BullyLoveRN

3-4 on my unit per night, but the staffing is the same during the day, it depends on our staffing matix

Oh my goodness, I am not a crier (in public at least... I am at work on break) and your story just made my eyes well up with tears. I work in pediatrics (currently in LTC, but have done Acute Care as well) and get kids with severe cognitive/neuro devestation, sometimes it's a new thing (trauma or ABI), sometimes it's from an illness (CP). One thing I always do with every patient I have is talk TO THEM! I don't care how old they are (an infant or 15 year old), I don't care how A&O they are, or how cognitively delayed or developmentally delayed they are, I talk to them. I greet them when I walk in the room, I tell them what I am doing, I sing to them (not always a good thing), I tell jokes and give them a hard time (in a fun-loving way), and I soothe them when they show discomfort (even if it's only shown through HR or RR). I always try to put myself in their shoes and wonder how frustrating in would be not to be able to tell other people what I am feeling, want, need, etc! We must remember, that even though our patient's may not be able to talk to us or communicate at all to us, doesn't necessarily mean they can't understand US!

I started off on a General Peds floor, but my hospital was also the only hospital in the area that did Peds Heme/Onc so, after four months... I was chemo certified and IN LOVE with this patient population. However, it started to effect me... so I fill obligated to warn you, be prepared for heartbreak! It is very tough!!! It is hard on the hospital floor because we see the sickest kids... and grow very attached to them and their families. Try very hard to remember the "good stories" of kids that beat the odds and survived... I am not saying it's impossible, but after a particularly hard couple of months, and with a couple of tough losses, I made a very hard (innocent) mistake that has ended with me no longer working for that hospital. You will LOVE it, but it will wear on you before you even realize what is happening, so be aware. Do research on "Compassion Fatigue" and ways to prevent it and burnout! Good luck to you, I am sure you will be a fabulous and successful nurse!:loveya:

you're driving home from work and are wanting so longly for your bed and in such an exhaustive state of mind that you decide the car in front of you is driving too slowly, so you decide to pass it..... after which, you check your rear-view and realize.... you just passed a cop:banghead:!!!!!!!!! I guess he was just as tired, cause I didn't get pulled over!!!:wink2:

Welcome to the world of Pediatrics! I too was hired on a Pediatric floor as a new grad. Some advice I have is: -Ask Questions... don't be afraid to ask a stupid question, most of what you remember from nursing school is about adults, translating it to the pediatric population is sometimes tricky. If you are lucky like I was, your co-worker's will already know this and be very helpful! -check out the forum on here for "new grads within the first year of practice" i used this site frequently during my first year for tips, tricks, and basically just support, knowing that I wasn't alone. It's a great resource! -Being that you aren't completely green to working with children (you mentioned you were a teacher) you probably already know this, but peds patients aren't just small adults! -study up on developmental psychology... it helped me a TON when learning to relate/engage with patients from all ages -remember that kids don't want to be sick (duh)... and most don't want you to know they are sick, and definitely don't want to be treated like they are sick! -chose a nurse on your floor as your role-model or mentor and model yourself after him or her Lastly, something I wish I had known when I started out in Pediatrics... it seems pretty obvious, but take care of yourself... physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Dealing with sick children is very tough. It can eat at you and break you down before you even realize what is going on (it happened to me!). Get advice from co-workers about dealing with the stress and loss. No one likes to think about what happens when a child dies, but you should prepare yourself. Make sure there are systems of support in place for the staff! That being said, nothing fills your heart with joy like making a child who is sick smile.... it makes it all worth it!!!!! GOOD LUCK!

I agree with the first reply... I would say go ahead and get you ADN and then let your employer pay for your BSN!!! Many employers have a tuition reimbursement benefit, that is easy to take advantage of! Good Luck with your RN quest!

Thanks for your input! I agree that I was not ready to handle the situation of kids dying.... (really, who is ready for that???) I just wish I had KNOWN that! Trust me, if I had the chance to relive this whole situation, I would not have posted the "note" on the social networking site. Not because I am concerned with harming a patient or breaching confidentiality (that was never my intention) but because I learned to recognize in myself, when I need additional support and that it is okay to ask for it. I had never heard the term "Compassion Fatigue" before, but I am sure it was manifesting in me at the time. I have learned that to be able to take care of my patients most effectively, I need to take care of myself. During this incident, and the termination that occurred, I have learned first hand that it is essential to actively seek out bereavement support when needed. I also understand fully, how much more difficult dealing with loss is when it comes to the death of a child. I have never experienced loss as frequently as I have as a nurse. I am hoping to take from this experience the lessons I have learned and use them to recognize, in myself and in others, work-related emotional distress and compassion fatigue. It is my goal to help other nurses avoid the potential negative side effects, such as lapses in judgment... that although they seem benevolent at the time, can have substantial effects on you career.

just want to warn you: this is long! but i hope to counsel other young nurses about what i have gone through one day and would appreciated your feedback! i can't even think of how to begin the story of how my nursing career has came about... here's the back ground: i graduated from nursing school august of 2007 and starting working at a premier teaching hospital in my area! in september of 2007. i started in pediatrics, which is ironic because i hated peds in nursing school. but on a whim, and after much pestering by one of my friends who worked on the floor, i decided to interview. i had already been offered two jobs, one in cardiac surgery, one in the mother/infant unit. i went on the interview just to practice my interview skills. i ended up shadowing one of the nurses on the floor and absolutely, irrevocably fell in complete love with pediatrics! i can never imagine doing anything else. the first year of nursing was hard, adjusting to the schedule and the new “grown-up” responsibilities. but at the end of each day, i loved my job and knew i made the right choice when i chose pediatric nursing. as i progressed at work i became chemotherapy certified, became a resource nurse, joined the nursing student education committee and the schedule committee (the hardest committee ever.. is was hard to please 90 people at once!). i was flourishing. i had heard horror stories from my old classmates of how much they hated their job, the coworkers, and their patients. i felt blessed to truly love my job each and every day. then some rainy days came…............. the most challenging aspect of nursing i have encountered is learning how to separate and leave it behind when i come home. i love cancer patients, and after a year of not losing any patients, i lost four in 3 months. on my unit, we had team nursing, so we grew really close to our patients. i had taken care of two who died on my watch within two weeks (both were palliative). i know this may not seem like a lot, but children do not usually die on our unit, the docs and nurses were really good at realizing when a patient was circling the drain, and was quickly moved to the picu. the second patient that died on my watch died while i was in her room. then a month later we unexpectantly lost a 16 year old cystic fibrosis patient that had been coming to our floor for all her life (i was on her nursing team). not even a month after that, my first primary died. he was a great kid and his death (on top of the other 3) effected me very hard! i was a new nurse, and i was grieving unsuccessfully. one night, after a particularly rough shift, i came home and posted a poem he had written (that his mom put on his funeral bulletin) with a picture of him and i on a social networking site. for some reason, at the time, i thought since i did not use his name it would be okay. i was hurting, and i wanted to honor his memory in a innocent way. the next day, my friend called me and talked some sense into me and i to take the picture down realizing i could get into trouble. ten days later, my nm calls me to her office and tells me she has to report me to the compliance committee and that i faced termination. needless to say, i was horrified and shocked! i wrote a proposal to my nm and the complience committee asking them to allow me to continue working based on my previous exemplary yearly evaluation and on the promise to do a type of “community service” to my profession. my proposal was to put together an educational teaching of “breaching confidentiality in the new technological world”. i wanted to teach my co-workers to learn from my mistake. i wanted to spread the message that breaking confidentiality is easier that you think, and holds a very serious punishment. i knew i messed up, but to me, immediate termination felt like a harsh sentence for my crime. i had no idea, that my grief-stricken ode to a former patient would carry the same weight as coming to work intoxicated, diverting drugs, forging medical records, or assaulting a patient! i am positive that no one on that unit (myself included) expected me to be fired for the mistake i made. my mentor (a nurse that has worked on the unit for over 20 years) as well as a couple of the np’s from the clinics were even surprised and outraged. sometimes i feel like me being fired was not fair, because the usual support systems for nurses who had lost patients were not in place due to budget cuts. do not get me wrong, i do know what i did was a mistake and a violation. but my motives were not malicious. i was not gossiping or providing any information that was incriminating. i am almost positive if that patients mother knew i got fired, she would be livid, she would be knocking down doors trying to right this! i know this because she wrote two letter to the vp of nursing about the excellent care her son received while a patient at *hospital name witheld*, and i was specifically named in both. i think it should be said that i do not think what i did should go unpunished. i know i messed up, and i think i should have been punished, i just do not think firing me was exact fair... but i have come to terms with it and accept it. the part i find the hardest to deal with is that in my termination papers i am deemed "ineligible for rehire". what is your take on this situation? i have since been reported to the board and hired a lawyer. i also got a new job, but it just sucks being "ineligible" for rehire at my old employer. (like i said it is the premiere hospital in the area). my lawyer seems to think we have a good case, since the parents of this patient have each spoken out about this both to my old employer and the board of nursing.

I appreciate your advice greatly! It sometimes scares me when I read a post where the person claims to be someone who "appears calm on the outside" but is feeling entirely overwhelmed on the inside! It takes a lot of courage to admit when you need help, or to admit that you don't know something! It also takes a lot of courage to go ahead and admit you're drowning and feeling overwhelmed.... but once you DO, others will help! No one wants you to fail, especially when patient safety is at stake! I, myself am a new nurse... I've been off orientation for about a week now... and when a fellow nurse asks me if I need help (and I do!) of course I really want to save face and say "no" so that the others think I can handle it... but then I think about the "big picture" and accept the help, if it's needed! The people on my unit all know I am new, and they don't expect me to know everything... however, they DO expect me to keep my patients safe, which to me... is the bottom line.

Thanks so much for your cheerleading! I myself am 3 months into Peds... which is ironic, I hated Peds in school and swore I would never do it... and here I am fresh off orientation (christmas eve what my first night "flying solo") and absolutely in love! Yes, some days are hard, and yes I have cried a few times (mostly caused by emotional exhaustion) I have come home from work, exhausted, hungry, feeling like my bladder may have exploded and collapsed on my couch, I have thought many many many times.. "oh god, I don't think I learned anything in nursing school!" but there hasn't once been a time where I've regretted this profession! I am actually willing to admit I'm genuinely proud of myself, and I'm not afraid of that sounding too concieted! I think, as new nurses... that last part is very important to remember! If you take pride in the work you do, it really helps getting through the hard times! Good Luck to Everone!

I took the NCLEX Monday Oct 1, 265 questions 4 hours.... and I passed!!!! I can't believe it! I keep reading about people who walk out of that exam thinking they failed, only to learn they passed! I was that person! I was POSITIVE I had failed, I cried (and I quote my boyfriend on this) like my parents had just died! It's hard, when you've spent SO MUCH time and stress, to know that you received an entire education JUST to prepare you for this test, and then you walk out of it feeling like a moron! Nothing can prepare you for it... and nothing can console you while you wait for results... except knowing that all of us have been there and FEEL your pain! My nursing school buddy put it best.... "RN education $30,000 Uniforms, books, coffee through out the years of nursing school $5000 Registration to take the NCLEX, $200.... being able to put RN behind your name... PRICELESS" I have never felt more accomplished in my entire life... Good luck to all of you, and thanks to all whose posts I read that gave me faith! (PS. I'm gonna go change my screen name to something with an RN now!):monkeydance:

Okay, so I had a hard time admitting it at first, but I've been bitten by the L&D bug!!!!! I'm a Senior in Nursing School in my last class (will graduate in August!!!!!) and my last class is "Transition to Professional Practice".... You're supposed to pick a floor you are interested in for clinical and hopefully learn something! Well, my first choice was L&D and I got it!!!! (only 2 spots out of almost 50 students!!!!). So the next couple of weeks will be the BEST! I have always (in the back of my head) had the idea that I would LOVE L&D, but I also have heard how hard it is to get into as a new grad (especially from a diploma program)... Truth is, I have never looked forward to something this much in all of my life! I am actually EXCITED to get up and go to clinical in the morning!!!! I love it! I still remember the first birth I witnessed (at a huge teaching hospital, with med students, interns, residents, attendings, and other nurses...) me saying out loud... "WOW I COULD DO THIS EVERYDAY!" I will never forget handing that beautiful baby girl over to her father for the first time, and the tears in his eyes! I really want to do this! I know there are a ton of threads like this one, but I was just wondering if anyone had any advice?!? It would be GREATLY appreciated! This is my passion, I have never been so sure of anything... in my entire life!