my inexperience or tooooo many pt's????

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I am a new RN on a tele floor. I just started on my own the week of christmas. NOBODY has ever wanted to be a nurse more than me, and as my husband and everyone who has ever worked with me will tell you I work way to hard. I say that because it's not that I don't love nursing and it's not that i'm lazy......but I AM OVERWHELMED!!!!!

I work nights and the nurse pt ratio is supposed to be no more than 6:1 but I have had 7 or 8. holy cow i'm brand new!!!!!!!! we don't have a step down unit at our hospital so some of our pt's come to us straight from the icu .Lots of chf/afib w/ drips/ copd/ severely confused pt's with not enough staff for sitters we also have a dialysis suite on the floor so we get pt's who have skiped dialysis for so long that they end up really bad off.

On the positive I LOVE the staff, almost everyone has been super supportive and the charge nurse i usually have is probably the most amazing nurse I have ever met. She is truely the reason i can go in every

night ,that and the hope that it will get better.

My unit director asked me how everything was going and when I told her that I felt overwhelmed with the number of pt's and amount of charting (computer) she told me that that this is just inexperience and i will get more organized in time??????? Is that true?????? will I ever be able to give REAL nursing with 7 or 8 pt's????

sorry to ramble, but i feel a little better just venting! thanks for letting me:)

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Specializes in Pediatrics Only.

Its both. The fact that you are so new, and the fact that nurses today have to deal with so many patients..

I cant imagine 7 or 8- I have had 6 at the most as a new grad, and that was hard! (but I did manage to get out on time!)

Just remember to be careful, it is your license now, and to ask for help if you need it.

You will get experienced and organized over time, it just takes time.

Good luck,

Meghan :nurse:

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

Nurse Betty as a fellow Floridian and a tele nurse, I can tell you that it WILL get easier--on some nights.

Some nights the stuff hits the fan and even the experienced nurses have to stay over and finish charting.

Just keep plugging away, get yourself a good system, remember your ABCs, and be persistent. You can do it!

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

PS You DO have a tech helping you, don't you? Because 7 or 8 without a tech is sheer misery for me (on the rare night that I have to work like that).

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Specializes in long term care.

It will get better.

I work on a cardiac telemetry floor and we often get very serious pnts with CHF, a-fib, confusion in restraints, etc. and many times we have 7-8 pnts per nurse on night shift. And usually supervision isn't a whole lot of help. They will call with admissions and when we voice our concerns about pnt safety because we are short staffed, their attitude is "so what, you ARE taking this pnt".

All you can do is do the best you can, chart like crazy, and cover your a**. We have also written up incident reports due to poor pnt safety.

Hang in there. With organization it does get better.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Private Duty Peds.

time will bring about organizational skills, our pt ratio can be 1: 6-9 depending on staffing and it gets scary and harry out there, remember, ask for help when you need it and get to know your resourses such as the charge nurse, nurses that have worked there and know their way both skills wise and policy wise, depend on those experienced nurses.

you'll do fine,

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THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR KIND WORDS!!!!!! I GUESS I JUST NEEDED TO KNOW THAT IT GETS BETTER .

THANKS AGAIN!:balloons:

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