I'm a new nurse (7 months) I started working the 3-11 shift recently and the first few hours of my shift have been pure hell lately. I have one resident in particular who becomes agitated and every day is looking for her parents, brother, husband, etc., and frequently escalates into violent behavior. She shouts and screams at other residents and throws things and rips stuff off the walls. She won't leave me or the other staff alone. She tries to rally the other residents to help her and then becomes angry at them. Day shift doesn't address the problem because she's not usually like this on their time.
Another resident complains of SOB & CP constantly, but her vitals are always fine. She's been worked up extensively. Her O2 sat is a little low but if you give her oxygen she'll take it off and then scream she can't breathe. She made herself a DNH. I have tried to placate her, give her extra attention, ignore her, been firm with her, but NOTHING works. She'll come to me more than 30x a shift. It also looks terrible to visitors and other staffers to see a nurse ignoring a resident complaining of CP or SOB.
I just need some tips for dealing with these residents because nothing I do seems to work (except PRNs which they won't take if agitated anyway).
Help, I'm ready to quit because I'm afraid I'll lose it and yell at the resident or another person on staff. It's been really hard to not lose my patience.
