Top 5 Do's Top 5 Dont's

Nurses General Nursing

Published

For a brand spankin' new RN:

What are your personal top 5 DOs?

What are your personal top 5 DONTs?

As far as being oriented, learning, and adjusting to real world nursing.

Please & Thanks! =)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

Don't be too hard on yourself the first year. Or even two.

Do understand that EVERYONE feels overwhelmed, anxious and sometimes incompetent in their first year. It's not just you.

Thanks for all your responses thus far! ?

Don't wait to do later what you have time to do now, all h*ll might break loose later.

Don't be using cell phones & the internet for personal reasons while at work

Don't whine about why you are getting the next admission

Don't forget to thank your co-workers especially your aides

Don't forget to be aware of your surrounding when talking about patients

Do realize that though you may be assigned 5 patients you have an obligation to all the patients on the unit

Do get to work on time

Do get back from your breaks on time

Do try to think of a solution if you have a complaint

Do understand that nursing is a 24 hour a day job and the previous shift may not be able to wrap everything up for you all neat and tidy.

This is great advice, thanks everyone! ?

Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, PCU.

DO find a reliable, organized way to know your patient and report on them. This could be through a specifically formatted sheet, or one you develop yourself. Include their admission, history, labs, diagnostics, review of systems, vitals signs through the shift, access/IVFs/GTTs and pertinent events. It seems like a lot at first, but eventually it becomes habit. On that note...

DO NOT beat yourself up if you can't get it all done or remember every detail. I guarantee you you're gonna give report to a grouch some day who grills your report and finds something you missed or don't know. You'll get it next time (just make sure it's not something big like blood that was ordered all day long for a hemoglobin of 5.6).

DO make yourself available to others for help. As you wish others would do for you, do so for them. People remember good deeds and will repay you in kind. Answer other nurses' call bells. Teamwork is key in nursing. On that note...

(and I don't know where you work or what the people are like there, but) DO NOT let people take advantage of you for your helpfulness. There are miserable, burnt out, bare minimalists out there who will always delegate tasks to individuals offering help and then continue to do the bare minimum for their own patients/play on their phones/sit and do nothing. These people aren't everywhere, but once you get a feel for the staff they'll stand out.

DO keep your ears open and ask questions about things you don't understand.

DO NOT give a medication without first knowing why it's ordered and whether it's safe to give. Same goes for new nursing tasks. For instance I did trach care maybe once in nursing school (they did a mediocre job at preparing me for the real world). The first time I has to do it for a patient was probably 8 months later, so I asked for help beforehand in changing the inner cannula. No big deal, but it's always better to show more caution than not enough. In carpentry they say "measure twice, cut once."

Thats's only three, I know. I'll try to think of a couple more later.

Haven't thought about this a lot, but I would say: Love your patients.

Specializes in Nasty sammiches and Dilaudid.

Don't ever pass up a chance to:

1) use the bathroom

2) eat

3) drink water

4) sit down (perhaps in conjunction with choice #1)

Do:

1) invest in good shoes/wool socks/insoles (preferably two pairs of shoes so you can rotate them)

2) buy cheap clicky pens so if you drop one you won't mind throwing it away

3) keep a spare uniform in your locker/vehicle so when you get sprayed with nastiness, you don't have to scramble for something to wear

Don't:

-Let your patients be lazy or noncompliant to make your day go more smoothly.

-Be afraid you're going to annoy a doctor if there's an issue you think hasn't been addressed appropriately, or if you're on the fence and need more input. Just make the phone call.

-Save all of your charting for the end of the shift.

-Let your coworker drown when you've got an easier patient load. Magic words: "My patients are settled, what do you need help with?"

-HOLD YOUR PEE. DON'T. YOU HAVE TIME TO PEE. This also applies to pooping.

Do:

-Ask for an explanation from doctors and more experienced nurses when you don't understand why they're doing what they're doing.

-Check each total care patient's backside for pressure ulcers WITH YOUR OWN EYES, every shift, no matter what.

-Look up every single medication you're not 100% familiar with before give it to your patient.

-Get an EKG any time you hear the words "chest pain" come out of someone's mouth, even if you're so sure they're faking you'd bet your dog on it.

-Make sure your sweet, quiet patients aren't being overlooked because they're not complaining.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

Don't rush to management with complaints about your coworkers. Try to work things out with that coworker first.

Don't skip breaks -- meal breaks, bathroom breaks or "I just gotta get away from this person before I SCREAM" breaks.

Don't assume that the previous shift's assessment is correct NOW. Do your own assessment.

Don't take criticism as "meanness." If you're new, you'll screw up. You want people to be able to TELL you when you've screwed up so you'll do it correctly next time. If they can't tell YOU, they'll tell management. You'd rather they told YOU!

Don't ask stupid questions -- which means, don't ask questions if you haven't thought it through or tried to find the answer first. There's a big differenct between "How do I do this?" and "I've looked over the procedure and I think I have all the supplies I need, but I've never done it before. Could we go over the procedure together before I try to do this?"

Don't be afraid to ask the right questions.

Do carry a little notebook (or something) and when someone answers a question for you, write down the answer. No preceptor (or coworker) should have to answer questions like "Now what was the number for the blood bank again?" three or more times in a shift.

Do smile at and be friendly to your coworkers, even the ones you don't like. Being an adult and having an adult job means you have to get along with everyone.

Do understand why you're doing what you're doing, why your patient is on that med and what that lab result means.

Do try to have fun . . . work isn't supposed to be fun, but having a sense of humor makes everything go much more smoothly and makes that fountain of poop something you're going to laugh about next week rather than the end of the world.

Do call the doctor if you think you need to, but run it by a mosre experienced nurse first.

Do know the rules and follow them . . . if the rule is two visitors at a time, make sure someone leaves before that third visitor enters. If the rule is no outside food or drink, don't allow outside food or drink. Don't let patients and visitors get away with ignoring the rules because it makes your shift easier. That sets up the next nurse, the one who follows the rules, to be "the bad nurse." You're not going to make friends among your coworkers that way. And you want to be the newbie that everyone likes. People who are well liked get forgiven more mistakes than people who no one likes.

Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

Check your morning labs. Don't assume the docs or previous shift(s) have.

Say what you are going to do and do it. Don't tell pt you will be right back and then don't for an hour.

All the stuff people already said, and

Don't complain about or judge your patients...and don't complain about spending money on indigent or non-compliant patients.

Don't sit on your discharges all day to avoid getting new patients. Your coworkers and charge nurses will be on to you.

Don't whine/complain/get ugly every time you get a new patient.

(I work with someone who does these things, and it can make for a very long day.)

Thank you so much! I want y'all to know I AM reading every single response and soaking it up.

Thanks! =)

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