Nurse looking for career change

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly what she does, but my neighbor is a nurse and she is a patient care coordinator for a large network of physicians. She has been working at home doing this for at least the past five years. It pays really well, too.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your pay is maxed out. BSNs don’t really make much more without an additional degree like MSN or something in IT.

I work in cyber security and I can assure you we aren’t hiring nurses looking for a mid-career change without some additional certifications or frankly, crazy hackathon experience. It moves FAST and only the best can keep up.

Public health won’t pay as much as you want and case managers don’t get the same hours. I’d be a travel nurse if I were you. And I’m sorry about the rude patients - but I’d be realistic about that being a staffing issue. Patients are not getting appropriate care because nurses are overwhelmed. You are all making a lot of mistakes, understandably so, but are also unwilling to listen to patients. I’m pregnant and the number of times I’ve had unnecessary blood drawn because the nurse didn’t believe how far along I was when I told her I thought she’d miscalculated is astonishing. I’ve never been rude or honestly cared but it doesn’t make me think particularly highly of the profession. If it were higher stakes I’d be livid.

Prepandemic I was admitted to the hospital for several weeks and literally the nurses missed timing on every single dose. Half of them missed doses entirely. [/b] My vitals were not checked in 14 hours once which resulted in major additional complications. So, I’m sympathetic to the overwork but not to general incompetency in the industry.

Missed doses of what? A scheduled medication? Frequently? And 14 hours without VS? The hospital sounds like a mess.
Anyway...
Sorry if your OB's staff did not listen to you. But staffing absolutely impacts care. To say otherwise, is just pure ignorance. It's been shown that patient-nurse ratios impact quality of care and unsafe ratios lead to greater mistakes. If a nurse is swamped with patients, the priority goes to the patient (s) who is about to code/is headed for the ICU. Unfortunately, only California has mandated ratios because the hospital lobbyists have shut it down elsewhere. I've read about some of the ratios (especially places like the South) pre/post pandemic and there is no way in hell any nurse can provide decent care under those conditions.

I definitely agree with staffing being a huge issue!!! But these issues have been there long before the pandemic, and when a knowledgable patient gently corrects you, the right thing to do is double-check. If anyone calls out an error I might have made in my line of work, the first thing I do is check - what's the harm? My experience has been that some nurses (the best ones) are more than willing to do this, whereas others are so angry at the world and their patients that they feel disrespected by the query. I fully support mandated patient:nurse ratios.

The hospital I'm referencing is one of the more respected ones in the area, but my experience (and several others' from my peer group) made me realize I honestly think very few patients are reading every lab result, checking times of dosage, etc. I was very young and very sick but also very bored, with a long history of working in my father's office (he's a physician) so can read a chart/understand dosage. 90% of the other patients on my floor were 80+ and not in a great mental state if lucid at all. And yes, missed doses of scheduled medication (I was on IV antibiotics) and the vitals issue required me to be rushed into the IV radiologist for a drain to be placed in my infected wound. Further, with pain meds, my physicians had recommended certain delivery methods rather than IV for specific care-related reasons discussed with me in great detail, and I had two separate nurses attempt to modify the instructions per their own experience. When I was admitted with a clearly infected wound, the admitting nurse refused to let me speak with a treating physician until I had a CT scan to rule out pneumonia, with zero symptoms of pneumonia and a recent surgery. I used to be a patient advocate and was able to circumvent her by asking if she wanted to be personally named in my lawsuit, and voila - turned out I was close to sepsis and did not have pneumonia, nor did hospital policy require such a CT scan prior to treating my clear issue. The CT scan could not have been done for several hours and waiting could have resulted in my death.

The bottom line is that there are good nurses and bad nurses, and some really terrible patients, but there's a lot of hubris among nurses that I do not see with doctors. Listening to patients might alleviate some of the hostility that nurses are facing, though I have never ever been hostile while admitted or under the care of a nurse. It's a lot easier to deal with after the fact when you don't have your life in their hands.

So I’m assuming you understand that meds have a “window” of time in which they can be administered, and won’t be considered “late”. Most most facilities this would mean a message can be given an hour early or an hour late, and will still be considered on time. You have a nurse with multiple patients and multiple meds to administer…do you think she’s going to breeze into your room at EXACTLY the time the med is due and give it to you EVERY TIME?

Also you’re ranting about nurses drawing your blood too many times, and making you get CT’s etc etc. As a patient advocate, I’m sure you understand that the nurses are following orders written by a DOCTOR (who you seem to hold in high regards). If you think nurses are going around writing orders for random lab draws and CT scans…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School RN lol We are exhausted and slammed with Covid testing and sending sick kids home and now flu too. Looking for another career as well

This is comical. You are a school nurse. There is no easier nursing job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your pay is maxed out. BSNs don’t really make much more without an additional degree like MSN or something in IT.

I work in cyber security and I can assure you we aren’t hiring nurses looking for a mid-career change without some additional certifications or frankly, crazy hackathon experience. It moves FAST and only the best can keep up.

Public health won’t pay as much as you want and case managers don’t get the same hours. I’d be a travel nurse if I were you. And I’m sorry about the rude patients - but I’d be realistic about that being a staffing issue. Patients are not getting appropriate care because nurses are overwhelmed. You are all making a lot of mistakes, understandably so, but are also unwilling to listen to patients. I’m pregnant and the number of times I’ve had unnecessary blood drawn because the nurse didn’t believe how far along I was when I told her I thought she’d miscalculated is astonishing. I’ve never been rude or honestly cared but it doesn’t make me think particularly highly of the profession. If it were higher stakes I’d be livid.

Prepandemic I was admitted to the hospital for several weeks and literally the nurses missed timing on every single dose. Half of them missed doses entirely. [/b] My vitals were not checked in 14 hours once which resulted in major additional complications. So, I’m sympathetic to the overwork but not to general incompetency in the industry.

Missed doses of what? A scheduled medication? Frequently? And 14 hours without VS? The hospital sounds like a mess.
Anyway...
Sorry if your OB's staff did not listen to you. But staffing absolutely impacts care. To say otherwise, is just pure ignorance. It's been shown that patient-nurse ratios impact quality of care and unsafe ratios lead to greater mistakes. If a nurse is swamped with patients, the priority goes to the patient (s) who is about to code/is headed for the ICU. Unfortunately, only California has mandated ratios because the hospital lobbyists have shut it down elsewhere. I've read about some of the ratios (especially places like the South) pre/post pandemic and there is no way in hell any nurse can provide decent care under those conditions.

I definitely agree with staffing being a huge issue!!! But these issues have been there long before the pandemic, and when a knowledgable patient gently corrects you, the right thing to do is double-check. If anyone calls out an error I might have made in my line of work, the first thing I do is check - what's the harm? My experience has been that some nurses (the best ones) are more than willing to do this, whereas others are so angry at the world and their patients that they feel disrespected by the query. I fully support mandated patient:nurse ratios.

The hospital I'm referencing is one of the more respected ones in the area, but my experience (and several others' from my peer group) made me realize I honestly think very few patients are reading every lab result, checking times of dosage, etc. I was very young and very sick but also very bored, with a long history of working in my father's office (he's a physician) so can read a chart/understand dosage. 90% of the other patients on my floor were 80+ and not in a great mental state if lucid at all. And yes, missed doses of scheduled medication (I was on IV antibiotics) and the vitals issue required me to be rushed into the IV radiologist for a drain to be placed in my infected wound. Further, with pain meds, my physicians had recommended certain delivery methods rather than IV for specific care-related reasons discussed with me in great detail, and I had two separate nurses attempt to modify the instructions per their own experience. When I was admitted with a clearly infected wound, the admitting nurse refused to let me speak with a treating physician until I had a CT scan to rule out pneumonia, with zero symptoms of pneumonia and a recent surgery. I used to be a patient advocate and was able to circumvent her by asking if she wanted to be personally named in my lawsuit, and voila - turned out I was close to sepsis and did not have pneumonia, nor did hospital policy require such a CT scan prior to treating my clear issue. The CT scan could not have been done for several hours and waiting could have resulted in my death.

The bottom line is that there are good nurses and bad nurses, and some really terrible patients, but there's a lot of hubris among nurses that I do not see with doctors. Listening to patients might alleviate some of the hostility that nurses are facing, though I have never ever been hostile while admitted or under the care of a nurse. It's a lot easier to deal with after the fact when you don't have your life in their hands.

So I’m assuming you understand that meds have a “window” of time in which they can be administered, and won’t be considered “late”. Most most facilities this would mean a message can be given an hour early or an hour late, and will still be considered on time. You have a nurse with multiple patients and multiple meds to administer…do you think she’s going to breeze into your room at EXACTLY the time the med is due and give it to you EVERY TIME?

Also you’re ranting about nurses drawing your blood too many times, and making you get CT’s etc etc. As a patient advocate, I’m sure you understand that the nurses are following orders written by a DOCTOR (who you seem to hold in high regards). If you think nurses are going around writing orders for random lab draws and CT scans…

Missed doses and misread protocols (not direct doctors orders).

[Anonymous]

But this is what I’m referencing. Stop being so dismissive of your patients. They are also struggling and it’s a two way street. Just double check - you’re not infallible and you make mistakes. Physicians check more often precisely because they are the ones who get sued.

And on that note, I am out. For people who care about medical care being administered properly rather than soft skills like taking photos for family who can’t be present, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourselves. Over staffing combined with a hero complex is dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But this is what I’m referencing. Stop being so dismissive of your patients. They are also struggling and it’s a two way street. Just double check - you’re not infallible and you make mistakes. Physicians check more often precisely because they are the ones who get sued.

And on that note, I am out. For people who care about medical care being administered properly rather than soft skills like taking photos for family who can’t be present, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourselves. Over staffing combined with a hero complex is dangerous.

There are plenty of issues in health care, but your decision to attack nurses, while also claiming that doctors are the true heroes and ona pedestal, is just bewildering. I'm not sure if it's classicism or something else driving this, but you have issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly what she does, but my neighbor is a nurse and she is a patient care coordinator for a large network of physicians. She has been working at home doing this for at least the past five years. It pays really well, too.

What do you mean by "pays really well"mean in terms of salary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look into care management in an outpatient setting.

This does not pay well. I work in care management with years of experience and routinely get job solicitations for $70-75K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But this is what I’m referencing. Stop being so dismissive of your patients. They are also struggling and it’s a two way street. Just double check - you’re not infallible and you make mistakes. Physicians check more often precisely because they are the ones who get sued.

And on that note, I am out. For people who care about medical care being administered properly rather than soft skills like taking photos for family who can’t be present, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourselves. Over staffing combined with a hero complex is dangerous.

Meant to say under staffing there. See, I double-checked and corrected myself. Not so hard. And it's not that I think physicians are on a pedestal, I think they are way more concerned about malpractice suits than nurses.

Anyways, thank you to the hard-working nurses who are pushing through and still paying attention. And for those burned out, it's totally understandable, but there are other options if your burnout is impacting your patient care. If you're an NP licensed in certain states I recommend looking into telemedicine positions. Hopefully we get an influx of foreign nurses soon, because they seem much happier with the job. And now, I'm officially done hijacking this thread. Apologies to the OP.

https://qz.com/2097686/foreign-nurses-working-in-the-us-are-happier-than-american-nurses/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But this is what I’m referencing. Stop being so dismissive of your patients. They are also struggling and it’s a two way street. Just double check - you’re not infallible and you make mistakes. Physicians check more often precisely because they are the ones who get sued.

And on that note, I am out. For people who care about medical care being administered properly rather than soft skills like taking photos for family who can’t be present, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourselves. Over staffing combined with a hero complex is dangerous.

Meant to say under staffing there. See, I double-checked and corrected myself. Not so hard. And it's not that I think physicians are on a pedestal, I think they are way more concerned about malpractice suits than nurses.

Anyways, thank you to the hard-working nurses who are pushing through and still paying attention. And for those burned out, it's totally understandable, but there are other options if your burnout is impacting your patient care. If you're an NP licensed in certain states I recommend looking into telemedicine positions. Hopefully we get an influx of foreign nurses soon, because they seem much happier with the job. And now, I'm officially done hijacking this thread. Apologies to the OP.

https://qz.com/2097686/foreign-nurses-working-in-the-us-are-happier-than-american-nurses/

Wow - such an offensive post (and person). I am nurse and take great pride in the work I do. To be so dismissive of a nurse is just unreal. Nurses are the eyes and ears of patient care. We aren't robots who just follow orders. We review our patient's charts to understand their care better, we look at labs and make calls to physicians to say a patient might need electrolyte replacement or a blood transfusion, we call for a fever on a patient who had chills (outside of an order) because we're concerned for infections and much more. Nurses are at the bedside and are the ones who are likely calling that doctor to see you. Any good doctor knows the value of a good nurse.
If you notice something, bring it to the attention of the charge nurse. Most underlying issues have to do with poor staffing which results in nurses having higher nurse:patient ratios, taking on responsibilities that normally went to other disciplines and takes away from true patient care. Who is going to teach you how to give yourself that injection, modify your diet so your diabetes isn't out of control, how to manage your wound, you ostomy, etc. Teaching takes time and repeated reinforcement.