California is the main state I want to travel to, mainly for the beauty and weather. Im even willing and eager to go through the crazy long process of getting licensed there. I was really disheartened as the first recruiter I just spoke to said there are never any contracts in California. Has this been anyone else’s experience?
California is the main state I want to travel to, mainly for the beauty and weather. Im even willing and eager to go through the crazy long process of getting licensed there. I was really disheartened as the first recruiter I just spoke to said there are never any contracts in California. Has this been anyone else’s experience?
Do you buy private insurance or use agency insurance? Have you found one is cheaper or safer?
Would love to hear opinions! What do you think are the best companies to work with for psych nurses? Also, if you have concurrent experience with adult and geriatric psych and have worked both about evenly, do you think that hurts or helps? Do you think companies or hospitals prefer your experience all in one unit?
Also any experience as travel psych nurses you want to throw out please throw it at me! I’m currently a charge nurse on a geriatric psych unit but have experience in adult psych as well, just not pediatric psych.
Curious as to people’s thoughts. Does having charge experience in the nursing field you work in help you get hired for better contracts/pay?
Okay not LITERALLY saved my life but definitely figuratively. I had a mental health crisis and started a stash account a few years ago where I had $40 out of each paycheck go directly to it…..and completely forgot. Not even joking. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and was making some very risky financial decisions in such a way that i didn’t even remember making the Stash account. Thankfully I’m a nurse and knew I needed medication and quickly got my disorder under control. I honestly try only looking at the total in my account, I’m not someone who goes through all of my charges unless something looks incorrect—-which happened to me recently. Long story short, I noticed a charge due to a family member stealing my card information and there it was—-a recurring $40 withdrawal from Stash. I was very nervous I’d done something very stupid or had been hacked and looked up the app and wouldn’t you know it, it showed I had downloaded it before. I redownloaded it, had to change my password and was shocked to see that in just 2.5 years I had made almost 6k! I couldn’t believe it was real!!!! My father had unfortunately just passed away and I was so devastated as I didn’t know how I’d give him the funeral I wanted to give him.
I have looked on here and I see a lot of people saying Stash is awful. I can only speak for myself—and it’s very likely that I only made this money because I chose the “highest risk” and then completely forgot about it for years and never touched it. But I just wanted to share my personal Stash story. I know it’s crazy, but it really couldn’t have come to me at a better time. I’m grateful I make just enough money to not notice $40 on payday leaving my account because i know I would’ve messed this up if I had known about it lol
In CPI class today we got to the subject of patients pulling hair and how to respond. Obviously there are very dangerous situations that can arise from this, but they told us a story I can’t find any news articles about so I’m pretty sure they were bullsh!++ing us….which kinda just irritates me since safety is such an important issue that you don’t really need to just make up fake stories….so please someone tell me if you’ve heard of this situation. Just for my own peace 🤣
So the 3 security guards teaching the class told us that in “Wichita….Wichita falls…..or Kansas somewhere” that a patient managed to break three nurses necks from pulling their ponytail a certain way. Three nurses in one night. That’s obviously terrifying and i wanted to know more about what happened, so obviously I googled it but couldn’t find anything even close to that situation. Again, it’s not like I’m going to perseverate on the issue but I just figured I’d ask the nurses of reddit if you’ve heard of this or did my CPI trainers just spread a rumor they heard somewhere? I’m hoping it’s just a rumor! 😳
If you wish you had been told certain things before traveling what do you wish it would have been? If I could go back to my baby traveler self, it would be these things off the top of my head. I’m sure I’ll come up with others!
Sorry in advance this is very long.
I have now been a nurse several years, but my preceptorship almost made me quit completely. I am going to be very honest and admit where I made mistakes, but I’d truly like feedback on the situation now that I’ve had years to process it.
I was so excited to get my chosen unit for my preceptorship, inpatient psych. My father had just went into Hospice and this really gave me something positive. My preceptor and I had very different personalities, which happens. I’m very outgoing and talkative while she was very quiet and reserved. I ask for a lot of feedback because I do lack self confidence, but she never spoke to me about anything. After 4 days of my preceptorship I was taken into a meeting with all of my teachers and the dean of the nursing program where I was informed my preceptor had lodged a complaint about me. I was shocked. She had never expressed to me any concern in my work. There were 4 specific complaints and I will say whether I believe I made a mistake.
Complaint 1: NO FAULT. Each day, I had an assignment to complete for my teacher. My first day of preceptorship (out of 7) my assignment was to help a patient with independence. I happened to have a homeless patient that day that mentioned to me during my assessment that he couldn’t apply for SSI due to not having a mailing address. I went online and found a program for the homeless to get PO Boxes set up without cost. I printed out the information regarding the program and told him i would put it in his chart to have on discharge. I was very proud of this. Somehow in the complaint, this turned into an accusation that i promised this patient i promised i would “take him and get him a PO Box.” This was completely misrepresented and to this day i don’t understand why or how.
Complaint 2: POSSIBLE FAULT. Another complaint was that I inserted myself into a situation with an agitated patient and could have gotten myself or someone else hurt. In my defense, I was supposed to be with my preceptor at all times. But I don’t know if I said or did something i shouldn’t have—i don’t even know what situation she was talking about. As an experienced nurse now, if I had a student i thought put anyone in physical danger i would take them aside and tell them immediately. It’s very possible this happened—and tbh i feel robbed of the chance to learn from a mistake if so.
Complaint 3: NOT SURE. Possibly the iffiest. My 3rd day, I had a patient with bipolar disorder who had just graduated nursing school and was having a depressive episode. Her depression and chief concern was that a coworker found out about her bipolar disorder and had told others and comments were made to her that she shouldn’t be a nurse. She had decided to quit nursing due to this. I disclosed to my preceptor that I also have bipolar disorder and could relate to this very specific situation. I asked her if it would be inappropriate if i disclosed to the patient that I have also had to deal with this stigma and that she shouldn’t let that alone cause her to quit nursing after all of her hard work. She told me verbatim “That is up to you.” I had this conversation with the patient. I don’t know if this was wrong ethically, but this patient is now a thriving nurse and nominated me for a Heroes With Halos award so I’m at least happy my conversation helped her. I have never disclosed this to another patient because I felt it was just very situation specific.
Complaint 4: I WAS WRONG. Also on my first day I met an 18 year old girl that had been in facilities her entire childhood. She would stay right up at the nurses station and she saw a sketch of a cartoon on my notebook. She asked if i could sketch one for her and without letting my brain catch up to my mouth, I said yes. I knew instantly I had made a mistake and texted my preceptor (so patient wouldn’t hear) that i knew i shouldn’t have agreed to that and would apologize and explain that I had forgotten i wasn’t allowed to do that. I still have the text message showing the preceptor telling me that was a good plan. So yes. I did make this mistake right in front of my preceptor who again said nothing until i said something about my mistake.
At least two of these incidents happened on the very first day I was there yet I was completely blindsided by the complaint she lodged. My program director said that because it was the first year of the program they could not afford to make waves and would just be moving me to finish my last three days at another unit. To this day I’m still heartbroken over it and honestly a little angry.
Did I do something worth this? I am completely open to positive criticism and really want feedback. This situation gave me so much self doubt that it has followed me in my heart. Am I overreacting? Was the preceptor right?
I have not traveled yet but was planning on taking my first assignment this summer. I saw a post on this sub regarding a psych nurse who got fired from her first travel assignment for not being able to do certain nursing skills. I think they named running IVs, tube feeding, and bladder scans (and a rough medication error regarding the route of a benzo on a catatonic patient). I can definitely do all of those skills, I have 2 years of experience in acute inpatient rehab. But I’ve never worked med/surg. So now this OP has me nervous about traveling and being fired for skills I’ve never done. I asked but never got clarification from OP regarding whether she was on some sort of medical psych unit because in locked units we’ve never been allowed patients with IVs as the tubing itself could be dangerous.
My question for the psych nurses is: Did you realize there were skills you should have known before you traveled? I know travelers are supposed to be able to go on day 1. I can do that with psych and I can float to less acute nursing units and be comfortable….but i can’t give dialysis or anything like that so is that something i should be weary about?
I’m wanting to make some tribute videos for my favorite musicians and pop culture moments, mixing in pictures and video clips. The problem is i have no idea where to get started and what apps I should use! I’m hoping someone will be kind enough to give a complete newbie a basic rundown. I appreciate any help in advance!
Also, I see so many of these videos using music they obviously don’t have the copyrights to. How are they doing this? For instance, if I wanted to make a pop culture moment video and put “poker face” as the background song (I don’t lol just an example) how does that work?