VenaKavaRN

I'm glad you're having a good experience! I'm also a new grad and am loving my unit, but being a new RN is just tough sometimes. I find the First Year in Nursing forum helpful for those moments, just in case you didn't know about it :) Happy Nursing!

Get everything in writing in the future from this manager! E-mail if you can, make her sign something if you can't. Not to be trusted!

Well, considering a couple letters sometimes means the difference between one drug and another very different drug, I think spelling drug names, if nothing else, is vitally imporant. HOWEVER, I get that this is a discussion board, not a hospital, so I understand it might have seemed a little overbearing to have your spelling corrected here. But if you spell it right here and elsewhere, you'll spell it right when it counts.

No such thing as hypernutremia. I'm guessing hypernatremia is the diagnosis. What are the patient's sodium levels? If they are high, you have your answer for sure. Think about what the word means: Hyper(too much) nutr(food/nutrition) emia(in blood). Does it make sense to have too much nutrition in the blood? Not really.

First of all, congratulations!! Secondly, you might want to consider contacting the nursing deptartment to see if you can set up a meeting with the dean or one of the instructors to go over the material with you since you didn't get a chance to go to the orientation. I believe they'll accomodate you, orientations are important, especially the first one. Make sure you get any and all questions answered so you're not behind the rest of the class. I was really stressed when I had the materials but hadn't gone to orientation yet, but it felt a LOT more manageable once I'd been. Hope that helps!

I think that, to a point, compassion and empathy are things that can also be learned along with the theory. I think that an important part of the clinical experience we get in nursing school is that we get to put faces with all these disorders that we're learning and see the effects they have on the patients. It's not just COPD anymore, it's 'Ms. Soandso that I taught pursed-lip breathing to because she was having a hard time'. I'll admit, I started out as a CNA 4 years ago as one of those '4.0 in school but totally retarded in social situations' people. Going into a patient's room would make me break out in a cold sweat because I had no idea what to say to them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not any kind of 'supernurse' now, but I like to think I've gotten better at just talking with patients and interacting better with them. I know if I ask them about kids or grandkids, we can get a good conversation going. I know when I can banter and play with them a little and when I need to be more serious. I also feel a lot more comfortable now. This has all come with hands-on experience and I have learned it, I certainly wasn't born with it. I think that nursing schools, like others have said, can't measure objectively the more qualitative qualities about what makes a 'good' nurse, so they have to go with numbers. I also think that if a person has worked hard enough to maintain good grades in the prerequisities, they at least have some inkling that nursing is competitive and have worked hard to secure themselves a spot. They may not be compassionate and empathetic when they start that first semester, but they can learn to be through the guidance of peers and instructors.

I've worked as a CNA in two different nursing homes, and now have been working for 3 years in a hospital. There is a world of difference. I'm not sure what it is, but in my experience nursing homes just aren't for everyone. And I'm not one of the people that thrives working in one. In a nursing home, it's the same people with the same problems and hard, heavy work day after day. This can also make your coworkers a little unhappy (which it sounds like you're encountering). In a hospital, your patients change frequently so at least you're always seeing something new (and you know that eventually that mean old lady will leave, which makes it easier to be polite to her). It depends on the floor, but I think the actual workload is more intellectual for a CNA rather than physical. Yes, there are still messes to clean up and baths to give, but it's not nearly the heavy lifting that a nursing home is. I've learned so much more about different conditions and diagnoses working in a hospital than I ever did in the nursing home. You might want to try switching to a different place to work - it sounds like you feel a lot like me about nursing homes. As to the 'scurvy' nurses - you will probably find some of these everywhere. But the ratio (in my limited experience) seems to be more favorable in a hospital setting, although this will vary by what unit you're on. Give it a try - and do what a previous poster said and think really hard about what you don't like as a CNA and if that will still be there when you graduate.

I'm sorry you're having a bad time I think previous poster is right: just take things one day at a time and you'll make it through in no time. Are you 100% sure you can jump right back in at the end of a year? For my program you'd have to go back on a 2+year waiting list. That's time it doesn't sound like you have right now. Plus, who knows if you'll make it back at all? Things have a habit of cropping up and usually it's school that gets postponed. It sounds like you need to do something to make you feel good about yourself, that makes your position in the world better. I'd stick with it as long as you can.

I appreciate that you have a busy life outside of work. But do you really need to be on your cell phone right now talking about what soandso said to soandso? I think the last HOUR you were on the phone should have been enough. Oh, and stop looking at me like I'M wasting YOUR time and eavesdropping on purpose. You're the professional here. Act like it and do your job!

"Please, for the love of all that is holy, go home and take a BATH!" "It makes me want to vomit when I see your barefoot kids running around on this nasty carpet." "About those barefoot kids, could you possibly take them somewhere else so they don't almost trip the staff who are trying to work?" "Newborns just don't belong in a hospital visiting grandma with MRSA. I really want to report you for endangerment." "No, you may not bring 30 of your closest family members and decimate our patient snack supplies. Go home."

The amount of excrement is inversely proportional to the amount of time you have to clean it up.

I have a 5-week dry-erase board calendar I use. I get overwhelmed when I think of more than 5 weeks at a time, so it's really all I need to get by. I just erase the week completed, get my syllabi out and put in the necessary information on a rolling basis. It's also really easy to update for those inevitable schedule changes and additions.

I would speak to the clinical instructor as far in advance as you possibly can. It may be possible for you to piggyback on another group for a day to make up the hours. You'll never know until you ask, and most clinical instructors will work with you as long as you are proactive about it. Let us know how it goes!

What are you being told to chart? If it's vital signs or intake and ouptut, objective stuff like that, then I'd see no problem with a nursing student doing it. It's if you're being told to do nurse's notes I'd be a little concerned. If you're being encouraged to do the nurse's notes, make sure the primary nurse reads over it to make sure you got everything she wants on there. Unless you're the only one in there and the patient is for sure not breathing or has a pulse, get the patient's primary nurse first before you call a code. Since it's a telemetry floor, I'd reckon there's 3-4 people watching that patient's heart rhythm at all times, and they'd know when something was going wrong in that department. If you think the patient's doing downhill fast, stay with them until the nurse comes, and if they go into respiratory arrest, then call the code. The only code I've seen was when a patient went into cardiac arrest on the toilet I just stood waay back when the code was called, since people were running down the hall with a crash cart. Just stand close by outside the door, ready to get anything they say they need - towels, suction, epi, whatever.

I get mine through a program my university has. It's $15 for a year, but I assume that's a special rate. You might call the nursing office and see if they can give you any suggestions on who most of the students use or if there's one they prefer. I think this is par for the course in nursing school because you're actually going to be practicing in a real hospital on real people. Not only does the hospital have to cover themselves in case (god forbid) something happens, but also the university has to cover themselves.

Doable, yes. Will you survive with sanity intact? Probably not. Is there another class you could possibly do? Personally I find pharm a LOT easier when I have someone teaching rather than being self-taught.

Google the numbers and see if they could be from the hospital. Usually larger hospitals will all have the same first couple of numbers. Were they both similar numbers? It also depends on how often you give your cell number out. If it's your primary number, then it could also be salespeople etc that you wouldn't have stored in your phone. I also think a couple of days might be a bit too soon for a callback on a job, but you never know.

We're learning how in MedSurg1. I think a lot of it depends on your program. You might ask your instructors if it's a concern.

For every disease/disorder, know: Etiology / Risks Pathophysiology Diagnostic tools and labs used, and what values to expect Signs / Symptoms Nursing Management (biggie), this is your assessment, diagnosis, planning, interventions, and evaluation Medical Management / Collaborative Care (this is your drugs, therapies, etc) Possible complications Patient education Just make it an outline, concept map, web, whatever you need to connect it all in your brain. Keep it short and sweet, just use small one- or two-word memory triggers to help you memorize. I use flash cards for the labs and their values. This helps you keep information on one specific disease all in one place for you to peruse on test day. It's also helped me organize information a lot better, especially when two disorders have a lot of similarities, like asthma and COPD.

Well, you can go to school for 8 years if you want to...but I don't.

Yeah, but those are also the ones that look the most tired No really, nothing wrong with getting up 5-10 minutes earlier to make yourself look nice if it's going to make your entire day better. Personally I get a big confidence boost if I know I look clean and professional, if not necessarily gorgeous. If it's important to you, just put it a little higher on the priority list and go to bed a little earlier at night.

Heck of a lot better than my first Care Plan LOL The only thing I can see a problem with is your intervention to administer Dilaudid. Since that's something only a doctor can order, my instructors wouldn't count that as a NURSING intervention. Otherwise, you did very well having everything go back to the diagnosis of acute pain.

That sounds like stuff you could really only get from the textbook :/ Different textbooks all have different opinions on concepts and elements and things like that. Is there a competing bookstore in the area you could buy the book from? Two weeks is ridiculous - you could probably get it shipped from Half.com in less time than that and for a lower price. You really can't wait that long for a textbook. I'd recommend you check out your options for another bookstore.

I felt exactly the same way my first semester. I felt like I would never get everything done and that I would fail every check-off. But, I made it, and I did very well grade-wise in the class as well. First semester is the hardest because you haven't perfected your study skills. Soon you'll learn that you don't have to read every word of every chapter to get most of the test material. In most of my courses, the most important material and about 80% of the test material came from the charts and graphs, not the actual reading. Focus more on the nursing process sections if your book has them. If not, while reading always ask yourself what this passage is saying you will do if you come across a situation with your patient. It's still a chunk of reading, but if you practice you can usually pick out test questions right from the text. Are there times when you could go into a lab setting and practice your skills on the mannequin or whatever it is you use to check-off? Does your program offer tutoring? Those are great ways to increase your confidence and possibly get some feedback before you're doing the actual check-off. Also, use your fellow students - they can be great resources. I'm sorry you're having so much anxiety over this and feel like it's been a disappointment. It DOES get easier, but it will take time. Just breathe and take it a day at a time.

It takes a lot of practice to feel confident in a clinical setting. I had a problem with being extremely shy around my patients and was really bad at just chatting with them, much less getting their health information. But, I watched what other students did who had the "gift of gab" with the patients and learned from them. If I went in with a whole orificenal of questions and topics to talk about, it got to be where I wasn't nearly as worried about what I would be saying. Something like this may be what you could do. If it's skills you're not confident in, make sure to get a lot of supervised practice so you know you're doing a good job. To help the anxiety, just pause and take a couple of deep breaths, tell yourself you can do this, and the information you need will usually come back to you. You've worked hard and learned a lot in the last few semesters. You're more than capable of being a good nurse :)