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Will I work at this hospital once I become a nurse?

That's usually the first question I get when someone learns that I'm a nursing student at the hospital I work at.  For now my pat answer is "I'm not sure yet, we'll see" but I guess if I were being honest the answer would probably be no.  See this hospital is a very small, rural hospital & like I've probably said before, some of the patients are more like nursing home patients than just regular old sick patients on a Med/Surg floor.  I'm talking total care, from bathing to toileting to feeding and while that wouldn't be so bad if you actually had techs to help you, at this hospital you're LUCKY if a tech is scheduled & then sometimes it's only one tech for a floor with 33 rooms, some of them double occupancy rooms.  Uh no thanks!  Then on top of that the pay is lower than at the hospital where I do my clinicals.  And further more, I live about an hour from a big city where there is a REALLY great children's hospital that I might like to work at, so basically I don't really see myself staying at this hospital, but I guess one never knows the future huh?

Just curious, does the hospitals you work at have techs for every shift?  Even if they are lucky enough to get a tech, it's usually only day shift, night shift usually gets the shaft. What does your hospital do?



Comments

  1. I just interviewed at a hospital in Dallas, and for their day shift they have about 5 techs (on a 30 bed floor) and on night shift they have 4 techs. But then again, this is a huge hospital and I can see where they'd have the money to support that.

    So are you sometimes the only tech there? On a 33 bed floor?? That seems crazy!

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    1. Girl yes & that's on the days that the nurses get lucky! I've had over 20 patients before by myself (as the only tech) it's so busy!! I would say any time they have over 12 patients then they should have 2 techs, I mean come on!! There's some days I don't even make it to the end of the hall to see if those patients on the other end would like baths for the day! Ridiculous.

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  2. I used to get asked that alot too where I have worked as a health care aid while i have been in school. I am assuming out HCA is similar to your tech, and day on some of our sub acute floors with a high occupancy of elderly we have HCA shifts, but otherwise it is just LPN's and RN's

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    Replies
    1. I guess I just got spoiled by my clinical site, but I'm sorry, if I'm working days I'm not working anywhere that doesn't have techs/HCA's (yes they're the same thing).

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  3. I'm not working at the hospital where I had most of my clinicals.
    I would often get that questions when seeing perspective employers in the halls.
    I'll be working night shift on the orthopedics floor at a hospital about 25 min away from my house. We will have techs, but not as many as are on day shift. I'm hoping that nights are a bit less demanding than days.
    We'll see...
    Hope everything is going great with school, girl!!

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    Replies
    1. My next post is about that very thing, night shift vs. day shift. I found this very interesting.

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  4. If they are not med/surg what kind of patients do you work with? Can they ambulate and do a lot of their own ADL's

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    Replies
    1. Psh I wish!! On 3rd floor they are better, those are mostly post-op pt's & they're pretty good with doing their own ADL's & ambulating but on 2nd floor, forget it. They are mostly total care, it's really more like a SNF than a Med/Surg floor.

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