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Why can't I find a loving decent watch for nursing school that isn't over two hundred dollars?! I have freakishly tiny wrists (otherwise I'd buy a man's watch) and can't find a women's watch with a) a face larger than a dime AND b) a second hand. SO FRUSTRATING!! 
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Jul 14, 2009 20:20
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Baby_Hippo posted:Why can't I find a loving decent watch for nursing school that isn't over two hundred dollars?! I have freakishly tiny wrists (otherwise I'd buy a man's watch) and can't find a women's watch with a) a face larger than a dime AND b) a second hand. SO FRUSTRATING!! Dude, go to target and buy the cheapest waterproof one you can find. We are not a field conducive to wearing expensive accessories.
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Jul 14, 2009 21:13
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Dude, go to target and buy the cheapest waterproof one you can find. We are not a field conducive to wearing expensive accessories. Dude, I went to Target and, as I said, couldn't find a watch with a decent sized face and a seconds hand. Apparently women aren't into knowing what exact SECOND it is.
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Jul 14, 2009 21:15
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I loooove my rubber-strapped digital Timex. I picked it up at Costco for like $35. Waterproof, multiple alarm settings, perfect all the way around. And the strap gets itty bitty. http://www.amazon.com/Timex-Womens-Ironman-iControl-T5K046/dp/B00149TTU8/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&s=watches&qid=1247607327&sr=1-38 Yes, it's pink. And AWESOME. Any of the cheaper timex watches you can pick up on Amazon should do the trick. http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1247607...79289011&page=2
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Jul 14, 2009 22:35
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Pixi posted:I loooove my rubber-strapped digital Timex. I picked it up at Costco for like $35. Waterproof, multiple alarm settings, perfect all the way around. And the strap gets itty bitty. Oh thanks! For some reason I forgot Costco has watches/jewelry...gonna check that out this weekend!
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Jul 14, 2009 22:48
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Consider a pendant watch, like http://www.allheart.com/nm9138.html I find a wristwatch gets annoying with the frequency of handwashing. Of course, every room on my unit has a 12 in wall clock with a second hand, making a watch obsolete. The following paragraph is completely anecdotal: A 2009 U of Michigan Nurse Graduate looking for employment in the Detroit Metro area went to an RN job fair at Henry Ford. She was told there were 12 openings to be filled; looking around, she estimated the number of applicants to be 300. She was given a sheet of paper with a brief description of every type of unit in the hospital system, and was asked to make a mark next to the units she wanted to work on. She ticked six of approximately 50, and handed her sheet back to the HR rep who thanked her for coming and told her she would not be considered for any position. Stunned, she mumbled something incoherent, and the HR rep told her that they would not be considering any candidate who was not specifically interested in a job that was open. Which jobs were open? No one outside of HR knew that. /anecdote On it's face it seems pretty cold, but I guess they have to turn 300 into 40 somehow, eh? My unit is currently hosting an RN retread program, for RNs who have been out of work and allowed their licenses to lapse. We've had 9 so far, and every one of them had a husband who was either sick or unemployed as their primary reason for returning to work. While any RN can still get a decent job, the days of getting the job in the desired market seem to be behind us. Of course, my state's unemployment is 15% and rising, so ymmv.
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Jul 16, 2009 12:45
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When you say 'any RN can get a decent job' what are we really talking here? I'm transitioning from IT, and by the time I finally get into the program and have to stop working at my current job, I'll be at ~40k per year. Will I be able to start at least somewhere close to that after getting my RN?
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Jul 16, 2009 13:13
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Solaron posted:When you say 'any RN can get a decent job' what are we really talking here? I'm transitioning from IT, and by the time I finally get into the program and have to stop working at my current job, I'll be at ~40k per year. Will I be able to start at least somewhere close to that after getting my RN? This depends greatly on region and workplace. As a hospital based nurse in the Twin Cities, I made $60k starting as a new grad. At a clinic I might make $40K or less, and I'd make somewhere in between at a nursing home. Things get even weirder once you factor in shift differentials. I get about an extra $5K every year for working night shift. Some of my colleagues in Atlanta started out closer to $40K in hospital based positions. Then again their night shift differential was ridiculous and tacked on a little more than $10K to their salaries. Nurses in New York can pull in 100K. Starting. If you're trying to get a feel for your area, call up some local hospitals and ask them what they offer new grad nurses. A lot will depend on locale and whether your nurses have unionized. Ohthehugemanatee fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Jul 16, 2009 |
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Jul 16, 2009 13:39
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Thanks for the info! I've been reading some on the 'net and heard that a lot of the nice hospitals in Cincinnati aren't hiring new grads really. I'll have to see if I can't find out places that are and what they're paying.
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Jul 16, 2009 13:57
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My husband is currently completing his CNA training because a friend of mine can secure him a job at a very big hospital in a large city. This hospital does tuition reimbursement as well, so he is going to pursue his RN while working there. Has anyone here ever become an RN through this route? They're going to pay about 85% of his tuition, which sounds awesome to me. If he's already been working at this hospital while going to school, will he have a better chance at getting in as an RN once he's at that point?
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Jul 16, 2009 14:18
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Glad to have found this thread! Third term of six student here. I went for the BSN because I wanted it ASAP and plan to move up to Canada soon after graduating. I think I made the wrong decision in some ways, my program kinda sucks. They're transitioning in styles or some crap that's code for 'come to the school but we don't really know why'. Third term in, still haven't stuck a needle past SQ. I make A's and B's (was a 4.0 prior to the program), but I swear I'm not going to know my rear end from a hole in the ground when I get out. Maybe I should quit my much higher paying office job and do some hospital slaving. But actually I'd like to ask...what does anyone know or not know about RNFAs? The OR has definitely been my favorite part of the clinical experience (closely followed by ICU, which is probably where I'll end up) but as far as I can tell, RNFA is some magical mystical position that exists but nowhere I've seen. Do RNs First Assist anywhere, or is it always PAs now? The explanations I've got related to having to pay RNFAs more for the greater amount of training.
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Jul 16, 2009 20:08
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I've been meaning to ask this for a while now for any nurses. What are the monitors like where you work? I'm a clerk in a pediatric unit, but our pulse ox monitors seem to be designed for comatose adults. These kids' sats plummet every time they twitch! Either that, or we have magical children in our city who can drop their O2 sats from 98% to 73% and back to 99% in the span of four seconds. And the telemetry monitors? I have Office Space fantasies about those loving things at least once a week.
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Jul 26, 2009 14:06
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Doppelganger posted:I've been meaning to ask this for a while now for any nurses. What are the monitors like where you work? I'm a clerk in a pediatric unit, but our pulse ox monitors seem to be designed for comatose adults. These kids' sats plummet every time they twitch! Either that, or we have magical children in our city who can drop their O2 sats from 98% to 73% and back to 99% in the span of four seconds. And the telemetry monitors? I have Office Space fantasies about those loving things at least once a week. I haven't worked anywhere yet with stuff like that. Kids do fidget a lot though, and I'm guessing that has something to do with the tele stuff not working as it should.
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Jul 26, 2009 15:52
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Doppelganger posted:our pulse ox monitors seem to be designed for comatose adults. These kids' sats plummet every time they twitch! Give the kids more drugs.
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Jul 26, 2009 19:19
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AquaVita posted:I haven't worked anywhere yet with stuff like that. Kids do fidget a lot though, and I'm guessing that has something to do with the tele stuff not working as it should. Me: Katie, your kid in 62 has another lead off. Her: *Sigh* She won't stay still and keep them on. Me: I've got a stapler...
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Jul 26, 2009 22:57
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I am on a tele unit too (adult), and our leads keep slipping off also. We have very long wires that attach to the tele device, the gowns have a hole in them, let the wires go through into a chest pocket and then the device stays inside that pocket. If a patient fidgets a lot, the wires do release from the leads.... in which case I grab the older wires that use clips rather than tiny gators, those seem to stay on better.... only two clip wires though on the whole unit.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:32
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Doppelganger posted:I've been meaning to ask this for a while now for any nurses. What are the monitors like where you work? I'm a clerk in a pediatric unit, but our pulse ox monitors seem to be designed for comatose adults. These kids' sats plummet every time they twitch! Either that, or we have magical children in our city who can drop their O2 sats from 98% to 73% and back to 99% in the span of four seconds. And the telemetry monitors? I have Office Space fantasies about those loving things at least once a week. Come to the ICU. The ventilators alarm, the beds alarm, the telemetry monitor shrieks and the feeding pumps cry out for attention. The uncanny bit is how your brain gradually filters them until you can blissfully ignore thirty different alarms and spring up when you hear the thirty first that signals an actual emergency. Oh, and we routinely offer to staple leads to our patients as well, even if the suggestion isn't usually accepted. Although with enough tape you can keep almost anything on someone...
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Jul 26, 2009 23:34
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Come to the ICU. The ventilators alarm, the beds alarm, the telemetry monitor shrieks and the feeding pumps cry out for attention. The uncanny bit is how your brain gradually filters them until you can blissfully ignore thirty different alarms and spring up when you hear the thirty first that signals an actual emergency. That super strong weird striped paperish tape we use to secure ET tubes in place is loving fantastic if you need something stuck. I don't know if you have the same stuff though. Just see what RT uses.
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Jul 27, 2009 05:07
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Ohthehugemanatee posted:Oh, and we routinely offer to staple leads to our patients as well, even if the suggestion isn't usually accepted. Although with enough tape you can keep almost anything on someone... With enough tape anything is possible. I'm an OR nurse and I've seen obscene amounts of tape used on a daily bases to keep leads/pulse ox on, catheters secure, and once I saw it used to suspend a person's arm so the surgeons could prep. That being said I'll also throw my two cents in for anyone that has questions about the OR.
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Jul 29, 2009 00:16
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Auugh in exactly three weeks I'll be starting nursing school (AD RN)!!   
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Jul 29, 2009 00:53
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I'm looking at Nursing Schools in Albuquerque and right now the one with the shortest wait list for clinicals is Apollo college... Looking it up it seems to be an ADN program for profit place. Anyone have any experiences with this place postive or negative?
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Jul 29, 2009 04:22
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Although I'm not in nursing school yet, and I haven't even applied, I'm beginning the process of slowly working myself through the few prereqs I have left to take. I'm pretty excited. I got my BA in history in 2007, and it's pretty worthless. I got married and had a baby, and now I don't want to move, which I would need to to do something with that. I always deliberated between nursing and history, and I think I chose the wrong thing. So here I am at 24, a stay-at-home mother, getting ready to apply for nursing school in 4 or 5 semesters. To contribute to the thread: is it naive of me to assume that I'm going to be able to get a job in the unit that I think I want? Obviously I haven't done any clinicals so I have no real world idea of what goes down, but from personal experience I feel drawn to the L&D or NICU. Those areas just seem like they would be some of the more popular ones.
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Jul 29, 2009 05:15
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qentiox posted:To contribute to the thread: is it naive of me to assume that I'm going to be able to get a job in the unit that I think I want? Obviously I haven't done any clinicals so I have no real world idea of what goes down, but from personal experience I feel drawn to the L&D or NICU. Those areas just seem like they would be some of the more popular ones. As far as L&D goes, I hope you like lochia!
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Jul 29, 2009 23:46
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qentiox posted:
Really depends on how good you are and how good you interview. ICU is tough in any area, but you can do it if you set your sights on it early enough. Just try to avoid med-surg. It's the most  out of all of them.
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Jul 30, 2009 01:20
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AquaVita posted:Really depends on how good you are and how good you interview. ICU is tough in any area, but you can do it if you set your sights on it early enough. Yeah, after volunteering in the hospital for years, I'm not terribly interested in working on a floor. And the idea of being in surgery kindof bothers me a little. This is all preconceived notions though, I have no idea what it's really like to be an RN. As for the lochia, mine didn't bother me... The idea of it doesn't bother me much either, we'll see! I'm excited I'm finally getting started. One class at a time.
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Jul 30, 2009 03:38
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Bum the Sad posted:As far as L&D goes, I hope you like lochia! As if. We slap a pad on them and ship them off to maternity too fast to deal with much lochia. And really, it's just blood. However, I have come to despise Hemabate and methergine. Nothing says "fun" like a patient spewing from both ends AND bleeding out of their vagina. I had to transfer a patient to maternity the other night, with a bedpan under her rear end and her head in a basin. It just wouldn't stop!
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Jul 30, 2009 05:55
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AquaVita posted:Really depends on how good you are and how good you interview. ICU is tough in any area, but you can do it if you set your sights on it early enough. I thought you basically had to work med-surg for a few years before you could move to ICU/ER etc?
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Jul 31, 2009 02:47
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Solaron posted:I thought you basically had to work med-surg for a few years before you could move to ICU/ER etc? Nope, that's how it used to be. I went straight from Nursing school to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, where the fresh heart surgeries/transplants and the likely to code folk go. They throw you into an internship(full salary) though at my hospital where for like 4 months you have one day of week of class and you work with a preceptor though. Also it helps to get an externship. Try to get one during your last year of school, because if you have one you are pretty much guaranteed a job where you externed. The last semester of school I work one night a week in the SICU then like 2 months before graduation they called me and asked if I wanted the position when I graduated because they were receiving a crapload of apps about the internship and wanted to know.
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Jul 31, 2009 03:57
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I've been interested in being a Nurse for years now. I recently completed my CNA, and still love when I will be doing. That being said, money is tight, as I'm sure it is for many people. Those who I know who have gone through a program say that it is near impossible to work to support yourself and get in the time to study effectively. Does anyone know of anywhere that will pay for your school and enough to live on in exchange for working for them or in a certain area for X amount of years? Ideally I would like to not have to work while going to school, while living in an environment where I could study. I know it's a long shot, but I'm willing to move anywhere and try anything if it means that I can be a Nurse! I am currently in a community college with a 3.5 GPA, and have a lot of other classes from a University with a horrible GPA, I also have horrible credit. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them 
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Aug 3, 2009 22:40
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Ctrl_Alt_Delete posted:I've been interested in being a Nurse for years now. I recently completed my CNA, and still love when I will be doing. That being said, money is tight, as I'm sure it is for many people. Those who I know who have gone through a program say that it is near impossible to work to support yourself and get in the time to study effectively. Does anyone know of anywhere that will pay for your school and enough to live on in exchange for working for them or in a certain area for X amount of years? Ideally I would like to not have to work while going to school, while living in an environment where I could study. I know it's a long shot, but I'm willing to move anywhere and try anything if it means that I can be a Nurse! I am currently in a community college with a 3.5 GPA, and have a lot of other classes from a University with a horrible GPA, I also have horrible credit. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them Go for the VA then. They will pay for your school and throw money your way in exchange for working for them for a few years. They pay well when you get out as well. I know several people who did this route. The only downside is that all your patients are crotchety old veterans. And you might not have as much of a choice as to which unit you want to work on when you graduate.
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Aug 3, 2009 23:55
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Bum the Sad posted:Nope, that's how it used to be. Wow... that's really good to know. I'd love to try ER or ICU (although I don't have my RN yet, so maybe that will change as I get more experience in a hospital). There's a VA hospital near me - I'll have to give them a call since I can't seem to find a website with jobs, and see if they offer that deal you mentioned. That would rock!
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Aug 4, 2009 02:10
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Solaron posted:Wow... that's really good to know. I'd love to try ER or ICU (although I don't have my RN yet, so maybe that will change as I get more experience in a hospital). Yeah I think my friend got the equivalent of like $40,000 from them in two years. When combining the stipend and tuition. Anyway I don't know the specifics but call them and ask. Bum the Sad fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Aug 4, 2009 |
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Aug 4, 2009 03:50
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In the interest of keeping a good thread above the water, what are your unit clerks responsible for in general? I only ask because there's a major inconsistency among clerk duties where I work. This usually means that when a clerk from another unit is floating over to mine, they're not even aware of half the poo poo we do every single night. Some units seem to only have their clerks handle doctor orders and answer the phones. I do that, plus about a dozen other daily tasks, plus about another dozen miscellaneous, de facto clerk jobs that might pop up randomly. I'm definitely not complaining about having too much work; I like being useful to the nurses I work with. Some of our jobs are pretty stupid though. The hospital just recently started making night clerks do "Banned Abbreviation Audits" every night, which means I get to skim through every patient's orders and progress notes for abbreviations the doctors aren't supposed to use, then photocopy any offenders for my boss. I feel like such a loving snitch.
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Aug 10, 2009 14:25
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Live, thread, Live!!! As a soon to be student, I would love to know more about the schooling aspect. For instance, if you could go back now, what would/wouldn't you do in school? And anyone that could share some stories, from when you first knew that you were doing something special, to the crazy things you may pull out of people, would be great!
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Aug 10, 2009 18:26
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Ctrl_Alt_Delete posted:Live, thread, Live!!! I would have gone to a community college for my pre-reqs. At least around here, the community college classes are so much easier than my university classes since they are not filled with obsessive pre-med students. You will never forget the first time you see a patient die in front of you. It's a very humbling experience to watch another person die from shock before your eyes. You will also never forget the first time you actually save somebody's life. Yourlifesayshi fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Aug 10, 2009 |
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Aug 10, 2009 19:49
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I'm a college student in Australia (which I think is the equivalent of high school, I'm 17) and I'm currently doing all the prerequisites for Nursing at uni. Found the whole 'doctors are better than nurses' conversation earlier in the thread interesing because I totally understand the feeling. All of my friends are going to be doing medicine (to be doctors) or science, and when I say I'm doing nursing, they make jokes about the fact that I'm not as smart as them, and it's really frustrating. I'm much more of a communicator than anything else, so I'd rather be in a job where I get to talk to people and spend time with patients, rather than see them every now and again. I don't want to have to spend all my life at uni to do medicine, Nursing here only takes three-four years, so I can be in a job a lot sooner. Also, I was wondering if Nursing is the same in Aus as it is everywhere else.
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Aug 11, 2009 00:16
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Shysty McShysterson posted:I'm a college student in Australia (which I think is the equivalent of high school, I'm 17) and I'm currently doing all the prerequisites for Nursing at uni. Found the whole 'doctors are better than nurses' conversation earlier in the thread interesing because I totally understand the feeling. It sort of sounds like you know some twits. Also, beginning med students tend to go through an embarrassing phase where they manage to exude more arrogance than an entire surgery department. Law students go through something similar but fortunately the vast majority of both professions get over themselves by the time they graduate. Go look up the Student Doctor Forums some time if you want your jaw to drop in horror. For great fun, start a thread about nurse practitioners and ask how people feel about the evolution of that role. Prepare for a lot of fury preceded by the phrase, "Well in my opinion as a LIKELY FUTURE MED STUDENT nurses are SIMPLY NOT MENTALLY CAPABLE OF..." There is no greater hive of asinine circle-jerking on the internet. Once everyone gets beyond their schooling things calm down and most folk work really well together. Don't let the idiocy get you down. Doppelganger posted:In the interest of keeping a good thread above the water, what are your unit clerks responsible for in general? I only ask because there's a major inconsistency among clerk duties where I work. This usually means that when a clerk from another unit is floating over to mine, they're not even aware of half the poo poo we do every single night. Some units seem to only have their clerks handle doctor orders and answer the phones. I do that, plus about a dozen other daily tasks, plus about another dozen miscellaneous, de facto clerk jobs that might pop up randomly. Unit clerks have that unfortunate characteristic in that some times we really need them and other times there's really bugger all for them to do. Occasionally some idiot manager sees them chilling by the phones and decides to triple their workload in the name of increasing efficiency. Sigh... Sounds like you've got one of those. Ohthehugemanatee fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Aug 11, 2009 |
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Aug 11, 2009 09:49
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I know this has been partially covered, but I'm a bit stupid this morning. Some background before the questions: I have a BA in Psychology and I'm currently in a MA/PhD program in Education. I'm leaving my program after I get the MA and I will apply elsewhere for the PhD (because my program sucks). Another option I'm contemplating is nursing. I'm a CA resident and would like to stay in CA, preferably northern CA. I would also consider the Reno area or Oregon/Washington. If I went the nursing route, being the in the bay area while I'm in school would be great so I can live at home. I looked at UCSF's program: http://nurseweb.ucsf.edu/www/ps-em.htm and it seems to me this would be the fastest way to do the nursing thing if I decide to go that route being that I already have a BA and by the end of the 2010 school year, a MA. In terms of what I would want to do with the degree, I've looked in family planning stuff (which is my current academic interest), aka someone who works at planned parenthood; and I've also considered government/military nursing jobs (which seem to pay really well and theres quite a few available in CA right now). I'd also be interested in working for a university potentially, I know that at my school RN's are the one's who do annual checkups, women's visits, etc. So I guess my questions are: Is a MEPN program the best bet for me? Or would it be better to go back and get a BSN? If I did one of those programs would I be an RN or what? UCSF's program and USD's program (which I've looked at) are both incredibly epensive. Is that standard? The CA State system is usually significantly cheaper than anything else, do any of those campuses offer MEPN programs or programs that are geared towards people who already have a BA/BS? Thanks in advance for the help - I think I've just managed to confuse myself at this point.
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Aug 11, 2009 18:45
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Bunway Airlines posted:Is a MEPN program the best bet for me? If you already have a degree there is no reason to get a BSN first and then MSN. If you did either program you would have a degree that would allow you to take the NCLEX which would allow you to become an RN. It is standard for UC's and especially private schools to want to rape you financially. http://www.csulb.edu/colleges/chhs/departments/nursing/studentinfo/ApplicationsHandbooksandHand-outsforUndergraduates.htm#ELM I'm sure other CSUs have similar programs, check out other individual CSU nursing websites. Most CSU programs (to my knowledge) will not let you get a BSN if you already have a degree in something else and will force you into their MSN programs.
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Aug 11, 2009 19:25
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freshmex posted:If you already have a degree there is no reason to get a BSN first and then MSN. Sounds about right, thanks for the help. Does anyone have specific experience working in women's health/reproductive health areas?
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Aug 11, 2009 22:38
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