New grad starting first job

Nurses New Nurse

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Specializes in Trauma & Emergency.

Well lets just say that I am extremely nervous about starting my new job as an LPN on Monday June 1st. I will be working in a 300 bed subacute/LTC facility in which I will be responsible for 60 patients most of the time. There is always an RN supervisor in the house but not necessiarly on the unit I will be working on. I don't know if there is something that I should be reviewing..most of the patients seem to have an average of 7-8 medications each. I am going to start on 7-3 but will be quickly moved to 3-11 as it sounds. I am going back to school in the Fall for my RN license so 3-11 is the best shift as I will be going to school M-F. Can anyone offer me any advice on how to adapt to the change of a student nurse to a LICENSED nurse responsible for a med pass on that many patients?

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Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.

You will not have to give meds to 60 pts on 7-3 unless it is an assisted living facility. If you do, look for another job. It is more likely that you will give meds to 30 of them. This will take you most of the morning. You will spend most of your time in LTC giving out meds so keep your drug book handy. There is nothing to review to help you do a med pass of this magnitude. It just takes practice and repetition to get faster at it. 3-11 is a good shift for a new grad because the meds are much lighter.

Good luck

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Specializes in Psych, LTC, Acute Care.

I hate to discourage you but are you saying you have to give meds to 60 pts.???? This is alot of pts for 1 person. I worked in LTC and had 30pt and felt overwhelmed. Maybe you will have assisted living people who will not be getting any meds. I just don't see how you can pass meds to 60pts in a 8hr shift. Keep us posted on how things go because it sounds like your gonna be very busy.

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Specializes in Trauma & Emergency.

From what I was told many of my former classmates have similar assignments including 1 with a 50 pt med pass.. The DON told me that I would not be responsible for any treatments but that it was a 60 pt med pass.. I will keep you posted.. I don't know what to expect now!

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Pedi/Tele.

hopefully they will have a CMT to help you? Good luck!

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Yeah. I had a similar post. A DON was telling me that I would be on a med cart as a brand new RN with no clinical experience. This is on a Rehab unit. I don't know how many patients would be too many patients to fit in an 8 hour shift. I know it's sister unit is 60 beds, That's my understanding of how many people are on the unit.

Anyway, going to shadow tomorrow to see what it's all about.

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