New grad, Bored.

la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN · Nov 28, 2016

Uh........sorry? :woot:

Since you have so much free time, maybe you can use it to identify things to do that can improve your work environment? If you've already identified those things and still have free time remaining, I guess all I can say is, either find a different job after your golden 1 year of experience is in or work on your side gigs while you're there.

Signed,

A New Grad Who is Absolutely Getting Her Butt Kicked in Acute Care on a Regular Basis

Tedstar · Nov 28, 2016

Thanks for replying back. I was fortunate to land a clinic job. it also works well with my family due to the "clinic" hours. But Yeah i'm trying to get the 1 year under my belt. It has only been a few months. I am just afraid of losing my nursing skills. So yeah, I just want to look for something to do on my down time. What do you mean getting your butt kicked in acute care? Can you elaborate on that? and what are you struggles you are going through now?

cleback · Nov 28, 2016

What kind of clinic is it?

Can you offer to be cross trained to a different department?

Are there QI responsibilities to get involved in?

Certifications to obtain?

In my experience in clinics, when the physician learns to trust you, s/he gladly gives you more responsibility. Do you see any potential there?

You may have to be really proactive to make the job challenge your nursing skills, but you would have a great resume if youre successful. If on the other hand you TRULY have nothing to do, it's not worth waiting the year. You or your manager has obviously not invested much of anything in the position... it would not be a great loss to leave.

Libby1987 · Nov 28, 2016

I can't believe that you could get away with performing a side activity while on the clock in a clinic. Or that any nursing job truly has boring downtime 80% of the time when brand new. It can become routine for the long time employee yes but not that much downtime. I may be way off but I think you're going to lose this job.

Tedstar · Nov 28, 2016

Plasma centers are the clinic type job that I was referring to. Rns pretty much screen donors to make sure they are well and healthy and to make sure donors are eligible to donate based on certain criteria. But yeah sounds like a great idea to get involved with quality areas. RNs in this kind of clinic wont be able to move up. There's only room for looking into EHS safety measurements. I'll see what i can do from there. Thanks.

Libby1987 · Nov 28, 2016

I'm sorry, plasma clinic hadn't occurred to me. I was thinking some type of medical or public health clinic.

Tedstar · Nov 28, 2016

I agree with you, I have been training a few months back and on my own now. I am a quick learner and I think that is an advantage to learning new things. Sorry, I should've written the post more clear, the job is truly repetitive so the duties can become a second nature. That's why I was saying the job itself can become boring that offers some downtime.

la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN · Nov 28, 2016

Thanks for replying back. I was fortunate to land a clinic job. it also works well with my family due to the "clinic" hours. But Yeah i'm trying to get the 1 year under my belt. It has only been a few months. I am just afraid of losing my nursing skills. So yeah, I just want to look for something to do on my down time. What do you mean getting your butt kicked in acute care? Can you elaborate on that? and what are you struggles you are going through now?

You shouldn't be afraid of losing your skills. That's not really a thing, IMHO, that happens unless you've been a psych nurse for aeons. I mean, I've been doing this for about 3 months now and I still haven't dropped an NG tube or placed a Foley (and, that included nursing school). I'm just getting my skills established. So, I wouldn't be in a rush to do things that you may still not see for months or even longer. We don't regularly do IVs on our floor because we have a vascular access team but I'm still not particularly concerned about losing my IV skills (for various reasons, the least of them being that we have an IV access team). That said......

I'm in an RN residency at a top children's hospital doing hematology-oncology. There are some days where we have our rare "ho-hum moments" but for the most part, it's nonstop and it's really difficult to get a routine established or identify where my issues with time management are. The work on it's own is not particularly strenuous but the activity associated with a residency is exhausting. I know once I get more established this won't be so bad (and no more didactic classes!). But, even still, there are days where my preceptor looks at me and is like, "If we both weren't working this assignment this would be pretty hard." A lot of it is related to care coordination and chemotherapy timing so I can't really speak to any other specialty.

So, if you're looking to work in a hospital, I would be more concerned about not being prepared to manage my time effectively or learn the work flow as quickly. My struggles have been mostly related to understanding how to anticipate a patient's care especially if it's a workup for a new diagnosis and I'm getting 8,000 calls from different departments trying to get the patient for this thing and that thing and can I get that rarely used whats-it-called supply that the resident for some reason just has to have. And all that running around gets in they way of preparing for the admission I knew was scheduled to come in. And then the other patient who probably should have been chill all day is not making his I/O parameters because he slept all day because he's constantly nauseated and needing PRNs (which are making him sleep and keeping him from making his parameters).

Basically, it's a lot of trying to run around and just keep up. I know this will get better but new grad to new grad, there's a lot of, "Oh hell, what have I gotten myself into?!" moments. The saving grace is that we have an absolutely excellent team who picks up the slack as necessary. But, it's still hard just getting used to all of this and figuring out if I'm ever going to have normal day where I manage to actually keep on top of things.

allnurses Guide · Nov 28, 2016

Well, there are a lot of RN's out there who would give their left arm

for a job like yours. RN's like the previous poster who "are getting

their butt kicked" in acute care hospital jobs.

HOWEVER, I can understand your point of view. I'm more than

willing to bet that you truly are bored and would like to explore

something more challenging.

The bad thing is though, that if you decide to give acute care

a try, then you are likely going to have to either quit the job

you have now, or see if they will give you about a 6-7 week

leave of absence, to train for the new job. That's if you

eventually do want to go back to the job you have now,

and just work PRN weekends at a hospital job.

You could also take a week or two off, to train for a long

term care job. That's about all of the orientation and

training that they usually give you, or require. Still

a challenging job in which you will learn and retain

nursing skills.

I say all of this because I would be hesitant to quit

such a, quite frankly, cushy job like you have. But

again, maybe you are truly very bored and WANT

to work much harder, be much busier, in which

case, great!! But again, so many hospital jobs, and

nursing home jobs, are super stressful, thankless,

back breaking... weekend and holiday destroying..

jobs. But those jobs can also be very rewarding,

at the very same time. So.... Good Luck! :)

Tedstar · Nov 28, 2016

Thanks for sharing. Looking back at nursing school and talking to fellow nurses, you are right about the skills. It is really the fact knowing where to look for the right policy under a certain facility. Nursing is a world of limitless learning opportunities where everyday is a different day.

Tedstar · Nov 28, 2016

Yeah you are right on point. I guess i'm just at a crossroad of where i was used to school/studying 24/7 and then now i'm working FTE with no studying to do. I guess I could blog/freelance writing on the side. What's your take on boredom/down time?