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Ashywlms1290

Ashywlms1290 BSN

NICU/CCN
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Ashywlms1290 has 2 years experience as a BSN and specializes in NICU/CCN.

Ashywlms1290's Latest Activity

  1. Ashywlms1290
    Thank you! I love this feedback! That’s usually my go to is to kill people with kindness. I always greet everyone and thank the nursing handing patients off to me in report for their hard work. I’ve had nurses chew me out in report and I thank them for their feedback and expertise. In previous jobs this method has worked but not so much on this floor. I’m just going to try to find a balance between being assertive but also kind and hopefully that will change their tune towards me. I agree with sticking it out and finding other ways to stay busy! I definitely think I need to take a step back from how others are making me feels so that I can judge the jobs for what it is and make a decision based off that. Thank you for your great advice 😊
  2. Ashywlms1290
    A lot of the same staff work on both of the floors. The one time I floated over to NICU the person who was assigned to orient me for the day threw a huge tantrum about having to teach me. He did later apologize to me which a lot of staff who had the same attitude while teaching me didn’t. I will definitely take this as an opportunity to be more assertive. I know management is aware of the bullying/negative attitudes on the floor and don’t know how to fix it. I think my next check in with management though I will share some of my experiences so hopefully other new nurses on the floor don’t have to go through what I am. Right now I’m worried that my negative experiences are impacting how I see this job. Im going to try to stick it out and take a step back to make sure it’s a good fit for me. I really love acute care and constantly being busy at work which I haven’t been getting a lot of on this unit. Any recommendations? Thank you so much!
  3. Ashywlms1290
    Thank you for the great advise! I think this is a good opportunity for me to practice being more assertive with my coworkers. I want to try to stick it out. Right now I’m not sure if the negative atmosphere is skewing my perception of the job or if it actually isn’t a good fit for me. I appreciate the great advise and for you taking the time to respond! Thank you😊
  4. Ashywlms1290
    Hi there😊 I am new to posting so I’m sorry for the long read! I just recently landed my dream job in NICU/CCN. Previously I worked on a Medsurg/Renal transplant floor for a little over a year (I only have a little over a year of nursing experience). Working with babies and their families has always been a dream of mine. I have been on the floor for a little over 8 weeks now. I love the patient population but I am having a hard time adjusting to the culture on the floor and I am looking for some advise. I am currently working in the continuous care unit and will go to NICU In august. Since I’m used to working with adult I don’t mind starting off on the less acute side of the nicu with the growers/feeders to build a stronger foundation for when I do go to NICU. I was supposed to have two months of orientation but was cut after around 4 weeks due to staffing issues on the unit. During my orientation I never had the same preceptor. Most of the time the person didn’t know that they were assigned to precept me for the day. Almost everyone I worked with complained the whole time about having me with them for the day which didn’t make me feel great. There has been a lot of turn over on the floor the past couple of years because of bullying so I get that people are burnt out from teaching and I always feel bad when I am sprung on someone. I once was sitting right next to the nurse who was precepting me for the day and she was complaining to another nurse about how much she hates orienting new people. It has been hard for me to gain new skills with people who really don’t want to help you. There are still a lot of things I don’t know how to do. I always ask for help or ask questions if I can’t figure it out for myself but it is like pulling teeth to get other people to help me. My biggest problem has been the culture on the unit. All the staff spend most of their time gossiping about each other or complaining. People genuinely don’t want to help each other out and spend most of their time bullying others, especially the newer nurses. I had one nurse tell me not to expect to make any friends on the floor on my second day there. That statement itself doesn’t bother me since I’m there to help my patients and families and not make friends but I just don’t understand why anyone would go out of their way to say something like that. I come from a very busy medsurg unit where I am used to not having any free time. There is a lot of down time on this unit. I try to stay as busy as I can so I don’t have to listen to the other nurses complain but since cares are clustered it sometimes is hard to find things to do. I have noticed that being in this environment has started to effect my mood. I am usually a very happy/positive/bubbly person and I find myself feeling grumpy and dreading going into work. On my old floor I got along with everyone. There were obviously people on that floor too who weren’t as nice but I’ve learned to keep my head down and stay busy. My main focus has always been on my patients. However I’ve never had such a hard time making friends or connecting with other people at work before. Everyone is so miserable and hostile all the time there. I worry that it is impacting how I look at this job as well. I’ve always wanted to work in an acute care setting. I love being constantly busy and challenged at work. I find myself feeling bored while I’m there which feels horrible to say. I absolutely adore the babies and their families but since I work in CCN all my cares are focused on feedings and diaper changes. Babies there are on their way home so they are generally very stable and have no acute issues or changes in status. I feel terrible feeling this way. At least this is how I feel working in CCN since I haven’t worked over on the NICU side yet so I can’t speech to how busy/acute it is over there. I have heard from other nurses that NICU is relatively the same as CCN just with more lines/vents. I’m worried I made a mistake in accepting this job but I also can’t tell if my perspective of this job is being skewed because of the negative atmosphere or if it’s because it actually isn’t a good fit for me. Any advice is appreciate it! Thank you so much and sorry again for the long read!
  5. Ashywlms1290

    New grad burnout

    Ashywlms1290 replied to Ashywlms1290's topic in Nursing

    Thank you so much for all the great feedback! I really appreciate it. Unfortunately things on my unit have not gotten much better and a lot of nurses are leaving. I’ve been applying to other position in the hospital and not having much luck since I am a newer nurse. I will have a year of nursing experience in medsug in December and would really love to go to a more acute area (ICU, PICU, SCU , NICU etc.,). Does anyone have any advise on how to strengthen my application for a job in these areas? I’m currently taking a class to get my ACLS certification. Thank you!🙏
  6. Ashywlms1290

    New grad burnout

    Ashywlms1290 replied to Ashywlms1290's topic in Nursing

    Thank you for your feedback. I’ve been applying for jobs but because I only have 8 months of nursing experience not a lot of places are willing to take me. I just feel incredibly sad and all of this has really gotten to me. Im a very happy person and really loved nursing in the beginning. I’m now starting to question if I even am a good nurse or if I am unprofessional and make sense of why this continues to happen. I always try to help others and my patients in anyway I can. I’ve never been in a situation like this and its really eating away at me. I really don’t know how I’m going to work the next 6 nights if this is how it’s going to continue to go.
  7. Ashywlms1290

    New grad burnout

    Ashywlms1290 replied to Ashywlms1290's topic in Nursing

    Thanks everyone for all the great advise! I definitely think one of my biggest weakness is not being assertive enough. As a new grad I don’t want to “rock the boat” or say no to helping others. I have gotten better at putting my foot down but there are a lot of unmotivated/overworked CNAs on my floor who really push back or give me attitude for delegating tasks to them (which I rarely do). A lot of the times I just end up doing things myself because it easier than having to track someone down and hold them accountable for doing something or dealing with their push back. There are a couple of wonderful CNAs on my floor that I love working with but unfortunately I don’t get to work with them enough. I do feel like my assignments tend to be more acute or with very behaviorally challenging patients than my peers. Other people have brought it up to me as well. I’m not really sure why my assignments have been heavier with little to no help in the past couple of months. Others have said it’s because I never complain but sometimes it just feel like charge doesn’t like me. The homeless IVDU patient that I had for two nights ended up going to IMC. I did try both of those nights to advocate for how unsafe this situation was to charge and the providers but I received a lot of push back/dismissal. Charge told me that if I get a sitter then we would have to float a nurse and all the nurse assignments would go up to 6 patients including mine. I called charge all night and the providers with my concerns about the patient but it was like pulling teeth to get them to come and assess him. It took charge 40 minutes to come into the room during one of his unresponsive events and the provider told me that he was too busy to come (ended up coming later in the night and not doing anything). I did tell him that someone else needs to come then because this is a drastic change in this patient’s clinical picture and that Im worried that he is heading towards a rapid responsive event. I think because this man was homeless with a drug/mental health problem he was written off a lot and not given the care he really needed which broke my heart as his nurse. Another thing that I’ve noticed is people just start to assume that this is a patients baseline when it actually isn’t which was also happening to him a lot. Looking back I definitely should have escalated my concerns up the chain of command. The primary person that was covering that patient that night was a new resident so I should have voiced my concerns to someone else higher up on the chain. I also should have done the same thing with the charge nurse. It’s hard for me as a new grad because when I get this kind of push back I just assume that maybe I’m overreacting. But In this case I knew how unsafe it was and I was very frustrated that I was getting so much push back when clearly something was very wrong. I did email my nurse manager and asked her moving forward if I could just stick to my agreed upon 3 12 hour night shifts. I haven’t gotten a response back yet but moving forward I’m definitely going to put my foot down with being preassigned to other units/extra shifts without being asked or told. I started applying to other positions and reached out to HR to inquire more about the steps I need to take to transfer to another unit since I am past the 6 month mark. This is all been very hard on me. It reassuring to hear that other don’t feel that I’m burnt out because I was really worried that I was. I am a very happy person who loves to help others so being on a floor that doesn’t foster team work has been frustrating to me. It will be difficult for me to set boundaries and only help other if I have the time but I know I need to make that change moving forward. I still worry that how exhausted I’m feeling right now so soon into my nursing career is a sign that it isn’t for me or that I’m not cut out for it. I really do love working in the medical field and helping other but the last two months make me question If I am even a good nurse. Thanks again for taking the time to read my long post and providing such great feed back. I really appreciate it!
  8. Ashywlms1290

    New grad burnout

    Ashywlms1290 posted a topic in Nursing

    Hi! This is my first post so bare with me I’m a new grad nurse who has been working on a busy/understaffed Medsurg/Nephrology/ Transplant floor for a little over 5 months. I worked as a CNA in a level 2 NICU for a year before this job and loved it I really want to work in the NICU or ICU but I was told you need at least 2 years of medsurg experience before you qualify for that kind of position. I am more than willing to put in the time and do whatever it takes to be considered for a position on either of those units. I knew going into medsurg that I wasn’t going to love it but it is a great place to start to build upon my nursing skills. I love nursing and I have learned a lot on the current floor that I am on. Over the past couple of months however I’ve started to feel really burnt out. My coworkers would describe me as positive, caring and someone who is always willing to help help her coworkers and patients. Lately though I find myself just feeling exhausted and experiencing emotional burnout towards my patients and others. I’m always willing to help others when they are drowning but I find that I never get that in return. Management has started to float me to other units with little to no support even though as a new grad I’m not supposed to be floated unless I’ve been an RN for a year. Recently I’ve been floated to a unit where I was assigned to a patient who was homeless schizophrenic/aggressive/ IVDU with a large spinal abscess. He constantly tried to climb out of bed and I was told her couldn’t have a sitter because we were understaffed so I was to be his sitter. I was also assigned to 4 other acutely Ill patients who needed constant attention as well. I couldn’t leave the other patients room because it was a safety risk and there was no CNA so I also took on all those responsibilities. He became unresponsive at one point in the night because he had been stashing methadone in his room and had been taking it in addition to all the other narcotics and benzos I had been giving him for his withdawl symptoms and pain management. He continued to have these unresponsive events through out the nights that I took care of him and I had little to no support from other nurses on the floor or the doctors (who wanted to wait for the day shift team before intervening or changing orders). It was a very unsafe situation for all the patients I was taking care of. I felt like I wasn’t able to care for my other patients the way I normally do. I had little to no time to look through my other patient’s charts and complete my med passes. I ended up staying two hours late every day to chart. I usually have all my charting done on time so this has been especially frustrating. I usually give good reports and I understand my patients really well but since I haven’t had the time to write stuff down I end up giving the bare minimum to the nurses taking over. I’ve had nurses yell at me and chew me out during report. I even had one who walked away midway through report and complain to another nurse while I was sitting next to her that I didn’t know when the patients LBM was while rolling her eyes at me. Unfortunately for the last two months this has been how most of my assignments go and I’m starting to feel really burnt out. We have a lot of homeless/ IVDU on my floor currently so I spend most of my shift being screamed at by them. I genuinely try to connect with them and help but I always end up being verbally abused by them or having them tell other staff members that I am neglecting them because their pain mediation is 5 minutes late. my nurse manager has also been making mistakes in my schedule. For example I picked up a shift to try and help out and I was scheduled to work from 7p-11:30p. I work night shift so working another shift after this one isn’t a big deal. My nurse manager scheduled me to work 7a-7p the next day. When I emailed her about it she basically told me to suck it up. I didn’t get out of work till 1am and I am expected to work at 7am the same day. These schedule mistakes are very common and sometimes I end up working 4-5 12 hour shifts in a row with the same acute patient assignment. I hate complaining and I usually never complain. I’ve really tried to make the most of my current situation. I hate feeling this burnt out when I am only 5 months into my nursing career. it makes me feel like a terrible nurse. I also feel like I’m not really making a difference in the lives of my patients. I feel more like a vending machine pumping out medications which is not the nurse I want to be. I feel bad delegating task to my CNAs who are swamped and overworked so I usually don’t. I also feel bad not being able to do everything that my patients ask for and feel like I’m letting them down. I really want to help my patient and I’m looking for suggestions on how to feel less burnt out so that I can be the best nurse I can be. Thanks for reading and sorry for the long rant! 🙂
  9. Ashywlms1290

    Hi!

    I’m a new grad nurse who has been working on a busy/understaffed Medsurg/Nephrology/ Transplant floor for a little over 5 months. I worked as a CNA in a level 2 NICU for a year before this job and loved it  I really want to work in the NICU or ICU but I was told you need at least 2 years of medsurg experience before you qualify for that kind of position. I am more than willing to put in the time and do whatever it takes to be considered for a position on either of those units. I knew going into medsurg that I wasn’t going to love it but it is a great place to start to build upon my nursing skills. 

    I love nursing and I have learned a lot on the current floor that I am on. Over the past couple of months however I’ve started to feel really burnt out. My coworkers would describe me as positive, caring and someone who is always willing to help help her coworkers and patients. Lately though I find myself just feeling exhausted and experiencing emotional burnout towards my patients and others. 
     

    I’m always willing to help others when they are drowning but I find that I never get that in return. Management has started to float me to other units with little to no support even though as a new grad I’m not supposed to be floated unless I’ve been an RN for a year. Recently I’ve been floated to a unit where I was assigned to a patient who was homeless schizophrenic/aggressive/ IVDU with a large spinal abscess. He constantly tried to climb out of bed and I was told her couldn’t have a sitter because we were understaffed so I was to be his sitter. I was also assigned to 4 other acutely Ill patients who needed constant attention as well. I couldn’t leave the other patients room because it was a safety risk and there was No CNA so I also took on all those responsibilities. He became unresponsive at one point in the night because he had been stashing methadone in his room and had been taking it in addition to all the other narcotics and benzos I had been giving him for his withdawl symptoms and pain management. He continued to have these unresponsive events through out the nights that I took care of him and I had little to no support from other nurses on the floor or the doctors. It was a very unsafe situation for all the patients I was taking care of. I felt like I wasn’t able to care for my other patients  the way I normally do. I had little to no time to look through my other patients charts and complete my med passes. I ended up staying two hours late every day to chart. I usually have all my charting done on time so this has been especially frustrating. I usually give good reports and understand my patients really well but since I haven’t had the time to write stuff down I end up giving the bare minimum to the nurse taking over. I’ve had nurses yell at me and chew me out during report. I even had one who walked away midway through report and complain to another nurse while I was sitting next to her that I didn’t know when the patients LBM was while rolling her eyes at me. 
     

    unfortunately for the last two months this has been how most of my assignments go and I’m starting to feel really burnt out. We have a lot of homeless/ IVDU on my floor currently so I spend most of my shift being screamed at by them. I genuinely try to connect with them and help but I always end up being verbally abused by them or having them tell other staff members that I am neglecting them because there pain mediation is 5 minutes late. 

    my nurse manager has also been making mistakes in my schedule. For example  I picked up a shift to try and help out and I was scheduled to work from 7p-11:30p. I work night shift so working another shift after this one isn’t a big deal. My nurse manager scheduled me to work 7a-7p the next day. When I emailed her about it she basically told me to suck it up. I didn’t get out of work till 1am and I am expected to work at 7am the same day. These schedule mistakes are very common and sometimes I end up working 4-5 12 hour shifts in a row with the same acute patient assignment. I hate complaining and I usually never complain. I’ve really tried to make the most of my current situation. I hate feeling this burnt out when I am only 5 months into my nursing career. it makes me feel like a terrible nurse. 
     

    I also feel like I’m not really making a difference in the lives of my patients. I feel more like a vending machine pumping out medications which is not the nurse I want to be. I really want to help my patient and I’m looking for suggestions on how to feel less burnt out so that I can be the best nurse I can be. 
     

    Thanks for reading and sorry for the long rant! 🙂
     

     

    1. jamalnurse

      jamalnurse

      Hi. I'm also a new grad nurse. Don't be afraid to say no if you're already feeling overwhelmed. Working 4-5 (12 hr) shifts back-to-back is a lot during your first year of nursing. I have already been advised by experienced nurses on my floor not to work too much overtime in my first year. Management will figure it out if they are short-staff. That is their job. Don't feel obligated to work every time your unit is in a pinch. I hope that makes sense. 

    2. Ashywlms1290

      Ashywlms1290, BSN

      It does! Thank you so much 😊