what do i need to know??

[pomegranate]

A couple months after licensure and some frantic job hunting I have finally landed a PRN job as a nurse in a LTC facility!!! I have had a couple shifts of 'orientation' so far--meaning, just basically following the nurses around and helping them out.

Here are my questions. I feel like my school gave me a pretty good foundation as far as skills go--I'm not afraid of wound care, passing meds, trach care, skin assessments; of course I'm not perfect, but I feel that I will settle in to those things fine so far, since I did a lot of them during school. What I DO feel unsure about is PAPERWORK! I don't understand the sum of what it is that nurses do every day--there's no to-do list that I see, so it's sort of hard for me to figure out what exactly it is that I'm going to be doing. If I show up to take a shift, am I going to be told of the things I'm supposed to accomplish that shift, or is it just "figure it out"? I figure if I look in the book and see the treatments, blood sugars, and meds, that's ok, I know what I have to do as far as that goes...but what about everything else? What IS everything else?

For example, so far I have seen that if a patient is going to dialysis, there is a sheet there's supposed to be filled out beforehand.

Is there any other kind of normal paperwork that y'all do (this is basically for LPNs/LVNs in LTC.) Other daily responsibilities?

How do you learn when to call the doctor, and why? Any tips and tricks for getting along with aides?

I'm also partially worried because state was in the building the week I was hired and apparently it didn't go so well. The administrator is on the warpath stating that he is going to clean house pretty much and get rid of people who aren't meeting his standards. I was hired as PRN, but a lot of people have been acting suspicious of me, thinking that I am lying about being PRN and going to take their job or something, therefore I don't know if I'm actually getting a good orientation due to that...and State is supposedly coming back soon, so I am worried for that. I feel like in some ways I'll be okay because I haven't had time to make bad habits, but in others...what if I get into trouble for just not knowing any better? I ask a lot of questions because I'd rather ask than assume, but the problem is that I don't know if what they're telling me to do is the right way, what I'm SUPPOSED to do or just how they happen to do it.

I want to do the right things, and I know there's a difference between school and the real world, but how do I find that balance between how things are supposed to ideally be done and how they are done realistically?