hisblueskies

I work for CMS in Arkansas and the salary is low compared to hospitals. I have been working in a male prison for the last 5 months and while there are things I enjoy I am having a hard time dealing with my co-workers. CMS tends to hire more LPN's than RN's. I have a BSN. All of the nursing special jobs like infection control, greivances and chronic care positions are run by LPN's. I am working PRN right now and am desparately trying to get benefits. Management is dragging their feet on getting them for me. I can understand that you have to be careful around prisoners but most of my coworkers are so mean to them. The other day when I was doing pill call a prisoner started to ask me a question about a rash on his arm and 2 nurses that were with me tore into him. They had alot of venom in their speech - one of them ordered him away from the window before he even got his morning meds. I thought it was uncalled for. You have to be firm with them but you don't have to tear their heads off when they respectfully ask you a question.

I'm n0t sure h0w it is in all states but I was t0ld that in my state that 0nce y0u have an RN license y0u may n0t practice as an LPN. Y0u must practice with the higher license. S0rry f0r the wierd 0's. My regular 0 0n my lapt0p has quit w0-rking and I have t0 use the zer0 whenever I need a 0.

I work the night shift and I usually take a couple of caffeine pills around midnight. They help. I won't take them after 4 a.m. because I want to go to sleep when I get home.

I know you feel devastated by what happened and are ready to give up nursing but please rethink this. When I had been a nurse for 10 months I too gave a medicine to a patient that he was allergic to. The allergy was right on top of his chart but I was in such a rush I completely missed it. Fortunately he didn't die from the mistake but the hospital asked me to leave. I moved on but I am no longer as enthusiastic about nursing as I first was. We all make mistakes and we don't make them intentionally. Take this as a painful learning experience and just move on.

IVRUS - Your way is the way I learned how to calculate flow rate. It is so simple doing it that way. I tried to teach my sister to do it this way when she was taking a pharm tech class and she just couldn't get it.

I agree with some of the earlier posts - if you are under stress and anxiety now it is only going to get worse on graduation. There is no shame in realizing you made a wrong choice - please do not continue unless you go through some major changes and your high stress levels go away. I have been a nurse for 3 years - have gone through some horrible and humiliating experiences and am at a point where I regret the decision to become a nurse. There are a whole bunch of us out there who realize we made a mistake and there's also a whole bunch out there that enjoy what they do and are pretty darn good at it. Nursing is not for everyone and there is no shame in realizing it is not right for you.

While working in a hospital I had a seriously ill patient. The daughter asked me how long I thought her mother had and I said her mother did not appear to be dying and she might live several days longer. She died a half hour after I said that. I learned my lesson in not giving out that kind of information.

I work for a prison in Arkansas and the pay is lower than the local hospitals. I am working PRN and the differential is only 50 cents an hour which I think is pretty pathetic. The stress is far lower though and the only place I don't like to go is segregation.

I agree with the above post - don't be afraid to try psych if that's what you want to do. There are no guarantees anywhere in health care that someday you won't get into a situation where you can be hurt. You could be helping someone who is having a seizure and be accidently struck. Floor nursing is very stressful especilly for new nurses or nurses with only 1 or 2 years experience. You have many opportunities in nursing - you are not limited to something you dislike. Good luck.

You have my sympathy. Nursing is one of the hardest jobs you will ever do and one of the most stressfull. I've been in nursing for 3 years, have tried different units, peds, med-surg, rehab, telemetry and am now doing correctional nursing. To be truthful-I'm sorry I ever went into the profession. The only thing that is keeping me in is the salary. Try to be kind to yourself and stay a little longer - you need to feel confident about your nursing skills and critical thinking skills. Time will help you gain the confidence you need. If after a while you still feel miserable and anxious then you need to rethink about what you want to do with your nursing license. You have worked very hard for it - I hope you can find the right area for yourself.

As far as backup with correctional officer goes - when I am with the general population I feel comfortable - there is always a corrections officer around if I need one. When I have to go to segregation to do treatments or pass pills a correction officer is with me as I gofrom cell to cell. These guys and gals are wonderful - they usually won't tolerate any prisoner giving me a hard time. For the most part I have been treated with politeness and respect from the prisoners - of course you will find more than your fair share of bad apples.

I'm with you 100% on this. After investing thousands of dollars in the BSN program over three years ago I am still having a hard time adjusting and am sorry I ever did this. Hospital nursing is probably not for you. There are many other areas of nursing you should look into. I am now doing correctional nursing and it is far less stressful. Don't give it up until you try other areas of nursing. You can work in a hospital without being a floor nurse. Look into case manager or maybe working in a smaller unit like dialysis or cath lab. Some hospitals have admissions nurses where all you do is admit new patients. It can take a while before you find the right spot for you. Good luck.

I think I would have told the daughter that she is interferring with her mother receiving nursing care and if she didn't back off I would call Security to escort her out of the building. I would tell her I would be happy to answer any questions she has about her mother's care but I am not going to be harassed by her. If she wants to complain let her do it but make sure you document this and what care you were giving the mother.

I don't think the nurse should have asked you to do it and she could get into trouble for doing so. Only licensed nurses are permitted to do narcotic counts. You need to let the floor manager know what happened.

I've only been working 2 weeks at a prison and I have already been named in a formal complaint by a prisoner. Thankfully I had no direct contact with the prisoner - I was a witness to the incident. From what I hear this is part of the job.