Being a Unit Secretary...

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.

Has been an amazing experience!

All the hype in NS is about being a tech/CNA, so I thought maybe I was getting the shaft working as a US, but lemme tell you...I've floated as a P.CA and a monitor tech, and while they're all valuable, I am so, so grateful to have landed where I did - in the middle of everyone and everything.

I don't know if it's just been bad luck, but I've been dissatisfied with most of my clinical experiences over the last 3 semesters. I couldn't put a finger on it, but I just felt like I was missing something. But I didn't know what.

Now I get what I was missing. Nurses would say, "Hey, go give room 399 her Lovenox shot. Take out her catheter because she's going home." And I'd do it, and know the textbook reason I was doing it, but I was missing all the behind the scenes activity that got us to that point. No calling doctors. No taking telephone orders. No dealing with pharmacy. No tedious discharge paperwork. No core measures tracking. No administrative bullcrap (ok, I'm not sad about missing out on that one.) No unit politics.

At first I was worried that working full time would be taking me away from my education, but holy moly do I feel like I'm getting the motherload 6 days a week! Theory on class days, skills on clinical days, and EVERYTHING ELSE on work days.

I'm tired and cranky and I have no free time, but it's been totally worth it.

Just a little encouragement if you've been on the fence about working during school or you aren't happy with your clinical experience - totally worth it if you can swing it!

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Specializes in Public Health.

I wanted to let you know that is a great point! I do both UC and CNA at my job in a hospital. I think the main thing is to ask questions and find out the WHY to those orders.

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That great you are getting a lot of experience but just be careful what you do. Even though you are in NS, there are a lot of things you can't so as a unit secretary (like give a Lovenox shot). You could wind up in a whole lot of trouble. Just be careful.

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That great you are getting a lot of experience but just be careful what you do. Even though you are in NS there are a lot of things you can't so as a unit secretary (like give a Lovenox shot). You could wind up in a whole lot of trouble. Just be careful.[/quote']

This is a great point and one that I would like to reiterate. I was a UC before becoming a nurse and I would only help with things like priming IV lines and making beds; completely hands off things like meds and anything else directly patient related. As a whole though, it was an immensely great experience.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.
That great you are getting a lot of experience but just be careful what you do. Even though you are in NS there are a lot of things you can't so as a unit secretary (like give a Lovenox shot). You could wind up in a whole lot of trouble. Just be careful.[/quote'] I don't give lovenox at work...even if I could, I'm not on the floor and I ain't got time for all that. . In clinicals, I do. :)

My point was that there is SO much more to learn about than skills. It took me maybe 3 times giving an injection to be comfortable with it, but it really only encompasses a minuscule portion of your day. It's all the OTHER stuff that takes time that we seem to be lacking during clinicals. Unlike my nursing school buddies who work as PCAs, I do zero of the typical nursing skills at work, and I'm still learning more each day of work than I did in an entire semester of clinicals.

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I don't give lovenox at work...even if I could I'm not on the floor and I ain't got time for all that. . In clinicals, I do. :) My point was that there is SO much more to learn about than skills. It took me maybe 3 times giving an injection to be comfortable with it, but it really only encompasses a minuscule portion of your day. It's all the OTHER stuff that takes time that we seem to be lacking during clinicals. Unlike my nursing school buddies who work as PCAs, I do zero of the typical nursing skills at work, and I'm still learning more each day of work than I did in an entire semester of clinicals.[/quote']

Ok. It made it sound like you were doing all that stuff.

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Specializes in Forensic Psych.
Ok. It made it sound like you were doing all that stuff.

My mistake. Blame it on the exhaustion. ;)

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