curlnbe

Hi @pinkdoves I am very sorry to hear that you have been having rough time at work. I still remember how overwhelming life was during orientation and first 6 months working on my own. I also understand where you are coming from: you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself because this is your first job and you want to prove to everyone and to yourself that you are perfect. You are doing the right thing reaching out and telling us how you feel but if that's not enough, please, PM me and we can talk some more. Every new grad I have worked with had anxieties similar to yours. There are also anonymous support lines you are call to talk about how you feel and hospitals usually have peer support phone line as well. You do not have to wait until 1 year mark to start looking at your options. If you want to continue working with children, you could consider pediatric home health care. It usually involves one-on-one work and a lot of teaching/moral support for the child and for the parents. I think you would enjoy having more time to spend with your patients and not having the pressure of working on a high-paced inpatient unit. My mom has been working in home health doing infusions for adults for the past 4 years and she loves it, she swears she will never work in a hospital again. Going back to your perception of your performance on the unit: 1) Have you had any performance reviews with your manager/preceptor where you have been told that you are not performing up to standard? The reason I am saying that is because, you are right, " there is always something else to be done" but as others said, you can't be in two places at the same time. If the only person that's making you feel that you are inadequate in your response time is the unit clerk, you should have discussion with that person and talk about your expectations for professional behaviour. You should also get comfortable delegating to your CNAs or resource nurses. For example, if the clerk calls you and you are in the middle of something, tell her to call whomever is appropriate and ask to see your patient while you are busy. In the past, I had an issue with my unit clerk where she would not talk to the patients when their call light goes off but instead call me and tell me to go see patient. Since she didn't talk to them, she couldn't tell me what they needed. After many shifts where I was interrupted from my work simply to take patient to the bathroom or to fix their TV, I had a serious conversation with her about her responsibilities and our work together has improved dramatically. 2) Do not worry about your former co-workers. They might have been talking about a million other things that do not involve you in any way. Or they could have been talking about you...So what. As a nurse, you'll be dealing with a lot of different people and you can't please them all. Unless their conversations lead to actual problems on the unit for you, ignore it. I know it is hard to do and unfortunately, our mind often plays dirty tricks on us but in reality, other people spend way less time thinking about us that we think they do. 3) If you are working 12 hour shifts, like many of us, for those 3 days of the week (4 if you are working nights) it will always be wake up-work-eat-sleep -repeat cycle. On bright side, you get to be off 3-4 days in a row every single week. There are many people who would gladly jump on this kind of schedule. Like others said, you need to take care of yourself, take your break and eat your meal uninterrupted. While you do that, plan what you'll be doing for your mini-vacation during your days off. 4) Parents can be toxic sometimes. It is sad but they know all our buttons because they are usually the ones who planted them. I don't know enough about your relationship with her to suggest anything of value and I am sorry for that. In my case, I have love-hate relationship with my mom and she often says things that deeply hurt my feelings without even realizing it. I found that establishing firm boundaries and telling her how I feel helps us have better time together. 5) You are very early in your career so please, avoid making decisions until you talk to people with more life and career experience and seriously weigh your pros and cons. Remember, things will get better. You just need to take charge of your feelings and once your head is more clear, put together a plan that will make the most of your time and money invested in this career.

First of all, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! If I were in your shoes, I'd have your bride complete her degree ASAP so she has better job mobility should she want to change things up. She will also have no pressure to get her BSN within 5 years of hire, as many employers require now. However, if she were to take a long time to complete her degree, say 2 or 3 years part-time, then you two have to think about return on your investment vs time till your retirement. If you were to get your NP first, you'll likely be making more money for your family sooner rather later. Speaking from personal experience, I got my BSN in 6 months from WGU in 2017 after completing my associate degree in a community college. All the paper writing was tough and I had no life for 6 months but it is possible. If your bride doesn't plan on going back to school for advanced degree, she doesn't need to worry about having high GPA, in which case I'd definitely recommend WGU for her first.

I agree with the article. A good CNA is worth their weight in gold. When I work with CNAs, I try to coordinate in the beginning of the shift whenever possible so that we can go see patients together and help each other out if needed. I also always thank CNAs for their good work in person and to my supervisors, when reviews are done.

I'd ask the primary provider if they wanted to do a blood panel. As far as my own nursing assessment, I'd ask to see the spot the patient is trying to scratch, assess severity of stiff jaw and neck, and ask about activities in the past few days related to outdoors.

That's a really awesome form. Thank you for posting it here. I wonder if we can use just the fist page in other states. Sounds much more formal and factual rather than just complaining about staffing to other nurses.

I personally don't have records on my name so I am speaking more from hypothetical perspective but I think there is still a way to be an activist and a nurse. You do have to understand that you will need to change the way you view activism. Off the top of my head, there are a few possibilities. Instead of participating in events that will likely get you arrested, go to public hearings and make statements about topics you are passionate about. Become ombudsman and protect the elderly who cannot do it on their own. Call/write to your legislators about changes you'd like to see. And last but not least, remember that nurses are patient advocates and there will be opportunities for you to work with underprivileged populations in public health/community nursing and speak out about issues in these areas...which are many. I don't know what state you are in but as other have already suggested, if you already have records on your name, I'd definitely get in touch with an attorney just to have a clear understanding of what to expect in the future.

Do not beat yourself up. You did everything you could and educated your patient about risks vs. benefits. With patients like this all you can really do is present data in a non-judgemental way. If they decide that years of data and science are not worth it, it is on them, not on you. When I work with pseudo-science supporters, I try to make sure they are very clear on the worst-case scenario of refusing medication/treatment and document, document, document....