just a LPN and new

Nurses New Nurse

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I graudated in June of '06 got my license at the end of august, worked in a subacute rehab hospital. Left that because of the hours for a job in an urgent care. I'm learning tons, tons more than the subacute/ltc job. The only bad thing is the dr's sometimes forget that I"m brandnew in their world. If they want to discuss decubs and labs that are out of whack I'm here for you. The whole new nurse in a subacute/er phase I feel stupid, and they don't help me. I was never trained in xray, and yet now that I'm trying to learn chest xrays because I haven't gotten it, and the Dr had to show me how to do it and got pissy, I've been shown to be "stupid". I'm not all that great at IV's. Lets think about it, who in LPN school was taught how to insert IV's much. I've done a few at my previous job, but I do it on quite a few people that are dehydrated. I've had a couple of pts in the last two days that have come in with full on allergic reactions from medicine to bee stings. I got the weird look when I brought the dr a filter needle to go with the glass vial of epi. thats not it, I've learned so much about why things are done, my primary physician who owns the urgent care on a good day will grill me on why things are happening and why he's doing certain things. On a bad day, he will let me know that I'm a complete idiot who doesn't deserve to be paid for just "checking in" patients."The only bad thing is, there are people in the office that have his ear as well as the office manager's ear. They are not nurses, but MA's and know their job because they have been doing it for years, but they find everything they can to tear the two new LPN's down. How do we combat this. We love learning about all the things that are acute that we wouldn't in LTC but how do we deal with ev erything else? We are constantly reminded that they think we are stupid and the MA's say they are real nurses, and present themselves to others over the phone as such...because of their experience. Lord knows, I can learn alot from them on the technical aspect, but I'm scared to throw out whjy things are done infront of them and the dr because I'll face the backstabbing.

There is one Dr, if anyone ever has a chance to work with her, you would be lucky. She trained in NC and is a petit asian woman witha son younger than 12 months. "Thats all I"ve got to say to that, walls have ears :)

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Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.
I graudated in June of '06 got my license at the end of august, worked in a subacute rehab hospital. Left that because of the hours for a job in an urgent care. I'm learning tons, tons more than the subacute/ltc job. The only bad thing is the dr's sometimes forget that I"m brandnew in their world. If they want to discuss decubs and labs that are out of whack I'm here for you. The whole new nurse in a subacute/er phase I feel stupid, and they don't help me. I was never trained in xray, and yet now that I'm trying to learn chest xrays because I haven't gotten it, and the Dr had to show me how to do it and got pissy, I've been shown to be "stupid". I'm not all that great at IV's. Lets think about it, who in LPN school was taught how to insert IV's much. I've done a few at my previous job, but I do it on quite a few people that are dehydrated. I've had a couple of pts in the last two days that have come in with full on allergic reactions from medicine to bee stings. I got the weird look when I brought the dr a filter needle to go with the glass vial of epi. thats not it, I've learned so much about why things are done, my primary physician who owns the urgent care on a good day will grill me on why things are happening and why he's doing certain things. On a bad day, he will let me know that I'm a complete idiot who doesn't deserve to be paid for just "checking in" patients."The only bad thing is, there are people in the office that have his ear as well as the office manager's ear. They are not nurses, but MA's and know their job because they have been doing it for years, but they find everything they can to tear the two new LPN's down. How do we combat this. We love learning about all the things that are acute that we wouldn't in LTC but how do we deal with ev erything else? We are constantly reminded that they think we are stupid and the MA's say they are real nurses, and present themselves to others over the phone as such...because of their experience. Lord knows, I can learn alot from them on the technical aspect, but I'm scared to throw out whjy things are done infront of them and the dr because I'll face the backstabbing.

There is one Dr, if anyone ever has a chance to work with her, you would be lucky. She trained in NC and is a petit asian woman witha son younger than 12 months. "Thats all I"ve got to say to that, walls have ears :)

I worked as an MA at an Urgent Care such as the one you described while in nursing school.

I had decided very early on that it was NOT the place I wanted to work as an LPN. Don't get me wrong... I did brush up on a lot of very rusty skills there, but just the whole nature of the practice was all wrong for a conscientious nurse.

The chief Dr. expected us to be "super nurse" one day, and then the next would slap us down for showing the slightest initiative or judgment.

To heck with it... a med/surg floor is a far better training ground for a new nurse than an Urgent Care.

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I was unaware LPN's who have not worked a year could put in IVs? Unless the law is different where you live, I suggest you quit practicing that, or you could be in troouble!

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Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.
I was unaware LPN's who have not worked a year could put in IVs? Unless the law is different where you live, I suggest you quit practicing that, or you could be in troouble!

Depends on what state you live in. It surprises people to learn this, but in Georgia, there is NO stated Scope of Practice for LPNs. Basically, this is left for the facility or practice you work for to determine. At my hospital, LPNs do everything RNs do except admission assessments (LPNs do "gather data" for this assessment), and careplans. From time to time, it is also discussed to only allow RNs to do blood transfusions, but that usually falls with the first hectic shift.

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