nurse54361

Hello again everyone! A pre-thank you to all that reply. I am just questioning my nursing judgment lately and haven’t been having a lot of confidence in my judgment calls. This recent one though has me questioning if it was another nurse who was taking care of the patient, would they have caught it sooner? Anyways, I had a patient post CABG who was very stable throughout the night. Vitals were great, HR in NSR. She was doing good and on her way home the next day. When I got report on her, the day nurse told me she had a headache during the day so they got PRN Tylenol which seemed to relieve her headache. Around 2 am she called me in and said she was having an 8/10 headache. I thought it was pretty high and she had a history of a stoke so I took her vitals, they were normal and then gave her the Tylenol. Around 4 I checked back in with her to do my last assessment of the night and to see how her headache was. She said her headache was relieved and I did a full head to toe and checked her sites and vitals. No change from earlier in the shift. She calls me in again around 5 in the morning and complains of pins and needles at the top of her head and I noticed slurred speech. I did a quick neuro check and she had obvious left sided deficits. So I called a code stroke. They did a whole work up and she was negative for a brain bleed, they were just thinking a TIA. The thing I’m questioning myself on is the headache. Should I have been more worried, even though she reported it relived with Tylenol and vitals were stable? Thanks for any input honestly I’m just trying to learn because I’ve been questioning my judgement a lot recently and I feel like I should be more confident since I’ve been a nurse for 2 years. Thanks again ?

Hey everyone! I have been workin on a Ortho med/surg unit for almost 2 years now and am looking for a change sometime soon. I’ve noticed that one of the things I love to do in nursing is wound care. I love seeing all the different wounds and am very particular about my dressings. If I have wound care to do that night for a patient I’ll carve out time in the shift that way I can make sure my dressing are done properly and look good. Anyways, I think I would like to get my wound care license but I have a couple questions. I’ve seen similar threads to this but not one that answered some specific questions I have. Anyways; 1. I heard there are 2 wound care certification that you need to get if you want to work in a hospital setting. Is that true? And if so which ones are they? 2. any recommendations on schools? 3. Do you have to work in a wound care clinic for a certain amount of time before you work in a hospital setting? And for further down the road I think I’d like to work in a Burn unit, and I think that having experience in wound care and having those certifications will help. I don’t have any critical care experience though and I know Burn units are specialized and are in the ICU. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for how I can go about getting to this career path? If I work as a wound care nurse should I also keep a part time job in a hospital setting so that I don’t loose my skills when I want to apply for a Burn unit? And if I do need critical care experience to work in the Burn unit, does it have to be ICU or ED or can it be in an IMCU/PCU? Honesty any input would be super helpful and I appreciate anyone who takes the time to respond. Thank you:)

Hello! A 3.5 GPA in amazing, especially for nursing pre-recaps. I graduated from Linfield Spring of 2019 so I am not sure how applicable the GPA they required then is today. But the minimal GPA was a 3.0 in nursing pre-req classes. Those are your Chemistry/Bio, Microbiology, Stats, Anatomy and physiology and nutrition. They have a nursing GPA calculator on their website to help you figure that out. Back when I went there, I don’t know if it’s the same now, but it was very competitive to get in the program as a transfer student because they take all of their student first but if they have space available or someone drops out then they take a couple transfers. I think I had maybe 5-8 (maybe more?) transfers in my class. But it looks really good that you have CNA experience, that’s not only going to benefit you in applying to a nursing program but also in your future career as a nurse! To answer your question, no they do not count the previous grade you had in Chemistry before you repeat it. I know tons of nurses who went into the program after repeating a couple of courses. Some of them did amazing in nursing school and some of them struggled and ended up not completing the program, it depends on your work ethic and honestly your ability to do self care and focus on your mental health because nursing school is very challenging! Double majoring though in Spanish is going to benefit you so much as a nurse and it’s something I wish I would have done! here are the GPA calculator and requirement Links: https://www.linfield.edu/admission/nursing-admission/BSN-admission/BSN-admission-reqs.html here is the credit transfer links https://www.linfield.edu/admission/nursing-admission/transfer-course-guides.html if you have any questions about the program or anything feel free to private message me! I’m happy to answer any questions ?

Thank you everyone so much for your kind words and support. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read and reread each of your responses. I have an appointment with my therapist and asked my manger if we do a postmortem review, still feeling like I need to talk through the case medically. I truly appreciate each and everyone of you who took the time to respond. I really needed some guidance from more experienced nurses. Thank you for all that you do

Hello everyone. I have been a nurse for one year and last night I had my first patient death. I should have recognized the symptoms they were textbook for hypovolemic shock, but I didn't. Her death is my fault and I should have recognized her deteriorating status sooner. I could go into the specifics, do a full SBAR, but at the end of the day it boils down to my inability to respond quickly and page the MD and do a further workup to see what's going on. The purpose of this post is to ask how do you continue to be a nurse after this? How do I trust my own judgment and have faith that I will recognize other symptoms again? I consulted my charge nurse and talked to him about the patient's deteriorating condition, I even paged the night before detailing the patient's symptoms but those test were negative. Long story short I was thinking SBO when in reality she probably had a GI bleed and went into shock. I haven't been able to stop crying since my last shift and I feel like I failed my sweet patient who was just there for an elective surgery. Anyways, I am questioning my abilities as a nurse and even though I love nursing and my patients I am terrified I will hurt someone again. Maybe I am not smart enough to be a nurse

Thank you for the kind words, that really helps!

Hi! Unfortunately, I did not know about that residency program until it already closed . Thank you though!

Hey Everyone! So, I am feeling a little stressed right now and confused. I recently graduated at the end of May with my BSN and I am scheduled to take my NCLEX on July 10th. I have applied to literally every nurse residency program in Oregon. I have gotten interviews with five out of the ten places I have applied to and have received emails back from every place that they decided to go with other candidates. I feel like I do really well in the interviews and for a couple of the places the conversation even flows naturally and outside of the interview topic questions, which I am told is usually a good sign. I also follow up with the nurse managers and recruiters thanking them for their time and stating how I look forward to hearing from them. Unfortunately, as I stated, every place I interviewed for are going with other candidates. I thought that maybe I was doing something wrong so I started to ask for feedback from the managers on what I could improve on, or maybe the reasons why they chose to go with another person. They all replied by saying that I was a "strong" candidate but that they went with people who have had their clinicals on their units or have worked for their organization. I have also been looking at non-residency positions but every place wants at least one year of acute care experience. I am feeling a little stuck and discouraged and wondering if anyone has any advice on what direction I should be heading in next? I have been looking at Washington State too but their residency programs are all closed. Sorry, this is so long. I think the stress of not having a job lined up yet, and also studying for the NCLEX, is starting to take its toll on me. Especially when my friends all have jobs. Thank you to anyone who responds, I really appreciate it!