Fit to be a nurse?

[margritamix]

Hello everyone,

I would just like to know if you guys think that I don't have a chance of being a good (or at least competent) nurse based on what happened to me at work today:

I work in a home health agency and today was my first day working by myself with my new client. She requires quite a lot of help since she cannot really move around anymore. She is a particularly detailed person and she wants things to be done exactly as she wants.

I had no problem working with her up until I had to transfer her from her bed to her mobile chair using the hoyer lift. Now, I have used the hoyer lift before with other patients, so I was by no means new to the idea of it. However, I could not transfer my patient because she said that I wasn't aligning the sling properly against her body. When I tried to roll her over so that we can work on realigning the sling again while she was on the bed, she then got really frustrated that I couldn't just pull the sling underneath her so we could straighten it out without having to keep turning her over. So I then tried to pull the sling to the side so I can straighten it out and she just told me to stop, presumably because it was rubbing on her skin. She then had me call someone else to do the transfer.

I am not really sure what I could have done better other than just making sure that I aligned the sling against her body really well to begin with so that we didn't have to go through the whole pulling thing.

Now, I am really nervous because I feel like if I can't even do a simple hoyer life transfer, how can I become a competent, confident nurse?

I'm sure many of you guys have met challenges at your workplaces (be it LTC, home health, etc.) but how were you able to overcome it? I felt like a complete let down and I really had to hold back tears just so I wouldn't cry during my shift.

I really appreciate any replies!

[Hygiene Queen]

Some of your patients will be difficult... no matter what.

Jesus Christ could come down from the heavens and the patient will still complain that everything is all wrong!

If you did everything you could, then that is all you can do.

If everyone threw in the towel because they failed to satisfy a patient...

Welp, there would not be any nurses or CNAs.

I wouldn't cry over it and neither should you!

[Abigail612]

i have been a cna for 4 years and to this day i can not make everyone happy, the point is to just try your best. also keep in mind that your relationship with this patient is still very new and when it comes to using the hoyer lift the patient has to put alot to trust in your abilities because they are helpless in this situation. it may take just a little time befor you can build the trust she feels she needs. you are very conscientious and thats a very good quaility in a nurse, just don't let get you down to the point were you can not properly fulfil your duties !

[margritamix]

Thank you Hygiene Queen and Abigail612 for the replies!

I am comforted by the fact that even the both of you (who have more experience than I do) have been able to get past these challenging situations. I think that it is now very important for me to gain more knowledge and experience in order to work with more challenging clients and as Abigail as said, take the time to gain the patient's trust.