Are all nursing positions about like this?

[northmississippi]

I did RN shadowing at the hospital, it was a post surgery floor. Basically, we went room to room putting medications into the IV, then she would document on a computer. That was probably 85% of what I saw her doing. Is this what most nurses do on other floors also?

Thanks.

[hopefulwhoop]

No... As you stated, this was a post-op floor. Different floors have different patients with different needs. Those pts were probably being medicated for pain, if they were freshly out of surgery. Questions with absolutes (eg, "all," "never") are usually wrong, fyi :)

[sunnycalifRN]

I recommend that you continue to shadow other nurses, in other departments. You will see that RN's do many things and have many different roles.

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

I would also like to say that if you dont have a good bit of experience around nurses, you may not have picked up on everything she was doing as far as assessment and such. Even when I go in to give meds, I'm assessing a lot of things, talking with the patient, keeping in mind their blood pressure, looking for signs of complications, ect. So maybe she did a poor job explaining what she was doing? Because I have personally never worked on a surgical floor, but did a lot of clinicals in NS on one, and there was a lot more than just givin drugs going on!

[jmqphd]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you sure that's all she did? Did she look at the patients? If she did (and if she's competent) she automatically took in, respiratory status (objectively and subjectively), response to opiates, level of consciousness, readiness to take clear liquids, amount of urine in the foley bag, amount of drainage on the dressing and in the drain, how the patient is moving in bed (or not) what family members are present and how they are responding and a thousand other things. And that's pretty much before the nurse even opens her mouth and says anything.

For instance... I'm a neuro nurse. Say I have a patient who was admitted the night before because he had a seizure. If you were just following me around, you would think I'd walked into a room, said... "how ya' doin'?" checked his IV and walked out. But in that brief encounter here's what I learned:

1. the patient doesn't have neglect... followed me visually as I walked around the bed (to fix that IV you mentioned...)

2. the patient knows I'm a nurse and he's in the hospital.

3. he moves four limbs uses fingers on both hands

4. his pupils are equal

5. his speech is not disarthric and it's fluent.

6. He knows what happened and why he's here (or he's amnestic and isn't sure.)

7. There's urine in a urinal so he's continent (and we need to empty the urinal and keep the room tidy. And for some reason he's using a urinal and not walking to the BR)

And that's before I even started doing a real assessment. That was all done in a matter of seconds.

What exactly did your nurse fail to do, that you thought she should have done? What needs of her patients do you think she neglected? If a nurse with several fresh post-op patients is going room to room changing out PCA cartridges and checking IV's she's also in those rooms frequently. She would likely pick up on things that were amiss, things that needed some priority attention and intervention.

[jmqphd]

I would also like to say that if you dont have a good bit of experience around nurses, you may not have picked up on everything she was doing as far as assessment and such. Even when I go in to give meds, I'm assessing a lot of things, talking with the patient, keeping in mind their blood pressure, looking for signs of complications, ect. So maybe she did a poor job explaining what she was doing? Because I have personally never worked on a surgical floor, but did a lot of clinicals in NS on one, and there was a lot more than just givin drugs going on!

You said what I said but much more efficiently. Kudos.

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

Haha, but you were much more accurate! Kudos to us both! :)

[RNperdiem, RN]

If only my job was that easy sometimes!

My day is more likely to start with full head-to-toe assessments and stay busy from there.

The nurse you followed must have had a day with no patient complications at all.

These days are the exception rather than the rule.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Yes, that's exactly what all nurses do - push meds and triple chart.

[diva rn, BSN, RN]

Yes, that's exactly what all nurses do - push meds and triple chart.

Yes, on most days I find myself singing that old song "Is that all there is?":lol2:

and then I go and file my nails.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you sure that's all she did? Did she look at the patients? If she did (and if she's competent) [sNIP] and intervention.

Basically everything they said. You learn a lot from the pt just by walking in saying hi and asking how they are doing. When I have students I always teach them how you learn the most just by introducing yourself and asking how they are. Shake their hand and you have a ton of information coming to you as well that way.