I find myself today some how discourage and with a low spirit, I would like to know the opinion and hear experiences from either new grads or more experience nurses about my story.
I was hired exactly one year ago as a New Grad at the ER in a local hospital. We all new grads were hired with a $5000 contract for 3 years. This contract involved educational training for New Grad ER nurses, This will include a preceptors and a Regional ER course. Well at the time and as a New grad looking for a new experience and any job that came across the ER sounded great, and 3 years contract really did not felt like much.
Well my journey started, I was trying to get use to be called the orientee, because this was the way all our coworkers were referring to us.
Well one day after a couple of week of orientations and lots of CE courses online required by the hospital, our manager said to us the ER course will start next week, but we have to make an addendum to your contract, is not going to be $5000 anymore now is $7500, I was forced to sign it at that point. We all sign it . The ER regional course was 4 or 5 weeks and it was useless, poor teachers nothing ER related really broad and vague. It was like assisting to one of those fast track NCLEX courses, basic stuff but nothing that I didn't knew already from nursing school. I really felt robbed, but again I needed a job and I was still excited about ER. We were suppose to have a ONE preceptor to follow through what you were learning, not many and who ever was willing to take you that day. This is what happened, I had multiple preceptors, some good, some hate to have an orientee and some just care less about teaching you. I completed my 6 month review with clean record :-) I even call dad , I am good I passed my probation period clean with clean record. that was a huge relieve, up to that point all my managers and directors were being some how nice to me. Well things change, once you are on your own with no preceptor, I was oriented during day shift for 3 months and now I was sent to nights. That was a major change for me, keeping in mind I had never ever work a night shift in my life, but that was my agreement and I was willing to fulfill it.
I was hired in March and I managed to keep up my new grad record clean, until season started, most of the techs were either fired or left, I see many nurses leave but I really didn't get involved, I was there to earn my living not to gossip around.
December 31th I was called for the first time to my managers office, I had gave another patient papers mixed with the packet the doctor handled me to discharge this patient, and I mislabeled a blood tube. I was being written up for the first time, my manager didn't look or acted as nice as before, she was rough, mean and really not understanding. I assumed my fault, but I accept my personality is sometimes talkative and I said I am not sure I gave those papers to the patient, because this is the case many times where the charge nurses give discharges or doctors do and then you have to sign on them, and ER is really busy things like this are hard to remember. But I guess I should just assume my fault and leave that office. Well I managed to just say I am sorry I will pay more attention to detail, this was what they counsel me about, attention to detail. Well after that I felt they were watching me, I was so sad and anxious not to make any mistakes that I feel the more careful I was the more clumsy I was becoming. I was called one more time to the office, A Retired Nurse who came to my ER almost at change of shift placed a complaint that she was never place in the monitor, and also I had place a urine sample in the same bag with the tubes, this according to the lab contaminates specimen and she made me withdraw the labs again. I gained a second write up. I appeal the monitor case because it was charted, but manager said patient was a reliable source and eve though I had patient for less than 30 minutes and even if I gave bedside report and it was documented in my chart, it wasn't valid and I had to keep the write up. I did not appeal this write up not until I received the 3rd write up.
The third write up happened last week march, we are talking of 3 write ups in a matter of 3 months. The last write up that caused me a suspension was about my biggest fault, I entered the medication list of one of my patients into another patients chart. They found out when the patient went to the floor and the nurse wrote me up, I have no excuse the ER has been to explosion level and my anxiety because I knew this was going to happened, my charge nurses being of no help, no techs in the ER , many normal factors of the ER.. no Excuse I am making stupid mistakes. I was told by my managers who were very aggressive in front of the ER director in this write up appeal meeting, We are seeing a pattern here you are not having attention to detail and also you don't accept your blames. They also told me that one more error and I will be fired. What should I do? Is this a good time to resign and take a deep breath before making more mistakes? Is my manager going to give bad references about me once I start looking for a job? I really feel stupid for making all this rookie mistakes :-(, mostly because my manager has told me I don't belong in the hospital world.
I am scared of resigning, but I am more afraid of being fired, how to handle this and leave with my head up ?
Let's see....poor English skills, inability to handle feedback, and if I had to take a guess, I think the OP is from a country where there are very rigid social classes. I believe that the OP feels that she is being insulted by people that she feels superior to (and I saw this a LOT in Florida, by the way...) and has difficulty accurately evaluating her actual skill set. This person is NOT ER material....
I don't see why you anger towards me, yes I made a mistake I am not saying I didn't at all I did and I feel bad about it. But I also come accross with many people with your same attitude, always judgemental, angry and with a arrogant personality, also I want some tips on how to not let that affect me ?, I am a very sweet,positive, healthy and friendly person, not use to people constantly attacking you. Why it feels like I see this picture in many nurses? is this the way I'm going to become in few years?
I haven't seen anyone on this thread (of which I've ready halfway through at this point) judging you or being arrogant. We've all made mistakes. The thing is, we take it seriously because it is so serious. We're dealing with people's lives.
Grabbing or printing the wrong discharge papers would be easy to do, but how did it get the point of actually getting them to the patient? You go over the papers with the patient, right? At the very least, you should recognize that these instructions for a patient in for gastritis don't apply to the pt with back pain whom you are discharging.
Mislabeling lab tubes can cause a catastrophic error. Say you put John Doe's label on a tube of Jack Buck's blood. Blood comes back with a K+ of 6...time for a K+ shift. But say John Doe's K+ is actually 2.9. You're treating John Doe for a K+ of 6, and you've now put him into a fatal arrhythmia, or paralyzed him, because you tanked his already-low K+. Meanwhile, Jack Buck is now also in a fatal arrhythmia because his high K+ went untreated.
You do sound like a nice person, but nice doesn't meet the physical needs of a critically ill patient.
My suggestion is to start doing your Rights for every intervention--not just med administration. Check those lab tube labels against the pt's ID band before sticking the labels on. Then stick them on the tubes immediately, before leaving the room.
OP you don't have to link criticism to your self worth. I made mistakes before I finally left the hospital setting. It was just too much stress for me. It didn't mean I was a bad nurse, it just meant it was the wrong job. I honestly believe there is a place for everyone who wants to be a nurse. I do not thrive in stressful environments and that's okay.
Just wondering OP how you expect to function in a managerial role at 1 year when you have admitted on this thread that you are still learning to organize yourself? With all the errors that you have discussed, how are you going to oversee others?
This highlights your overall lack of insight. Try working another area for at least 2 years before considering management. I can tell you from experience that management is NOT easier.
So much negativity and assumptions being thrown out here.
I also can't believe some of you have time to look up old posts and use them against the OP. This is exactly what I can't stand about this site.
OP was looking for guidance and reassurance and for the most part, you all told OP how incompetent she is.
I've had enough.
Good luck OP! ER is a hard place for new grads and unless there are posters that have been a new grad in ER, their comments have no value to me. Keep your head up!
Being supportive, caring, and "warm and fuzzy" in this situation is all well and good -- until you're the person the OP makes a critical error on. From reading the entire thread, it sounds to me like "reassurance" is the last thing the OP needs -- s/he is much more in need of some reality, which is what I see the posters here trying to present, in a constructive way.
No offense but all those are legitimate reasons to get written up. I don't know but at our hospital we don't allow our managers to write us up without our union rep being present.
my pointers from just reading your OP:
1. the hospital needs to have a way for you to be re-educated so that the same problem doesn't continue to happen.
2. you need to learn how to communicate better. its tough but as an ER nurse, you are the first one to see the patient and the first one to gather information. from analyzing you OP, i gather that english is not your first language and maybe, just maybe, you are missing things due to poor communication. Maybe a transfer to a med surg?
How can she handle Med-Surg? It certainly isn't any easier or quieter than ER.
I'd be surprised if she mislabeled anyone else's labs or didn't make absolutely certain the correct papers were in the correct chart.
I guess the reason someone earlier said to let them fire you is that maybe you could collect unemployment. Well, I think you are better off to resign if the place will let you, because you have made some errors and you are in orientation and they can fire you for any reason or for no reason.
Not to be harsh, but learn to speak perfect English, the way your boss and coworkers, presumably, speak it. Not saying that your speech is the problem, but speaking the way they do can only help. Work to stop any accent. yeah, I know that doesn't sound nice, but I truly am just trying to help.
Don't be argumentive. Politely ask for clarification, but don't get or sound angry or defensive. It's a tall order when you feel you are being picked on, but figure out how to be truly open to correction. Mislabeling labs can be very serious. Own your errors.
Did you put the monitor on? Too bad the pt didn't say anything to you or other staff. I hate the backstabbing sound of her c/o about it after the fact and am thinking choice words that I can't say here.
I'm not sure where you are but in my state if you get fired, the board of nursing will get notified. Therefore, if I were you, I'd put in my two weeks notice. Best of luck.
How can she handle Med-Surg? It certainly isn't any easier or quieter than ER.
I'd be surprised if she mislabeled anyone else's labs or didn't make absolutely certain the correct papers were in the correct chart.
Why not med-surg? The patients are more stable and it is a bit slower - not always of course - than ER. The OP will still have to work on her inability to focus, but med-surg might be the right step down to do it. The critical care environment may just be too much for her. She should give med-surg a try.
trishmsn
127 Posts
Let's see....poor English skills, inability to handle feedback, and if I had to take a guess, I think the OP is from a country where there are very rigid social classes. I believe that the OP feels that she is being insulted by people that she feels superior to (and I saw this a LOT in Florida, by the way...) and has difficulty accurately evaluating her actual skill set. This person is NOT ER material....