I've been a nurse for three years, having half peds and half med surg.
I'm ready start travel nursing but I'm wondering how you go about brushing up on information that you are unclear on while on assignment. I'm confident in my skills and ability to critically think, but I still like to ask questions when I'm unsure of something. I view asking questions as the foundation of safe care, but it also can paint a negative image of you as "not knowing your stuff".
I know as a travel nurse you are expected to "hit the ground running". What do you do if you are performing a procedure you haven't done in a while or need to brush up on a disease process you haven't seen in a while?
i'm on my first assignment now and having this same problem. I came from a harder/bigger hospital but am having a tough time with the staff. I have had a lot of questions because so many things are different like policies, procedures, medications, and general culture of doing everything vs. calling for comfort care. So, with all my questions they question my skills and where I came from. It drives me nuts because I am a good nurse but I feel like a portion of the staff question my abilities.
It is most likely not you, its them. Look at the staff culture. Is there a lot of horizontal violence? Sabotaging, gossiping, eye rolling, ignoring questions or making snide comments. It all depends on the hospital. I cut my nursing teeth in a high acuity, high volume inner city ER. I learned a lot and stayed there several years. We treated travelers well. It was a tough environment, but even if they were very green, we went out of our way to teach and be helpful, (we had one who never put in an NG before, he was from a very small rural ED and only had 1 year experience). That particular RN renewed a couple of times with us and we all stay in contact with him.
At another hospital the acuity was not so bad. The volume was okay. But the staff were absolutely vicious. They would roll their eyes when you asked a simple question "What is your policy on..." . I was a new traveler so I thought maybe it was me. However the other travelers there, as well as a couple of newly hired new staff all said it was the worst working environment they had ever been in. I got through the assignment by counting the weeks, keeping my mouth shut (not all the travelers did that), and respectfully declining to renew my contract (you never know when you might meet someone from that problem facility who could help you).
So chin up, you know what you know. 13 weeks will be up in no time.
I think it depends on WHAT you're asking. If you're asking how to set up a rapid transfuser, that's a legitimate question because not every hospital even has that piece of equipment. If you're asking how many respirations is too many or how to take a manual blood pressure or what the side effects to a medication are, then it doesn't matter how you ask, someone is going to think you don't know what you're doing because that's basic nursing stuff. Just remember, some simple things can be googled.
HikingNinja, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN, NP
612 Posts
It is most likely not you, its them. Look at the staff culture. Is there a lot of horizontal violence? Sabotaging, gossiping, eye rolling, ignoring questions or making snide comments. It all depends on the hospital. I cut my nursing teeth in a high acuity, high volume inner city ER. I learned a lot and stayed there several years. We treated travelers well. It was a tough environment, but even if they were very green, we went out of our way to teach and be helpful, (we had one who never put in an NG before, he was from a very small rural ED and only had 1 year experience). That particular RN renewed a couple of times with us and we all stay in contact with him.
At another hospital the acuity was not so bad. The volume was okay. But the staff were absolutely vicious. They would roll their eyes when you asked a simple question "What is your policy on..." . I was a new traveler so I thought maybe it was me. However the other travelers there, as well as a couple of newly hired new staff all said it was the worst working environment they had ever been in. I got through the assignment by counting the weeks, keeping my mouth shut (not all the travelers did that), and respectfully declining to renew my contract (you never know when you might meet someone from that problem facility who could help you).
So chin up, you know what you know. 13 weeks will be up in no time.