Question About Nursing

[BuckeyeGuy]

I have a quick question I want to pose to you about nursing. My wife is almost done with school. She'll be pinning in a could weeks, and we've been talking about where and how much she'll work. She really likes the ER, but her working in the ER scares me from an infectious disease perspective. She doesn't have the best immune system in the world and I'm concerned that a: she'll catch everything under the sun, and b: bring it home to the kids (5 ranging in ages 1-9).

She's telling me that if you talk to anyone in the field they'll tell you that being a floor nurse makes you more likely to catch something. That doesn't seem to make sense to me because at least you know what's going on there whereas in the ER, you could be treating something with something pretty nasty and not even know it.

The other part of that conversation is how much to work. We'll be moving to a bigger city in about a year. She's concerned that if she waits a year to start working that will cause issues with all the continuing education a nurse is suppose to do. I can't recall what she called it.

Some information would be very helpful. Thanks

[nursinghumor]

Hello Buckeye,

It's common for a patient to be in the hospital for weeks, before tuberculosis or something equally evil is detected. Once it is, all the people who have been exposed are tracked down (hopefully)

In that respect, you treat everyone as if they have someone and take common sense precautions.

In this economy, I'd work as much as close to 40/week as possible. For two reasons.

1. Once you graduate, you start forgetting very quickly the basics you learned in school, unless you are practicing and solidifying that knowledge with new experiences.

2. The longer you wait to start working, the less attractive you'll be to employers. (the continuing education really doesn't enter into the equation as you don't need to practice to get ceus).

Hope that is helpful.

Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly.com, A National Nursing & Consumer Health Directory

[AmandaWIRN]

During your wife's first year or so as a nurse, whe will probably get sick a few times- colds, stomach bugs, etc. Where she works (ER vs. floor), really shouldn't make a difference, as ALL areas of the hospital are full of sick people. She can help keep herself healthy by eating right, getting enough sleep, exercising, and taking a multivitamin.

[cali510]

If she were to wait a year to work, continuing education would not be a problem, but getting hired for that first job probably would. A lot of employers will not hire a new grad who has been out of school too long. They don't care if the person had worked somewhere or had never worked. The person is not considered a new grad, and so does not get considered for new grad programs. As far as continuing ed goes, that is easy. The first renewal in many states does not require CEUs. She needs to find out from her Board if her state requires CEUs on the first renewal. Even so, the CEUs can be obtained very easily, even online.

Whatever kind of job she obtains, she needs to be aware of universal precautions. Practicing good personal health habits and getting the yearly flu shot also helps. If she is concerned about her ability to be around infectious disease, then she needs to find work away from these areas after she has obtained a year or two experience. There are jobs that are away from the bedside, but they are usually more difficult to obtain because lots of nurses compete for non-bedside nursing jobs.

[scarecrow]

I agree with Amanda, she needs to rest, don't push herself. Her new hospital will ask her work extra now and then and she needs to be careful and not exaust herself. I need to push that she needs to wash her hands regularly and so does everyone and you as well.

[Ricu]

TE=scarecrow;80930]I agree with Amanda, she needs to rest, don't push herself. Her new hospital will ask her work extra now and then and she needs to be careful and not exaust herself. I need to push that she needs to wash her hands regularly and so does everyone and you as well.[/QUOTE]

Hey Scarecrow,

You seem to have a lot of worries about the nursing field. While I wouldn't want to dismiss your concerns, I would like to say that as a nurse, your wife has been trained in safety measures and knows what she's up against. Nurses are well indoctrinated in aseptic technique and standard precautions and work very hard to keep germs at bay. My guess is that you can relax a bit and trust that your wife will do what she's trained to do.


Keep the questions flowing and, good luck,

R