cygni519

I have two: Took care of a teenage girl in clinicals, really incredible experience for me.....about 6 months later in a local store I saw her mother....she updated me on the patient and turned to my 13 yo daughter and said..."Your mother is wonderful".....(made me want to cry and filled my heart with joy) A few months in, brand new nurse, patient not doing so well, family decided to transfer him to larger hospital. He asked me if he could pray for me, and held my hand while thanking God for sending him an angel to take care of him. Here I was feeling inadequate and he thanked God for ME taking care of him.......I knew I was meant to be where I always longed to be....IN NURSING!!!

Our unit secretary answers call lights, processes orders (enters in the computer, faxes to pharmacy, copies them to nurses), files lab reports, etc. into charts, answers unit telephones. They do not take vitals but may occasionally go answer a call light if we are REALLY stretched. These are the main duties.

Hey Penny.... I am really liking Ortho, enjoy the people I work with and I swear I learn something new every day....LOL!!! The ONE thing is being cancelled because of low census.....and since it is the ONLY floor I've worked at JRMC I must admit feeling anxious about floating to another floor....it's a little scary but will have no choice if I continue to lose my hours. And the drive get's pretty old after a while....but really value the experience I am getting. You also replied to my "failure" post and I want to thank you for your response (must admit I chuckled at the thought of patient with bed in tow in the bathroom....LOL) and I am more careful every day. Do you live in Pine Bluff or commute?

I am an LPN and in my hospital I can take VO/TO, hang blood, do IV push meds, access central lines, initiate and D/C foley's. Hanging blood, IV push and accessing central lines cannot be performed by LPN's at the hospitals where I did my clinicals in school, but the hospital where I work is a MUCH larger facility and these duties are allowed.

First let me send you hugs and prayers...... I am also a new nurse, and made a crazy med error with Morphine a few weeks ago and I posted about it here and received alot of support and great advice. I returned to work and my charge nurses, co-workers and nurse manager all told me that mistakes do happen but that I should focus more on the fact that I caught it and reported it immediately so the patient suffered no harm. That support helped tremendously but it still bothered me of course, but it made me VERY careful. I hate that you didn't have that type of support at your job and had to look for another position, even though it sounds like you enjoy it, please don't let the actions of a few harsh people turn you away from bedside nursing......if that is really what you want to do I hope that you find a position that offers you support and encouragement for you to grow....good luck!!!

Hi, I am sorry you are feeling so apprehensive when this should be one of the happiest times of your life.....about to graduate AND expecting a precious bundle of joy. My advice is to really look at the benefits your facility offers, if they are really great then why not take advantage of them, will it be a burden financially to continue to pay out of pocket in order to avoid people knowing your business? You seem to want the best possible care for you and your baby and although the possibility does exist that people may find out about your HSV status, you should do what you feel most comfortable with in your heart. If you feel more at ease going to this out of network doctor, and it won't create a financial burden for you, then by all means do whatever sets your mind at ease. Examine the possibility that your "business" may get out regardless of whether you go to an in-network physician or not, and heaven forbid you have a pregnancy that requires more involved physician/medical care than normal, would you be able to cover those additional medical costs out of pocket or would it be more beneficial to you if your insurance covered your care. It is a difficult decision that only you can make, and you should do whatever causes you the least amount of stress during this amazing time in your life. On another level let me just say that although you may run into people with an unkind nature, for the most part I believe that people would not be judgemental of you in your situation but supportive, and I hope that you have those type of people available to you in and out of the workplace to help you cope if your information is discovered by co-workers and you receive any type of discomfort from them because of it......which I truly pray does not happen. Congrats on the graduation and the new bundle of sweetness!!!

I am starting to realize that I am probably harder on myself than anyone else will be.....and the fact that people I don't even know have given me such wonderful advice and encouragement moves me beyond words and I cannot express my gratitude enough for all of you......I know that you must be fantastic nurses because you offer your care to those in need whether they be patient or fellow human being. I am feeling better by the minute and feel so grateful for this site and you wonderful people who are a part of it....God Bless you all!!!

THANK YOU BOTH.....SO MUCH.....I have resolved to make sure that every IV push med is double checked by another nurse for awhile......and to triple check my order against the pyxis against the computer and then check it ONE more time just for my peace of mind. And I am trying to accept the fact that one mistake a pattern DOES not make......as long as I learn something valuable (I DID) and use it to guide my path in the future I am doing what I need to do to keep it from happening again. And I do agree that it could have happened ANYWHERE.....except that the rural hospital that I did clinicals at has an IV nurse and Med nurse, so less likely to happen there. However, I am NOT going to run away with my tail between my legs (so to speak) to something that is easier.....the experience I am gaining at this hospital is incredibly valuable and I would be giving up a fantastic opportunity. I cannot begin to tell you how much your encouragement means and will keep them close as I return to work on Wednesday (NERVOUS about that let me tell ya....LOL). :redpinkhe Thank you again, means more than you know!!!

This is so hard.......but here goes. I am a new LPN, just completing my 3rd week of Orientation at a busy hospital. Last night I made a med error and feel like my spirit is broken. It was 7:10p and I was completely finished with my 2 patients, charting, etc.......one of the other nurses I work with was trying to complete her charting and got a call that one of her patients needed pain meds.....she looked at me and I asked if she would like me to give.....asked her what she was ordered to get and she said "morphine", no problem I thought, been giving my patient IV push Morphine all day (4 doses, 10mg/1ml).....not sure what I was thinking (or not) and didn't double/triple check the order....long story short gave the elderly woman 10mg/1ml IV push Morphine, when she was ordered to get 1mg/.1ml every hour......as soon as I came back to chart I saw there was something wrong, double checked in Pyxis and immediately told the nurse who called the charge nurse ...... she says "Oh ****" and I'm asking how much Narcan to get out and they both disappear to the room, I'm heading down the hall to the room and COMPLETELY lose it, start crying uncontrollably because of my mistake and the possible harm I could have caused this patient, ducked into the empty room next door and just cried and cried and cried. After the patient was taken care of (she's fine) one of the other nurses finds me and tries to tell me that it's OK, it was just an accident and everything would be OK. She tells me that the important part is that I caught the error and reported immediately so the situation could be corrected. As kind as she was I cannot forgive myself for this complete and total idiotic moment.......and am even doubting I should be working in this hospital.......my clinicals in school were at rural hospitals, I didn't have a rotation with the med or IV nurses, and just completed (last Monday) the IV therapy class at this hospital. There are of course several reason I could give (exhausted, getting over a severe sinus infection....blah, blah, blah) but they would only be excuses for a situation that I should have never allowed to happen. I am seriously debating a change of position to the hospital in my area (I currently commute 45 minutes) because I feel as though I may need to become more comfortable in a slower setting before I even attempt to do bedside in a busy hospital. I am SO devastated right now and start crying every time I think about this mistake. My nursing school classmate (and carpool buddy) tried to tell me last night not to worry, she says that I have such high expectations of myself (my class joked about my perfectionism and possible OCD) that I do not allow the possibility of mistakes to enter my vocabulary.......she says I need to let it go and understand that mistakes happen and if every nurse who made a med error was fired there would be no nurses. Although I value her encouragement, I don't even know where to begin to accept this mistake.......and I am terrified of walking back into work on Wednesday for SO MANY REASONS. I have been feeling uncomfortable off and on for 2 weeks now, but actually felt more confident yesterday.......maybe that was the problem, began feeling a little too comfortable. So what happens now? Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated, I was so heartbroken that the career I have wanted for so long, the path I believe I was meant to take, may not have been the right decision. I could not forgive myself if I harmed someone I was supposed to be caring for. Thanks for reading, I know this was long.

I TOTALLY SYMPATHIZE because I feel the EXACT same way......last week I had a very tearful drive home for this very reason. I am not confident in my technical skills....my clinicals in school were at rural hospitals totally different from this situation...I am now in orientation at a busy hospital (where those rural hospitals send the patients they cannot treat)....and I feel so lost some days and like more of a burden to my preceptor than anything else. The one saving grace I have is my patients.....I actually had a patient ask to pray for me yesterday and he was literally thanking GOD for sending him an angel to care for him the last 3 days.....and here I am shaking in my clogs because I feel like I don't know enough ....so I keep telling myself that the I CAN learn the skills and try to keep in mind that I cannot control what other people choose to do or not do in my orientation, if they want to talk about me without offering to help me they must have lost some compassion along the way.......they must have forgotten the fear they surely had in the beginning of their practice. Good luck to you and all of us NEWBIES......and THANK YOU for your post, it is comforting to know that others feel the same way.

I honestly didn't read the booklets.....they bored the heck out of me, but I did do my tests and our teachers made us re-take them to get to a 100% passing rate....which REALLY helped.....My pre-test study consisted of taking questions (our instructors recommended 5000)....I used the ATI, Saunders, NCLEX made incredibly easy, Eyles review and Delmars. The tests give you the rationale and that was a HUGE help to me.

My instructors told me they would be worried if we came out feeling confident that we passed......LOL. I also felt as though my questions were from the outfield somewhere and my teacher told me "that means you had the harder questions".....who knows if that is true or not...LOL, but I did pass after 2 days of sheer PANIC......My study buddy from class took hers last week and she took about 170 questions and was SO panicked she didn't eat for 2 days, barely slept and was terrified that she had failed.....but SHE PASSED!!!! I honestly cannot imagine having to wait more that the 2 days I did, I think I would have to be heavily MEDICATED......:roll I'll check back to see you post saying that you PASSED!!!! One piece of advice I can offer, no amount of encouragement from my peers or family helped me get through my stress......but I finally had to have a "conversation" with myself to realize that I had TRULY done everything I could do, I answered the questions the best I could and resigned myself to the horrifying fact that I MAY have to re-take the stupid thing....LOL.

I believe that it helped me, and our instructors strongly believe that the ATI scores are a reliable indicator of who will pass boards the first time, and for the past 2 years they have been using the system, that has seemed to hold true. If you are able to pass the ATI tests, you seem to pass boards the 1st time taking them.

To: Thally Our class did the ATI system during school and finished with a Comprehensive Exit Exam.

To: oldernrsgstudent My classmates and I all had near nervous breakdowns over the NCLEX, but we passed......I wish you luck and wish you didn't have to wait SO long.....we only had to wait for 2 days and it was incredibly DIFFICULT.