Any nurses willing to answer a few questions?

anon456, BSN, RN · Nov 25, 2012

1. Describe how you use math in your job/workplace?

Checking safe doses of medication (mg/kg), taking a partial dose out of a vial, calculating IV maintenance fluids and fluid boluses for various sized children. Of course the MD prescribes this but I have to check it.

2. What advice do you have for a student who is preparing for a career in this field?

Study hard. Volunteer at a hospital or nursing home, or become a CNA. I wish I'd had more hospital/patient experience and probably would have become a CNA first if I had to do it all over again. I was very green when I graduated.

3. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Seeing a patient improve, making connections with a patient and their family.

4. What inspired you to become a nurse?

My mom and step mom are nurses and I loved hearing about their work. Also my child had some medical issues and I realized I was good at managing them. I am a people person.

5. What is the most difficult part of your job?

HARD WORK!! Backbreaking sometimes. Thankless at times. People angry at you or critical of you, esp. the family of my patients. Workplace bullying.

6. What area of nursing do you work in? Surgery, L&D, etc.

Pediatric Critical Care- I work on a pulmonary/cardiac monitoring unit with trach/vent kids or those with cardiac issues but not ICU status.

7. How long did it take you to become a nurse?

Including pre-req's, five years to have my RN. Another 1.5 years of being a nurse to really *be* a nurse.

8. What advice would you give someone who is interested in becoming a nurse?

What I said above about getting hospital experience.

somenurse · Nov 25, 2012

First off, welcome to nursing!!

1. Describe how you use math in your job/workplace?

all the time, all the time. Calculating dosages. In old days, also used to calculate IV drip rates, too. When signing off orders, calculating the med times. It's hard to go more than 5 minutes in nursing, without using numbers, times, dosages, lab values, ratios, etc, even calculating how much time til you do exact next thing, etc.

2. What advice do you have for a student who is preparing for a career in this field?

Fro a STUDENT, i'd recommend, while in school, you garner as much support as you can from family and friends to help you get through school, especially if you are a parent.

If you are parent to very small kids, if i could (i'll get slammed here) i'd recommend seriously considering delaying school for a few years til your babies are in school. Being in nursing school takes most everything you've got, and those baby times go by so so fast, and you can't get those baby times back again. YES, yes, it CAN be done, yes it can,

you can go to school full time,

and raise your kids part time, can be done. But, it's reeeally hard, and takes a very energetic committed person with a lot of support. I did it, but, honestly, looking back, i wished i'd waited a few years til my baby was in school. I was alays SOooo exhausted, i sometimes think i didn't quite have enough energy leftover to be a parent as well as i could have done, had i not been spread so super thin.

But, that's just me, and we are all individuals.

Take all the non-nursing classes ahead of time, if you can, so you can be taking ONLY the nursing classes and clinicals, IF that is an option.

Become very very organized to get through school, always planning ahead, using time wisely, routines are your friend right now, from staying on top of laundry, to your study times.

Get enough sleep if you can. Exercise regularly. Eat well, drink plenty of water.

Spend time with pals, and family, don't neglect that.

3. What is the most rewarding part of your job?

for me, it sounds so corny, but, it truly is helping people. that is so rewarding, beyond words, to know, you said or did the exact right thing at the exact right moment, to help someone. YOu can see it in their eyes, and usually, the person even verbalizes it, how much you've helped. Making a great 'save', by catching some turn for the worse and taking steps to head off the whole mess.

but, in a nutshell, "helping someone."

4. What inspired you to become a nurse?

This won't be most inspirational answer you get, but, i went to nursing school almost 40 years ago, after flunking out of art school. Well, flunking is a bit of an overstatement, but, an art professor clued me into the fact, the chances of my supporting myself with an art degree were slim, unless i went into teaching, which would require major degrees.

so, my GI bill only allowed me another few years of college, and that particular college only had a FEW associate degree programs, and nursing was one of them.

sorry, but, that's how *I* got into nursing. NO doubt, you'll get better answers, sorry.

However, i was happy to learn,

that nursing was one career,

which took everything i had.

every shift, i got to use every part of me.

I got many chances per hour to use my body, (oh, did i ever, very physical job, especially in the past) I was able to use

my mind,

my heart, my soul,

my personality,

creativity, techy skills, every gift i had,

every

single

shift i worked, i used "all" of me.

5. What is the most difficult part of your job?

Exhausted, unappreciated, overworked coworkers who sort of create drama when no drama is needed. For real, that's the worst one for me, personally. (or coworkers who have their own personality problems caused by whatever).

Another one, is, not being staffed well enough to do the job well as i want to. Always being in a hurry, so much so, that even a trip to a bathroom is difficult to fit into schedule, let alone have lunch break.

6. What area of nursing do you work in? Surgery, L&D, etc.

Name it, i've done it all. At my very first job interview, being ignorant, i'd applied to THE DON!! Not the human resources dept. Turns out, the DON was retiring, and out of amusement, i guess, SHE interviewed me, and hired me. She talked to me for over an hour, asking me all kinds of questions, telling me, she hadn't talked to a brand new nurse for a long time, and wanted to hear what i thought, and she was fairly sentimental sharing stories of her early years.

She asked me, "What is your goal in nursing?"

and without hesitating, i answered, "To work in EVERY dept there is. When i retire and hang up my stethyscope, i want to say, i've done it all."

and i have. But, the bulk of my career has been as an acute care float, spending the bulk of my time in either E.R., ICU, or CCU.

BUT, I'VE ALSO WORKED IV team, L&D, MED/SURG, RADIOLOGY/SPECIAL PROCEDURES, (fascinating) RECOVERY ROOM, PEDS, NEWBORN NURSERY, NICU, TELEMETRY, REHAB, NEURO, ORTHO, O.R., Oncology, Open Heart recovery, dialysis, name a unit, i've worked it.

and i've also worked home care of all kinds, hospice, doctors offices, nursing homes, clinics of all kinds. (often much of that work was done via agency "rent-a-nurse") As well as occasional private duty.

Only thing i can think of, that i never did get around to, was prison nursing, industrial nursing, and school nursing.

7. How long did it take you to become a nurse?

36 months.......nonstop. = Associate degree. Which, actually matches the 4 x 9months per year, that a BSN takes.

How long did it take me to become a GOOD nurse, was a few years.

8. What advice would you give someone who is interested in becoming a nurse?

Be on time. Won't matter how great of a nurse you are, if you are tardy, you are goner. Lol.

Never wash all your uniforms in one load, ever. don't do it, said the RN who once washed all her pure white uniforms (req'd at my school) with a 4 color ink pen).

lol!

seriously, i'd say, be open to move around in the nursing field. Many nurses get locked into only one field, and some might be more satisfied, to explore more areas to find their niche. don't be afraid to try new areas.

funny thing, when i've worked nursing homes, those nurses sometimes sounded like they thought ICU was hard, but, having worked both, lemme tell ya,

ICU is peice of cake next to nursing homes.

When i worked ICU, those nurses sometimes sounded like they looked down at nursing home nurses, but, they have no idea how difficult it is to care for 40 walking, talking patients, and how one 'event' blows your whole shift.

Never be afraid to say, "I DON'T KNOW". You MUST admit and stop at, the line of your own ignorance. None of us know everything, none of us. ASK FOR HELP when you get to things you DO NOT KNOW, or are unsure about.

BE HONEST. It is required to be safe in this field, is to be honest. If you forgot something, you must admit it. If you have more to do than yuo can manage, ask for help. and help your sister and brother nurses, when you ever do find a minute, or see someone else twirling around the drain, reach in and help.

be supportive of your coworkers.

for many of us, coworker stress, can be one of the worst areas of the job. don't be "the one" who brings down the unit morale. Try not to judge others,

whether it is a patient you do not understand, from another walk of life,

or a coworker you think is "not like you",

always remember, "Until you have walked a mile in their shoes.."

as much as possible, leave religion, politics (and maybe sex) out of your discussions at work. We don't get to choose those that we spend most of our waking hours with,

and to increase camaraderie and unit cohesiveness with, imo, those topics might not be universally shared by all there.

Never stop learning, do Study, stay up to date, nursing is always changing. Subscribe to nursing magz, belong to the nursing CEU youtube channel, attend classes offered by your employer or seminars.

Geez, i could go on and on,

but, here's one thing i learned the hard way. I'm not too proud, to admit, that eons ago, when i first became a nurse, I did have an ignorant attitude of judgmentalism and way back then, it was easier to fall into, "i'm the nurse, i know best." What a fool i was, so young, so inexperienced, so wrong.

It took a while, and some wonderful examples of a better way to think, to help me arrive at, putting patients first, in displaying to them, that my attitude IS, "If my patient wants it, i'm interested to hear about it."

Nah, that's not the right words, but, it's hard to explain.

MOre than almost anything else,

in patient and family care,

YOUR ATTITUDE is what matters most. Your warmth, your ability to connect, to convey you DO care, will make your shift so so much easier, so so much less stressful.

for real, if you are running behind, BUT your patients know you care, it's a better chance they'll cut you some slack.

But, if you are very skilled, but your patients don't sense you care, everyone loses. The patents miss out on that wonderful bond thing which is so therapuetic,

and you miss out on reducing your own stress, by caring. don't let anyone tell you, that caring makes your shift MORE work or MORE stressful,

it's JUST THE OPPOSITE.

hard to explain, but, maybe someday, these words will come to you, and you'll know just what i mean.

best of luck!!! hope anything i wrote here helps.

somenurse · Nov 25, 2012

BTW, to my answer in question #1, above, i always thought i was lousy at math. Almost didn't go into nursing because i thought i could not do math.

so, prior to entering nursing school, i took a few 'remedial' math classes to catch up to college level math, (priceless)

and also took some extra math classes,

and who knew? i COULD learn math.

(just adding that, in case anyone reading thinks the same thing about themself that i once thought about myself, that if you try, you might find you just hadn't applied yourself well enough in the past to become proficient in math, or maybe some other reason left you with impression that you are not good at math, might not be true).

somenurse · Nov 25, 2012

OH, one more bit of advice, for enjoying nursing,

is,

as much as possible,

try your best to stay out of "Nursing Olympics". :roflmao:

this is when one or more (usually takes a few to get it going) nurses all feel they are 'best'. Try your best not to get into these lil mental competitions. Sadly, this sometimes devolves down into criticizing each other, as well, so SuperNurse can maintain his/her 'crown' that she believes she wears.

Easiest thing is just compliment these ppl, admire their crown. Let 'em have it. Ahhhh, much easier. I can't explain why this happens, but, it's not uncommon, sooner or later, you'll see some version of "Nursing Olympics". Just grab a flag and cheer them on, do NOT get into that stuff.

lol.

Try you best to not talk behind any other nurses back. Sounds easy to do, but, it's not. It's one thing to discuss an actual concern with the appropriate person, but, it's another to just back stab. Attitudes are contagious. Try your best to foster a teamwork kinda mood in your unit.

Listen to your own heart and instincts. If something in you is telling you, "this doesn't seem right" stop and pay att'n to that. Whether it's a dose you are giving, or a change in patient, or whatever, listen to your own alarm bells---do not dismiss them.

better safe than sorry.

emlam · Nov 27, 2012

First off, welcome to nursing!!
1. Describe how you use math in your job/workplace?
all the time, all the time. Calculating dosages. In old days, also used to calculate IV drip rates, too. When signing off orders, calculating the med times. It's hard to go more than 5 minutes in nursing, without using numbers, times, dosages, lab values, ratios, etc, even calculating how much time til you do exact next thing, etc.
2. What advice do you have for a student who is preparing for a career in this field?
Fro a STUDENT, i'd recommend, while in school, you garner as much support as you can from family and friends to help you get through school, especially if you are a parent.
If you are parent to very small kids, if i could (i'll get slammed here) i'd recommend seriously considering delaying school for a few years til your babies are in school. Being in nursing school takes most everything you've got, and those baby times go by so so fast, and you can't get those baby times back again. YES, yes, it CAN be done, yes it can,
you can go to school full time,
and raise your kids part time, can be done. But, it's reeeally hard, and takes a very energetic committed person with a lot of support. I did it, but, honestly, looking back, i wished i'd waited a few years til my baby was in school. I was alays SOooo exhausted, i sometimes think i didn't quite have enough energy leftover to be a parent as well as i could have done, had i not been spread so super thin.
But, that's just me, and we are all individuals.
Take all the non-nursing classes ahead of time, if you can, so you can be taking ONLY the nursing classes and clinicals, IF that is an option.
Become very very organized to get through school, always planning ahead, using time wisely, routines are your friend right now, from staying on top of laundry, to your study times.
Get enough sleep if you can. Exercise regularly. Eat well, drink plenty of water.
Spend time with pals, and family, don't neglect that.
3. What is the most rewarding part of your job?
for me, it sounds so corny, but, it truly is helping people. that is so rewarding, beyond words, to know, you said or did the exact right thing at the exact right moment, to help someone. YOu can see it in their eyes, and usually, the person even verbalizes it, how much you've helped. Making a great 'save', by catching some turn for the worse and taking steps to head off the whole mess.
but, in a nutshell, "helping someone."
4. What inspired you to become a nurse?
This won't be most inspirational answer you get, but, i went to nursing school almost 40 years ago, after flunking out of art school. Well, flunking is a bit of an overstatement, but, an art professor clued me into the fact, the chances of my supporting myself with an art degree were slim, unless i went into teaching, which would require major degrees.
so, my GI bill only allowed me another few years of college, and that particular college only had a FEW associate degree programs, and nursing was one of them.
sorry, but, that's how *I* got into nursing. NO doubt, you'll get better answers, sorry.
However, i was happy to learn,
that nursing was one career,
which took everything i had.
every shift, i got to use every part of me.
I got many chances per hour to use my body, (oh, did i ever, very physical job, especially in the past) I was able to use
my mind,
my heart, my soul,
my personality,
creativity, techy skills, every gift i had,
every
single
shift i worked, i used "all" of me.
5. What is the most difficult part of your job?
Exhausted, unappreciated, overworked coworkers who sort of create drama when no drama is needed. For real, that's the worst one for me, personally. (or coworkers who have their own personality problems caused by whatever).
Another one, is, not being staffed well enough to do the job well as i want to. Always being in a hurry, so much so, that even a trip to a bathroom is difficult to fit into schedule, let alone have lunch break.
6. What area of nursing do you work in? Surgery, L&D, etc.
Name it, i've done it all. At my very first job interview, being ignorant, i'd applied to THE DON!! Not the human resources dept. Turns out, the DON was retiring, and out of amusement, i guess, SHE interviewed me, and hired me. She talked to me for over an hour, asking me all kinds of questions, telling me, she hadn't talked to a brand new nurse for a long time, and wanted to hear what i thought, and she was fairly sentimental sharing stories of her early years.
She asked me, "What is your goal in nursing?"
and without hesitating, i answered, "To work in EVERY dept there is. When i retire and hang up my stethyscope, i want to say, i've done it all."
and i have. But, the bulk of my career has been as an acute care float, spending the bulk of my time in either E.R., ICU, or CCU.
BUT, I'VE ALSO WORKED IV team, L&D, MED/SURG, RADIOLOGY/SPECIAL PROCEDURES, (fascinating) RECOVERY ROOM, PEDS, NEWBORN NURSERY, NICU, TELEMETRY, REHAB, NEURO, ORTHO, O.R., Oncology, Open Heart recovery, dialysis, name a unit, i've worked it.
and i've also worked home care of all kinds, hospice, doctors offices, nursing homes, clinics of all kinds. (often much of that work was done via agency "rent-a-nurse") As well as occasional private duty.
Only thing i can think of, that i never did get around to, was prison nursing, industrial nursing, and school nursing.
7. How long did it take you to become a nurse?
36 months.......nonstop. = Associate degree. Which, actually matches the 4 x 9months per year, that a BSN takes.
How long did it take me to become a GOOD nurse, was a few years.
8. What advice would you give someone who is interested in becoming a nurse?
Be on time. Won't matter how great of a nurse you are, if you are tardy, you are goner. Lol.
Never wash all your uniforms in one load, ever. don't do it, said the RN who once washed all her pure white uniforms (req'd at my school) with a 4 color ink pen).
lol!
seriously, i'd say, be open to move around in the nursing field. Many nurses get locked into only one field, and some might be more satisfied, to explore more areas to find their niche. don't be afraid to try new areas.
funny thing, when i've worked nursing homes, those nurses sometimes sounded like they thought ICU was hard, but, having worked both, lemme tell ya,
ICU is peice of cake next to nursing homes.
When i worked ICU, those nurses sometimes sounded like they looked down at nursing home nurses, but, they have no idea how difficult it is to care for 40 walking, talking patients, and how one 'event' blows your whole shift.
Never be afraid to say, "I DON'T KNOW". You MUST admit and stop at, the line of your own ignorance. None of us know everything, none of us. ASK FOR HELP when you get to things you DO NOT KNOW, or are unsure about.
BE HONEST. It is required to be safe in this field, is to be honest. If you forgot something, you must admit it. If you have more to do than yuo can manage, ask for help. and help your sister and brother nurses, when you ever do find a minute, or see someone else twirling around the drain, reach in and help.
be supportive of your coworkers.
for many of us, coworker stress, can be one of the worst areas of the job. don't be "the one" who brings down the unit morale. Try not to judge others,
whether it is a patient you do not understand, from another walk of life,
or a coworker you think is "not like you",
always remember, "Until you have walked a mile in their shoes.."
as much as possible, leave religion, politics (and maybe sex) out of your discussions at work. We don't get to choose those that we spend most of our waking hours with,
and to increase camaraderie and unit cohesiveness with, imo, those topics might not be universally shared by all there.
Never stop learning, do Study, stay up to date, nursing is always changing. Subscribe to nursing magz, belong to the nursing CEU youtube channel, attend classes offered by your employer or seminars.
Geez, i could go on and on,
but, here's one thing i learned the hard way. I'm not too proud, to admit, that eons ago, when i first became a nurse, I did have an ignorant attitude of judgmentalism and way back then, it was easier to fall into, "i'm the nurse, i know best." What a fool i was, so young, so inexperienced, so wrong.
It took a while, and some wonderful examples of a better way to think, to help me arrive at, putting patients first, in displaying to them, that my attitude IS, "If my patient wants it, i'm interested to hear about it."
Nah, that's not the right words, but, it's hard to explain.
MOre than almost anything else,
in patient and family care,
YOUR ATTITUDE is what matters most. Your warmth, your ability to connect, to convey you DO care, will make your shift so so much easier, so so much less stressful.
for real, if you are running behind, BUT your patients know you care, it's a better chance they'll cut you some slack.
But, if you are very skilled, but your patients don't sense you care, everyone loses. The patents miss out on that wonderful bond thing which is so therapuetic,
and you miss out on reducing your own stress, by caring. don't let anyone tell you, that caring makes your shift MORE work or MORE stressful,
it's JUST THE OPPOSITE.
hard to explain, but, maybe someday, these words will come to you, and you'll know just what i mean.
best of luck!!! hope anything i wrote here helps.

I LOVED YOUR COMMENT! Thank you so much for this! I always felt that I had to pick one or a few specialties to work in, because everybody always asked...what do you want to do as a nurse when you graduate. Deep down, I want to learn EVERYTHING, not to say that I know it all, but to give everything/Every Opportunity a chance and to say that I have accomplished something. I strive to learn new knowledge! It always worried me that I was too open and will have problems finding a job because I am not picky! My main goal is to be their for the patients! It makes me happy when they receive great care from somebody that cares!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Nov 27, 2012

Well, it's sorta too late to post this, but here goes anyway.

We get these requests a lot, so if there are any other students out there who might get this kind of assignment, listen up:

Part of your faculty's reason for giving you this assignment is to get you to go out there and speak to an RN face to face. A big email blast is not a substitute for shoe leather. AN is not Google.

See, in nursing, you have to learn to speak to a lot of people you would not otherwise encounter; you might find yourself out of your comfort zone. This is part of nursing, a huge part. An anonymous respondent online, well, you don't really know who we are, do you? We could be the truck driving guy living next door for all you know.

So if all you do about learning new things is "Go to the keyboard and hit send," then you are limiting your chances of actual learning a valuable skill you will need all your working life.

That said: Where will you find a nurse? Think outside the (computer) box.

Local hospital: go to the staff development/inservice education office and ask one of them. They value education and will be happy to chat or to hook you up with someone who is.

Go to the public health department downtown. Ditto.

Go to the local school and ask to speak to a school nurse. Ditto.

Go to a local clinic / physician/NP office. Ditto.

Go to the local jail and ask to speak to the nurse there. Ditto.

Notice all of these say, "Go to..." and not "Email..." Remember that part about meeting new people face to face and comfort zone.

Go!