Theocbean

I wanted to thank you all for your responses! I am beginning to see that my ER is not necessarily staffed well (which is more of an understatement). I have had times (for example) where I have been given 2 patients around the same time who needed a Cardizem bolus and drip (plus fluids and a mag drip and other meds), a patient in DKA (who needed insulin drip, fluids and Q 30 glucose checks) and 2 abdominal pains who were constantly ringing the call light. Once you max out your IV attempts with any patient you have to beg, borrow and steal to find someone who is not too busy to try and they can get a line in but cant get blood you end up asking the lab to draw blood can take up to 2 hours before they even are able to get to the patient. 3 out of 5 of these patients can't ambulate to the bathroom so just getting one of them on and off the bed pan or to and from the restroom via wheelchair can suck up at least 10 minutes of your time (which I don't mind doing but all my other tasks are piling up at this time). I have been this is how most ER's are by a few staff members who also think I am not fast enough. I would feel like Christmas to have 2 techs and 2 float nurses for all 30 patients.

I have worked as an ER nurse just shy of a year and a half. I was a new grad when I started. My unit has 35 beds (6 beds are dedicated to psych patients and/or overflow medical patients) and we are staffed for 5 patients to one RN. As with any other ER we have a charge and main triage nurse. We rarely have a tech and if we do it is one tech for the whole 35 bed unit and there are times the tech utilized as a sitter for psych patients. About 50-75% of the time we will have one float/triage 2 nurse whose main job is to bring patients to rooms, transport admission patients to the floor or discharge patients home. We usually see about 160-180 patients a day. With all this being said, I am curious about how other ER's run because I constantly feel like a terrible nurse and I have no other experience to compare to. I am always being made to feel like nothing is ever fast enough or good enough for management and the senior nurses. I truly love what I do and could not imagine doing anything else but I feel like a failure no matter how hard I work (even though I have been told my patients love me and I provide excellent nursing care). To make matters worse we might be moving half way across the country soon and I am scared of applying for an ER position only to end up feeling the same way I do now! Any advice, insight or personal experience regarding what other ER's are like would be greatly appreciated!!

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has completed the majority of their pre-reqs online before applying to an RN program (minus the few classes that have to be completed in a school/campus setting)? If so how did it work for you and what were the positives and negatives you encountered? The reason I ask is because I am an LVN licensenced in CA and I am depserate to get my ASN. My husband is in the military and we are currently stationed in Hawaii. Between military life, the high cost of living here, difficulty getting into the local community colleges and having 2 little ones at home, the only way I would be able to take classes is if they were online. My husband deploys frequently and when he is home his work schedule does not allow him to come home to watch the kids. Any advice, info or experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks