I'm trying nursing, but I'm hardheaded..will I last?

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I think I'm going to go into nursing, but I am hardheaded. On the job, I have to be told more than once to do things, my attention to detail is not that strong. I tend to make mistakes, though not fatal errors usually. Do you think this might be a problem in the nursing field? I like to cut corners and do things that are easiest for me instead of going by policy.

Specializes in Army Medic.

Sounds like you should join the military and get some of your behavioral problems straightened out - if you plan on going into a field that is based around team work, rules, and attention to detail.

Otherwise, I would look for a different line of work.

That's not stated to insult you - that's the truth.

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Ok, I'm not thaaaaat stupid now. If a pt is supposed to get .5ml of something I'm not going to give him a liter of it. Now that's obvious the patient's system could be upset. I currently work in a lab and my attention to detail is not strong there. For instance, phleb.'s will not always send all the specs. together. So I'm told if a patient is missing a blood tube, to hold off on processing it because the blood tube might show up. Well instead of holding it I go ahead and process it anyway, because I'm tired of waiting. This is what I'm talking about attention to detail. Or maybe having hippa violations (I've had) like putting the wrong client id on a patients requisition by accident where not only the right doc will get his pt info but another doc. not of the patients will get a copy by accident.

Yeah, that's not a lack of attention to detail, that's just not caring enough to do it right. That's a problem.

I really hope that you're just trolling for reactions and don't really do this stuff.

If not, why are you even posting this if you're not willing to change?

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Specializes in NICU,ICU,ER,MS,CHG.SUP,PSYCH,GERI.

Here I go with anther can of worms...you must be a man...

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I'm a new grad working on a telemetry floor and I'm learning that paying attention to all of the details is a huge deal in the nursing career..trust me..good memory,good organization skills,patience and paying attention to small details is a must in this career...I dont have a perfect memory,perfect organization skills and I'm not so very detail oriented but I'm learning to be so so I can make it in this career...so if you planning to enter this career you definitely need to work on those issues,good luck!

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HIPAA violations can get you, your workplace, and your school in a lot of trouble. I am sorry to say this but unless you change your attitude so that you can focus more on the details and not be so cavalier about violating principles such as patient privacy, you are a walking liability to the program that accepts you or the workplace that hires you. You, your institution, your school can all be sued if you violate your patients' privacy. You could also face criminal liability and even end up serving time in jail. This IS a big deal and if you want to progress at all in a health care career, you MUST pay attention to maintaining confidentiality. If you can't do it, you really don't belong in a health-related field.

You admit to putting the wrong ID on a requisition---do you honestly think you can safely administer medications if you're prone to this sort of error? If you administer the wrong drug to the wrong person, give the wrong dose, the wrong way or at the wrong time, is that being incompetent or is it just bending the rules?

Nothing wrong with having a strong personality---I've been accused of that a few times myself. However, I have a good bit of experience and education under my belt and I've never challenged anyone in authority without a damned good reason---usually because I have felt it necessary to advocate for a patient or for a student when I've taught nursing. As a previous poster said, you need to know the rules before you can judge whether it's appropriate to break them. Administering a tube feeding fifteen minutes early---that's no big deal. But when a nurse has a cavalier attitude about medications, particularly those that are on a strict schedule, he/she risks real harm to the patient if he doesn't follow that schedule.

I don't mean to be harsh here, perhaps a little blunt, but I want to be honest with you since you posted your concerns. If I were your instructor, no matter how well you did on care plans, no matter how well you did in your exams or papers, if you were unsafe on the floor, I would fail you. You would not pass my clinical. You would not even pass my skills labs. I have never failed a student but if I had someone who routinely cut corners, violated policy, didn't pay attention to details such as identifying the patient correctly, and who habitually violated the patients' rights to privacy and confidentiality, I would fail that student in a heartbeat.

You have the wrong attitude. You can fail all you want but you will end up doing all the work yourself because everyone makes mistakes. Pretty soon you will have to come off that high horse of yours after you've failed everyone and find yourself changing all the bedpans on the floor because you've fired all the workers.

You are never going to find a perfect worker. There is hope for me. We are not all goody two shoes perfect like you are that is sitting up on a high horse. I think I can do well in nursing. Most of you female nurses on here have a superior attitude that I don't like. This is why I like to deal with men a little better. Women have a tendency to make mountains out of mole highs and be extremely assinine. Men are better to deal with than females.

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You have the wrong attitude. You can fail all you want but you will end up doing all the work yourself because everyone makes mistakes. Pretty soon you will have to come off that high horse of yours after you've failed everyone and find yourself changing all the bedpans on the floor because you've fired all the workers.

You are never going to find a perfect worker. There is hope for me. We are not all goody two shoes perfect like you are that is sitting up on a high horse. I think I can do well in nursing. Most of you female nurses on here have a superior attitude that I don't like. This is why I like to deal with men a little better. Women have a tendency to make mountains out of mole highs and be extremely assinine. Men are better to deal with than females.

While the bolded part is unbelievably sexist and offensive.....your belief in it is yet another reason that nursing might not be a good fit for you. While there are more men joining the profession, it is overwhelmingly a female profession. Just think how annoying we'd be for you.

You get to do what you want obviously. Truly, I doubt you're looking to actually make any changes in your behavior...call me cynical, I'll still sleep well tonight...but keeping in mind that your desire to make any actual changes is in the negatives, I'm not sure why you wasted your time posting here. Why ask a question when you don't care about the answer? Because truly, it sounds like you only care about you.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
You have the wrong attitude. You can fail all you want but you will end up doing all the work yourself because everyone makes mistakes. Pretty soon you will have to come off that high horse of yours after you've failed everyone and find yourself changing all the bedpans on the floor because you've fired all the workers.

You are never going to find a perfect worker. There is hope for me. We are not all goody two shoes perfect like you are that is sitting up on a high horse. I think I can do well in nursing. Most of you female nurses on here have a superior attitude that I don't like. This is why I like to deal with men a little better. Women have a tendency to make mountains out of mole highs and be extremely assinine. Men are better to deal with than females.

Nobody here has mentioned perfection as being a prerequisite for nursing. However, I do think that a little humility can go a long way, and until you get *your* attitude under control, you are in for some tough lessons, should you choose to pursue a nursing education.

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Out of curiosity, I looked at some of your previous posts and noticed that you had complained about a previous HIPAA violation a few months ago. Hey, if your employer is satisfied with your work and has given you a raise, awesome. But you know, even nurses who aren't "malicious" make fatal errors. Moreover, just because an error isn't "fatal" doesn't mean it isn't serious. How would you feel if someone in the lab screwed up your results, sent them to another physician or insurance company or someone who had no business knowing if you had HIV or hepatitis or even diabetes. It might not mean much to you but it means a hell of a lot to the patient who is relying on you---right now---for accurate, confidential results.

Uh, no. A good instructor won't single out a student who is "different" but if a student is weak, any instructor worth his/her salt will do whatever he/she can to HELP that student learn. There are instructors who are, to put it bluntly, absolute jerks, but most are committed to helping to educate the next generation of competent, caring nurses. Somehow I just get the very bad feeling that the OP is going to be very tough to handle in a clinical group and if she fails, she will find a way to blame someone else.

Sorry, don't agree that this is a troll---been here too long and has made too many posts.

Yes, that is the same Hippa violation that I spoke of many months ago. Second, I am not malicious and do not have a superior attitude. I would not get upset at all if my test results got sent somewhere accidentally. Now I would be upset if someone knew my results and went babbling off to people whom I knew what those results were, and these are two different scenarios. I am not going to grow grey hairs because someone somewhere made the mistake of sending my results somewhere just as long as it didn't happen continously even then I would not be upset, I would just wonder why.

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Stay where you are then. Nursing doesn't need you.

That is not a decison for you to make. Make your own life decisions, stay away from mine. I will do well in nursing once I get accepted, and I will do well on the job. I have never been formally fired, (just let go of temp jobs in the past for not being able to type fast enough) lol lol.

I will have nothing to worry about, and if I do get fired from some hospital, which I highly doubt, I will simply go somewhere else to find work, as nurses get burned out and frustrated and leave job openings for people like myself. So I'm good to go!

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That is not a decison for you to make. Make your own life decisions, stay away from mine. I will do well in nursing once I get accepted and I will do well on the job. I have never been formally fired, just let go of temp jobs in the past for not being able to type fast enough. I will have nothing to worry about, and if I do get fired from some hospital, which I highly doubt, I will simply go somewhere else to find work, as nurses get burned out and frustrated and leave job openings for people like myself. So I'm good to go!

If you don't like the answers.....you could always stop asking. When you ask questions on a public board....folks are going to answer.

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While the bolded part is unbelievably sexist and offensive.....your belief in it is yet another reason that nursing might not be a good fit for you. While there are more men joining the profession, it is overwhelmingly a female profession. Just think how annoying we'd be for you.

You get to do what you want obviously. Truly, I doubt you're looking to actually make any changes in your behavior...call me cynical, I'll still sleep well tonight...but keeping in mind that your desire to make any actual changes is in the negatives, I'm not sure why you wasted your time posting here. Why ask a question when you don't care about the answer? Because truly, it sounds like you only care about you.

I do care about answers, but I don't particularly like when folk become overly cynical and negative like some posters on here were doing. If you talk to me civilly, then I will listen. Only way I will know if nursing is good for me is to try it out. If it doesn't work it is not the end of the world. Especially since many nurses come on this board and complain anyway about low job satisfaction and wanting to get out of nursing.

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If you don't like the answers.....you could always stop asking. When you ask questions on a public board....folks are going to answer.

I never said I didn't like answers. Do you make a habit out of putting words in people's mouths? How often do you do this?

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