Published Jan 3, 2014
karen623
13 Posts
I am 21 and a new lvn with about 5 months working now and I just want to know if all of this is normal. I am very unhappy with my job, I have on average 18-26 patients, I don't have a permanent assignment so they vary, I never get a chance to get used to my assignment and my patients. This is how it goes, first day: really behind second day:better third day:actually acceptable, then BAM new assignment and start over. I've been a treatment nurse just weekends, and in every single medication cart in my facility which is a half sub-acute half rehab. I always end up leaving late, ALWAYS.
Yesterday everything was going great, I had good timing. Then a patient comes back from dyalisis and is shivering, the supervisor asks me to check the blood sugar and its fine, so she says just cover her with blankets probably just cold. Obviously she doesn't look right so I take full vitals and her bp is super high and 101.2 temp. so after that it is my job to take care of this very sick patient and monitor her, and also get a urine sample from her, when it is two hours away from the end of my shift and I still need to manage the other 25 patients and finish passing my meds. To say the least I finished very stressed and rushed and left feedings almost empty and even forgot to change the trash in my cart, how does that look??? I feel so bad about yesterday how I left everything so crappy, I still left one hour later trying to finish the paperwork though. I also got yelled (and I mean literally) at by a patients mother for not giving him his meds first because supposedly everyone knows he goes first. At this point my old minimum wage job is looking pretty good right now and I am even thinking of calling them up! AM I A QUITTER??? is this NORMAL? because I see other people who do it (my coworkers) so why can't I?
I know I posted this three times by accident, anyone know how to delete it?
TheCommuter, BSN, RN
102 Articles; 27,612 Posts
spencernic
Welcome to the world of nursing! I work in a clinic and stay late every day just trying to get caught up with seeing 20-30 patients daily. EMR makes my job 10 times harder than it ever was with paper charts. Maybe you could sit down and speak with the director about your concerns, always lead with a suggestion of trying to make the situation work better.