chiapet

Papermate Profile retractable ball point pen. The best! And not expensive.

I'm with you Bluegrass. I went to nursing school to become an L&D nurse. I precepted at my local hospital here in the Bay Area and was hired. I lasted 3 months. For all of the same reasons you mentioned. Now I am in oncology -- I know what a switch, but I love it.

I agree with ANC33....I signed up for the review course and did a couple of the modules, but it was basically just reading the same information as the book, but online. Some of the 'activities' involved printing blank tables and filling them in with, for example, types of pain meds, what they are used for etc. I would have liked the opportunity to take online tests repeatedly -- not just a pre-test and then two attempts at the post test. I never finished the course -- so lost that money. What did help me was the study guide with test questions on each area of the test blueprint. That is all I used, and I passed the exam this morning!

I'm 49 years old and a new grad as of 6/06. I quit my dream job after three months because I couldn't work the night shift. I know a new job, especially a new nursing job, takes over one's life to some degree at first but working the night shift adversely affected me 24/7. I was tired all the time, digestive system was screwed up, my skin was all messed up. I was sick three times in that three month period and I rarely get sick. It just wasn't worth it to me so now I am looking for a new job. You have to decide what you are willing to give up for a job. Good luck to you.

I too am a new grad in my first nursing job. This is a second career for me -- I worked in sales/acct. management/service for 15 years. I was successful and made good money. I was tired of the corporate gig though. I was then a stay at home mom for 7 years, the latter part of which I was in nursing school. I did very well in school. I precepted at the same hospital/unit as I am now working. It went well enough so that they hired me! Long story short -- I am absolutely overwhelmed anyway! Tonight I start my fourth week of orientation. Last week was awful -- in fact, at one point I was walking down the hall saying to myself "I'm done". I found myself wondering if I could get hired back at my old company. Never in my life have I felt as disorganized and inept as I feel as a new nurse. My preceptor is a very good, and a somewhat new nurse (3 years). She is very young and knows her stuff and works very fast. However, she lacks patience with me. The other night I had a very difficult patient (I work L&D) and she had me do the admission assessment etc. However, the pt. was very needy and so I had to change her underpads several times and do several other things for her (pt. care before paperwork, right?!) during the period of time my preceptor had allotted for me to do the assessment. She was clearly irritated and although I told her that I had been attending to pt. needs/requests, I nonetheless felt that she thought I was an idiot or something. That is hard to deal with for us adult learners! I have wanted to be an L&D nurse for a long time but I am wondering if I am in over my head. I posted a thread in the OB/GYN forum and received some very good advice/support which I am going to try out. At the very least, I am going to complete my orientation and see how I feel at that point. One thing I know I am guilty of is being VERY hard on myself and imagining that everyone is talking about what an idiot the new nurse is. Not very good use of my energy. Good luck to all of you. In the spirit of the season: "God bless us, every one!!"

Thanks to all for your advice and encouragement. I've had a couple of days off to rejuvenate and have made up my own lists that I plan to carry with me to help me organize. I am going to hang in there at least through orientation -- hey they gave me 12 weeks for a reason right??!! Of course three of those were not spent on the floor so I end up with only 9........ah well. This forum has been a great source of encouragement through the NCLEX, job search process and now life as a new nurse. Thank you all!~

Hi jenrninmi: I started on the floor of a very busy L&D unit -- we do over 700 births per month -- on 10/31. I precepted on this very same unit from Jan-Mar 2006. I am now on nights with a couple of different preceptors, all of whom are very good. L&D is why I went into nursing. I don't know though -- I am feeling entirely overwhelmed and thinking that I may have made a big mistake. I connect very well with the patients and my nursing skills are fine. The time management is killing me. My preceptor told me last night that I'm "all over the place" and I agree with her. Post delivery when pit needs to be hung, the MD is complaining that the light isn't right, baby needs CBS, need to do my first PP check and chart all at the same time, do bands, admit baby........on and on. I still can't do it all on my own and honestly can't see myself on my own in 6 weeks. I'm only into my third week and want to give it the old college try, but I am having very serious doubts about my ability to handle the pressure. Also feeling frustrated with vag exams -- during my preceptorship I was right on 95% of the time. Since I started as an official nurse, I have been wrong 90% of the time. I don't know if it is the night shift - I feel fuzzy all the time. Maybe I should spend some time doing mother/baby and get some time management under my belt and then try L&D again, although I don't know if this hospital would rehire me if I bagged out after my L&D orientation. while I haven't made any mistakes (other than wrong vag exams) I feel like I'm about to be told that I just don't have what it takes to handle the pace. Gay

I don't know about the hospital as a good place to work, nor about the MacArthur Bart station per se, but the area where Kaiser Oakland is located is about 10 minutes from where I live in Oakland and as cities go, is pretty safe. My front door is often unlocked, I've lived in Oakland since 1988 and have never been the victim of a crime. Kaiser Oakland is off of Piedmont ave. which is a great shopping district and middle to high end in terms of retail. The BART station is several blocks from the hospital.

:flowersfo

Thanks for the replies to my post. Finally heard from the nurse manager who told me that at this particular hospital a .9 is 4 days on one week -- 11pm-7:30am alternating with 5 days the next week -- same hours. She then asked me if that is what I wanted and I replied that it was what she offered me and so I didn't know if I had a choice in the matter. She then asked if I'd prefer a .8 (which I would!!). She said she'd try to make that happen. My hospital does 700+ births per month and the majority of nurses work no more than 4 days in a row -- it's that intense. Thanks again!!!

Hi everyone. I was offered a position -- a night job with a .9 schedule. I know this works out to 36 hours per week, but not sure if it is 3 - 12s or something else. And me, in my excitement at receiving the job offer didn't think to ask at the time and I have been unsuccessful at reaching the nurse manager who is crazy busy, and the nurse recruiter is out of town. I know I'll find out sooner or later but as I am trying to mentally prepare for the night shift, I'd like to know if anyone out there is familiar with what a .9 position usually entails in terms of schedule. Thanks......

Congrats!! I am just a bit behind you ....I start my job on October 9! I will be orienting on days and then training on nights. Trying to get prepared for nights -- been on a bunch of websites etc. I am so excited too -- L&D is why I went into nursing. I will be at the same place I precepted Jan-March 2006. It is the high risk hospital for our region, very hectic but great place to learn a lot. I feel blessed to enter nursing at a time where we can enter our desired specialty right out of nursing school! Good luck to you!

That is great! Congrats!

Hang in there velvet126. I took my test on 7/19 and found out two weeks later that I passed. I was convinced I'd failed because, like you, most of my friends found out within 2-3 days. I was with my family on vacation in Hawaii and I was waking up in the middle of the night worrying and feeling humiliated thinking that I would have to come home and tell everyone that I'd failed. Here I was in Hawaii -- paradise -- and I was miserable! Don't give up hope. My school Fedex'd my transcripts on 7/13, but they weren't processed by the CA BRN until 8/1. They've probably got piles of them to go through. Don't lose the faith! Good luck!!

You are definitely not crazy nor are you the only one who recognizes the personal power a woman gains from going through labor. I was fortunate that during my preceptorship, my preceptor with 22 years of an L&D nurse had also been a doula and also recognized it. She was an incredible role model who, instead of sitting at the nurses station watching the monitors, was always in the room with her patient. You are right, very hard work coaching, encouraging position changes, and I still am having a hard time getting a FHR while a woman is laboring in the shower hugging a labor ball. But all worth it. That is not to say that if a woman really wants an epi she shouldn't have it. But, it's the nurse who keeps saying to the ones who don't: "are you ready for your epi now??" over and over. I experienced this as a doula several years ago. So, long story short, we are still out there!