TriggerRN

I had to smile when I read this thread because I have been having some really weird dreams lately. I've had the dreams like everyone else where all of a sudden it's time for report and you realized that you haven't seen or cared for your patients all night, or the one's where you hear ventilator alarms and cardiac monitors going off in your head the entire time you sleep, but lately my dreams...wow. The first one I dreamed a giant turd was chasing me. It was huge and I kept wondering how I could wade through it all. It had a mouth like a leech that kept coming after me! The next one, I dreamed I was getting off work, and in order to leave, I had to walk through the doctor's night sleep room to leave. When I walked in, there was one of our regular ER doc's, laying on the bed, french kissing my dog! The staff at work still laugh over that one!

Hopkinsville Community College I believe has a CNA class. May check there. :)

It's funny, but the most memorable thank you I received came from a doctor. I was working nights in ICU at a travel position. When I came in that night, one of my patients was a post op fem pop. On first assessment I couldn't doppler the pulses in his surgical leg. I tried, I got another nurse to try and got the charge nurse to try and could not get them. One nurse said that the doctor had just left before change of shift and she could hear the dopplered pulses from another room. I called the doctor, and of course he thought I was stupid. Here was this traveler trying to tell him that the patient had no pulses when he had just left the hospital and the patient had excellent ones. After a few minutes of back and forth, the doctor came back in. The patient had no pulses in the surgical leg. He took the patient back to surgery. I received the patient back and the doctor came back in to check him one last time before he went home. He asked me to go in the room with him. We stood at the end of the patient's bed and the doctor said.."Sir, do you see this nurse standing here? Well you have her to thank that you have a leg tonight". And then he turned to me and said "Thank you for what you did for my patient". Needless to say, that has stayed with me since the day he said that. So many times we know we've done a good job, but it's nice to hear that others recognize it too.

I've been in a couple of facilities that have changed management/leadership frequently. With one facility, I was the night supervisor and in the other a day shift charge nurse. Many of the nurses/employees have been there a long time and it had gotten where you almost hate to go in because of all the complaining and griping about the change. I've found that if you just go with the flow, eventually things even out. It may take a few months, but some of the sillier decisions they make fall by the wayside and some of the better one's stay. The only person it hurts to complain and buck the system is yourself. Call me simple too..:wink2: ..No matter how bad things can get (and believe me, things can get bad) I tend not to degrade the hospital or the leadership I work for. I've been called names by others because I won't buck the system. But the hospital I work for pays my bills and puts food on my table and for that reason they deserve my support. When the time comes that I feel like I can no longer support what they are doing, then I'll look elsewhere for a job. That doesn't mean that I don't voice my opinion about changes that I don't feel like stands a chance to work, or when I feel like my unit is getting the shaft that day. It just means there is a right way and wrong way to go about things. Complaining and griping does nothing to change a situation except make it a miserable day for yourself, your co-workers and most importantly your patients.

I worked nights for about 18 years. Everyone's time clock is different and everyone has a routine. The idea is, to find yours. I am the type person that came straight home, jumped in the shower and went straight to bed, because I found that if I stayed up past about 2 hours, I couldn't fall asleep. If it was my first night back, I would stay up late the night before, get up early in the morning and by about 1 pm I was ready for a good nap. One thing that I found more than anything to help me sleep was a fan. I got an inexpensive box fan and turned it on in my bedroom, along with curtains that filtered light, so it was good and dark in there. The fan cut out the noise in the house and outside and helped a lot when my kids were young. The only drawback is now I can't sleep without the fan going . You may find along the way a little Tylenol PM may help too. Good luck with your position and nights. Once I found my "routine", I loved nights. I will still pick up a night shift over a day shift anytime.

I would first check into what positions they are offering in your area. Some larger areas offer weekends off (or weekends on for more pay). You may consider working 11-7 shift. If it's your weekend to work, you can always sleep after church, and it would leave you free evenings for your services through the week. Plus, if they do self scheduling it may be that you can work around some of your obligations. There are very few jobs in nursing that are going to give you ideal hours. If there are, then they are going to be hard to come by, especially for a new grad. When you become a nurse, you are pretty well assured that you are going to work the odd hours, no matter how long you've been in nursing. Sometimes you have to set priorities and decide what you are willing to live with, and what you aren't.

I was having problems with my glasses also. I was wearing bifocals, but had to take them off to read, chart, start IV's, anything that was close up. I tried a lot in the way of glasses and contacts. Finally went and had Lasik. It was the best investment I ever made. Some places (I had mine done in Nashville), work with you for a payment plan. Mine was 18 months same as cash. And when I went for my year's check up they were offering 24 months same as cash. In the long run, it really was a good investment and it solved the problem.