faline1973

I went to the CNO. She listened with this huge cheshire cat grin on her face. Each time she spoke to me, she said my name first and followed with some fortune cookie advice. "Sherri, I think everyone wants a positive workplace" "Sherri, in most situations, everyone is right and everyone is wrong." She did request I speak with my manager's manager and I did. I called her again today and she said she probably wouldn't remove the things from my file that there is no policy in place for because "They really aren't that big of a deal". If they aren't that big of a deal, take them out! She "hasn't had the time" to talk to the other units I applied to yet. Meanwhile, I am just sick to my stomach about the whole thing and ready to find another job. I'm *this close* to having my IL license. I'll just get a job in another state. It's such a shame because it used to be such a great place to work.

You are quite fortunate to have a supportive director. Families like this one are the reason I have suggested Vanilla-scented Ativan Air Freshener :) One sweep across the room and they go from Grrrrrrrr to AAaaahhh. For some crazy reason, it still hasn't been manufactured. Some crazy babble about ativan needing a prescription :) Families like this one are often stressed and want to do SOMETHING for their loved one. They think they are somehow helping by being rude and demanding. What truly happens is the opposite. We end up trying to avoid those rooms because of their obnoxiousness. Hang in there.

Are you already a nurse? ADN --> BSN or are you trying to become a nurse?

This bold section is so true. I have often wondered if management felt they would be easier to control. We have a horrible nurse on our unit. She's rude. She's crude. She talks about her sex life out in the open and how she stole her best friend's husband. When we had a male nurse on our unit, she used to walk into patients rooms and hug him (full body hug) from behind or massage his shoulders. She calls doctors idiots to their offices. Yet - time after time - she is the preceptor for our unit. Another nurse (we work on med-surg/ortho) would send a patient to ICU every time she worked. A little blood in the foley? BLADDER CANCER! OMG! They need the ICU! She would be so dramatic on the phone that the docs would send them to the ICU. (Better to be safe than sorry.) We jokingly bet on which patient will go this time. She still has a job even though the UNIT MANAGER has said "She is so incompetent that I wouldn't let her touch my family member with a ten-foot pole!" Yet.. she still has a job. I see it over and over again. Mediocrity is truly rewarded in our field, and I think that it is a shame. I feel like "It isn't how good of a job you do - it's whose orifice you smooch while you do it." I was totally disillusioned about nursing. I truly thought that because I was entering into a PROFESSION of college educated women that professional behavior would be required. So far, I haven't seen that. I've seen cliques. I've seen my 25 yr old manager act like she's in jr high and there's a popular girls club. She rolls her eyes and sighs when nurses who aren't her "bffs" come to talk to her. I truly hope that when I enter the Air Force that nursing is different there. I hope there is a higher code of conduct.

I want to add that there are good/bad preceptors just as there are good/bad nurses. Everyone learns differently and sometimes changing preceptors can help. In the case of "Sal" it appear they did everything possible to encourage her, but it is a two-way street. You can lead a horse to water... I know from my experience - I was very frustrated as a new nurse. My preceptor was an older nurse. She called patients "Sugar Pie" even though they were in their 60s. She was going through a divorce and bankruptcy and would cry in patients rooms. I was afraid of complaining about this nurse who had been there since the dawn of time and had even helped start the 'joint camp' on our unit. I finally went to the manager and said I felt she had a lot of stress (which everyone in the unit was aware of) and I felt I was adding to it. They gave me a new preceptor. She was three weeks from retiring. Although she was good, she really didn't "care" anymore because (as she said), she was "Out of here!" in three weeks. After my preceptorship was over - I truly felt lost. I even went to my manager at the time and told her that I would appreciate any insight on how I could improve as a nurse. I went to her FOUR TIMES in my first year as a nurse. Each time, she said "Well, I haven't heard any complaints." I explained "There is no way I am doing everything right. What can I do to improve." I later found out she hated confrontation and it was just easier for her to say "nothing!" Although this was not the case in "Sal's" story, I do feel we often don't give new nurses enough feedback and praise. When you are called into the office, it's "Here's what you're doing wrong. Let's make a goal. Have a good day." It can be disheartening to new nurses. I have suggested that for the first year, every three months, have other employees evaluate them - writing 3 positive things and three areas that need improvement. Be sure to include nurses that FOLLOW the new nurse because they are most likely to notice things that weren't finished. I know this would have helped me immensely. I wanted feedback and never got it. It made me feel my unit didn't care.

I have found that keeping a journal really helps me. I keep a private journal. Mostly it is letters that I write that will never be sent. I write them to the people I want to thank. The people I want to choke. I never send them. I even write them to nasty, mean, demanding patients who exhaust me. (I don't use names for my patients, just initials). I'll write Dear JD, Tonight, you have exhausted me. Your endless requests for phenergan, dilaudid, and ativan while you laughed on your cell phone and told your friend what a great "high" you were getting stole time from me that I could have given to patients who are truly here to get healthy..blah blah blah. If I don't have anyone to write to, I write a 'love letter' to myself. I remind myself of my strengths. I remind myself of my short-term and long-term goals. I remind myself of nice things friends/coworkers have said to me recently. That's what I do to make it through. (I also overeat, but I am hoping to get better).

At our hospital, Maternal Child Health is almost IMPOSSIBLE to get into. Every nursing student on our floor (an ortho/med-surg unit) has stars in their eyes and says "I want to work with babies". It really is difficult. You may have to start in a med-surg unit and build some basic nursing background. It also lets you get your foot in the door of the hospital. Our hospital offers positions INTERNALLY first (even though they advertise on the net/in the paper). Have you applied for other positions other than just the one you mentioned? :)

What do you do when you feel you're being blackballed? About a year ago, our unit gained a new manager. She's 25. She's divided our once great unit into "My friends" and "My coworkers." She has let her friends go through personal files, use her computer, and sit in her office while the rest of us work. When her friends want a transfer, she makes the necessary phone calls. Write-ups and concerns do not go in her friends' files. Unfortunately - it is difficult to prove this. Other nurses don't want to get involved. They're afraid of repercussions. Her friends certainly aren't going to admit to her behavior. It's beneficial for them. She even sat at the main information center - opened inner-office mail which showed chart errors other employees had made, and passed them around laughing. I was told "She was probably using this as an educational opportunity". An educational opportunity doesn't consist of laughing and making fun of the "Stupid mistakes" other nurses have made. She was a staff nurse for a whole two years before becoming a manager. The morale of our unit has declined. Everyone comes in just to "do their time" now. It used to be a fun place to work. Everyone helped each other. The hospital did a survey on each of the units, and our unit scored the absolute lowest on every question when it came to morale. Nurses are transferring and quitting. I agreed to go to night shift in January because we were so short-staffed. I said I would do it for six months to give them time to hire someone. My manager won't let me switch back to days. "No positions", yet she hires student nurses for days. I emailed her (very politely) and explained that I would be searching for another position in the hospital that would allow me to work days. Within a week, I was called into her office and written up for seven different "offenses" - some of them over 8 months old! Several things she wrote me up for aren't even policy. "Not treating a blood sugar of 74" The policy is 70, and the patient was given OJ. "Withholding pain medicine" on a patient who had a PCA. She put these things in my file a couple days before an interview with another floor. She called me in on June 18 to review these offenses. What I didn't know is that when she put them in my file - the way she dated them looks like she talked to me on SEVEN DIFFERENT OCCASIONS, but that's not true. She spoke to me ONCE and pulled 8 months worth of 'concerns' out of her bag. Last week, I interviewed for a position in another hospital's ER. It was a panel interview. By the end of the interview, all five interviewers welcomed me to "the team". They pulled the charge nurse off the floor to give me a tour of "Where you'll be working." They said "HR just has to check your references. You'll get a call later today to set up orientation." Instead of a phone call, I get an email saying they can't offer me the position. I called their HR and she didn't want to give out any information, but she eventually said I should look at my references. She didn't call my personal references, so that leads me to believe she only called my boss. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS MONTH THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME. I'm offered a job, they call my 'references' and then they withdraw the offer. My personal references are solid. The only thing I can think of is that they call my boss and for some reason, she gives me a poor reference. I spoke with her boss Monday. She says "Well, she is a new manager. She's still learning." Learning? At my expense. She did agree that it was odd the way I was written up for eight months of concerns all at once. She said that what I could do is once again apply to other units in the hospital and she would speak to those managers on my behalf and state that the issues in my file "May not have been completely objective." I worry that other units will feel like they are inheriting another units problem child. This is so frustrating. The nurses I work with say I am a great nurse. I pitch in. When I see someone in trouble, I don't wait to be asked. I go up to them and say "How can I help." My coworkers are dumbfounded. My night shift manager says the boss has left her out of important decisions and seems to really dislike me. She says she doesn't understand it either. I don't know what to do. I've only been a nurse for 2 1/2 years. This is the only hospital I've worked out, so I can't leave it out as a reference. I can't get a new job. I can't stay at the old one. I can't even seem to transfer. I just want to cry.

No, I did not! But, I chose courses that would transfer. We were only required to take a very low math. Instead, I took Algebra because I knew Algebra was a University level class. Look at the classes on the University Roster that are required for your BSN. If you can, incorporate them into your ADN program. Don't necessarily take the easiest "humanity" class. Take the one that will transfer. :) Talk to your community college. Many of them work together with Universities to help their graduates further their education. Let your counselor know you are planning to obtain your BSN and he/she will guide you in which courses to take!

If it were me, I would go for my ADN. :) Here's why: You have 2 small children. Keep on trucking with your ADN and you'll be working as a nurse sooner. That's more money in your wallet sooner! :) My hospital does not pay any different for new grads with an ADN vs. BSN. My mother-in-law's hospital pays $.75 an hour more. Not worth it! After you graduate, go to work. School is stressful! Take a year. When your kids are a little bigger - you can go back for your BSN online. There are many programs to choose from! I graduated with my ADN in 2006. I had a 4 y/o son, a 9 y/o daughter and an 11 y/o daughter. When I graduated, I was 6 months pregnant with our last child - another little boy. If I was in a BSN program - I would have had to drop out. I graduated in Dec of 06 and went back to school online Sept 08. I graduate next July with my BSN :) It's all online. I can still work and make money AND do the college thing. :) Everyone has a unique circumstance. You have to do what's best for you and your family. A community college may be less expensive and you still get almost the same amount of money when you start out! :) Good luck! ~Sherri

Thanks for all the responses. I am much more careful with my charting now. It is difficult because we're ortho and we have 9-10 patients apiece at night. Other units max out at seven, but our last manager "severely underbudgeted" us and night shift suffers. Between hourly rounding, turning q 2 and getting people to the bathroom (it often takes two - my tech and myself), I feel I don't have the time to chart as adequately as I did when I worked days and had five whole patients. My manager addressed the sleep issue as well. She said "Sleep is not a sign that the patient isn't hurting. People who are in pain can become so exhausted that they just fall asleep. If they request pain medicine, and you back in the room to find they are sleeping, you need to WAKE THEM UP and re-evaluate their pain level." I am really frustrated with her. She is 25 and worked as a staff nurse for a full 23 months before being promoted. I realize the patient wrote in a complaint, but she that patient also "fired" two other nurses because they wouldn't keep her sedated, she's a known drug user and A DOCTOR said "This woman is just a drug addict and all we've done is up her tolerance!" (He wasn't the doc prescribing the pills to her). The doctor that did give her all the drugs let her have them right up until she left. (We usually wean people of the pca 24 hours before discharge). Ugh. I feel like: Give the medicine - Risk aspiration or oversedation. Don't give the medicine (even though she still had access to her PCA) - Get a write-up. Damned if you do.. damned if you don't . Sometimes, I really get disgusted at management.

I recently had a patient on my unit that had fractures to BLE. She had been high when she wrecked. This patient had surgery, then went to a physical rehab center. She was back again to have her external fixator removed. She was her for SIX weeks. When I had her, she had: A dilaudid PCA with the maximum dose for her height and weight Two Percocet 10 mg ordered q 4 hours for "breakthrough" pain 1 mg Ativan IVP q 6 hours 25 mg Benadryl IVP q 6 hours She requested her percocet everytime she could crack one eye open. She wanted the benadryl and ativan given at the same time. One night, while I was taking care of her, she was extremely sedated. She would call out for percocet, but when you went in the room she was asleep and wouldn't rouse to verbal stimulation. When she did wake, she stuck out her tongue and mumbled "Juth put them on mah tongue" even though there were no injury to her upper extremities. She was too sedated to hold a cup of water. Other nurses had poured the water into her mouth. I refused. I told her that I would not give her the pills unless she could put them in her mouth and swallow water. She still had her PCA and it wasn't maxed out. Later, when she was more alert, I did give her the percocet. She reported me the next day. My manager wrote me up and said: "If they can ask for it, they aren't too sedated." I had been taught in nursing school that we are to use our judgement. A physician's order will not save our license. If we give a patient narcotics when we see they are too sedated and a sentinel event occurse, we are liable. What do you think about my manager's statement? I was written up for "withholding pain medicine". I refused to sign it because she had a PCA. Since it wasn't maxed out, she still had access to pain medicine. What do you think?

Thanks. I'm on my 3rd class. This group is so flaccid, and it is frustrating. We have one member who only checks in once a week even though you can see her posting to the main forum. Our final ppt is due Monday. I made the deadline for last Saturday. This member (Jane Doe JD) did not post her portion. I have extended it to Thursday. But she doesn't even respond to posts. I have posted my complaint to the instructor. This team just sucks. Only one other person actually gets involved. JD doesn't bother and the other two post the bare minimum - they post THEIR portions of the projects, but never post any suggestions for the final project. I feel like I am doing the work all by myself. I can't wait for this class to be over. I hate group projects. Hate them. There are only two kinds of people : Those who don't want to do anything and those who want to do EVERYTHING. Thanks for letting me vent.

Are there any other U of P students here? I'm doing my ADN->BSN, and I am beginning to hate the group projects.

I do not know about California, but I know of one hospital in KY and the hospitals I have worked at in IN do. Nurses in my hospital must wear white pants. The tops are your choice, but the pants must be white. Techs wear teal. OT/PT wear beige pants. Respiratory wears green, etc.. Truthfully, I think it's stupid. WE know what it means, but the patients do not. The doctors don't pay attention either and will try to give orders to a tech in teal scrubs. And white pants suck. They really do. Esp during that time of the month. I wish we would change our policy to white scrub TOPS instead of pants :) Good luck!