New Nurse

As a new nurse myself, I sympathize with your co-worker. I think the unit manager should have helped her. Isn't that her job after all? I always had the hardest times with admits and discharges, knowing what papers to fill out, get signed, etc. We had a "cheat sheet" that everyone had a copy of. It listed all the steps of admitting, discharging, new orders, etc. It helped me so much, instead of always having to ask someone, I would refer to my sheet. It wasn't anything fancy, just something a nurse that had been there for a long time made and copied. Maybe if you have some extra time (not likely at work, I know) you could make the new nurse a cheat sheet. I am sure she would appreciate it.

Every time I think I've heard it all, a new one comes along. When are managers going to get it through their head that new nurses (or experienced nurses who are new to a population or organization) need education and support? Instead, we are often left high and dry, and we often feel that we are in way over our heads.

Has anyone ever calculated the cost of high turnover rates? I think that it was mentioned in school, but I am not able to locate any articles online. These articles should be widely circulated to managers in all health care organizations, because sometimes the only language they understand is dollars and cents.

Kudos to you for trying to help her out. I would be happy to have you as a co-worker.

As a new nurse myself, I sympathize with your co-worker. I think the unit manager should have helped her. Isn't that her job after all? I always had the hardest times with admits and discharges, knowing what papers to fill out, get signed, etc. We had a "cheat sheet" that everyone had a copy of. It listed all the steps of admitting, discharging, new orders, etc. It helped me so much, instead of always having to ask someone, I would refer to my sheet. It wasn't anything fancy, just something a nurse that had been there for a long time made and copied. Maybe if you have some extra time (not likely at work, I know) you could make the new nurse a cheat sheet. I am sure she would appreciate it.

We have one too - some nurses have their own version of it - and I was always an avid notetaker so when something really rare/unusual came up I'd have it in my little book hopefully. I always given new RN's a copy of the forms I use for patient care and also the admission cheat sheet. If need be (we would never have a nurse alone) I'd fill out an index card with other instructions.

I missed where you work -would there be a nursing supervisor she could call or another floor? No new RN should be left alone like that - very unsafe practice. Your mgr wasn't doing anyone any favors.

It's nice to hear a nurse say they want to stay and help! However, I don't understand how the facility can let a nurse start working on their own if they don't know how to do certain things, especially admissions. Sooner or later, that nurse will have to know how to do them. If that were me, I would have insisted that someone stay and just make sure I did it correctly. I've seen admissions done wrong, where the body assessment wasn't even filled out, and the facility became responsible for wounds that were acquired prior to admission. That's a dangerous game for the facility to play!

The new nurse should not do anything she can't do or isn't comfortable doing and should ask for help advocating for herself.

How long is orientation there? After 10 days she's on her own and obviously hasn't been taught everything? Sounds like they are going to lose a nurse soon.

I was so glad to see her when I walked in the other day. I asked her how it went, and told her I was glad to see her and had been thinking about her. She told me one of the other nurses off another unit came and helped her. The nurse that came to help is wonderful. She has only been out of school for six months herself and she has been left in terrible messes. I really respect her for helping instead of doing what has been done to her. Regarding orientation, apparently while she orientated there were no admission thus she wasn't orientated on admissions. We do have a cheet sheet for admissions, but heck no one had even showed this gal where to find the doctors phone numbers. Who ever trained her did a terrible job to put it nicely.