newbiern2006

Congrats from a St Vincent's Grad - I loved it there. God bless!:nuke:

No drinking AND driving, period. Drink but DON'T drive, I don't care - the occasional drink (or even very occasional inebriation, say, at a New Year's Eve party) is not a problem, but for God's sake, get a designated driver or take a cab home - duh! And alcoholism is a BIG problem. I haven't known one yet I'd trust as far as I can throw an elephant - and I've known a whole lot of them - up close and personal - you're barking up the wrong tree if you want any sympathy from me. I watched my beloved, broken-hearted cousin bury her only daughter, a beautiful (inside and out) 24 year old woman because some moron thought it was okay to drive drunk. Quitcherbichin' and knock off the drinking irresponsibly. Irresponsible outside of work, highly likely to be irresponsible at work - you can't hide what you are, and eventually that kind of drinking ruins your brain, and then you're impaired at work whether you've been drinking or not. I watched my father die slowly in an alcoholic dementia, and he was never aware of how impaired he'd become - nobody who drinks to excess on a regular basis has the right to be anywhere near patients.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My sister had a bumper sticker that said it bette tahn anything I've seen: "See Dick drink, see Dick drive, see Dick die. Don't be a Dick.":cry:

Yep, and I don't want one of'em to be my nurse.

Never had the flu in my entire life - had a really nasty, month-long reaction to the chicken pox vaccine, though, and now I get shingles on my face. The really stupid thing is, I HAD the chicken pox, nursed all five of my kids through the chicken pox and didn't get it from them because I am immune, but had to get the vaccine anyway, for nursing school, because my titers came back negative. Any body tries to make me get a flu shot, I'll get lawyer first.

I don't know about you, but I don't want anybody irresponsible enough (and obviously judgment-impaired enough) to drive drunk to be giving me meds or watching (or worse, not watching) my tele monitor or ... you get the idea. And as far as smoking and obesity go, how can that possibly compare? Smoking doesn't impair one's driving, and neither does obesity - nor do they impair one's judgment or clinical abilities. I suffered through nursing school with a classmate who was a drinker, and let me tell you, an entire group of us filed a formal complaint against her, because even sober, her drinking had impaired her abilities in clinical. Because she had not been caught drinking during school or clinicals, she was given multiple opportunities to improve her performance in clinical (she was a straight A student in theory). She was allowed to graduate and take the NCLEX, but there is not a single one of us who were her classmates that would EVER let her be our nurse.

On those cotton support hose - found a few brands. ComfoMED, cotton blend, firm compression Jobst Active, cotton blend, moderate or firm compression Jobst Sensifoot (not cotton, but claim to be "moisture wicking" to keep feet dry), mild compression, especially good for diabetics or those, like me, whose toes are extremely sensitive to "sock bumps" - otherwise known as seams Medi Motion Sport (also not cotton, but moisture wicking), don't know compression rating Siqvaris, cotton lined, firm or extra firm compression

Tee-hee - not embarrassed to admit it, stinky feet happen (quite a lot in my family;).) There is a brand that makes compression hose of cotton blend, nice and thick, too - I'll look them up and post it for you.

Not in my hospital - it's five days per year, period. I used up all of mine this past fall - I have asthma and allergies and get bronchitis easily in warm, wet weather, and if it happens to be Fall, with all its moldy leaves, it's even worse. My manage could not care less, and all she does is insist I do "better" - which means she wants me to come in sick, which I absolutely refuse to do. I can't be a good nurse if I can't think straight, and I sure as heck can't spread my germs to all those already-very sick patients, not to mention my coworkers. Last week, one of our long-time nurses came to work so sick she could barely talk, and ignored a patient who complained loudly of stomach pain all night long. She gave him Maalox, but that was it. When she did try to get the night intern to come, the intern refused, and she was just too sick and exhausted to fight about it. The nsg supervisor did nothing to back up this poor nurse (not an unusual occurrence - only one of our supervisors ever backs us up). It turned out the patient hadn't had a bowel movement in days, and on the day shift was finally able to get up to the commode and move his bowels, after which he was just fine. This nurse didn't call in sick because she'd called in sick two weeks before, and knew what our manager is like. Needless to say, this is just one more reason I'm not staying with this hospital. The VA in West Haven just 15 minutes away not only has better tuition reimbursement and health insurance, they have 13 sick days a year, a fabulous computerized documentation system, and they pay better.

No husband, no kids - if you're fairly intelligent (and you wouldn't have gotten into nursing school if you weren't), you can do this. I had both, and homeschooled, and worked full time, and catered my daughter's wedding, and helped her with her first baby, and ...well, you get the idea! It isn't easy, but it's the most important thing you'll ever do - for you, and for all the patients you're going to help. My only advice is to make a study schedule, and stick to it - and keep important due dates circled in red on a giant calendar with the assignment due written in, plus weekly reminders posted in the weeks prior to the due date.

time to chin up and thicken your skin!!! as they say in georgia (lived there three years) "done did it already!" it helped to talk with the nurses who were willing to listen, even if it meant wading through the ones who weren't. i've actually been able to lend a hand to other nurses on my shifts over the last couple of weeks, and the regulars on the night shift with me are much more supportive now that they understand just how woefully ill-oriented i was.

I worked crummy jobs a lot longer than three years, and I couldn't agree more, and except for God and my family, nothing is more important to me than nursing - all the more reason to protect my license with rabid fierceness. The money ain't bad, either:nurse:

i wasn't talking about an unfamiliar drug - my drug handbook is with me at all times, as is my rn notes. i'm talking about something i don't even know how to begin figuring out for myself - like entering information from a blood transfusion in the computer. i literally begged for help with that one, and every single nurse heaved a sigh and walked away from me - one had the nerve to tell me i should have learned it in orientation. well, i didn't, even though i asked repeatedly for instruction sheets for the various computer tasks involved in our job. i was told, "oh, don't worry about that right now, you'll learn it when you're on the floor." oh, really? and just exactly how am i going to do that with the nasty attitudes i've been running into? i am not a whiner - i graduated magna cum laude in spite of some very difficult circumstances, and i never once complained about the workload in school when all my classmates whined until i was ready to scream. but there are some things i just can't do alone, and learning my way around the computer is one of them. i wasn't taught how to enter a stat chest x-ray, for example - do you really think my patient had time for me to "go look it up" (there wasn't anywhere to look it up)?!!!!! i was left looking incompetent, when the orientation is what was incompetent.

I have low arches, plantar's fasciitis, and low back spinal stenosis, and hands down, my Nikes are the best for me. I once read an article (sorry, don't remember where) that helped people pick walking shoes, sneakers, etc by the type of feet they have, and sure enough, Nikes are built for-low arched feet. If you're having trouble finding shoes that don't hurt, maybe you can track down this article, or another like it.

i'm not gonna flame ya - you made me laugh:lol2: i'm new, but, except for the part about watching over a newbie (i am the newbie!) i've already been through many shifts like this - and believe me, i am not a nice person when my blood sugar is in deficit! (i especially have no patience for newbie interns who heave sighs every time i have to call them in the middle of the night because an md order is screwed up - thay know i can't fix it, but their attitude is "if the patient isn't on the verge of death, leave it for the dayshift." yeah, that's gonna fly with the day nurses, not to mention what'll happen to me if i don't fix a med order and give the med to the patient, or whatever else the problem is.)

This is exactly what I was taught - and the reason for using the vastus lateralis instead of the gluteal site was the risk of hitting the sciatic nerve and causing the patient excrutiating, unnecessary pain that can last months. The risk is real, too - it happened to both me and my daughter.

I recently was taught how to do IVs by the IV nurse where I work. She taught me to open all my supplies, put on the tourniquet, feel all the veins, cleanse the one I want to access, and THEN glove up. I've only missed a couple of really tiny veins so far, so it's working well, and the patient and I are both protected. Something else interesting I read at work last night was that it's very important to wash well BEFORE putting on the gloves, something I've already been doing, but with the hand sanitizer, not soap and water. I've always thought it was counterproductive to stick one's unwashed hands into a box of gloves, contaminating the outside of the gloves, and now I know I wasn't being paranoid. Another poster said something about this in another thread about cupfeeding newborns.

Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement - but "go look it up" could never work in today's environment where hospital stays are shorter and, consequently, patients are sicker than they were a couple of generations ago. I literally don't have time to "go look it up" - my patients need my attention NOW, not after I take 15 minutes or half an hour to "go look it up." Even though I am barely managing my own patients' care, I never, ever turn down a request for help from another nurse or aide, I don't think I'm asking too much for the same respect, consideration, and courtesy in return. My patients love me, and many ask how long I've been at the hospital in which I work. When they learn I am a new nurse, many are surprised and tell me it seems like I've been a nurse forever. I know I am going to be alright, but it didn't have to be this difficult and stressful - some other nurses I know who have had competent orientation and work in new-nurse-friendly environments are much happier than I am in their new roles. I am not "whining," I'm just terrified of screwing up and losing the license for which I worked myself nearly to death because I work in such a negative environment. I have spoken up to several nurses recently about my concerns and some of them have been much more supportive - not all of them were aware of how I was struggling (and why) and are trying to help me more instead of being impatient when I don't know something.

Hi teleRNer - I'm a night shift tele nurse, too. I LIKE nights - I'm a natural night owl, always have been. It isn't for everyone, though - maybe it's not for you. Be that as it may, the first thing you need to do is get heavy, lined drapes to make the room pitch black and as quiet as possible, preferably in the room farthest from the noise of the street. You need darkness and quiet to sleep properly. If you need to, you can use one of the newer sleep meds, like Lunesta, that don't leave you with a hangover. Then, live like you work days - your evenings will be free just as if you did. As for days off, I find I can sleep all day after working a shift, do whatever I want to in the evening, and then sleep all night, waking refreshed the next morning with an entire day ahead of me. A short nap (or even just resting in a darkened quiet room ) for an hour or two before the next work shift is all I need to get me through my first day back after being off for a couple of days.

...no one expects the novice to have the knowledge level of the experienced preceptor Ha! They do where I work - I was thrown to the wolves of night shift after just two short weeks on day shift orientation, and on my own after just three inadequate weeks of orienting on nights with a nurse who a) Never worked nights before and didn't know the night routines, and b) didn't want want to do it, neither did she want to precept anybody, she was just doing it for the money. I went to my supervisors to explain I just wasn't well-enough oriented to be on my own, but to no avail. If one more day nurse rolls her eyes and accuses me of not doing my job because I wasn't aware of something I needed to do or I ask for help with something I don't know yet, especially after I've just spent 13 straight hours without a break, nothing to eat or drink, trying to "do my job" while cleaning up the mess (literally, as many of them are horrible slobs, also in work left undone by the day shift, and scrambling for simple supplies like flushes and syringes because they can't be bothered restocking and leave everything empty) I swear, I will slap the crap out of her. Just yesterday morning, after working a 12 hour shift I was called in for because a nurse called out sick, and dealing with nine patients, half a dozen of whom were sundowners screaming all night and climbing over their rails all at the same time, the same nurse who did such a lousy job of precepting me had the gall to say "You night nurses don't know how easy you have it!" I replied that she didn't know anything about how difficult nights can be, and that everyone always thinks other shifts don't work as hard as they do. She said she'd worked them all and knew it all, and I, sick of her negative b.s. (she's always sour and nasty), promptly reminded her I'd worked nights with her, and she'd never stopped bitching. She shut right up - because she knew it was the truth. I will not put up with any more disrespect or abuse from ANYBODY - I don't care if they were a nurse before I was born (I'm 47). I work HARD - and I've had to learn eveything the hard way. I deserve respect, and a little help when I ask for it without all the attitude.

I just finished a graduate theory class in December, and I had to write a concept analysis paper as part of it - aced it, too! Once I got to reading the different theorists' work, I realized that the practice theories are quite helpful, and I think they shoud be included in all basic level nursing courses, according to subject. As for the more abstract theorists, they're work is what leads to the development of the practice theories. Abstract yes, but necessary for the promotion of nursing as a profession, not just skilled labor.

If you have to wait two years to get into an RN program, you may as well go for LPN in the meantime - as one poster pointed out, you'll then have great earning power while you continue on to your RN. The state of Connecticut runs an LPN program out of some of the technical high schools and it's very inexpensive (it used to be free, but I don't know about now.) My sister-in-law went to Bullard-Havens in Bridgeport, as did one of the best nurses I've ever worked with. It's worth checking out.

Terry here - new nurse, as you can see by my screen name. I am a staff nurse on tele in a small southwestern community hospital, but will be switching to homecare/hospice soon. Happy New Year all - and good luck to those of you taking the NCLEX soon!

Congratulations and best of luck to you both, for deciding to become nurses and for choosing St. Vincent's. I just graduated from there last May, and it was the best experience of my life, outside of motherhood, that is!