TaylorJ

I am a new nurse working on what would be considered a stable COVID unit. I work in a nursing home where we only get COVID patients from surrounding nursing homes and hospitals. The stable ones at least. We only have one hall open at the moment. Things had slowed down and our unit was down to 12 COVID patients with one nurse and two CNAs. Until four days ago. We got 33 new admissions within the last four days. And these new patients aren’t asymptomatic. They are sick. Many of them requiring oxygen and constant monitoring, which I can’t even give because there are so many. We now have three nurses, 4 CNAs and a med aid working but I still feel so overwhelmed. I just finished day five out of nine. That’s right. NINE DAYS in a row. Typically our shifts are only 8 hours but I fall so behind on my work that I stay 2-3 hours past the time I’m suppose to get off. I’m exhausted and it seems like management doesn’t care. They keep saying “you’re doing great! You’re a our hero’s!” And buying us pizza like it makes it OK. We’re so short staffed that they have to hire agency nurses but once they find out it’s a COVID unit, half of them end up calling out. I know I signed up for this. I knew it was a COVID unit but I didn’t care. It didn’t scare me. But now, as this new wave is hitting, I want to leave so bad. I worked 10pm to 7am yesterday. Went home and slept. And was back at work by 330pm on the same day. I’m so tired and frustrated. I know we’re all tired and I feel l'm just complaining and being a big baby. I was so hopeful that there was an end in sight but now I’m not so sure. I can’t keep doing 10-11 hours days 5, 6, 7 days in a row. I’m getting worn out. I don’t see my husband. I’ve lost 5lbs in the last few days because I don’t get time to eat at work, and when I get off I go straight to bed. Am I just being a baby?

He never directly refused to take the patient. But he kept trying to coax me into thinking maybe I had made the wrong call. He kept pointing out that his O2 sat was at 99% when they got there. I also pointed out that he was on High flow oxygen and thats why they were so high. Within minutes of taking him off of it, his sats dropped down to 90. and they probably would have gone lower if we had left him off O2 any longer.

I’ll start off by saying I am a new nurse. I’ve only been working for a few weeks.I work in a LTC facility that has been turned into a covid unit. We only have COVID Patients. One of my residents starts to decline. He has a j tube. His sats have always been at least 97 or above up until tonight. We’ve had issues with him vomiting and we’ve been concerned about him aspirating. I walk into the room and he is coughing. His O2 sat was at 92. He begins coughing more and it goes down to 88. I suction him and turn his O2 up to 5L. It was originally at 2L via nasal cannula. I can’t get his O2 sat above 91 at this point. I decided to call the doctor and we both agreed to send him to the hospital. I turn O2 up to 15L and put him on a nonrebreather mask. Once the ambulance gets there, I give the EMT report. At this point my patient is now sating @ 99%. The EMT basically looks at my like I’m dumb. “Well he’s sating fine now” is what he told me. I mean yeah he’s right but he was also on 15L. This EMT didn’t want to take him. He suggests we take him off the O2 to see if his sats go down, I guess he was trying to prove his point but he only proved mine. within 3 minutes he’s back down to 90%. He basically made me feel like I had no idea what I was talking about. I see this resident almost everyday. I know what his norms are. This was not normal for him. The MD and I came to a mutual decision to send him to the hospital because he’s not doing good. And this EMT waltzes in like he knows everything about my patient. As a new nurse it was hard for me to stick up for myself. I felt like maybe I had made the wrong decision to call 911 even tho I knew it was the right choice. Is this an issue that often occurs with other healthcare professionals such as EMTs? Did I make the right call?

I graduated in May of this year and started a job on a covid unit in a nursing home about three weeks ago. I trained for a about a week and a half and I was put out on my own. I hate it. I hate my job. I cry when thinking about going in. I make a lot of mistakes, thankfully none that result in patient harm, but mistakes none the less. I wanted a hospital job so bad but I couldn’t get into any residency programs. Everyday I go to work and everyday I wonder if I even really want to be a nurse. I enjoy the nursing aspect but the workload and the lack of training for a new grad like me makes me feel like maybe I’m not cut out to be a nurse. I spent four years working towards my degree and I’m already ready to tap out one month in. I want to quit so bad. But I know that’s not professional. And I have bills to pay.

I graduated in May of this year and took my NCLEX in June. I just now was able to land my first job. I started two days ago. It's not the ideal job. I really wanted to be in a hospital but was unable to get into any residency programs. So I settled for a job on a covid unit in a nursing home. Not ideal, but I went in with an open mind. But I hate it here. I am literally on my third day of work and they are already allowing me to work on my own. No preceptor, no nothing. I am the only nurse on the floor besides the Charge nurse at the nurses station. 37 covid patients. I got a day and a half of mediocre training. I'm terrified I don't know what im doing. Im scared I'm going to mess up and hurt someone. Hospitals will train you for WEEKS before they let you take care of patiewnts on your own, but here I am, a new grad with NO experience doing it on day 3. I really want to quit and try and find a job at a hospital. My nursing school friend help me get this job. I would feel bad if it made her look bad. AM I just having that first year jitters or something?