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Discussion

Bad week

I am starting to think that six patients is too much for me and I will never be able to be a good nurse. I just had a really bad week. I had three doctors yell at me. One yelled at me because a patient left the hospital and he thinks I should have known the guy was going to leave (I was in a code when the guy left the floor). I got yelled at for not knowing a patient was scheduled for dialysis when there was no order for him to go. I got yelled at because my computer crashed just as a dr phoned me back and I couldnt give him the info he needed. I even had a patient's family member yell at me because I was doing another nurse a favor. I walked in and gave the patient a shot of insulin. Apparantly "the doctor said she dont need no insulins ever again, she is cured and 197 is a great sugar that dont need no treatments". He walked down the hallway yelling at me while I told him to take it up with the charge nurse, it was already done, I couldnt take it back now.

I left work considering quitting. My charge nurse says I am effective and good and she is always saying she is impressed with my work. My Manager walked onto the floor and said she is glad she hired me. But I dont FEEL like they know what they are saying. I feel ineffective, unprepared and honestly like I am ready to yell back at someone.

Is that normal?

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    I'm assuming you are a new nurse? If so yes, it's perfectly normal. My only goal as a new nurse was not to kill anyone! Actually I might have killed to have only 6 patients:) You're feelings are normal and believe it or not one day in the not too distant future you're going to actually feel like a competent nurse. The number of patients won't matter either, your busiest day might be with the least amount of patients. You're going to be fine, surround yourself with support and hang in there!!

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    Sounds like you had a bad week with things happening that were beyond your control (computer crashing, no dialysis order). How would you know your patient is going to dialysis if there was no order written for it? You're not a mind reader lol. Bad weeks happen sometimes, and hopefully this week will be a good week. If you're always having bad weeks like the one you mention, well, then I would find another area of nursing, another unit. I've only been yelled at once or twice, as a scapegoat type of thing: me being the scapegoat lol, and it just made me not respect the physician doing the yelling. And, by yelling, I mean denigrated, not actual yelling. The physicians I work with are respectful.

    When this happens, you need to stick up for yourself. Be diplomatic, but be assertive and stick up for yourself. If a physician "yells" at you for not knowing about dialysis, then just state: "I'm not omniscient. There was no order written, and no mention was made of dialysis." If family yells at you, stick up for yourself, and state that you're sorry about x, y, z, about the inconvenience or whatever they're yelling about, understand their perspective and be helpful, but make it clear that yelling is not acceptable behavior, and you would appreciate that they talk to you rather than "raise their voice" (sounds better than saying they're yelling lol).

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    • Author

    I am a new nurse. I have today off and still do not want to go back tomorrow. It was too stressful.

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    Bad days happen. Just pick yourself up and think of things you could do better. Although, honestly, most of the issues seemed out of your control. Don't let this get you down. Chin up Hun!

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