New grad nervs!

[Elisa_rn17]

Hello fellow nurses!!

I am happy to announce that this past January I became an RN! I am about to start my first med-surg RN job and I am excited yet nervous! Just need some advice/tips on how I should organize my self or what to do right away in the morning and how a med-surg RN should organize her self. Like should I do my assessments and VS on each patient before I pass meds that would be great but not very feasible. Should I just peek in inteoduce do VS and then start passing meds and afterwards assments or what? I mean come on we are always getting interrupted and I have not found a routine for me to follow unfortunately...P.S there will be no nuse tech PCAs or anyone to help assist me accept my other fellow nurses. Thank you in advance!

[bugya90, ASN, BSN, LVN, RN]

I do my assessments throughout the shift. When doing vitals I try to listen to at least 2 of my patient heart/lungs, then do 2-3 more during med pass, then the last 1-2 sometime later in the morning.

I do the skin assessments as I'm going through the day and giving baths or toileting patients or if I have to do any dressing changes I'll do this right after lunch.

Normally there is a bit of a lull mid afternoon before dinner trays come and that is when I chart most of my stuff. I chart random things throughout the day but do the bulk durzing that down time.

[sammi2006, ADN, BSN, RN]

Congrats on getting your first job! Here is how I start my shift. The facility I work at does bedside report- so I introduce myself to my patient and get a look at them while getting report. After report I look at each persons labs and write down pertinent ones, write down who is an accu-check, and write down med times. Then I go do assessments. When I go to do my last assessment, I pull their meds. Then give meds to the rest of my pts. I try to chart as I go along. When I was working nights I would do my wound care either right after 2100 med pass or right before 0600 med pass. No one wants to be woken up for that. When I was working days it depended on what that patient had going on and when.

Most of the time we don't have techs either, so we help each other out with transfering/repositioning pts. Its all about that teamwork :)