ponytailman

I loved how nursing made me a better person through personal growth and development in my constant struggles to provide safe, competent and compassionate care. I despise the slow and insidious effect that corporate America pursuit of mamaximum profits has often hindered continued growth

For me the best way to obtain floor nursing skills was to work the floor and ask as many questions as u can. Staff development, videos and p n p r helpful, but nothing teaches organization, critical thinking and prioritizing then floor work consistently. Your wish list indicates maybe looking for a second job trying skilled or transitional nursing often found at nursing centers

If patient a straight trach, no ventilator, the hme is generally used during wake periods as the replacement for a moist, humidification system. Remember no two patients r the same, thus what may work for one might not for another. Also, in homecare parents often call the shots, sometimes the best u can do is educate with whatever resources r available.

merlee is correct- to give the proper dosage under the MD orders requires 2 separate im shots. Also if the total volume to be injected is 4mls, then u can give 2 two mls im shots.

dont take this wrong but u r worried about a bad decision about smoking an illegal substance. shouldnt ur concern be r u ready to take the intense and potential life altering responsibility of people under ur care? We all r not perfect, do not make or put urself in any difficult situations untill u r sure u r ready for it.

the question i have is are u able to reasonably provide professionnel,safe and good nursing care in your position. Is your license or patients at risk? the grass isnt always greener when u change,can u change anything there too make it more tolerable. I too have many concerns about how are employers are changing the workplace and to us nurses not for the better. For me i am lucky enough to been able to distant myself through my schedule to lessen the impact on me

i have worked all three shifts at fulltime status, each have there pros and cons. For me i like the overnites, the trick is adjusting your day schedule to overnite. I believe ur days off should be together, try to exercise even just walking before or after ur shift. As far as diet, ur personality will tell u when and what to eat just as if u were working days. the hard part is and can be the sacrifices to your personal or social life.

The profession needs more canidates who at least show a geniuine interest in becoming a modern day nurse. As much as i personally have "issues" with a lot of the modern day changes with our job I still want and enjoy being a bedside nurse,for me not only the wide and varied aspects of the field related to schedule,money,benefits,areas to work but still take a sense of pride when some patient or family member says thanks or we really appreciate your talent, it is what we try and do in our jobs day in and day out.

First that nurse to patient ratio for a snf unit seems a tad bit high and would be an area to address outside of the patient and her behaviors. In relation to the patient besides altering your schedule to attempt to meet her needs which may or may not be feasible can u shoptalk with the doc or try and get some type of psycheconsult to see that what is currently ordered is truly effective for her,sometimes md's truly dont know of potential interactions with patients meds. U have to constantly problem solve these challenging patients because mental health services have been cut drastically and these type of insurance paying customers that administration loves are showing up at the hospitals and then to rehab/snf units.

Been in the field almost twenty years, as a male i have watched both sides crash hard and even come close myself several times. I am not sure it is gender specific but more related to as a nurse starts to spiral downward what are the factors. Is it just the job and its stress factors or more often a combination of both unrelenting job stress and crushing outside work factors like family,medical or social stresses. I think that what happens is that the individual nurse loses a very valuable piece of their psyche: ther coping skills. I also dont have any hard data but do have good observational skills still

Most of my biggest dissatisfaction with my field is the invasion of corporate america into every nook. People with minimal or no human skills influencing or dictating almost all aspects of bedside nursing without the knowledge or expertise. Their tentacles impact charting,staffing,"customer service" but also they strain or diminish nurses ability to form tight,have your back come hell or highwater units which is one of the hidden needs of our profession.

The field always needs more nurses but allow me to play devils advocate. obviously your family is very important to you, are you prepared to sacrifice quality time with them to pass your nursing program because that will initially be a issue. If you take the plunge and pursue a nursing career it is not always as glamorous or rewarding as once it was. However nursing is a extremely broad and diverse field with all sorts of oppurtunities, the challenge is too figure where your comfort is when you balance career and family.

As CEO's pursue their job of improving the bottom line it has become quite apparent that to accomplish this goal nursing in general has been the target. When people whose minds have been trained to dehumanize all their lists,charts,graphs,budgets etc. to accomplish their goals, we as nurses arent treated with the respect due us but as another line in a column. Administrators are very good at what they trained for just as nurses can and are very good at dealing with something they the administration often cannot relate to: providing quality care and empathy to those entrusted to us. There is no easy answer because money rules all at the majority of our worksites, until we can get management away from their computers and start interacting with us instead of putting up more walls i fear we will become no more relevant than the cashier at BK instead of what we are: professionel nurses

Do not understand why u think that these issues are your fault, if the job or worklevel requires paperwork to get done after shiftreport then so be it. It appears that by following the accepted norm that your co-workers and you enable management to pay you for 8 hours instead of 9,10 or whatever the shift took. As stated by a previous post, your options are do nothing, do nothing and look for other employment within hospital or out of it or maybe approach management about adding additional staff but on the last one i would not hold my breathe, good luck.

no one can predict how u will test or move through the rotation thus i would look at what resources can u access to help with your studies. School is brutal when u r trying to work,study and be a mom yet to put it off for fear of failure can cause delays or even a permanent end to your pursuit of a nursing career. No easy answer but at least i see one good attribute in a potential nurse,when in doubt ask for help. good luck