FRN24

I've seen a coworker of mine get into some real trouble over a telephone order. The nurse took an order for nitro, and then gave it. The patient had a reaction to it, so the next day the doctor denied ever having given the order. The doc refused to sign the order, and got the nurse into hot water over it. From the perspective of a future nurse, that was a shocker.

I wrote my earlier message in a fit of anger. I really love what I do. I love how busy I am. Sometimes RN's don't realize how important our job is. On the unit I work on, I'm constantly praised by the nurses for all the hard work I do. Juggling between doctors, visitors, phone calls, orders, discharges, admissions... I answer hundreds of phone calls a day. Trying to read doctors handwriting is pretty tough. I'm a nursing student right now, so I understand a lot of the frustrations all the nurses go through every day. Our unit is new as of December. Staffing is still a big issue right now. The suits seem to think 2 nurses for fifteen patients is more than plenty. For the first few months, it was one nurse for 9-10 patients! One nurse, one patient care tech, and one unit clerk. No where near enough staff! I'm still the only unit clerk for the whole floor-my usual hours are 9-5:30-(I know-banker's hours!) but I'm working overtime constantly because the suits don't want to have to hire more staff. Even the nurse manager that helped open the unit finally resigned!