CRC12

Did you end up taking the pharmacology class at Berkeley extension?

I hope you are right.

Another reason why I think they won’t delay anymore is because in mid August there is a big AANA conference in Chicago that most schools participate in. I think they will wrap it up by July 1 to plan for this conference.

In my lab only RNs can give sedation. RNs are trained to do everything (scrub, circulate, monitor). RCIS, RT only scrub and monitor. If I am in the room with two techs, I circulate only because I am the only one who can give sedation. I prefer all RNs in the room because we can rotate our roles and variety keeps it interesting and fair.

Congrats! ? So much better than bedside

Good luck! I hope you get it. Keep me posted!

I work in Cath Lab as an RN. All RNs have ICU/CCU or ER experience, except one nurse who came from step down unit. She said that the learning curve was very steep, but she is very good now. The only issue I see with her is that when a really sick patient comes in (intubated, unstable, on multiple drips), she “avoids” circulating or picking up the patient from ER or ICU. It shows she is uncomfortable, and doesn’t really know how to suction the intubated patient or titrate the drips or give hand off report to ICU nurse. I am new in the lab and every time I work with her, it is happening. She is great at scrubbing and doing outpatient cases, though. So yes, it is possible and she is a strong team member. When we do super sick patients, I take over the ICU stuff like mixing and hanging drips, etc, and she helps with throwing supplies on the table as she knows all the wires and catheters. So it works out. I like working with her more than with other experienced ICU nurses. It all depends on how you carry yourself and make up for lack of ICU experience.

NedRN, Thank you so much for your responses. It feels very therapeutic to read them. Honestly, I feel that 6-9 months of orientation is more appropriate for such a high skill. I learned the basics of scrubbing but the skills are not automated yet after 1 month. I still have to think before I do them. In the end, it is all muscle memory and practice, and I am just not there yet. My leaders have a full belief that I have a great potential in Cath Lab, but I do not know if they are just being nice to me. If anybody else is working in Cath Lab, please share how your orientation was. I know it is very individual, but I would love to hear how other facilities do it. I do tend to believe that they are advancing everybody too fast. In my first week, I was already standing next to the doctor without any idea of what we are doing. I am learning how to do things without knowing why we are doing it. I have to come home and Google what the hell we just did today.

NedRN, Thank you so much for your comment. Well, before this comment was made, he actually raised his voice at me during the call. This comment was made to me in my director’s office after I told her that he mistreated me. He refused to talk to me one on one, so my director was involved. That’s not the point though. I really wonder if my length of orientation is too short and they are advancing me too fast.

Hi everyone, I am an RN with 5 years of experience in critical care (ICU and CCU). I just recently got a job in Interventional Cath Lab at Level 1 trauma hospital. It’s a very busy lab. I am currently in orientation. They give us 1 month in scrubbing, 1 month in circulating, and 1 month in monitoring. I finished my scrubbing orientation, and I was started on “buddy call” after 1.5 months in the lab. I am still in orientation and I am learning to circulate, but during calls I only scrub. The other day one of the doctors told me that they are advancing me too fast, and I am doing a good job for such a short period of time but still it’s way too soon to start scrubbing during calls and that I am slowing him down during calls. I didn’t do anything unsafe during scrubbing like pulling the wire or anything. I am just not fast. I spoke to my leader and she said that everybody starts buddy call after 1.5 months. She said that it was the best way to learn by doing it. I wonder what other labs do as far as length of orientation. Please please help and share. I love the job but I wonder if I am being set up for failure.

I wish you all good luck too. I hope I won't become what some of you predict me to become. I may or may not, but for now I am just so excited to be a new nurse. Everything is very new and nothing is boring. I wake up and I am excited to go to work and learn and achieve success in nursing. I finally found what I love to do and could not be happier that it also pays the bills.

I also agree that I don't look at busy work as stressful situations. Some nurses gripe about how they have an incontinent patient that they have to clean every hour, or they have so many finger stick glucose checks, or pain meds every 2 hours. To me, the true stress is code blue or when pt is deteriorating badly and quickly. Everything else is just busy work, and I don't mind it. I stay on my feet for all 12 hours and chart in real time so I don't have to worry about it later when true emergency happens. I love my patients, and like doing things for them. Griping is just unprofessional, and it doesn't help to do the job.

I talked to my preceptor today, and she was very happy to hear I wanted her to back off a little. I asked her questions throughout the day, but organized the day my own way. It went great! I had a full load: one pt on dopamine drip, other on heparin, and other two CHFs who needed diuresis. Everything went well until one went into respiratory distress. Called doctor, got new orders and labs. Then the day was pretty uneventful and smooth. I loved it so much! I still had a lot of technical questions such as where to chart drip rate change, consents etc. But I could breathe free today. She let me make a decision to call a doc and talk to him without interfering and it went well. I am just happy that she allowed me to finally be a nurse.

I got lots of good advice and heard things that could happen I could not imagine. Thank you for helping me figure this whole preceptor thing out. I truly want to be a good nurse, the one who is vigilant and takes good care of my patients. I just need to have a talk with my preceptor and ask her to let me do simple things myself so I can learn, instead of doing it all for me and treat me like a child.

You are right. I don't get patients who are unstable. I am mostly admitting and discharging patients at this point. Newly admitted patients are a bit hectic to handle as many new orders are due STAT. But discharging has been super easy so far. The turnover on our floor is high. Sometimes I discharge all 4 of my patients and then admit 2-3 back to back. That can be hectic and a lot of tedious work but I like it so far. May be if I got a "near critical patient", I would not have felt that everything is this straightforward.

May be it was too much to say that I don't need my preceptor's help. Rather I need her, just need her to back off a little and help only when I am truly drowning. Good point! Thanks.

Thank you! You are right. I just need to show initiative and seek for new challenges from my preceptor.

Thank you all for replies! There are many things I still don't know, but I can ask just about any nurse on the floor if I have a quick question. Sometimes seasoned nurses ask questions which I overhear and know the answer to. So everybody has questions (young or old), but this doesn't mean everybody needs a preceptor. But I am definitely going to take your advice and stay on orientation for 12 allowed weeks.

Hi, I am a new grad and it's my third week on a busy tele floor. Here is the thing. I feel as though I don't need a preceptor anymore and feel I am ready to be on my own. Every day when I come to work I think things would have been easier for me if I could organize my day without anybody telling me what we need to do next or do it my preceptor's way. I feel confident talking to doctors and monitoring my patients. I have caught things before the patient deteriorated badly. But now I have a question. Am I being too confident? Am I missing something? I feel as though all new grads should feel overwhelmed and need preceptor's help. I just don't want to be one of those new grads who felt too confident and made a huge mistake because they thought they were ready too early and didn't need help.

I passed! VABON posted my results on Monday at 9@. Pearson trick worked for me immediately and after 24 and 48 hrs

I am from Virginia. Just wanted to share my timeline: Graduated: 12/15/2016 Got my ATT: 01/11/17 NCLEX RN: 02/03/17 at 8@, shut at 75 at 9:20@ PVT: 02/03/17 at 10@ = good pop up (still going crazy though until official results) What I did to study: - Notes from nursing school (review by systems) - UWorld 2-months subscription. Finished the whole bank with 61% and went up to 71% after doing all incorrect. Self-assessment test was 68%. It was the hardest test of my life. The content was something that is taught in every nursing med-surg book, and it was very random. To tell you the truth, it's all about knowledge. If you have a strong knowledge foundation, you will find this test easy. Well, I felt I did horrible because I felt like I studied this information too long ago. I was thinking to myself during the test, "we covered this in 2nd semester, and that in 3rd semester" but I just felt like I didn't remember the details to feel confident to answer the questions. On top, there were diseases we didn't cover in nursing school. Taking the test on Friday was a big mistake as we don't have quick results in VA and board is closed on a weekend. So this waiting game is just killing me. On a positive note, it's done! I will keep you posted when I know the official results. Good luck to everyone who has taken or about to take the test!