CSHRN

It depends on the unit and the hospital, but in the units I have worked for in my hosptial the days jump around. Some people request to work 3 in a row to get a few more days off on the end, but it doesn't always work out that way, especially with per diems and part timers in the mix.

Did anyone else get annoyed at the line from Grey's Anatomy last night, October 29th, where one doctor says to Dr. Grey who will be assisting Dr. Shephard in the OR "Sounds like your his *****." Then ends with "Have fun playing nurse." Lines like this mess with the public's perception of Registered Nurses.

I get it all the time. I'm 25 years old, a lieutenant in the army reserve and have been a registered nurse for 3 years now. I am tired of the ER population looking at my ID after I have identified myself, or calling me "kid," "son," asking how long I've been a nurse, or when I finished school. Just the other day while orienting a new nurse I missed an IV start and asked my orientee, who is older than me, to give it a try. Later he told me the patient said, "I guess the newbie couldn't get it." I've heard I will look good in the future, but I want to be taken seriously right now.

I am an Army Reservist working in an ER on the civilian side. My hospital requires me to work two weekends a month. Add that to drill weekend and it comes out to three weekends a month at work. I am sure I am not the only one who has to deal with this. Any suggestions from those who have "been there done that" to get a better situation. I have tried to think of what nursing fields I could switch to. I like the challenge of the ER and have been there a little less than a year, so I feel leaving would be quitting, but I need to reclaim my sanity. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

I found this older thread looking up an issue I have recently faced, so forgive me if there are newer threads on this topic out there.... I am glad to see that my hospital isn't the only one dealing with rudness from floor nurses. I was once a floor nurse and know what it's like up there. I think its funny when they try to explain to me like I dont know what its like, because I do. Now in the ER, I constantly get attitude. The floors don't like getting patients, they are always with a patient, or mad that I don't know every last detail about the patient's life story. My places is so busy, I don't have time for the details that I floor nurse would be concerned with. Forgive me for not knowing their diet, but it is in the orders. Just read the chart. In the ER, all I have to go on is the triage sheet, where as the floor as the full story written down. And I'm tired of being hung up on. How can these "caring nurses" go take care of peoples loved ones when they hang up on their coworkers?

Haven't been in the ER long, but no lunches are common. That hour is critical to recharging the batteries and getting away from the hecticness. Managment is working on hiring more, but the process is slow. I hope I don't get burned out because I love ER Nursing.

We just got an entirely new mangement team and they are amazing. It is great to see management out on the floor helping with patient care when it gets crazy as well as being there to mentor and laugh with. When it gets crazy, the meetings stop and they come out to help decompress the ED. I'm glad the old team is gone. I got a thankyou card in my mailbox thanking me for the hard work I did the other day. They put out bowls of dove chocolate each day for us. I am really glad to work for a team the supports its players.

I have the opportunity to get a position in the ER or an ICU. Both appeal to me. I know each unit has it's own "personality." I need to decide which one fits me better. Can anyone offer advice on those personalities so I can be better informed when making this decision.

I'm sure answers are going to be generally the same, but what are everyone's thoughts on Jcaho visits? I for one am glad they are here so they can go and we are done with all this for 3 years. The bosses are crazy and the rules are in full force. Cleaning crews I have never seen before are making appearances, calling people back into work to correct mistakes in notes, over staffing the day shift and the list goes on, have all shown up this week. Shouldn't Jcaho see the place as it usually is? I know that when anyone is looked at, you put your best foot foward but to me this clearly shows that with current staffing and procedures, in order to "pass" we have to have extra staff with people dedicated to reviewing charts to correct mistakes that are not life threating but happen. For example calling back a nurse who forgot to write "RN" after her name . Basically I think the show that is being put on for Jcaho is silly and if Jcaho falls for it, that is even funnier.

I was working with a Spanish speaking patient before I got our translation services set up and he says, "I don't understand english" and continues speaking to me in spanish. O told him, "Senor, I don't understand english" I realized what I said as soon as I said it, but so did the other english speaking patients in the four beded room.

I wish I could exercise but I am way too tired. Even on my days off, there is a "leftover" tiredness that doesn't leave and makes it difficult to get up and go running. I had two weeks off a few weeks ago, the longest time off since I've been in nursing and switched back to a normal sleeping cycle and had more energy than I've had in two years.

I work someone now that has a pretty poor professional work ethic that has fed up most of my other coworkers. We have brought this nurse's comments and actions, or lack thereof at times, to the attention of the manager. Nothing seems to really be done about it. But then again, maybe there was a discussion, but from our end it seems the same. When it is allowed to happen over and over again, it gets pretty discouraging that we work so hard and others can coast and get away with it.

Go ahead and switch. I see you already have a sense of humor which will come in handy in this career. Good luck to you.

I've been working a year and a half and have thought about quitting myself. I don't know what else I would do besides nursing. At first I really enjoyed working and then reality set in. Long hours, sick patients, short staffing, the night shift, working weekends, managers, and the list goes on. Aside from all of these, I like the profession better than I thought I would when I was in nursing school. I'm not planning on giving up, but I am planning on chosing an area of nursing that best fits me and my personality. My advice to other newer RNs would be to give nursing a chance because there ARE so many different areas to specialize in and can find your niche.

This is slightly off topic, but do any of you actually use a nursing diganosis in your practice? How does it fit in? And why does it fit in? We all know the reason the patient is there, what is called the medical diagnosis, but is it true we all learn about disease process in school. I understand that nurses are not allowed to diagnose, but what is wrong with taking the medical diganosis and knowing the nursing roles related to that. Does anyone truely follow nursing careplans or is stuff made up by non practicing theorist that "think" up ways to "empower" nurses?

I have recently took care of a patient with an unsteady gait that needed to get up to the bathroom multiple times. He kept getting up on his own instead of waiting for staff to walk him to the bathroom as I assured him we would if he called us first. After enough of walking in finding him enroute to the bathroom, I offered him a urinal jug instead of walking to the bathroom each time he had to go. He told me, "It won't work, my pri@k is too small, I can't get it in the bottle." I laughted and just reminded him again to call for help next time.

Yup. Exactly. I'm kind of afraid to go to work out of fear of making another mistake and undergoing more reeducation or "sitdowns" as I call them. Now dont get me wrong, I am all for learning from my mistakes, but I ask myself, am I making more mistakes then everyone else, or just in the spot light? I am scared to get a patient with "issues" because that means the manager will go through the chart later. On the bright side, I have been told that sometimes the manager 'picks" someone to follow for a time period. And another person recently had a patient with "issues" and said "great now i'm going to have all my charting reviewed in the morning." when I hear that I know I'm not alone, but I also know Im in a toxic environment. Like you said Alex, we are new. and still learning. it takes time.

I'm looking for a little friendly advice. I've been off orientation about 7 months now and feel my confidence has been growing each day as I learn more. Just the other night had my second code. It had a successful outcome, but my night was thrown off, I was pretty frazzled the rest of the night and wound up not as complete in my assessments as I usually am. This morning my manager sat me down in the office to point out the mistakes I had made that night, and I admit to all of them, not making any excuses. In addition in this meeting, from a seperate incident about a month ago, I was issued a "written warning" for a situation that occured with a patient. (It was a mistake that was caught without harm to the patient, and in this situation through the rules of delagation, I'm ultimatly the one responsible.) Again I accept that too. I am not making excuses for my actions but I felt the code resulted in my lack of detail that night, and that was not mentioned in this meeting by my manager, though it was known that was the night this all occured until I mentioned that all that was pointed out occured the same night. Nothing like this has ever happened before to me. I think it will be hard to work comfortably if I need to watch over my shoulder all the time. I was told the meeting was about "reeducation" but I felt persicuted. Mistakes by others have been treated in similar manner of passive aggression. All in all, I can't say that I have been happy working in my unit, especially for my current manager, and now with the warning in my file, it will be hard to change units. My problem is this: now I feel like I'm going to be watched excessively, on thin ice and I can't exactly leave right now either. And even if I make sure that I dont repeat my mistakes, how can I be sure not to have another. I really try my best to provide the best patient care I can. I'm at a loss of who to turn to either about this because I don't need gossip either.

I like everything about the night shift except that it is at night. For all the same reasons everyone posted already-calmer, better pay, less orders being written, no family members, patients not leaving for tests, and the night crew is great. What I don't like is how tired I am, or how the night staff is treated. Anything that the day shift doesn't want to do gets pushed to the night staff. Day shift working short?-no way they get a float, not nights. The cafeteria closes at two am, so sometimes we are left to eat dinner out of a poorly stocked vending machine. And some nights I don't get a break. I don't understand how my patents are supposed to be asleep all night, but I and constantly going for the entire 12 hours. But, I like who I work with and that gets me through it.

The 344th. Interesting. We are spread out over three locations Ft. Dix, NJ, Ft. Hamilton, in Brooklyn, and Ft. Totten in Queens. I'm at Ft. Totten.

So I went to my first drill. For any soon to be reservists, this is what I learned my first weekend: 1. Hurry up and wait. There will be a lot of waiting for something to happen and when that something happens it will be expected to be done right away, and then back to waiting. 2. The army is very good at killing...trees. There is a lot of paperwork and signing your name. 3. Put yourself out there and introduce yourself. I found that by telling people I was new they took me in and offered pieces of advice. 4. You will meet a lot of great Americans that have similiar interests to you. Nursing and serving America. 5. Read as much as you can and learn as much as you can about the military and ask current/former military members as much and as many questions so that you will be as best informed as you can be. It was a good experience and I have a lot to learn. Im looking foward to it. If anyone has any questions send me a message.

I got the officer's guide book when I took the oath of office and have read it already. I have been reviewing the ranks too. My first drill is this weekend coming, the 14th and 15th.

Hello to everyone on this forum. I have been reading for a while but this is my first post. Next weekend will be my first Battle Drill Assembly as a direct commission RN with no prior military service. After calling the unit administrator, I was informed to show up at the next drill, in uniform, with a copy of my order so that inprocessing can begin. I have a few questions about this that maybe someone here can answer? What will be done during inprocessing? How much am I expected to know and follow of military culture? - I'm a little nervous about being a 2LT without knowing anything, like saluting and who to salute, slang and acronyms How long does it take to get acclimated to a unit? What takes place during drills? What will be expected of me as a 2LT RN? I'm sure I have more questions. If you can thing of anything else pertenant that I should know, add that in in a response to this post. I'm pretty nervous about starting my USAR career, but above all I'm excited to get started.