Ribbons

From your history, it seems like you have a strong commitment to nursing. That is a great motivation for success! But I am a little unclear about your situation. By being "fired twice", do you mean you were fired because you failed the NCLEX-LPN? If that is the situation, one option is to buy the ATI-VATI program for LPNs and complete it. I would recommend you earn a probability of passing the NCLEX at 95% or better on the ATI Predictor test because that almost guarantees you will pass. In any case, I suggest you consider not going for the LVN to RN route. While it is a shorter and cheaper program, it assumes you have a strong mastery of nursing fundamentals. But students in those programs do not take Fundamentals. Furthermore, NCLEX questions often rely on the test taker having a strong knowledge of Fundamentals to get the correct answer. LPN to RN students usually don't take OB or Peds either so if those are difficult areas for you, taking those courses will help you pass NCLEX. I wish you the best in your journey to being the nurse you want to be!

First and foremost you must go to HR and demand an investigation if you were not sleeping on the job. If you were, act like a professional and sign the form and resolve never to do that again. If you were not sleeping and were actually working on the computer, ask HR to have the IT dept pull the records of the entries you made on that date, showing the times you made the entries. Those entries may prove you couldn't have been sleeping because you were working on documentation. Evidence is what matters here.

Tommy, yes, even generics are pictured on the drug identification sites! Just use your cell phone, they are great!

How did I look up pill appearance? We had a PDR that had color photos of all the pills. So if it was a drug new to me, I looked it up before I administered it. Back then (this was in the 1970s) it never happened that the pill appearance changed. I don't know why, it happens all the time now, and usually the pharmacy sends a note with the new pills that the supplier changed. Of course now, I just get out my cell phone and do a drug look-up checking the color, shape, and markings on the pill.

"I am confused about an employer filing a complaint with BON" I don't know what state you are in or what their laws are, but in Kansas, the employer is required to report any med error that has a possibility of patient harm to the BON. Check your State Nurse Practice act to see if your state has the same requirement. It may be that the employer had no choice.

It is possible that the wrong drug was put in the container by the pharmacist, not the parent. When working in a hospital, I checked all the pills for correctness until I knew exactly what they should look like. A couple of times, I had to call the pharmacy and tell them that what they sent up was not the same thing as they marked on the bottle of pills. Pharmacists are human too, and they make mistakes. Part of drug safety is the nurse knowing that what we are giving is what we think we are giving. Of course we can't do anything but trust what is in an insulin bottle--but that usually comes directly from the manufacturer. The pharmacist doesn't put the insulin in the injector or vial--the factory does. If the factory put the wrong drug in a vial, the nurse couldn't be held responsible unless something was obviously wrong like the wrong color or perhaps if it was very viscous instead of thin like water. Anyway, the 5 rights do say "the right drug." But unless the name of the drug (rather than a code) is what was imprinted on the drug, this one might be difficult to argue--possibly on both sides!

I cannot imagine where they got that 6 foot distance idea. There is engineering research out there showing that without a mask, coughs/sneezes sent spray out 26 feet or so. I can find no research indicating a 6 foot distance from a person with a disease that can be droplet transmitted would be safe. I am also very disgusted that they keep saying you wear a mask to protect others, implying it won't protect you. Mask wearers do get significant amounts of protection from masks, and the amount of protection has been shown to depend a great deal on the material the mask is made of, how many layers in the mask, and especially if there is a polypropylene filter in the mask. Maybe people would be a LOT more willing to wear masks if they knew they personally got some protection against the virus from wearing the mask.

I've been nursing faculty for many years, and have worked in several schools. A lot of nursing faculty seem to have the wrong idea that OR nursing isn't really nursing. They are completely wrong of course, and I speak as a person who has had to have surgery several times for some congenital problems I was born with. So I know as a patient how important those OR nurses are. Like anywhere, there are some who are really great and very patient oriented, and others who are more task oriented. But, OR nursing is real nursing, with assessments, nursing diagnoses, and interventions and evaluations. Please follow your heart. If OR nursing is what you want, pursue it because your future patients need an excellent OR nurse. In some hospitals, OR nurses and Recovery Room nurses cross train and that can be a very interesting job too. Research the hospital and its OR before you apply, as you would for any position you seek. Best of luck to you!

I get all my vaccinations (like most nurses). My flu shots typically never cause any reaction--not even soreness at the injection site. It is funny about saline. I have taught nursing for years and some students complain a lot about how much it stings, and others say they don't even feel it. I have no idea about why people have such different experiences with the same normal saline injection.

Given this is a new infectious agent, it is impossible to know what it is going to do. The best guess is to look at how it has behaved in the recent past, and make predictions based on the assumption that it will continue to behave as it has. And we know the flu and the ordinary diseases are going to be there too. We do know that the current administration is not going to do the only thing that has so far gotten this epidemic under control elsewhere: Follow proper disease limiting procedures, such as shutting down the whole country's non-essential activities for at least a month, require the wearing of masks whenever out in public (with strong criticism of anybody not wearing a mask by everybody else that sees it--maybe even tickets and fines), stay-at-home order for non-essential jobs/activities, etc. You all know the drill. While I am sorry for the family that Herman Cain died of Covid-19, I do think that maybe that will get the attention of some of the "no maskers", assuming they don't want to get sick with it 9 days after attending a rally--and then die. We can write our mayors, governors, legislators (both state and federal) and demand that Dr. Fauci's recommendations be followed. Vote only for legislators who promise to follow proper Public Health procedures. We can and must use all precautions ourselves, especially at work. Nurses often don't want to "cause trouble" or "complain". Congressman John Lewis gave us good advice, "Get into good trouble", by which he meant fighting for that which is good and right will get you into trouble, but if we all--as nurses--don't stand up for what is right, who will? If nobody demands the powers that run this country start doing the right things, nothing will get better. Possibly, things could get much, much worse.

I don't agree that you are prepared to take an NCLEX exam. First, there is very little likelihood that you will pass it. Self study definitely won't work. I have done NCLEX passing research for the past 10 years and anyone who waits longer than 6 months after graduation to test has far less than a 20% chance of passing. So you would be wasting your money. Second, to take the NCLEX, the school you graduated from has to certify that you are a graduate of an approved nursing program, and you would have to work through them to take the NCLEX. Since as you are now, you won't pass, they might not be eager to help you test. Check Texas law. I heard they have a time limit and you must take the NCLEX within a certain time period after graduating or they won't let you take it without going back to school and starting all over. The information is not personally verified, so I honestly don't know if this is true. Second, you obviously haven't practiced nursing in the 3 years after graduating, so you are not safe to practice. You haven't done an IV start, catheterization, or any other sterile or skilled procedure since graduating, and the skills you graduate with are BEGINNING skills. Honestly, do you feel you are safe to do these skilled nursing procedures on vulnerable patients? Do you think you could recognize a subtle, but life threatening complication and know the correct nursing action to take (after all this time out of school)? Nursing carries great moral and legal accountability for competence. Are you ready to accept the consequences if you harm a patient through lack of current knowledge? Would you let somebody in your shoes take care of your own seriously ill mother or child if you got lucky and passed the NCLEX with no more knowledge/skill than you have left after 3 years away from nursing? Getting an RN to BSN is not an option. You must have your license to be admitted to a bridge BSN program. So, I recommend you consider one of several actions: Apply to a generic, pre-licensure AA or BSN program and start all over. If you have taken a bunch of college courses, you could check into getting any college degree so you could apply to a Masters Entry program. Then you will take all your nursing courses over and then when you graduate, you will be safe to start practicing nursing.

I would approach one of the nurses who has talked to you about having too strong of a personality and say something like: "I really want to improve myself so people enjoy working with me, and I would like to ask you to help me a little. Would that be OK?" When she says yes (anything else would be almost unthinkable for a nurse, but if she says "no", then ask a different person), tell her that you really aren't aware when you are coming across too strong. You need some feedback so you can understand when you are doing that, and can she tell you some instances of when you did that? Then listen carefully to the feedback, and decide if A) it seems true, and B) if it is something you want to change. You may have learned at home to communicate in ways that are not optimal for the workplace. First you must understand what you are doing that is causing this reaction, then you must decide if you want to change it. If you do want to change, asking the people you are closest to in the workplace to help you recognize what the behaviors are is a good first step. I had to change a lot of the communication style I grew up with because I lived in a family that regularly used abusive and frankly cruel ways of talking to each other. It was very hard to change, but well worth the trouble. Hopefully, you won't have as many offensive communication traits as I did, and will be able to correct whatever the issue is.

What were you actually convicted of? Here is something really important: do NOT apply to nursing school until you have got your record expunged and then wait a minimum of 3 to 6 months to apply so that all the reports can be cleared wherever they might be. Here's why: Many hospitals will not allow you into their facility for clinicals if ANYTHING shows up on your background check. Once the reporting agency finds that, they are required to reveal it to the hospitals. So if they find it before it gets taken off the police records, your goose is cooked. In fact, I advise you to find out what company most schools and hospitals in your area use for background checks, and pay a different one to do the check on yourself. If they find nothing, it is probably safe for you to apply because neither the school nor the hospitals will discover the expunged conviction. There is nothing the school can do to help you (even after you get admitted) if no hospital will allow you to do your clinicals. As a nursing school director, I've had to deal with this several times and the hospitals simply will not care about the offense being expunged. They won't let you in.

Oh my! I think you need to get out of patient care right now! You seem to have lost your ability to care, and without caring, you simply cannot be a good nurse. I have been a nurse for many years, and I have never had a "bad" or "problem" patient. The behavior of patients is part of what we assess. Then we make our nursing diagnoses. Then we come up with interventions to deal with the behavior. It seems you have lost your ability to do that, which means you cannot be a good nurse to your patients with behavioral problems. I teach a bit now, and I always explain to my students that there is no such thing as a "problem patient". There are only patient problems that nurses must address. I find that if I look at behavior as purposeful acts designed to achieve some desired outcome, then I analyze the situation and try to figure out what outcome that patient is trying to achieve. Then I try to develop nursing interventions designed to help the patient get his or her needs met without the patient becoming anxious,m angry, or disruptive. So far, I have always been able to find a way to satisfy the patient. I believe you will be able to do that too if you can change your focus from being personally offended and upset to focusing on your power and skills as a nurse to manage patient outcomes (including behavioral outcomes) through nursing interventions. By the way, this approach is good for your emotional health and well-being too. Clearly your patients' behavior is a source of great pain for you. This means you are responding socially (being hurt and angry) to your patients' problems rather than responding as the professional nurse you are. Now whenever I have an upset patient, the first thing I ask is this: Does the patient have a legitimate reason to be angry at us? Did we fail to treat the patient with respect and caring? Has the patient been in severe pain and we didn't manage it properly? If we have done (or not done) something that would anger most reasonable people, then we need to evaluate our own nursing behavior and ensure that in future, we provide care that meets the highest standards. If we have done nothing to bring about this kind of behavior, then we need to recognize that the patient has a problem, and as a professional nurse, I have been trained to deal with behavioral problems! I--and YOU--have that power to initiate my nursing expertise to deal with the problem. Try that approach, and good luck to you.

First, I have been a nurse for a long time, but I can still remember my sense of fear and upset when, as a new nurse, I thought I did something wrong that hurt a patient. Don't quit. If every new nurse who experienced a similar scenario quit, we wouldn't have any nurses. This is the sort of thing most nurses experience in their first year, so you are not alone. Besides, the patient's problems caused the RR, not you. You might have been able to prevent some of the diabetic problems, but that respiratory distress is nothing you are responsible for. As other respondents have said, take this as a learning experience. I think some key learning items here are: Feeling shaky and/or very anxious are both key signs of hypoglycemia in a diabetic. Now you know to run a glucose test if you ever see either shakiness or anxious behavior in a diabetic again again. Please "over-use" rather than under-use that glucometer. Better to know what the blood sugar is anytime you observe any change in a diabetic patient than to guess. You also learned more about dealing with respiratory symptoms in a patient. If I have to turn up oxygen for a patient twice on the same shift, I'm going to report that. Now you will too. The deal here is that you are an awesome new nurse! I'm glad you are out there, you obviously care, and you have a boatload of great nursing knowledge. Please don't beat yourself up. This kind of experience, combined with the fact you are thinking about it and learning from it, is what will make you an excellent and experienced nurse in a little while. Hang in there!