dainty

i just finished my orientation period at a toronto-area hospital, and i really want to nominate my preceptor for some kind of award for doing a great job... she REALLY deserves it, she was so patient with me.......... i want everyone to know how great she is! does anyone know of a preceptor award in Canada? there was one at my school, but i am not in school anymore so i am not eligable. hope you can help!!

i have amazing days and terrible days but i am LOVING being a new grad in the ER... i love it more than any of my clinical placements, and i am glad i followed my heart. these links were all amazing and helped me to be more confident about my choice, as well as helped me survive my first month getting to know everyone on the floor... my tips: 1) everyone says it but: ASK AS MANY QUESTIONS AS YOU HAVE. yes, you will be annoying, but most nurses will not hate you for it. they expect you to be annoying. even if it's something stupid and you realize you know the answer, you can just say "oh yeah, duh... thanks for reminding me!"... but it has made me learn SO MUCH. 2) be HUMBLE. no one wants a know-it-all on the floor... i have deep respect for all the nuses on my floor, and i realize that their years of experience are more important than any amount of school education ever... i think the nurses i work with realize how much a cherish what they teach me, from little tips to important concepts. 3) don't be fake... especially in the ER, nurses can smell BS from a mile away HA HA HA. 4) do things ONE AT A TIME... as you grow & learn you can cut corners, but make sure you focus on one order/one step at a time or you will get confused... trust me! even experienced nurses need to "take it down a notch" and just focus on one at a time sometimes. MOST people really can wait. 5) don't worry about not having that 'sense' to know when patients are crashing or are really sick. i did not think i could tell at all... but you will know it when you see it! and don't be afaid to have another nurse to peek at your pt if they look 'funny' or 'off'. 6) YOU WILL BE SLOWER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. but still try not to panic and rush.... that's how you make mistakes. you will become faster. it's frustrating... VERY frustrating sometimes (trying to get bloods and do an IV while your other patients need things, you feel like you will never catch up). but it will come. 7) don't be afraid of the docs. get used to talking to them sooner than later. they're just people! we are actually lucky in the ER, we don't have to worry about paging the docs, they are right there to just casually ask things. some will be nice, some won't... it's life. but it's for your patient, so it is your job. blushing won't kill you, ha ha. 8) take time to WASH YOUR HANDS, often. it's easy to skip this when you're so busy, and many nurses don't do it as often in the ER as other floors, but TRUST ME, get in the habit. my preceptor taught me to never touch a patient for ANYTHING without gloves on... except maybe taking tape or bandages off, that gets tricky. 9) try to meet everyone! from the unit clerk, to bedbooking, to the porters, EVERYONE is sooo important to know and communicate on the floor... even just learning where stuff is, non-nurse staff is able to help in a pinch, and it is nice to know their names! 10) you can do it if i can. no one feels like more of a spazzy nevous nuse than me, but i WANT to be good at it, and i feel like i AM going to be! i love to go home and look up stuff... the learning curve has been HUGE! but i feel lucky... i can't wait to be as smart as the other nurses on my floor.... even after a YEAR i can't imagine how much smarter i'll be... i feel like i have seen a little bit of everything!

In my clinical group of four girls, TWO of those girls left their hospital jobs within 3 months.... One got a PHN job, and the other is working in a diet clinic. I am sticking mine out, but mostly because they have put so much time and effort into training me, I feel guity for quitting so soon.. I want to give it more of a chance, see if I become more comfortable. I feel like 6 months to a year is a fair amount of time! I work in the ER. I like it better than ANY of my clinical placements, but I still get nervous stomach aches to go in. I am almost off orientation. The orientation is not enough time (12 weeks, and one of those weeks was not on the floor but in a classroom)... but they are SO generous with stuff.... like PALS and ACLS which were conditions of me having within a year of hire.... they PAID for the courses for me and pay me the hours I'm taking them.... so they really want me to stay and I feel like I owe it a good shot.

i'm a new nurse and i'm finally off orientation!! but now i have to plan my life in advance..... we do self scheduling on my floor and it's time to sign up!! any tips?? i work full times which means 80 hours a week (usually 6 12 hour shifts and 8 hour)..... i have to work 4 weekends in an 8 week period and half nights..... any tips on how i can wrap my head around figuring this out?? i was looking for resources online, but i'm just so confused.. i'm not used to thinking this way!

Something has to be changed. It's cruel and unual punishment, and I cannot think of another profession it happens to. However I think that no one complains because once you get your marks back you are on the top of the world, or else too busy studying to complain, so it's not a priority. Did it take this long to come back before the short answers were added?

I wouldn't listen to anyone who says "it's all maternity" or "it's all pediatrics" etc... because each person perceives things differently, of course you're going to remember the questions you had trouble with the most clearly! I used the Mosby's review book (the 2006 version, the big orange one) and found it very detailed....... perhaps even too much detail... however I found that it made me feel extra prepared and confident going into the exam. I also did the "leaRN CRNE prep guide from the CNA, which I found easier than the Mosby's review. The actual CRNE is probably somewhere in the middle of both of those for difficulty and the "leaRN" guide uses identical wording to the actual exam, it helps you get used to the kinds of questions you will be asked. It's a lot of psychosocial stuff and critical thinking, which you will probably be able to work out if you've gotten this far! As for the short answers, I have no advice to give except think SMALL, think BASIC... don't overlook the easiest answer. And when all else fails, be creative! Bring a lunch to the exam and eat breakfast!! The length of it was more intense than I thought it would be (probably also because I had trouble sleeping the night before because of nervousness). Good luck!!!

I finally got mine! Passed!! PHEW. All the waiting was worth it... I was so nervous, my mailman must be slow, I got it two days after my classmates. Hopefully I will stop having my CRNE dreams now! WOOOOO! Congrats to us all!! :cheers: Gentle, hope you've heard by now too!! xoox

I have to restrain myself from posting "WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN" because that's all I want to know is when we get our results back. I wrote my exam in June, and I love your description of how you felt about five minutes into the exam, because it's exactly how I felt.... "Is this for real?!" After I left the exam (feeling awful), I waited outside waiting for my freinds and noticed that every other person coming out of the room looked like I felt, so hopefully that means we are all in the same boat! One of my friends fell asleep during the afternoon part and then got up, splashed some water on her face and continued. I also took a prep course. However I feel that even if I failed (crossing fingers no), I would know what to expect out of the 8 hours if I have to re-take it, so I feel I would be braver and use my time wisely even though I know it is brutal. I'm saying this now but if I ever did have to re-take I would probably go crazy! xoox

I decided to take the summer off as well, and I feel like it was a huge mistake! I have had so many dreams about the exam results (pass ones and fail ones!). I just want to get the results so that I can get on with my life! And I am paronoid to look for a new job in case I ever did fail... Yikes! However, I know that if (when?!) I pass, I will feel like I have really 'earned' something after all this worrying!! xox.