nursegup

Thank you for your advice! I talked to the staffing coordinator (DON still too busy to talk) and was able to get the same area for the rest of this month! I stayed over after clocking out one shift and organized the med cart. It made my life so much easier the next day. I still feel lost most of the time esp when it comes to paperwork. I'm hoping I can last a year.

So I'm a new grad lpn in Nevada who got hired at a snf for PM shift. The facility only gave 3 days of on-the-floor orientation before putting you to work on the floor alone (That's the norm around here, i heard). At the end of my orientation i wasn't 100% confident but i thought i could handle working the PM shift with the patients i oriented with (I was able to memorize the med cart, and the pt routines) plus i was told there would always be a supervisor available for help (there was a supervisor those 3 days). My first day alone, i was given a different shift than i was trained and had signed up for, in a different part of the facility (with different staff and no supervisors for help in sight) than i had been for orientation. As a new grad, this completely threw me off! My first medpass was chaos! I had no familiarity with the med cart on that floor (it was a mess with no organization ie meds were not in chronological order by room or meds belonging to the same person were in random locations in the cart), some of the house supply bottles had been open for over 2 months, missing meds which had not been reordered, empty inhalers just thrown back into the cart, a central supply room with all the house meds in random cardboard boxes with no label or any attempt at organization (one box had 2 bottles of aspirin, a bottle of multivitamins and some bottles of loperamide), etc... On top of the embarrassingly long medpass in the morning due to all of the obstacles while trying to locate anything, I had to figure out how to use the gtube machines for 3 pts who were on feeds (no one to help and there weren't any pts on the machines on the side i oriented), I had to do weekly summaries on pts i had seen for the first time that day, treatments, charting and run around getting stuff for pts because the CNAs go missing. I was there for 12 hours with no break, not even 2 minutes for the bathroom. On top of that, i got written up for unscheduled overtime and not clocking out for lunch! I feel incompetent and beaten. I've worked 5 days on the floor and i get moved to different areas in the facility everyday. I've had to learn new pts and new med carts everyday so far. I tried talking to the DON in person (always too busy to talk) and no replies to phone calls or messages. I don't think i can handle this anymore! I am ready to quit! Everyone is telling me to wait until i get another job to leave, but i am not comfortable going back! I've cried everyday since the first day. I knew working as a lpn would be hard (I was a CNA before i started school) but i wasn't expecting this. How bad would it be if i quit over the phone and email her (DON) with CC to DSD and HR?

It seemed like everyone was talking about this when i was in school. But i've only know a few that have actually gone on to pursue it. It becomes harder when student loans, bills and family obligations come into play after graduation. For those that do it, I think its wonderful when it doesn't come at the expense of losing the basic skills.