Mar 14 - Mar 20 Hottest New Topics

• A Sign of the Times? We're hiring!
• You are part of the problem with healthcare today if...
• Nursing myths. Stories that you know cannot be true
• Late career choice @ 35
• Phi Theta Kappa?
• I have a B.S. degree, what would it take to become a CRNA?
• 10 years later.. Remembering my first clinical patient
• Should I make the decision to switch career?

A Sign of the Times? We're hiring!

I have recently discovered that our hospital is seventy four nurses short, so the hiring process has begun again and new grad classes have been doubled from fifteen to thirty persons for each session. I know winter is a busy time in most hospitals but I wonder what this means for the future.

You are part of the problem with healthcare today if...

If you have an assigned parking spot for your 9-5 job, while the 24/7 clinical staff walks from their assigned parking 1/2 mile away, You are part of the problem with Healthcare today!

If, from your primary work area, you couldn't see an actual patient with binoculars, but earn twice as much as those who do, You are part of the problem with Healthcare today!

If there is an "RN" after your name, and you NEVER, EVER wear anything but business clothes to work, You are part of the problem with Healthcare today!

Nursing myths. Stories that you know cannot be true

The most common myth I have heard is this one. In an unnamed ITU it was noted, with great concern that on a particular weekday (let us say Thursday) that patients were dying with alarming regularity. The management looked into this of course. It was discovered that Thursday was the cleaner's day for doing a deep-clean. Of course! The cleaners were UNPLUGGING THE RESPIRATORS to plug in their vacuum cleaners...

Late career choice @ 35

I just turned 35 years old in Jan and after years of not knowing what I wanted after I left the Navy, I have finally chosen the one career that my Great-Grand mother told me that I was going to be. Matter of fact every since I was a little girl she would always ask me, "So, you are going to be a nurse like Florence Nightingale, right?". And I would always tell her that I would. So far, I have really liked what I've learned and have even passed...

Phi Theta Kappa?

I am invited to join the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. At first I was excited but then I saw it costs $75! If I were to join, would this help me in the long run, or is that $75 basically for a special tassel at graduation? Will it help me get into nursing school or get a job? Anybody else in the same boat?

I have a B.S. degree, what would it take to become a CRNA?

I currently have a Bachelor's degree in Applied Professional Studies, which is completely unrelated to Nursing. I would like to go back to school and become a Nurse Anesthetic. I think I need to become an RN first. Every time I look at colleges, it seems the programs are for people who are already RN's and would like to become BSN's (???)

10 years later.. Remembering my first clinical patient

I still remember my first clinical patient well. I was a brand new nursing student, never having touched a patient before starting school, and now she was in my care. She was elderly, although I don't remember her exact age. She had a past medical history list longer than my care plans, everything that could go wrong for this woman had. End stage renal disease on hemo-dialysis. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hypereverything as I recall. And of course depression. Always depression.

Should I make the decision to switch career?

I was working in the environmental field and still am right now. I now have 4 years experience working in the environmental/safety field. Working in a Navy installation, making decent money and enjoying the single life. Since last summer though, I made the decision to start taking all the pre-requisites to apply to nursing school. I will be finished with all the prerequisites at 7 schools this fall. If you were me, would you push with this plan if you were in the same situation...