and have applied to 45+ positions since July and only heard back from one, and it was county so it's probably going to take forever even if it does move forward  I've started looking at TX but I want to know where there's a reasonable job market before I get endorsed in another state.
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Apr 25, 2012 00:28
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Giant Wallet posted:Does anyone know where new graduates have a fighting chance of getting work? I'm in CA and have applied to 45+ positions since July and only heard back from one, and it was county so it's probably going to take forever even if it does move forward I believe people were talking about opportunities in Eagle Pass, Texas earlier in this thread. There or somewhere in the Dakotas.
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Apr 25, 2012 01:08
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Hughmoris posted:I believe people were talking about opportunities in Eagle Pass, Texas earlier in this thread. There or somewhere in the Dakotas. North Dakota. Come to Minot, see why they're hemorrhaging nurses and have critical staffing problems! Also get paid poo poo! And have no recreational opportunities for 700 miles! But I'm nearly up to my year of right out of school critical care experience. And then back to Portland. So if you can deal with a hellhole for a year, come out.
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Apr 25, 2012 01:51
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Seven Five Nine posted:North Dakota. Come to Minot, see why they're hemorrhaging nurses and have critical staffing problems! Also get paid poo poo! And have no recreational opportunities for 700 miles! Can you give us a trip report of how you got that job and your time up there?
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Apr 25, 2012 02:24
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Giant Wallet posted:Does anyone know where new graduates have a fighting chance of getting work? I'm in CA and have applied to 45+ positions since July and only heard back from one, and it was county so it's probably going to take forever even if it does move forward One of my classmates recently relocated to Texas (from California) and he loves it! On a side note: today I flipped through a calendar of DON'T EVER DO THIS!! put out by the FDA - HOW THE gently caress did someone hook up a noninvasive blood pressure cuff line to an IV?!  (the patient died of an air embolus as a result)Edit to add: here's the list of adverse "WTF" events http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/ucm134874.htm Baby_Hippo fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Apr 25, 2012 |
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Apr 25, 2012 02:45
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Baby_Hippo posted:Edit to add: here's the list of adverse "WTF" events http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/AlertsandNotices/ucm134874.htm Ewwww! Foley cath connected to NG tube! It was a survival story but yuck! Some of these are family members trying to "help" the patient and staff by reconnecting things and getting it wrong, so sad
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Apr 25, 2012 03:16
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Seven Five Nine posted:North Dakota. Come to Minot, see why they're hemorrhaging nurses and have critical staffing problems! Also get paid poo poo! And have no recreational opportunities for 700 miles! Yup. I replied earlier about living in North Dakota. Long story short, only start applying in the Dakotas if you have been searching for two years are absolutely broke and desperate for any kind of job no matter how lovely it will make your life. The Dakotas are the worst.
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Apr 25, 2012 03:44
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Koivunen posted:Yup. Not that bad. Very close, but I've found some good friends up here. And microbrews. If you are looking to get into critical care for a year right out of graduation and jump start your career, Minot is where it's at. The whole hospital is hurting for nurses because of the low pay, high rent situation associated with the oil boom. Not to mention the flood last summer that destroyed a quarter of the residential area in the town. Elsewhere in Nodak will get you opportunities open to new grads not found elsewhere. Got recruited through Beck-Field recruiters, received a 5k bonus with moving expenses paid to go out there with my fiance (also is a nurse). You're obligated to work a years worth of hours before you can quit without being required to pay back the bonus. My year of ICU will be up September 22 and then I'll be applying to either travel to Portland or directly to an ICU there. Once you have a year of experience, particularly critical, you're much more likely to get a job compared to a newly licensed RN. The hospital itself is somewhat of a joke. If you can avoid Minot, do so. The hospital here is so laughably mismanaged, the ER bill I got for a minor finger laceration arrived in the mail six months after it happened. The charting program and thin-clients they use for documentation are beyond poo poo. There was also recently some sort of hubbub about either a patient death or near miss with bed side-rails being somethingoranother on a psych floor and now every nurse has to chart what the side rails are at, regardless of how many are up or down - every eight hours wtf. I got three months of training with an awesome ex-EMT who had been on the unit for about a year. The turnover and attrition from more competitive employers is brutal. In my six months being there we have lost at least 6 nurses to other employers. We are tripled too often, frequently short of equipment and get poo poo for pay. $21.50 an hour for new grad, and rent around here can get up to and beyond 1k for a one bedroom one bath appartment, for which there are huge waiting lists. With all of that said, my plan to get into flight and then CRNA got cut by three years because I got straight into ICU rather than spending time on the floor first. Its a nursing boot camp. When I come back to civilization it will feel like taking of ankle weights with the amount of experience I've acquired in such a short time. If you want experience, have a year or two to burn, and can tolerate mind rotting mediocrity in work and town then Minot has something for you. Otherwise, look for Beck-Field recruiting and check out Bismark and Fargo, both of which are much better.
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Apr 25, 2012 05:08
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Seven Five Nine posted:Lots of insight & info Thanks! That's actually really useful. One of the other places I was looking at besides TX was ND since it also looked like a 1-2 year purgatory with fewer Mexican drug gangs (Laredo, Eagle Pass, etc). Until I pass the "new grad" hurdle North Dakota looks like a definite contender now. Any other info is welcome, I can't be the only one looking for insight into different areas. Besides, in-depth trip reports are really interesting to read
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Apr 25, 2012 07:28
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Seven Five Nine posted:. . . and now every nurse has to chart what the side rails are at, regardless of how many are up or down - every eight hours wtf. Q2H. "Safety Checks." Involves which ID bands a person is wearing, what signage might be in a room (difficult airway, no blood products, fall risk, yadda yadda), side rails, assisstive devices, etc. Luckily beyond your initial assessment, there is an "unchanged" option. I'm at a neuro critical care right now during my fellowship rotation, and some of the Q1H stuff can get quite annoying. A full list of Flotrac numbers (minimally invasive hemodynamic monitoring that connects to the end of your vamp set on an aline, giving you CO, CI, SV, SVI, SVV), standard vitals, cooling device numbers (arctic sun - patient temp, water temp, trend), neuro checks, EVD drainage leveling and zeroing, HHH theapy status for subarachnoid bleed patients, hourly I&O with complete emptying and pump zeroing every 4 hours, and the list goes on and on. Two subarachnoid patients on HHH therapy and you may as well try and start eating your meal for the shift at the start. You might finish it by the time your 12 hours are up.
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Apr 25, 2012 14:45
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Y'all would have a blast with a Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy patient.
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Apr 25, 2012 17:14
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Why would you zero an EVD transducer every hour? That's just asking for ventriculitis.
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Apr 25, 2012 22:08
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Baby_Hippo posted:One of my classmates recently relocated to Texas (from California) and he loves it! Looks like it was the patient's spouse who hooked the patient back up. THAT'S WHY you always ask for help with medical equipment instead of trying to be like Dr. House or some other show you've seen on TV. Maybe some of my former crazy families can learn from that one. (actually, a good chunk of those stories come from families loving with equipment)
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Apr 25, 2012 23:43
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