DAMomma

What a nice site! Thank you to everyone for your suggestions...I am a work in progress. One thing I am finding it when I buy scrubs, I need to avoid the ones with pockets vertical on the seem. The other night I had a trail of alc wipes falling out of my pocket down the hall. I need the pockets straight down on the front.

How you organize carrying all of your stuff? I have one of those pocket organizers, but when I am running thru the night I usually will not stop to put it back in my organizer. I also use one of the hospital lanyards around my neck and I will clip my pen, highlighter, sharpie, mechanical pencil on it while having my mini flashlight, scissors, alc pads, and my "brain sheet" in my pocket. I like to wear cargo scrub pants so I can carry my flushes in my leg pocket. I am a mess. I find myself tossing my lanyard over my shoulder while assessing patients (germ control) but I am afraid I am going to hang myself doing that...can you imagine the headlines, "Nurse hangs herself while helping others". Have yall came up with any great ideas to organize your stuff?

I agree working nights can take a toll on your health. After I get off from work, I am religious about running to the gym (2-3 times/week) to get my cardio kickboxing and weight training in. I also try to watch what I eat. I feel like I am in the best shape of my life. It workes out for me. I work part-time. My son is in school all day and my daughter is in preschool for half the day. While she is at school I work out THEN I come home and take a nap with her till hubby comes home from work. He will usually pick my son up from school. D

Okay, okay, I know nursing is a 24/7 job. My problem,however, I am not sure when enough is enough. With the night shift we will have on average of 9-11 patients. We are dealing with sundowners, checking med sheets, hanging abx, pain meds, 5AM meds. Not to mention the new admissions:eek:! The other night, I had 10 patients (1 very confused, 2 patients very anxious and needing a lot of attention) 0440 I found out I would have another patient added with ETOH intox. I am running like a mad woman to wrap thing up because I knew 0500-0700 is high time trying to close charts, pass meds, steroid push meds (please don't let this IV go bad....), do lab draws, note orders (docs making rounds) etc, you get the picture. My pt came appx 0515. I assess the pt right away, make sure fluids are going, pt safe and stable okay, I can get back in the room by 0600 to do my admission profile (all 15 darn pages of paper work:angryfire) WRONG, I work with a sweet LPN. She is not allowed to do IV push meds or hang blood. Guess what she has....both:eek: Out of the 4 RNs on the floor, I am 1 of the 2 who will not bite her head off for asking for help. So what do you do right? Back to my original question, I found myself working on the new admission till 0800. I did everything up to calling the doc for meds and orders. I see the other midnight nurses just leaving. I know one will just leave the paperwork for the day nurse. I feel bad doing that because I know they are coming in dealing with issues of their own. If you were in my shoes, will you just put in report "admission profile needs to be done". I am going to speak with my manager tomorrow morning. I did ask him before but I never got a clear answer. Just wondering your thoughts. I feel like such a doormat at times .

WOW, Congrats on getting in. When will you graduate? I saw the banner up for a day or so and it disappeared. Where do they do clinicals? Man, ITT is only 2 miles from my house. Will you do basic (ie: english, psych, gov, math if needed) classes there?

Everyone here is such AWESOME support.....I thank everyone:bow:. Now I do not feel so alone. I hope I can look back 7 years from now and just remember this as a learning experience...I am sure I will:rolleyes:. Okay, let me get a couple hours of sleep (prayer) before I go into work tonight. D

Questions, what is the point system? I have a friend who was at a 48. She said the cut off was 65. I have no suggestions for her. We did not have a point system years ago. What do they base the points on?

i am kinda piggy backing off another post here regarding "how long should you wait before transferring to another unit" i am a new grad 6 months as an rn now. my questions is would you transfer to another facility because of the distance? help me out here. i drive 25.5 miles one way, 40 minutes, 28 stop lights (yeah, i counted them all the way home one day......:stone). the facility where i work it seems like everyone lives locally or less than 10 miles away from the hospital. the reason i choose the facility is because i do like the health system where i work. i checked out the other facilities in the system but they are all still appx 20 miles away. i am breaking my nursing legs in well on my floor and i get along well with the staff and management. my question is would you leave well enough alone and suck up the drive or would you jump ship (i am thinking about 6 months from now) to go to another health system closer to home. i am thinking about waiting awhile so i can get good experience under my belt. there are two different health systems within 10 miles from my home. gheeze, i am feeling ungrateful seeing how many people are having a hard time finding a job anywhere. d

HA! I don't want to jinx myself (or my patients for that matter.....) I will say, it is something to experience. By the way, my med-surg floor also has hospice patients.

Thanks, this post helped me after a SUCKY night!!!! Just a bunch of crazy stuff and attitude from the day nurse coming in. Gheeze....I did give my very best. I am going to take a sleep aid and go to bed. By the way, I am also turning off my cell phone......I am not going in tonight. D

oh man, i hear you pain......just reading some of the post got my anxiety level back up again. this is so true, "now on to the issue of the nursing office not giving you a straight answer!!! get used to it!!!!! if you can't go with the flow of constant change, the right hand never knows what the left hand is doing and ask three people :: get three different answers, then you will never make it through this program! it will eat you alive!!!! you must be flexible! don't complain to them, they don't want to hear it and it only ****** them off. kiss ass, put on your mask and act like everything is great and you will make it to the end with less stress. trust me... i am going into my third semester and i have seen it all lmao!!!! do whatever you do to cope and you will be fine. life is just peachy!!!! lmao!!!!" walk in with a smile even when you feel like crying or cussin' someone out. you know you can attract bees with honey right? your letter...it will come either way in due time. use this time to get your house in order, exercise, get your mind ready. hey, organize a cute little study nooke for yourself. buy lots of black pens (why did i buy a ton of blue just to realize you need to document in black?), paper, organizers (practice writing sn behind your name). try to figure out what will work for you to help with stress and anxiety. your waiting game will be traded for a whole new set of worries come january.....i was you 3 years ago.:wink2: keep your head up! d

I know what you mean. Some people LOVE the PM shift, I personally hate it. I missed to much......dinner time with my family, helping my son with homework, taking my daughter to dance class, doing evening stuff, etc. I LOVE my 2300-0700 shift. I do work part-time so finding time to sleep is not such an issue for me. My family is safe and sound asleep at home while I am up at work. The other night I left for work while hubby was reading the kids a bedtime story (and feeding them ice cream) I will pick up a PM shift once in awhile...it is just to crazy for me at the moment. Family, tons of people in the halls, dinner (ac/hs accuchecks), charts disappearing. The good part is there is someone for every shift. Midnights is mine.:)

I like it CandyGirl!!! Awesome job and tips. Best wishes to you. You go me motivated and I am not even looking.

WOW! I remembered when I applied for my externship January of 2008. I put in 4 applications and received 3 calls for an interview. I was hired on the 1st one. I am still at that 1st job as an RN. It is crazy how a little over 1 year can make. Best wishes to everyone. Hopefully the slump will not last for long.

My thoughts EXACTLY!!! I got less done while I was in orientation on days. Up by 5AM, out the door by 6, on the job by 7 needing to be fully alert, staying hopefully till 3-4PM, home by 5, dinner is not done, trying to get household stuff done so I can try to be in bed by 9PM. No thank you, days will not work for our family. Not to mention it was a rat race on days.....too many people everywhere!

Thanks!!! As an RN of 4 months, no matter how busy or how many pts I have, I ALWAYS stop and do my checks no matter what. Even for a Tylenol, I take my sheets in the room, looking at ID bands, looking at all identifiers. Talking to the pt about the med. It gives me a piece of mind at the end of the day. Thanks again for the reminder!

By the way, what is the NUR number again? It is NUR 119? HA! it is becoming a distant memory.

Hey ya Tasha, sorry I did not get a change to talk with you the other morning at work, it was a mad house:no:. Along with the above post, she is really big on what will you see, what will you do. You need to be on your toes with her exams. Read, read, read those chapters before class try your hardest to understand them. If you are unsure about anything, makes notes, tape her lectures and listen to them! After you read and study those chapters, do NCLEX questions in relation to the information. I will look thru my notes to see if there is anything I can e-mail you. Can you please send me you e-mail addy again? D

Congrats again!!!! It was awesome to see all the smiling faces today. Did you celebrate? It was a great feeling trying on my cap and gown today. It is so cool that we will be a graduation together. Hey did you see when I went up to Ms. G to "get my final grade" She was fractically looking thru her papers. I was like, you gave me my final grade over 6 months ago! She cracks me up all the time. Don't forget I will call you next week to get the info from the meeting. D

Do you get called in often? Do you say no or yes more often? I worked from last Friday all the way till Tuesday. I kid you not, staffing called me everyday Wednesday thru tonight (I do work this weekend). I have a family. I honestly had things to do with my family and I was pooped. I am just feeling a bit guilty because I said no three night in a row. I have only had my licence for one month. In the past four weeks, I have been called in twice. Get this, they asked if I could do 12 hours. We were on our way to the movies, my hubby and kids looked at me like this when my phone rang....:angthts::spbox: Oh yeah, why did I give them my cell phone number? I do appreciate my job but geeze! Can I get some cheese with my whine?

Question, are they changing the uniform starting in the fall semester? Just curious. BTW, congrats Jillian! I remember when you started....:yeah:What are you doing now? PEDS or M/S 4? I picked up my official RN badge from work today! I deleted all of the NCLEX study stuff from my computer today.

How did you do? I have had a pretty smooth transition; however, I do feel a bit "weird". As an Extern I worked along side with the CNAs. Much respect, hats off, that is some hard work! I worked elbow to elbow them, rolling, boosting, changing briefs. One always made the comment, "You are going to leave us and become one of them, and you are going to change." Well my change came over the weekend. I had my own pt load and it was busy as heck. I was elbow deep in an admission. I asked the CNA if she could get a vital on a pt for me. Trust me, I would have done it if I could. I am horrible at delegation (working on it). I heard her make the comment, trying to be funny, "traitor!" I did not address it, I know I should have. What would you have done? I want to play nice in the sandbox and do my job. Transition can be hard enough, please don't do this. I am looking forward to this weekend since I will work with another CNA who never acknolwdge me as the Intern when I was working with the RN. The RN passed the meds and I was responsible for the assessments, change in vitals, etc. A pt had a temp of 101.5. The CNA never told me, she went straight to the RN. The RN yelled down the hall, "Did you hear that?:wink2:" She smiled and looked at the CNA. Just some issues I need to address head on. This week, nominations are going out for Nurse of the year. I took some frosted brownies in for the staff on my 1st day as an RN. One CNA hugged me and told me she is going to nominate me nurse of the 1 day:redpinkhe.

I agree, I orientated on the day shift. Everything came together. I met the social workers, docs, PT/OT, dietary, the family, the priest, pts were on and off the floor, tons of people everywhere. I did rounding with the nurse managers and case workers. Now that I am back on nights, I have a better understanding of how the whole process works. Midnights on my floor is insanely busy, but it has less people in the halls and around the desk, I am able to think better with out all of the distractions.

"this morning, my results were ready. i paid my fee to find out my fate. there is was on the screen before me. "result: pass" my hands started shaking. i looked away and then back to the screen. still there... "result: pass." small 'p'. no fireworks. no song. not even an uppercase 'p'. " okay, this made me laugh my tail off. i was thinkg the same thing. i also recently passed with 75 questions. i went in ready to take the whole 265 questions. i was expecting the sky to drop and i was expecting to have the worse day of my life. not so. sure i was a bit anxious after the exam because i expected a lot worse. i just went home and took a good long nap and figured what is done is done. i had to work the following night. after my shift was over satuday morning, i ran home hoping for the best but expecting the worse. there i saw is (barely) pass. no neon colors, no !!! marks, no stars, the heavens did not open, i did not feel a sense of awe, just pass. i just checked the licence website, my perm lic# is bigger than the pass. well, i will take my pass and be on my merry little rn way! when i saw the results, i told my kids and they were like...."yeah, can we go the the park?" i called my hubby at work and of couse i got a bigger reaction from him, however, he was like i am going to pick up a pint of something to celebrate when i get home. ummmm, that is all fine and good, but you know i don't drink! the weekend got much better, we had a bigger pass celebration with friends and family over the weekend.

So sorry you are going thru this. Here are my suggestions: As already suggested, I used Saunders comprehensive. I did at least 100 questions per day I practiced test taking skills which helped my to see what the question is really asking. I had Lippincott and Kaplan's flashcards. I took them everywhere! I was at the gym studying and working my tail off:coollook:. I just kept practicing questions everymoment I got. I read the rationals for both right and wrong answers. I believe in total I did about 4,000 practice questions in addition to the NCLEX questions I practiced while in nursing school. 1st, walk in with a strong knowledge base. 2nd, try some relaxation tips. I believe high anxiey will block you from seeing the correct answer. Do you have an exercise program? That may help. Right before the exam, I ran into the bathroom and did 20 jumping jacks to get the oxygen pumping good in my brain. Then I did a couple of boxing shuffles in the mirror chanting "you can do this, you are the champ!" Yeah, I am a little touched, but it worked!:wink2: