I am a future LVN nursing student & will be going for full RN and trying to get a feel of what it will be like when i am an official nurse. LVN or RN as well as SPECIALTY nurses can you help me out?
Please be honest and tell me about your typical day as a nurse is like? Pros & cons? What you do or specialize in? Are you happy with your job as a nurse? And any other topics you would like to include :-)
I started out as a case manager, now we ease new hires into case mgmt as it's more involved than when I started.
All of our RN's do admits and revisits (also some other types of visits but not important to this discussion), our case mgrs do admits or take over patients admitted by part time RN's and then both manage and deliver the care.
Everyone's typical day will be different. Day shift I do the narcotic count, get report and hit the floor to start giving meds. I also do dressings, feed, bathe toilet and walk patients. Do assessments, admissions and discharges, chart, teach, communicate and problem solve.
Lori I understand everyone's experiences will differ :-) do you enjoy/not enjoy your roles. what kind of nurse are you? what kind of facility do you work in?
As an ER nurse, every shift is different. Some days there are three rigs in the bay when I pull in and I run from the moment I walk in to the moment I leave. Other days, it's slow and I'm running 2-3 patients at a time with lots of time to laugh, chat and eat with my colleagues. I might have a septic ICU pt in a trauma bed, a toothache in a triage bed, and an abdominal pain in an exam bed. Or I might have three frequent fliers and nothing legitimate at all, or a STEMI, a stroke and a conscious sedation. I may be admitting patients, discharging them, prepping and sending them to surgery, calling case management or BEING case management. I learn something new every day, and I've got great coworkers who function as a team any time it counts, which is my favorite part of the job.
I'm full time with 3 12-hour shifts per week. Our shifts are generally pretty predictable. We have 1-3 babies each (depending on acuity), and they they usually have a set feeding/assessment schedule (i.e. q3h, q4h) unless a baby is terribly unstable and requires constant interventions. Therefore, it's actually pretty easy to plan out your whole shift from the start: assess, feed, document, repeat. Lots of skills (IVs, labs, caths, suctioning, meds), lots of assessments, lots of parent education. Almost no heavy lifting.
NICU is kind of unique in that most don't have any CNAs. Nurses do all of the ADLs, which is generally pretty enjoyable with our babies (giving tub baths, changing diapers, rocking the baby in a rocking chair while you give a bottle feed).
I truly believe that I'm happier doing this job than I would be in any other job in the world: doctor, CRNA, CNO, even President of the United States.
I'm a new med-surg RN in a medium size hospital. My day starts with looking up the patients in my group of 4-6, writing what time they get their meds and looking at abnormal labs and trends, then I get report from the night shift. After that I get my WOW and claim it for the day and get vitals, check the continuous fluids or feeds my patients have running. I prioritize med pass and my assessments and get started...all day I chart, look at new orders, get admissions, do discharges and consult with doctors, PA and NPs, dietary, case management, xray, and therapy, etc. I also teach the patients and their families about meds, disease process, symptom management, and listen to them about any concerns they have. In my unit we get all sorts of patients, so sometimes i'll have a post-op or post-CVA, deal with patients' addiction and mental health issues. As far as skills go we do a lot, foleys, wound dressing changes, IVs and stat blood draws if ordered. Time management and prioritization skills are critical. There is never a dull moment and its stressful a lot, but I love it so far! Good luck!
I work in an outpatient/infusion clinic in a rural access hospital. There are two full-time RNs here and share space/work with the hospital's scheduling department, which has one CNA and one LPN. (We also work with Cardiopulmonary Rehab where there are 2 RNs and 1 CNA.) Nearly every day of the week we have a different specialist in: podiatry, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, hematology, oncology, gyno, ENT, neurology/pain and urology all come here. Some of them require rooming patients and some bring their own staff and we assist as needed. Some of those physicians also require us in the room to assist with minor procedures (cerumen impaction, drain removal, etc...). We also have scheduled nursing procedures to perform, which can include: injections, infusions, chemotherapy, mediport flushes and PICC line flushes/dressing changes, cardiac stress tests, blood transfusions or whatever other random adventure is dropped on us. I love my co-workers, my patients and my docs. I love the variety of things I am exposed to and the amount of freedom we have as a department. We currently work Mon-Fri from 8 am to 4:30 pm.
hvymtlnursetobe
33 Posts
Awesome vintage mother thank you for sharing your experience with me :-)