im so afraid

[mortalkombat]

Hello guys, I recently attain my BSN. I was able to land a job at a hospital. I guess I was fortunate to get a hospital job as my first job. It wasn't what I expected. I felt so overwhelm. The CNA took advantage of me. They spent some of their time in patient rooms just talking and browsing on the internet. When I ask them for help they tell me some excuse. There were some patients whom were above 400 lbs and were incontinent, on isolation, and can barely moved. I was forced to clean them up by myself which took about 30 minutes at least. I could feel as if my wrist was pulling away from my hand when I try to turn them myself. I was just so frustrated. I was so afraid of working as I feel as my license is in jeopardy. I know that some of those feelings could be attributed through nursing school where the instructors keep mentioning if you don't do something then the BON is after you. I even second guess myself to a point that I'm paranoid now. I had a family problem so I resign before my orientation finished. The hospital let me return. However, I don't know if they would be mad at me for leaving before orientation. One o the reason why I believe that they let me come back is because this hospital has a high turnover rate. I read stories on here that if you manage to make someone mad then it could get into trouble really fast. I read an example where the managers would look at the nurse files more closely for the past 3 or 4 months to see if they did everything right on the computer.

I don't know if I want to go back and it will be the same. I feel a little unsafe sometimes as I took care of some patients that I don't feel comfortable taking care of. We only went over it briefly in nursing school such as chest tubes and such. I was on the med-surg floor by the way.

[BecomingNursey]

When did you graduate? I too have felt very scared going into a shift and wondering if I am smart enough/qualified to take care of this patient. The thing you have to remember is everyone has been where you are. Every single nurse was at one time a new nurse.

If you have a question about something ASK! If the senior nurses on your unit act like you are inconveniencing them, go to your charge nurse or even your director and just let them know your concerns.

In the end, everyone makes mistakes. Yeah, you're going to forget to chart something. It happens. But you aren't going to lose your license over something like that. The things that you will lose your license over are the things that you do and actually cause harm to your patient. Give your medications safely. Do you skills safely. Ask questions. That's what we we were taught in nursing school. Do no harm and you will be fine.

I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.

Author: Art Williams

[mortalkombat]

Graduated in December. Was surprise they hired me as this is my first job. I just don't think I would have the energy to clean up the patients and do nursing care at the same time.

[BecomingNursey]

Cleaning them up is partly our job too. Just because we have techs doesn't mean it's not our job to help or even totally clean them up.

I'm not telling you it's going to be easy, I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.

Author: Art Williams

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Whenever you encounter issues such as CNA's or colleagues refusing to help move a patient, you need to discuss this with your manager. It is absolutely 100% unsafe to attempt to move obese adult patients by yourself! Attempting to do so may cause a career-ending permanent injury that could impair your own mobility for the rest of your life.

Simply being in a challenging patient care environment will not cause you to lose your license. The only things that will jeopardize your nursing license are things that YOU choose to do. For instance, cutting corners and not following policy because you are overwhelmed ... is your choice. You are not going to lose your license if you're unable to perform a task because you run out of time or are dealing with higher priority issue. On the other hand, documenting that you have performed tasks that you actually didn't do ... would be your choice (a bad one) that would jeopardize your license.

PP is correct. NEVER agree to perform a task if you don't know how to do it. This is pretty much a violation of every state nurse practice act which is taken very seriously, license-wise. Tell your supervisor or charge nurse you don't know how - that should be sufficient to get some help &/or training. Another short-term option is to volunteer to 'swap' tasks with another nurse who does have that competency.