WickerRN

When it’s almost change of shift and you need to give an IV med and the IV goes bad. When you take a look at the upcoming shift assignment and you were assigned to give report to the nurse who will ask you 100’s of questions even though they already know the answer because they’ll tell you “actually when I was looking up the pt their sugar was 157 not 151) and make you stay longer than needed. The same nurse who will complain why so so and so wasn’t done, yet when they arnt able to finish things on their shift they expect not to hear a peep from you.

I agree it’s not the norm country wide. However, I think acute care nurses in California has a lot to do with perception that nurses are making 100k+ a year. In CA, it is def. the norm.

I work days. I don’t work out when I’m working. However, occasionally I will work out after a shift when I know I’m not working the next day.

As an RN, I do not think an LVN is any higher than I am. A nurse is a nurse. I am hoping that LVN's can start coming back to acute care hospitals. There is a NEED and space for LVN's in acute care settingw in my opinion.

Hi everyone I fee like I am burning out. I work on a med-surg/psych floor that is know in the hospital as a dumping ground. To give you an example, whenever we get a float in my unit, the floats will always say things like “how can you work in this unit” “this unit is so heavy” or when I float they will tell me when I’m in their unit “this must be like paradise for you”. Unfortunately, this is the only unit I have ever worked in (can’t compare) in 8 months that I have a been a working RN on DAY shift. Recently, the hospital had leadership changes at the very top and ever since then we went from 1:4 nurse to patient ratio to now 1:5 nurse to patient ratio. The types of patients we get are total care, psych, or both. The acuity is very high , we are a top hospital with high census everyday and we have patients that should be in PCU but cannot be transferred because there are no beds. Since the change, my typical day is with 5 patients and average 2-3 discharges and admitting 2-3 patients a day. On my unit if you discharge someone you will also be admitting one. There’s this push now to discharges patients before 10am (in the middle of med pass and assessment). Another thing that’s been added on for us is that we to do nebulizer treatments like dunoeb which can take time. We have CNAs but they also had an increase in ratio and honestly some of them are not very helpful and are just on their phone even though I delegate tasks they can take their time. Some are great, even with the great CNA’s it’s still an awful unit. We have no break relief nurse so I’m always working on my lunch. My manager knows that it’s been crazy in the unit so she buys us food to make up for it and everyone sees right through it. I’ve received warnings for staying past my shift with overtime and have been told I need better management skills if I am going over my regular shift. Even nurses who have been in the unit for decades have been complaining. Another thing I do not like is that I am given the hard patients, I once heard the charge nurse who made the assignment say “well at least I didn’t give you Jane Does assignment that’s a hard one” or a new grad friend of mine telling me she had someone in my unit float to them and she asked her how I was doing and she said something along the lines “she’s doing great, but I notice they give her all the bad patients because shes good with people and doesn’t complain.” It’s true, I suck it up and just do it. However, it has taken its toll on me. I do not even want to bring this up to my manager because I know it’s not going to get anywhere because the charge and my manager are close friends. Plus, this has put a bad taste in my mouth. My one year is coming up and I would like to move on to a different hospital altogether, but I am on a 2 year contract. Is it worth breaking the contract for the sake of my mental health? I hate going to work and hating nursing all together. I know I am a great nurse and have received compliments from my patients even my manager keeps telling me to make sure I don’t go anywhere and stick the unit out for 3-4 years before going anywhere else. I don’t think I can. Sorry for the wrong rant, but hoping others were in similar shoes and the grass was greener.

I have been in my new grad program here in NYC for about 3 months (since April). During my time in the program, on 2 occasions miscounted controlled substances (ativan and PO norco) on the Pyxsis causing discrepancies. These were both quickly alleviated (within 10 min) when I informed my charge or preceptor of the miscount and they quickly did an inventory on the pyxsis and the discrepancy went away once the actual count was made. No meds were lost and all meds were accounted for quickly. My manager has been on me each time these incidences occurred telling me im on probation and these occurrences wil look really bad on my evaluation. Also, each time I had to write an incident report as to why the discrepancy was made. These were honest miscounts. I know I should slow down, but I get really anxious at times when i'm in the med room and 3-4 nurses are waiting for me so they can get on the pyxsis. Now i'm recounting all the meds at least 3 times to make sure I get the right count. However, I am really worried about what my manager told me regarding my evaluation. I really don't know how I can redeem myself to my manager for making these mistakes.