NorfolkRN

I really appreciate the input from a nurse outside the US! I have wondered what it was like in the UK. I found alot of info on staffing in Australia but not the UK.

What an interesting story! The idea that nurses are being denied the opportunity to give the kind of care they know their patients deserve to because of staffing in hospitals and LTC facilities. It makes me so angry because I know that what it really comes down to is money, the hospital doesn't want to spend the money to hire the nurses. And what that really says to the people of a community is "we care more about money than about our patients." Your story perfectly illustates the point I am trying to make in this paper. I too have left the bedside and am so much happier even though it makes me sad because I loved caring for patients in the hospital, I didn't love all the bullsh*t that i had to deal with but I loved my patients. Thanks for the great input!

People used to 24 hr shifts @ a hospital in CA where I worked and I thought they were crazy but being forced to work because there is no one there to relieve you is a nightmare. Its sad that things like that happen every moment of every day in this country because I think that alot of administrators at places like where you were think nurses are disposable. Thanks so much for the input for my paper. I really appreciate it!

You hit the nail on the head, its not the work that makes it so stressful, its knowing that you can't provide the quality of care that the pt needs, especially in the ICU. I was an ICU RN before leaving the hospital setting and the most that I had to take care of was 3 and that was a nightmare but 4 is unimaginable to me. Well, I am definitely going to be quoting you in my paper. Thanks for replying!

I can't even imagine. . .Thanks for replying. I really appreciate it!

I am sure this is a very common topic on this forum but I'm going to ask anyway. I am working on a research paper for an English class (I'm trying to get my prereqs for my RN-BSN) that is a proposal for nationwide mandated nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. I have quite a number of scholarly articles and stats and all that good stuff but I want some stories from the frontlines to show my classmates what really goes on in the hospital.

About 7 months into my nusring career I was doing peritoneal dialysis for the first time after orientation. I was working in the ICU and it was only once in a blue moon that we got a patient requiring this treatment. After reviwing the policy and procedure manual I preceded to start the treatment. Well, i should have asked for help because I was so nervous that instead of first draining the indwelling fluid I infused a whole other bag of dialysate into this poor woman's abdomen! To make matters worse, before I realized my mistake I had to transfer the patient. Thankfully the nurse I gave report to on the other unit picked up on this after the patient complained of severe abdominal pain and drained all 2000mL of fluid. The director of my department came to me a couple of hours later and when I realized what I had done, I was absolutely devestated. I wanted to leave nursing completely. I was horrified that I had caused someone to be in pain when i had entered the profession to alleviate other's pain. My director was very understanding and changed the policy in our unit so that dialysis nurses had to come to our unit to perform peritoneal dialysis because we did it so rarely. Whenever you perform a procedure that you have never done before, consider asking a more experienced nurse to watch you so that they can offer assistance if necessary. Never perform a procedure that you don't feel comfortable doing! But if you do make a mistake (which you inevitably will, we all do!) just learn from it and move on. That's the best you can do.

My understanding of the MM situation is that there is no "official" database of MM users kept by the states where it is legal. When I worked in CA there was a marijuana "pharmacy" where patients who were prescribed the drug could pick it up. There was no database in the sense that there is some huge list that CA keeps of everyone getting weed; everything was between the pt and the MD. As far as getting an RN license, i don't see any reason why that would even need to be addressed since that is a HIPAA issue (there is no need for the BON to know that someone is using MM). The only place you would run into a problem is making it past a potential employer's pee test.

First off make sure that you take care of yourself first. Are you staying tired all the time? In nursing school i found that when i was having trouble with something and would step away from it for awhile and then return to it rested and refreshed I would do better with it. Sometimes when you think about something too much you get "paralysis by analysis" I would also think about talking to my instructor about concepts you are having difficulty applying when it comes to test questions. Take heart; nursing school is much harder than the preparation for most careers. My sister just graduated with a degree in psychology and she didn't have to work half as hard as i did to get my nursing diploma. If you know you were meant to be a nurse, you can do it!!!!! Keep your chin up and take care. :roll

I started taking care of open heart pts about 2 years ago after 3 years of general ICU nursing. I enjoy it because I get to see very sick people get better quickly (usually). They come out on all these gtts and you're giving all this volume getting them stabilized. The focus then turns to getting them extubated ASAP then hopefully by the next morning they're up in the chair having breakfast. I find it extremely rewarding. However sometimes they become chronic pts with multiple organ system dysfunction and you're stuck with them for weeks then it becomes more like regular ICU care. Surgeons are are taking sicker and sicker patients now so you get folks with 10% EFs with alot of comorbidities. I have only worked in the ER once in my entire career so it is hard for me to say whether you would find CSICU enjoyable. I found the ER somewhat frustrating because of how unpredictable it was not knowing what would roll through the door next but a little bit exhilirating because of the fast pace and pt variety. The CSICU is pretty predictable "cookbook" nursing. There are very bad crashing pts sometimes but they are variations on the same theme. Make sure the unit functions well as a team so you know you'll always have help which I find is essential in dealing with these types of pts. Hope that helps. Best of luck to you

jennifer- i think that's a great idea. i too along with a friend wrote a letter to her after she did her "favorite things" show with an audience of all teachers. we said that while teachers also have a very difficult and demanding job, nurses face at least as much if not more stress at their jobs. If anyone deserves to get all those goodies its nurses! As to your apprehension about becoming an RN, yes it is tough and can be extremely stressful since its people's lives that are in our hands. Sometimes you have to make decisions the outcome of which, if the wrong one is made, could be death. However if you know that were meant to be a nurse and i think nursing is definitely a divine calling, you will be a good one and you will find it to be very satisfying. You will take care of people that you just really connect with and you will literally save their lives or at least make them better. They will look you in the eye and say "thank you for taking care of me" and then you will that all the crap that you have dealt with from doctors, your coworkers, other patients was worth for this one moment. And you will have many of those moments in your career. Best of luck to you.

I graduated from a diploma program in 2001 and have never gotten anything but respect from my coworkers regardless of their own educational levels. When i started in the ICU along with several other new grads some who had diplomas and others who had BSNs, it was quite obvious who had better clinical skills. I had spent twice as much time in the hospital setting compared to my bachelors prepared colleagues. However if you ever want to move away from the bedside and work in management or administration you must have at least a BSN so that is something to think about. When it all comes down to it though, nursing is not something that is learned in the classroom. You can know everything in the world about A&P and nursing theory and still be a terrible nurse.