flyakite80

Before becoming a nurse, I was an Administrative Secretary for 15 years - 6 years in a nursing home and 9 years in a hospital. While I was in nursing school, I worked as a Unit Secretary at a hospital part time. I am now in my 6th year of nursing a...

I just recently came off of a schedule where I worked 3 12-hour nights during the week every week. At first, it was horrible. My body fought me every step of the way. I was nauseous, I couldn't eat at night, I had a terrible time staying awake at ...

You do NOT have to take that kind of abuse from a patient. Just because you're the nurse doesn't mean you are someone's personal doormat. If someone were treating you that way in any other situation, would you tolerate it? You have rights too. The...

I work nights 7p-7a and sometimes I don't sit down to chart until 4 AM. It all depends on what's going on with your patients. I have many more hard nights than I do easy ones. And it's just like any other job that is 24 hours - of course there are...

I'm glad to see you have an offer, good luck!!

I am also about to hit the 6-month mark and things are only going to get more complicated, since after 6 months you can be pulled and you have to take charge. Talk about adding more chaos... I'd like to do something else but I wouldn't leave unless ...

Congratulations! It's nice to see at least some people are finding positions. I am not really crazy about my job but I don't take it for granted for one second... I know I'm lucky to even have one. Good luck!

That is totally irresponsible of your facility to put you on your own after just 15 days of orienting!! I'm sorry but if I were you, I'd be getting out of there ASAP. It's not safe for you or your patients. They are jeapordizing your new license!!

I have to laugh seeing what I posted back in September. I am in my 3rd month of doing nights and it's really not so bad after all. At first I felt nauseous when waking up in the afternoon, but I learned what I could and couldn't eat at 3 a.m. and ...

I can't stress enough to my friends who are still in school to get in somewhere NOW, doing something, anything, just get your foot in the door! I worked as a secretary for 3 years (while going to school) at the hospital where I now work as a nurse, a...

If I am contagious or sick enough that I simply cannot function, I will call out. I don't get sick that much. However, I've only been on my own a few months and had to call out on New Year's Eve. I had an acute case of laryngitis and sinusitis, it...

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I would imagine it would, most of the patients on our telemetry floor would be med/surg patients if they didn't have some type of cardiac history or new cardiac issue. We also get med/surg overflow patients. And I agree that you don't necessarily ha...

I graduated in May and have been working on a telemetry unit since July 08. Originally I wanted to work on med-surg because that's the area I was most familiar with. But there was nothing available that would fit my life at the time, so I went for ...

I used the Saunders book and also took the Kaplan review course which included a weekly 3 hour long review session, a book and online access to review videos. I passed my boards the first time, and I really feel the review course was the key to passi...

I feel your pain... my own sister wasn't interested in coming to my pinning ceremony or my graduation and I was heartbroken. I just couldn't believe she wouldn't want to be there to share such a huge accomplishment in my life. But then again, nursi...

I am also a new nurse who works on a telemetry unit. I work 12 hour night shifts and I'm supposed to be leaving at 0715 every morning. I have been on my own for 2 months and haven't left on time once! I usually leave around 0800 if I'm lucky, that...

Some of the night nurses do eat at the desk, and I have on occasion... but I'm trying to get better about taking my break to the back room. Sometimes it does feel like it's impossible but you have to make the time if you can.

Great words of encouragement! I can't wait until I can say I don't feel like I'm drowning. I've been off orientation for about 2 months now, I just want to make it to the 6 month mark without having a nervous breakdown!

This is HUGE! I couldn't agree with you more. I can't tell you how many times I didn't get very vital information in report. Thankfully I learned while I was on orientation to check the orders and the chart before treating the patient.

Do you work at my hospital? :chuckle Sounds so familiar. The only difference is we are never overstaffed, always understaffed. Nobody gets sent home. I am new too and I'm learning quickly that this is the nature of the profession, there are a lot ...

Don't forget about past medical history, allergies, and precautions (isolation, fall, seizure, etc.).

I have purchased from several places online. www.marcusuniforms.com is a good one. Another one I have used is www.scribbidyscrubs.com but they are really slow to ship. Their low prices do make up for the slow shipping! And their customer service is...

This is one of the biggest things I hate about working over night - deciding what's important enough to call the doctor for and what can wait till morning. I had my first experience with a doctor who I apparently upset because I called him shortly a...

I have been on nights since the last two weeks of my orientation - a total of about 6 weeks now. When I was on days during orientation, yes it was very crazy - lots of visitors, doctors, management, social workers, etc. etc. to deal with. Patients ...