autumn_blue

No, I'm not. I've only been a nurse for a little less than a year, but when I first started, I was sleeping terribly and having work dreams all night that blended with reality in weird ways ... I would half-wake next to my boyfriend and worry about whether anyone had turned and repositioned him recently and I'd panic realizing I was sleeping and no one was taking care of my patients or doing the med pass I was dreaming about. Eventually my brain learned to separate the times I AM responsible for the well-being of four to five different people from the times I am NOT ... sort of. I do make mistakes at work, partly because I'm overwhelmed and new and partly because I am so tired and burned out. I obviously care about not letting patients get hurt, but beyond that, I care way more about not being held culpable for any particular mistake than not making the mistake in the first place -- everyone makes mistakes, but I'm afraid that from my manager's point of view I make too many (2-3 she knows about in my year on the unit) and I am worried that I'm not a good nurse. Yesterday my patient fell, and I'm worried that I could have prevented it, but she wasn't hurt at all and we are pretty sure a med caused it and won't give that med anymore so my worry has shifted to myself. The paperwork when someone falls is overwhelming at my facility, over an hour of redundant documentation. We are bipeds! We fall down! I didn't sleep well last night and I won't sleep well tonight because I am worried I didn't do enough fall paperwork and my APSM will be mad at me. I don't really know why I care if she is. Sorry to vent, I guess this is only tangentially related, but long story short, it's my day off and usually I leave work at work but clearly not today ...

Went to give an expensive antibiotic, accidentally grabbed a 100ml bag of NS the other day instead of a 50ml bag. Replaced it, but was thinking ... this particular patient needs more fluids, not less (kidney patient). Would it actually hurt them to run an abx at 100ml/hour over an hour vs 100ml/hr over 30 minutes and give them 50 more ml of NS? I'm thinking it would have been fine.

Hey, that's great to know! I won't be graduating until August/certified in September. Do you happen to know if they will be doing another round in the Summer? Also, how did you decide on your unit choices? Please feel free to PM.

I have found a couple threads talking about Baystate in Springfield MA but they're more than 10 years old. Does anyone work at Baystate now who could tell me the stuff the recruiters may not, like which medsurg units are the most functional and best landing for a new grad RN? I am interested in applying there, but I'm not in the area yet so I don't have the kind of informal connections that could help me figure it out. (PS if I'm mistaken and I could actually ask a recruiter about this, I'd really appreciate some tips on what exactly to ask and how to word the question to be polite!)

Hey, it looks like this hasn't gotten replies in a while. Unfortunately I'm still a student so I can't offer any good advice, but I can say I empathize with you, I'm glad you have another job while you figure out where/how to get back into hospital work, and I wish you the best!

Wow, there's so much to unpack in this thread but I just wanted to pop in to say that being the only black person somewhere and being the only white person somewhere are NOT the same thing. (I'm white, btw.) It might feel uncomfortable to be the only white person for various reasons, but the history of racism and all the structures built and maintained to support racism just don't affect white people the same way they affect black people. I won't go into the more traumatic, graphic illustrations of that history because the black people reading this thread don't need to encounter that casually, but don't forget about the 750,000 white people who fought AGAINST freeing the slaves. Where in this nation's history did 750,000 black people all get together and decide whites deserved to be treated worse than cattle, and then fight and die for that? Hmm? And it's not just history. Generations of discrimination are alive and well today. It's just different. Don't conflate the two.

I try not to check this thread too often but I do every once in a while and it's good to know we're all in the same anxious, rickety boat! I wish they'd hurry up, but thanks for posting, everyone!

Ok, that's valuable info, thanks! I'm glad it's not like a first BA that way, although I do wish there were some kind of guide to culture, etc. like there is for BA-offering institutions. And a comprehensive, apples-to-apples cost guide would be amazing ...

Hi, sorry if this has been discussed before; a search didn't come up with anything. I just got interested in nursing and my primary consideration about my ABSN has of course been cost. I'm also wondering -- does selectivity matter, or is it all about the credential? Does networking effectiveness vary from school to school? Although of course I'm concerned about how I'll do on the NCLEX, I personally feel like that'll have less to do with school selectivity and more to do with the resources I devote to learning and studying, so I'm mostly asking about how the school name will look on my resume. Thoughts?