med/surg help

elizabells, BSN, RN · Sep 14, 2005

Awww, sweetie, I'm so sorry about your family situation. Nursing school is hard on its own without all the "life" stuff. Do you have even a little competitive streak? I do, and something my dad said to me has helped me a lot: Hundreds of thousands of people have done this successfully. They are not better than you. I keep that in mind whenever I start to feel overwhelmed (like right now, with medsurg, pathophys, and assessing clinical evidence classes). You can do this. I promise. You can come smack me if I'm wrong, okay? :)

nayray13 · Sep 18, 2005

that was cool, it made me smile, thanks.... :)

i did the stupidest thing at work; i drew blood from an int, w/o wasting or flushing....the nurse was not mean at all....i asked the lab if you could draw blood from the int...because something was nagging at me that i had done something wrong and i did not want the test to come back wrong because of me....but when i went back (after finding out i did not waste the 1st 10 cc's) the nurse just said did you flush it, and i said no...and she said it's probably clotted off...i felt so bad, and she had had a really rough day with patients that were ready to cross over...so i felt doubly bad....i think d/t stress, lack of sleep and forgetting to take my wellbutrin for 3 days in a row, i just was emotionally teetering.....but a tear formed in my eye...and once that 1st one forms i'm gone :crying2: . i started walking down the hall away from everybody cause i did not want anyone to see me cry...but she chased me down the hall, and gave me a big hug and was like, it was ok....really great about it....but...i am soooo embarrassed about it :imbar , and i feel so stupid :imbar and unprofessional :imbar ...

i do know i will never make that same mistake again!

but i hate it when i cry, much less in front of people, especially co-workers....there is a nurse that cried about something a long time ago, and they still crack jokes about her....i just don't want people to think they have to walk on eggshells around me....or think i am stupid....is this anywhere near anything that has happened to anybody else? please tell me i will survive and people at work won't remember this next weekend when i go back to work???? i tried to make a joke out of it and said to everybody that i just had forgotten to take my crazy pills for a few days....and then i would just tear up again like a big goober. one nurse that just graduated said that i am just emotional right now, just to hang in there...it would all be fine.....i still feel embarrassed........i know i just have to suck it up and move on....just wanted to put in words i guess, my own therapy....thanks, and just send me the bill! nay

morth72 · Sep 20, 2005

hi nay!

I'm new to this site. Upon reading the ordeal you went through, I guess I can relate to you. I'm a senior RN stude here in the philippines, be finishing hopefully by Oct of 2006. I am on my med/surg clinical exposure too. I believed that the degree or extent of learning through this exposure depends on two things : your clinical instructors abilities and the hospital policy as well.

I have experienced IV insertion accidentaly to a patient in the DR because my moderator asked me to. Even if i have all the theories and knowledge, it was never an easy job. She told me to be cool and relaxed and never show to the patient that it was my first time. Well, I sure did the job, but I was really nervous! :crying2: :uhoh21:

Right now, I am more confident in doing IV insertion and follow-up.

I know you can do the same, given the chance. Good luck!

morth72

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2005

RN of 30 years here. I've worked as an IV therapist for 6 years. It's one thing to learn the principals of it and quite another to do the actual sticking. Just get in there and try it. There are many subtleties to this art of inserting IVs. No one is going to expect you to be an expert when you do your first one. Very few graduate nurses have had much experience doing procedures. That is pretty universal. Hospitals and most other employers who hire new graduates know this and make allowances for it. I look at ID bands all the time. I have seen tragedies happen because people failed to check ID bands. I daresay your instructor has also. You can only be responsible for your own behavior. You are going to see nurses who do a lot of things that aren't "by the book". It should reinforce with you the importance of doing things the way you are being taught in school. You will always learn more about a subject when you have a real live patient's symptoms to compare to what is in your textbook. So, take advantage of that. If you are given a patient with cirrhosis then read up on cirrhosis before caring for him (if possible), otherwise do it that evening when you get home. You will be expected to be able to put more things together regarding patient care. In other words, like the cirrhosis patient, you will be expected to know the pathophysiology of cirrhosis and all the various nursing care you will have to do for each of the problems a cirrhosis patient will have. As a hospital nurse you may have 6 patients to care for and all of them have some different disease process going on. So, you need to learn all these various pathophysiologies and nursing care for them while you are in school. Your care plans should be getting more detailed and individualized now. Lastly, always ask yourself "why am I doing this?" for a patient. It will help you undertand the principals of nursing. You can only put one foot in front of the other and move forward--like everyone else in your situation.