I think I want to quit nursing...

[miscangelious]

So I am a new nurse on a telemetry unit. Our unit is small, can only hold up to 18 patients. That said, my boss hired new nurses for night shift since only 2 senior nurses wanted to take a position on this floor...

Usually it is 3 RN's and 1 aide on night shift. Sometimes we have a charge nurse.

anyways...long story short, most nights it was me and 2 other nurses caring for a unit of patients. 5 a piece or 6.

Well, over time me and those 2 other nurses didn't get as good training as the other new grads who got scheduled with the 2 senior nurses.

Fast forward to the other night...

The nurse who has 11 years experience was working as well as me and another nurse who haven't been there a year yet.

My section of patients had: 3 incontinent people (which we have to help our 1 aide change ), an NG tube, a Foley irrigation, a colostomy, a Cardizem gtt, and a CHF pt. The lady with the Cardizem gtt lost IV access and wad due for a blood transfusion. The guy with the Foley needed to be irrigated. And I didn't know how.

All night I managed and it was ROUGH. I asked for help with the senior nurse and all she did was grab the blood for me. Didn't help pass meds. Didnt help even after she was done with everything.

My boss came in and I was late giving report since I was so behind...and yelled at me because I was doing what the day shift nurse wanted me to do instead of giving her report right away (which I tried to do).

Now that day shift nurse is saying I didn't do ANYTHING that night.

I kinda want to quit nursing altogether. I haven't even been employed a year and I'm so DONE.

I just don't know what to do. Me and another coworker wanted to take our own life after work that day...and have looked at other careers. I've been so depressed and haven't eaten and have just slept.

I don't know what to do :/ help...

[n6med]

What state do you live in where it allows a ratio of 6 pts to one nurse on a tele unit? I recently retied as a med tele RN in CA where if only ONE of your pts is n tele, then you can only have 4 pts max.

Supervisor yelling at you? AND you are new? No doubt she forgot LONG ago what it was to be new. I started out brand new on cardiac tele unit and was set up by the charge nurse. Oh, yeah, and I had only 18 shifts for orientation before getting a 5 pts. I promptly left there and went to work at a VA facility. (BTW: you will find no more grateful pt demographic anywhere than at a VA hospital.)

Sorry for some old negative feelings erupting here, but, welcome to the world of "nurses eat their young." And forget about number of pts assigned according to acuity. The hospital just doesn't really care. Pt doesn't get his/her meds on time because the aid was busy in another room dealing with a Code brown and one of your pts colostomy bag burst, you have a Houdini who managed to escape both his soft restraints and his Posey vest, and, oh, yeah, you just received a pt from ER who has blood ordered and an immediate order to give vancomycin d/t SIRS.

Wat I'm reading is that the hospital policies are potentially dangerous fr both you and your pts, the former for their well-being and the latter because the hospital might throw you under the bus.

My sympathies are with you.

Anna Flaxis offers sage advice. I would also offer that you move to CA and work for a hospital with a Calif Nurse Assn (CNA) contract. At least here there are RN-pt ratios. BTW for anyone out there who might be anti-union, the CNA was responsible for the ratios Calif nurses enjoy today with the result of pt mortality DROPPING since the law was passed.

Take a deep breath. Ask for specific help when you need it and don't be bashful about it. Pace yourself as best that you can. At some point (mine came after I was working about 18 months) you will hit your stride. You will know how long most tasks take, and you will be able to take your track shoes off and settle down to a trot.

Above all, don't forget why you became a nurse.

[GaleSRN, BSN, RN]

Sometimes you may need to ask for a mentor. If you didn't get the training/orientation you should have received, you should speak up and ask for help. As a manager, I may not know or recall that one of my staff may be in over their head. Please let him/her know that you need help. Good luck. Nursing is a wonderful profession. I have been doing it for 40 years. I have had many horrendous nights (I worked 15 years on night shift) when I just wanted to quit. Hang in there.

[BriannaicuRN]

Being a brand new nurse is hard, especially on a tele floor. I started out on a tele floor and some mornings I would cry my whole drive home and feel like a complete failure.

One thing that you especially have going for yourself, is you want to learn and want to improve! I've met several new grads lately that do not care and want to get by with the bare minimum.

Some days will be easier than others! One thing that helped me when I first started was figuring out who your resources were. If you don't know ask. I would even joke to the person I was asking questions about having to many questions, but at the end of the day it's you taking care of the patient and I wanted to be sure I was doing the right thing.

I've been a nurse for 3.5 years. 8 months were spent on a tele floor, the rest have been in the ICU and still some days I have driven home crying and feeling like a failure. But every time remembering to pick yourself up and holding on to the small moments of families and patients saying thank you.

[nonnocere808]

Every nurses' first year of nursing has shifts like this. Like Brianna said, just remember the good moments and hold tight. Learning is a struggle, but you will get there. You have to fall to learn how to walk. With that being said, if you ever feel like your training is not enough to keep your patient's safe and no one will help you, call your supervisor.

[p02mk]

Cardizem gtt on a regular med surg floor???[emoji15]

I work at a small hospital where everything is all together except OB and ER. There have been several nights where I had Insulin drips, ICU patients, Tele patients, med surg patients, peds patients, and fresh post op surgicals. Last week I had one night that I had 4 people come back from surgery, one on hospice that routinely needed morphine via a port, and a patient on an insulin drip and we do our own hourly accuchecks. Not all hospitals are the same.

[OUonly]

I'm curious? RN or Lpn?? The reason I am asking is because through my experience I have learn that many RN's that graduated traditional RN programs are severely lacking in important skills for pt care. I educated myself and realize that starting at the LPN level of nursing gives you a solid foundation of skills to provide competent nursing care. Please don't take this as an insult. Throughout my nursing career I can not begin to tell you the number of RN's that I have had to show how to start an IV. Many stated that they only had the opportunity to do it on a dummy in RN school. So please rely on the people that surround you for the help that you may need. It also sounds that your fellow nurses on the unit need to take a refresher coorifice on teamwork. They should all have the attitude to give the best nursing care possible and if that takes helping out your fellow nurse then lend a helping hand. Number one rule in life, "remain calm". Work through your pts with priority of care first and you'll do great!!!