Rough transition into the hospital

[Catch22Personified]

So yeah, after a year and a half after working nights in a long term floor in a skilled nursing facility I got into a day shift in a hospital on one of those telemetry floors. To me it feels like a med surg overflow unit with patients that happen to have some form of cardiac condition.

In my old job: I could handle 30+ patients, I knew them easily and could give verbal report without stumbling, wound care on patients with wound vacs, trach care, boatloads of diabetics, G-tubes were as common as people histories of A-Fib, IV therapy with the occasional PICC, I always got home on time,and even other nurses actually came to me for help which I still find shocking. I rarely left work for the day shift except if it involved a phone call of a routine nature to a MD/family member. Working nights I felt like I had more control and had more time to think.

Here in the hospital. I'm lagging behind even with a patient load of six, I drop the proverbial spaghetti when giving report to fellow nurses and family members, and I'm always clocking out late by 30-45 minutes. I haven't really had doctors yell at me, but I have had taken a few passive aggressive lectures here and there from some of the ones that don't typically show up on my floor. I also feel like I've committed a cardinal sin in nursing by leaving work to the night shift, in the form of like not sticking an IV or getting an order of some kind because I'm soooo behind. My coworkers seem nice to me and a bit encouraging saying: "I'll be fine, its rough for everyone." However, they don't feel as warm as my old coworkers who treated me basically like family. Working days I feel like I have no control over anything and I'm at the beck and call of family members.

New nurses are supposed to be given reduced patient loads but due to flu season and staffing being short, I was thrusted into the breach taking a full assignment. I dread going to work every day now and I haven't even been off orientation for a whole month yet! Any tips on how to survive hospital craziness?

[Bringonthenight]

Give yourself a break! You've just moved from night shift LTC to day shift tele/medsurg! It's going to take a while to get used to it!

[PeepnBiscuitsRN]

I worked nights on a tele floor for a year or so. On days, when I oriented, it was chaos. I was so messed up with everything, and I felt like I was juggling 24 things at once. When I moved to nights it was like "ahhhhhhh" so calm...for the most part. I don't know much about LTC nursing, but I imagine it's fairly calm at night, right? You probably had your "groove" so to speak. Now it's probably akin to moving from a teeny little town in the middle of the Midwest USA to downtown New York City. It's a different pace, a different language, a different manner of doing things. Give yourself time, and if your co-workers are giving you thumbs up, then good! They might not be as warm as your old co-workers, but that might be because as I've learned, on nights co-workers bond. We're a different type of team. There's less going on, less doctors, family members and staff. Not that day or evening staff aren't friendly, but I've just learned from experience that it's more intimate on nights. (We have parties all the time...we get to play music and watch You Tube with the babies).

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

You don't have enough time there to develop the deeper relationships that happen with a good team. You haven't been in a totally new specialty long enough to be proficient yet. Why does everyone want instant, or at least faster, answers and satisfaction?

If they're telling you it'll get better then you should take them at their word. You're doing fine. Give it time. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a nursing career. One foot in front of the other, one day at a time, and when a year is gone by, you'll have a much better perspective on this job.