New lpn in need of help!!!!!!

[houseliberty]

Hello everyone I'm new to this site and I'm also a new LPN; I work all shifts: passing Medication is not a problem for me, but what is a problem is all the paper work. I have no experience and I need to know how to cover myself; for example when to call the Doctor about labs and how to carry orders out and how to recap when I work 11-7 shift at the end of the month and so on. I'm currently working on a subacute floor in a nursing home, I'm trying to absorb as much as I can but it doesn't seem to be enoutgh. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME HOW THERE DAY GOES ON A SUBACUTE FLOOR; transcribing meds etc as much as you can tell me will be appriciated because I will be taking notes. when I got hired I had 5 days of orientation and if you ask me they could have spend those 5 days training me on paper work alone, it would have done me a world of good, things like incident report, and transfering a Resident to the ER or sending them out to appt and so on to name a few PLEASE HELP!!!!!

THANKS IN ADVANCE

[softstorms]

You need a mentor! If you work alone on this shift..then there are other people working on other units. Ask for help! If you ask and no one helps....then hang around after your shift in the a.m. and tell them you need to know these things! They don't know you need help..unless you ask them!

[Gr8Dane]

It comes with experience. 5 days orientation for a brand new LPN is low considering most LPN schools do not teach much more then the basics

Basically ask coworkers, if there are none around reconsider that facility if you are by yourself or with other new nurses. The issue at hand is if you start calling frivolous lab results to doctors they will come down on you. but it's a double edged sword, should you neglect to call a result which may not seem like a big deal to you to a zealous doc it will cutya.

I started as a brand new LPN on an acute med/surg floor but I got 3 months of orientation which helped. It took me about a year to learn what I needed to know.

You learn with time what is a big deal and what isn't. This goes beyond labs to patient conditions/status changes, what needs to be reported immediately vs. what can be reported to the MD/PA when they come in.

Basically experience but if you don't feel safe working at that facility find something else or let them know. It's your license as everyone says and if you loose that nursing will be closed to you.