Vespertina

What kind of jerk nurse rolls their eyes when a client is in significant distress requesting a PRN? That's just terrible. But yes, it exists.. While at work, no matter how much downtime you may have and how you personally choose to spend that downtime, your job is still #1 priority always, for as long as you are on the clock. I think this should be obvious enough without mention.

Yeah, please don't listen to the snarky strangers passing judgment when they don't know what kind of life you are living and only bring negativity where it is not necessary. I'm actually planning to go back to school myself at some point, but when the time is right; I don't feel it's quite right just yet. I live alone and support myself through my work, and this is something I still intend to do as I continue schooling. Between sleep, school, commute, staying healthy, maintaining one's household, and full-time work for self-support and covering education costs, how are you expected to squeeze in adequate study time? There is a reason programs strongly advise working no more than 20 hours, which for me would not be a feasible option. If you can get away with working less hours, please do. Well anyhow, during my many per diem nursing experiences, I have had a large variety of assignments, and some places are indeed slower than others depending on the work. There are some facilities where I'm so busy scrambling around that I wouldn't dream in a million years of checking my messages let alone sit down. And then there are other assignments where I complete all my tasks from the essential to the above-and-beyond way in advance, and then still find myself with quite literally nothing to do. The latter types are with some exceptions night shifts, and have been in home care with severely handicapped non-verbal children, as well as a halfway house, and a detox facility, to give you some starting ideas. I think a hospital or SNF even during the night still has too high of a degree of focused care required to do any studying while still being responsible to your clients. Also, I'd consider agency work if I were you, to give yourself the flexibility you need to work around a school schedule. I would plan not to work the couple days before an exam, as your brain would be focused somewhere else besides care. And to ensure education success, you can also carefully monitor your budget and only work just as many hours as you need to in order to get through the program. Of all the places where it'd be the slowest, I'd say home care doing night shift while the client is sleeping could be your best bet. I used to work a full-time home care assignment the summer after my school nursing one, but I found myself going stir-crazy since it was way TOO SLOW!! I was stunned when the mother gave me her wifi password without ever bringing up the subject, along with Netflix recommendations... I was doing push-ups and sit-ups in the room from time to time, I was that restless. I prefer doing SNF work, it being a better use of my expertise and skills, but when the time comes for me to return back to school, I'm likely to take up primarily home care again. Good luck with your choices!

That is some very awful, sad news. I really wish mental health issues took greater priority in our culture, as depression can be every bit as deadly as cardiovascular disease, and can remain undetected for years. I have personally known people affected by suicide/near-suicide, and all it takes is someone having a single really dark day they're unable to make it through, it's as scary as that. There are times I even worry about my dad regarding depression, and he's been a successful business owner with a marriage of over 35 years who a lot of people would generally regard as a highly positive, charismatic and likeable person. It can affect anyone. You'd be surprised how very alone people who seem to have it all can feel, when questioned about the deeper stuff... Like they can have all these friends, but are unable to deeply relate to any of them and can get caught up in the stresses of school/work/adverse life events feeling like it's solely their burden to bear. So yes... I strongly agree with taking the time to go home and hug your children. Whenever you hear someone say, "It's nothing," or "I'm fine don't worry," push a tad harder... You never know when having just a single heart-opening conversation can literally save someone's life.

Perfectly normal... I've worked with agencies, and have been assigned to LTC facilities in the past half-year after working mostly in school and home settings. You're lucky you get a person with you, as my orientation experience has been nothing but "show up 2 hours before your first shift" and then I was set free on my own to figure things out for myself, with no background LTC experience. That sure was rough but I survived, and apparently did a good enough job to keep getting requested back. I've gotten good at filling in the blanks and thinking on my feet over time. I've worked primarily PMs and NOCs so my experience may vary from yours, but yes 30 clients per shift in LTC sounds about right. I know it's intimidating at first, but what you're mostly doing is med pass at least a couple times per shift, perhaps also combined with glucose checks and insulins depending on the shift your facility has those scheduled. There's usually a treatment nurse to handle some of the other stuff, like wound care. The CNAs will be your eyes and ears, and will do a significant part of the bedside work for you, like collecting vitals, t&r, answering call lights, etc. Just make sure your CNAs do indeed do their work, and remind them to get vitals in a timely manner if necessary! Teamwork and communication is essential, as well as organizing your time. But try not to fret too much, as it's really not nearly as scary as it sounds. They're not going to expect you to memorize the care plans of all 30 clients the first night, either... What's essential the first day is making sure the meds for everyone get passed, the treatment gets taken care of, none of the clients fall down and the charting/nursing notes get done (along with anything else that's common sense). Giving meds to each patient is usually like 30 seconds in the room each before moving on to the next one, so med passes will go by quicker than you think. After enough time spent there you will memorize all the clients sort of like a teacher gets familiar with all their students within a classroom, and things like weekly summaries become second-nature. I wish you the best of luck!!

Ohhhh hun it's baptism by fire. I'm about to be in my 2nd year as an LVN, and there are times I still wonder if I'm competent enough; I still have so much to learn (in the grand scheme of things, as I wish to further my education). Slowly but surely you will gain expertise, but each day is a learning experience in either a large way or small. It's perfectly normal to feel stupid the first day, as did I. Just remember for the sake of everyone involved, including your clients, it's better to swallow your pride and ask "stupid" questions, than it is to try faking it till you make it in terms of experience. I'd say Ruby Vee has the right approach, by researching your question as much as possible before asking it. Every nurse I have opened up to about needing to learn new skills from together has been nothing but kind and helpful to me, and not only did I gain knowledge and confidence, but it also strengthened co-worker bonds.