CampusRN Job Blog
Following a job plan leads to success
Saturday, May 19, 2012
The future of our country is in good hands, from what I have recently seen. Here are the stories of three people willing to work hard, develop skills and start career training programs. Their stories show that if you want to enter or re-enter the job market, you will do a lot better if you prepare well, even in a tough economy.
Two are young men just graduating high school this June. The other is a middle-aged woman who has embarked on a new career path. What is great about all three is the time and effort they put into planning how they will make their goals achievable. Each involves continuing their education on a part-time or full-time basis.
Let’s start with Jack (all names have been changed to protect their privacy). He wants to be a game warden. Jack knew a friend who was a game warden and he sometimes traveled with him on his job. Jack liked what the game warden, did to help the environment and stop people from doing illegal acts. He sees this as a noble and worthy job.
Jack wants to be a leader one day and likes the idea of interacting with many people, without having to do the same thing everyday. Jack thinks this is a dream job for him, because he was active in sports in high school, and really likes hunting and fishing. To prepare for becoming a game warden, Jack will attend a local community college to earn credits in the core educational courses needed to attain that job.
Stan is another aspiring young man. He admired his cousin’s job, working at an out-of-town, large manufacturing company. With his cousin’s help, Stan started to learn about the world of computer numerically controlled machinery. Using that information, Stan started to work as a CNC machine operator last year, on a part-time basis, for a local metal machine shop.
Stan liked the job and felt that the employer liked him and his work at their company. The owner of the company is known in the community as an honorable and ethical small business leader. In fact, the owner made Stan a wonderful offer. He said that the company would pay Stan’s evening college costs after he started working full-time at the company’s day shift, as one of their CNC machine operators. Stan feels it will take him five years to complete his college education, but he likes what he will be doing.
“I am a hands-on type of guy that feels like contributing,” said Stan, who expects to take advantage of the offer for a full-time job with the company, along with their support for the cost of his education. Everyone wins in this situation.
Now let’s talk about Kim, who is starting on a new career in nursing. Kim is a bright person who already has advanced college degrees, but has found it tough to get jobs that would allow her to support herself while paying off her college debts. Kim is single now, with a grown child living away from home. She hopes that a nursing career will allow her to pay her debts and manage her expenses.
When Kim finishes her nursing studies, she expects to have a satisfying career. The demand for skilled nurses is growing, and with Kim’s background, many opportunities including various medical administration jobs could open up for her in the health care field.
posted in: Career, National, news, Employer News
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Why I Love My Job: Brandie A. Villanova, RN, BSN
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Job: Registered nurse on the orthopedic floor at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge.
What I do: “I mostly receive surgical patients from the recovery unit, who may have just had a total joint replacement.”
How I got into this: “Throughout nursing school, I worked for a local orthopedic office, and loved the physician I worked under. The physician would allow me to observe his exams and explain and interpret any MRI or other diagnostic test presented. I absolutely loved the experience and when I was presented with the opportunity to work on an orthopedic floor, I took it.”
Best part of the job: “My job is very rewarding. I get to see patient’s progress — from learning to stand up and walk again on a surgical leg, to walking around the unit and climbing stairs.
“Some patients have a longer rehabilitation than others, and I have even gotten emotional simply watching a patient do her exercises because I had watched her progress over weeks. When I get to see and hear of the impact that I have had on a patient’s progress and rehabilitation, the feeling is overwhelming.”
Most challenging part: “Time management. Some days it is so hard to find the time to do everything I need to within a 12-hour shift. There are days I seem to run all day long, but somehow the job always gets done.”
posted in: Career, National, news
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5 Steps for Finding the Perfect Part-Time Gig
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Whether you need a second job for extra income or you’re unemployed and open to working part-time to bring in cash flow, part-time work is available if you know where to look for it. And before you assume that your only options are outside your field, you should know that most part-time jobs aren’t advertised. What you see on job boards isn’t all that you could get.
Why Work Part Time
There are different reasons for needing or wanting to work part-time. Maybe you’re interested in working as a contractor to ramp up a new freelance business. Or maybe you want to spend more time with your kids. Maybe you feel like you’ve exhausted all the full-time opportunities in this market, or perhaps you just want some extra cash. (According to SnagaJob.com, 8.3 million Americans take part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time roles.)
Whatever the reason, a part-time role (temporary or otherwise) will do the trick. Take these 5 steps to land part-time work:
1. Figure out your schedule. Because part-time roles vary in the number of hours worked, you’ll need to begin by determining how many hours you can work a week, and what hours you are available. Part of determining your availability is looking at the amount of money you want to bring in. Do a rough estimate of what you think you could make hourly, and decide how many hours you would have to work to bring that amount home. Take your availability schedule with you when starting the job search.
2. Start with the job boards. You might be surprised to find a variety of part-time opportunities on job boards, especially in nursing and sales. Not all companies list part-time jobs on these boards, but they are the places to start. Sometimes a company may list a full-time role that could be a part-time position for the right person, so don’t disregard full-time positions that look good.
3. Do a little handshaking. Because so many companies don’t publicly announce part-time positions, it’s important to network with people who work at different companies. Sometimes positions are created based on a company’s needs and an individual’s skill set, so you might find yourself in a unique position to pitch a company on a part-time role if you network with the right people (Think: part-time social media manager). Spend some time on LinkedIn to reconnect with your contacts. Put your feelers out for any opportunities that may fit.
4. Look in the right places. Part-time jobs aren’t just found in retail and restaurants. Customer service roles, for example, may be offered as telecommute positions that allow you to customize your schedule.
Government agencies and schools are another good place to look for part-time jobs. Unfortunately, many federally funded entities have had their budgets cut and are looking for ways to reduce expenses. While they still need staff, these entities work to reduce their full-time positions so they don’t have to pay benefits, which means there may be part-time opportunities. Since not everyone can afford to take a part-time job, you may have a little less competition than you would with a full-time role.
posted in: Career, National, news, Employer News
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Being an optimist ‘may protect against heart problems’
Monday, April 23, 2012
Being cheerful may protect against heart problems, say US experts.
Happy, optimistic people have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, a Harvard School of Public Health review of more than 200 studies - reported in Psychological Bulletin - suggests.
While such people may be generally healthier, scientists think a sense of well-being may lower risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Stress and depression have already been linked to heart disease.
The researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health trawled medical trial databases to find studies that had recorded psychological well-being and cardiovascular health.
This revealed that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness appeared to be associated with a reduced risk of heart and circulatory diseases, regardless of a person’s age, socio-economic status, smoking status or body weight.
Disease risk was 50% lower among the most optimistic individuals.
‘Not proof’
Dr Julia Boehm and colleagues stress that their work only suggests a link and is not proof that well-being buffers against heart disease.
posted in: Career, National, news
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Supporting women with diabetes has become Mari Ruddy’s mission
Monday, April 23, 2012
“In life, you get what you get,” she says. “The only thing you can control is your attitude.”
In the perennial card game of life, no one with the hand Mari Ruddy (left) has been dealt should be as upbeat or happy as she is. She was diagnosed with Type I diabetes when she was 16. She’s had breast cancer twice in the past six years, and a unilateral mastectomy.
But Mari, 47, is happy. And she doesn’t exude a Pollyanna-ish kind of optimism. It’s real; a dig-deep, stay-in-the-game-of-life kind of joy.
A motivational speaker, an executive coach for schools and nonprofits and the founder of Team WILD (We Inspire Life with Diabetes), Mari believes answers start with the individual.
“In life, you get what you get,” she says. “The only thing you can control is your attitude. All right, this is happening to me — what am I going do about it?”
Mari, who lives in Denver, walks the talk; or rather runs, cycles and swims it. She started exercising at age 31, at the urging of a doctor who told her she would die otherwise. She had been terrified of low blood sugars and how her body might react to exercise.
When she had radiation treatment for her first cancer, she began training for a triathlon.
“I rode my bike to chemo almost every day, and in the wintertime, I rode my training bike inside, looking at a picture of Lance Armstrong,” says Mari.
In 2006, she joined a Tour de Cure bicycle ride sponsored by the American Diabetes Association. In that event, she noticed there was no way to tell which participants had diabetes, so she proposed the Red Rider recognition program. Now cyclists with diabetes wear red “I Ride With Diabetes!” jerseys in the more than 80 annual Tour de Cure rides across the country.
“Recognition is important,” Mari says. “If you’re taking charge of your health, you deserve to be celebrated.”
Ever the observer, Mari also noticed that most of the Red Riders were men. So in 2008, Mari founded Team WILD (Teamwild.org), an organization that supports and empowers female endurance athletes with diabetes. This year, Team WILD has four teams, including a group of 10 who participated in an Ironman triathlon in September, an event comprised of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. Team members across the country have a monthly conference call with a coach and then meet for races.
Kerry Snider, 50, who was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in February 2010, says Mari inspired her to make exercising a habit. The self-described former couch potato has lost 60 pounds and is a member of Team WILD 101, an exercise and diabetes support group.
posted in: Career, National, news
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Attendance May be an Essential Function of the Job
Monday, April 23, 2012
This case tests the limits of an employer’s attendance policy. Just how essential is showing up for work on a predictable basis? In the case of a neo-natal intensive care nurse, we conclude that attendance really is essential.
So begins the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Samper v. Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.
The Samper plaintiff, a neonatal nurse in the defendant-hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), suffered from fibromyalgia which, she claimed, limited her sleep and caused her chronic pain. The nurse asked the hospital to accommodate this disability by allowing her to miss work whenever she was having a “bad day.” After years of unacceptable absenteeism what the Court described as the hospital’s “Herculean efforts” to accommodate the plaintiff, she was terminated. She sued the hospital, claiming that it failed to provide her with a reasonable accommodation for her disability.
The hospital did not dispute that the plaintiff was disabled, that she had the requisite technical skills for the job, or that she suffered an adverse employment action. The hospital argued, however, that although the plaintiff possessed the technical qualifications of the job, she was unable to perform the essential function of showing up for work.
The burden was on the hospital to establish which functions were “essential” to the job. Arguing that the hospital did not meet its burden to show that attendance was an essential function of the job, the plaintiff cited numerous cases for the proposition that regular attendance was not required. For example, she cited to cases where “workers were basically fungible with one another, so that it did not matter who was doing the job on any particular day,” (dockworkers) as well as cases where the work could be performed remotely (medical transcriptionists).
The Court easily distinguished those cases, however, from cases like this one, where irregular attendance compromises essential functions. Indeed, the Court stated:
To imagine a NICU facility, responsible for the emergency care of infants, operating effectively in such a manner, stretches the notion of accommodation beyond any reasonable limit. An accommodation that would allow [the plaintiff] to “simply . . . miss work whenever she felt she needed to and apparently for so long as she felt she needed to [a]s a matter of law . . . [is] not reasonable” on its face. Internal citations omitted.
posted in: Career, National, news
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Nursing career prepared woman for volunteer work at hospice
Monday, April 16, 2012
For nearly 17 years, retired nurse Mary C. Fello has administered comfort and kindness to dying patients as a volunteer in the Forbes Hospice unit of West Penn Hospital.
But it wasn’t always that way. She began her nursing career in the nursery and delivery unit of the former St. Francis Hospital.
“I was a St. Francis graduate nurse and worked there for about 35 years,” recalled Mrs. Fello, 88. While her children were young, she took the night shift, and later she switched to short stay surgery. “I loved that,” she noted, adding, “but I knew I wanted to volunteer here when I retired from that job.”
She has been volunteering more than 30 hours a month ever since. For that contribution, she is a finalist for Most Outstanding Volunteer Award from among 48 winners of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service of 2011.
The outstanding volunteer will be announced Thursday at a 7 p.m. ceremony in the Music Hall of the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. The winner will represent Western Pennsylvania at the national Jefferson Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., this summer.
The Snavely Foundation will donate $1,000 to Forbes Hospice on Mrs. Fello’s behalf.
The program is administered locally by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with sponsorship by Highmark, BNY Mellon, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments.
“It makes you feel good to help,” she acknowledged recently.
A woman of few words, Mrs. Fello of Point Breeze is more comfortable doing than talking about doing. When asked if it takes a special kind of person to work with the dying, she replied, laughing, “I’d like to think it takes a special person.”
Her daughter, Maryanne Fello, the medical director of Forbes Hospice, agreed. “The nurses who do this are kind of a special breed. They come in and are not afraid and like to help.”
She said her mother “is a purpose-driven person. She is always involved and takes up causes and advocates for her grandchildren. She goes after things that really make her get up in the morning.”
The hospice serves an average of 125 patients a day. “The people who come to the hospice are very, very sick, and one of our goals is to keep people free of pain,” Mrs. Fello said.
All the volunteers, whether they are nurses or not, go through special training with Shelby Anderson, hospice volunteer coordinator who nominated Mrs. Fello for a Jefferson Award.
“It kind of comes naturally, but we have special instructions on spiritual care and bathing patients and things like that,” Mrs. Fello explained.
Because of her extensive experience and her natural aptitude for making people feel better, she also helps train new hospice volunteers, giving them the confidence to care for the terminally ill.
If the patient asks about dying, the volunteers are taught how to discuss it. “A volunteer will sit with the patient and hold her hand and talk or pray with her or read, whatever is appropriate,” she said. The volunteers also help family members feel comfortable around the patient by having them do simple things for their loved one, including holding a hand or rubbing a back or combing hair.
“I get a real personal satisfaction from the work at the hospice. You don’t really realize what has happened until you come home and think about the day,” she said. “If you have helped anybody, it gives you a certain satisfaction.”
As for the families, the volunteers are glad to have them there at the time of death. “Sometimes they choose not to be, and other times it just happens when they are not there,” she said. Knowing that a volunteer was there and can tell them how peaceful it was makes a difference for the families.
posted in: Career, National, Employer News
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New York pushes nurse staffing ratios bill for hospitals, nursing homes
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
New York legislators are considering the Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act, a nurse staffing ratios bill for hospitals and nursing homes that is supported by the New York State Nurses Association and the New York State Public Employees Federation and opposed by the New York State Organization of Nurse Executives and the Greater New York Hospital Association.
The bill (A00921 and S4553) would require one-nurse-to-one-patient staffing in the operating room, trauma emergency unit, intensive care and maternal/child care units during the second and third stages of labor. It would set a minimum of one nurse to two patients during the first stage of labor and in postanesthesia units; one nurse to three patients in antepartum, ED, pediatrics, telemetry and newborn and intermediate care nursery units; one nurse to four patients on med/surg units and acute care psychiatric units; one nurse to five patients on rehabilitation units; and one nurse to six patients on well-baby nursery units. The minimum requirements shall be adjusted to reflect the need for additional direct-care nurses in accordance with an approved acuity system.
The proposed ratios are more stringent for some units compared with California’s safe staffing ratios law, which went into effect in 2004 and mandates one nurse to two critical care patients, one nurse to four patients on telemetry units and EDs, and one nurse to five patients on med/surg floors.
California experience
Linda H. Aiken, RN, PhD, FAAN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia, and colleagues reported April 2010 in the journal Health Services Research that California hospital med/surg nurses cared for one fewer patient per shift, on average, than nurses in the other states studied. The lower rates were associated with lower mortality, and nurse outcomes were predictive of better nurse retention in California than in other states studied.
“It validates our experience in reducing harm and death,” said DeAnn McEwen, RN, MSN, president of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee and vice president of National Nurses United in Oakland, Calif., which is supporting a national staffing ratios bill (H2187 and S992) pending in Congress.
Proposed staffing regulations
Bill A00921 and S4553 propose the following staffing ratios:
• OR — 1 nurse to 1 patient
• Trauma emergency — 1 nurse to 1 patient
• ICU — 1 nurse to 1 patient
• Maternal/child — 1 nurse to 1 patient (during second and third stages of labor)
• Maternal/child — 1 nurse to 2 patients (during first stage of labor)
• Postanesthesia — 1 nurse to 2 patients
• Antepartum — 1 nurse to 3 patients
• ED — 1 nurse to 3 patients
• Pediatrics — 1 nurse to 3 patients
• Telemetry — 1 nurse to 3 patients
• Newborn/intermediate care nursery — 1 nurse to 3 patients
• Med/surg — 1 nurse to 4 patients
• Acute care psychiatric — 1 nurse to 4 patients
• Rehabilitation — 1 nurse to 5 patients
• Well-baby nursery — 1 nurse to 6 patients
Note: The minimum requirements shall be adjusted to reflect the need for additional direct-care nurses in accordance with an approved acuity system.
posted in: Career, news, Employer News, New York
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Top 10 Nursing Specialties
Thursday, January 26, 2012
From CampusRN user Erin McKinney
If you’re planning for a career in nursing, you might want to consider which jobs are the highest paying
out of all the nursing specialties. Here are the top ten highest paying specialties in nursing, with salaries
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
1) Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist – $135,000
Nurse anesthetists have the responsibility of administering anesthesia to patients. They work under
the supervision of physicians, surgeons, dentists, anesthesiologists, and other specialists in a variety
of settings, such as hospitals, clinics, outpatient centers, or research centers. They are trained to
administer all approved anesthetic techniques.
2) Nurse Researcher – $95,000
Nurse researchers usually work at laboratories and universities conducting or assisting in scientific
research and evaluation. Their studies may cover a variety of fields, such as biology, psychology, and
health care systems. They may also be lecturers and professors of nursing at academic institutions.
3) Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner – $95,000
Psychiatric nurse practitioners work with individuals with psychiatric disorders, mental conditions, or
who suffer from substance abuse. They are licensed to diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders and
they can practice autonomously in 20 states. Some may specialize in a certain group of individuals, such
as children, adolescents, or adults, and they work in a variety of facilities, from hospitals and clinics to
emergency services and community health centers.
4) Certified Nurse Midwife – $84,000
Nurse midwives offer care to women with low-risk pregnancies through the postpartum period. They
offer a range of services, from gynecological care and child delivery to menopausal care. They may
work independently or work under the supervision of a physician. Nurse midwives can also prescribe
medications and treatments to their patients.
5) Pediatric Endocrinology Nurse – $81,000
Pediatric endocrinology nurses care for children who have diseases related to the endocrine system,
which cause problems with physical growth and sexual development. The most common diseases
they deal with are diabetes, intersex disorders, hypoglycemia, and puberty difficulties. These nurses
help children and their families learn how to deal with the problems related to the disease and offer
treatment.
6) Orthopedic Nurse – $81,000
Orthopedic nurses help patients who have musculoskeletal disorders, which can range from acute
fractures to bone density disorders. They are trained in specific skills such as muscle rehabilitation,
casting, and neurovascular monitoring. They work in a variety of settings, from trauma and emergency
departments to sports medicine and acute care.
7) Nurse Practitioner – $78,000
Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have received advanced training in nursing. They
generally specialize in a specific field, such as pediatrics, geriatrics, or women’s health and must be
licensed or certified through a state medical board. Some work under the supervision of doctors, but
they can also serve as primary care providers and supervise other nurses. They focus on educating
patients toward prevention and healthy lives.
8) Clinical Nurse Specialist – $76,000
Clinical nurse specialists care for patients in a manner similar to nurse practitioners, but they also work
to improve the work of other nurses and the overall health system. They offer advice and education to
health offices and clinics in order to help them provide better care.
9) Gerontological Nurse Practitioner – $75,000
Gerontological nurse practitioners specialize in the field of gerontology, which studies the effects of
aging. They care for older adults with acute and chronic diseases related to aging, which may range from
cardiovascular disease and diabetes to dizziness and stroke.
10) Neonatal Nurse – $74,000
Neonatal nurses care for newborn infants up to a month old. They offer care to both healthy infants and
those with minor or serious health conditions who need extra care in order to survive. They are usually
registered nurses (RNs) who may or may not have neonatal specializations.
This article was written by Erin McKinney, who is a licensed nurse practitioner. Erin also owns the site
Masters of Nursing for students interested in getting an
advanced degree in the nursing field.
posted in: Career, National, news, Employer News
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How to find opportunities in health-care field
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
How many professions do you know that are always hiring? Health care is one, according to the manager of recruitment and staffing strategy at Fletcher Allen, the largest employer in the state with about 7,000 employees.
“I look back over the last couple of years in a very down economy and we have always been hiring,” Karen Vincent said. “It doesn’t mean it’s easy to get a job. It’s very competitive. When you talk about patient care you want to hire the very best. But there hasn’t been a time when we weren’t hiring.”
The positions that are available in health care are diverse, and include part-time, full-time and temporary jobs. Health care companies are not just looking for nurses however. Vincent said Fletcher Allen has about 150 job openings at any given time.
“It really does run the gamut, but if I think of jobs right now that are hard to fill, I think about an LPN (licensed practical nurse) position in one of our outpatient clinics, and our audiologist position in St. Albans,” Vincent said. “We are often looking for strong practice supervisor positions to run our outpatient clinics. It’s great if they have a health care background and a business background. We also are looking for a manager of accounting. We are often looking for licensed nurse assistants, and registration representatives.”
posted in: Career, Interviewing, news, Employer News
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