Jennerizer

Shawn - stop beating yourself up. Patients are going to fall. It's a fact of life. The only reason administration cares now is because Medicare won't pay for any costs associated with it. Go back 10 yrs & most hospitals weren't even using bed alarms or even tracking falls. Now, where I work...at one point they wanted the night shift to turn on every single bed alarm regardless of whether the patient was or wasn't a fall risk. Talk about insanity. Only reason that got dropped was because of patients complaining on the surveys regarding hospital satisfaction. Administration is ridiculous with their expectations and the nurse is always made to feel like they are being blamed. If the administrators were so concerned, then they'd have better staffing ratios and also something in place where patients with a higher level of acuity don't end up on a unit they don't belong on just because a doctor says so. Let the guilt go. Focus on what you want in your future and go for it. Don't let this one episode make you second guess everything.

Sounds like you both had a bad day. My best advice is to not dwell on it. Not every nurse likes being assigned a student. Don't take it personally. And don't allow one person to get to you the way she has. Learn from it & move forward.

You are not a horrible nurse. Some doctors are big babies that have social deficits. You are an advocate for your patient. Not for the lazy doctor that forgot to write a script. I think what you did was perfect...contacted the MD who was in the hospital and able to write the script. You'll get yelled at for many silly things. Don't take this to heart. I've gotten yelled at for calling critical cardiac enzyme results in the middle of the night, for arranging an emergency helicopter transfer, for requesting meds that the doctor told the patient he was going to order...the list goes on & on. At the hospital I'm at now...they do not tolerate doctors who act that way. Just remember...you did the right thing. Don't apologize for it. As you gain experience, you will grow a thicker skin & less tolerance towards people who act like jerks. Let go of the guilt!

I don't think you did anything wrong at all. We don't d/c the drip just because they convert to NSR. There should be parameters within the initial order...like notify MD when heart rate less than 70 or SBP less than 100. I can't stand nurses who purposely try to make other nurses...especially newer nurses feel bad or dumb. It's a great time to educate. Don't take it personally.

It happens to the best of us, but I'm sure it won't happen again. Let the guilty feeling go. You're not a robot, you're human & the patient is fine.

I'm not even sure what you are talking about.

You can't even really blame admin because it's our govt that came up with these unrealistic patient satisfaction surveys in which the hospital always loses money because it is impossible to achieve perfection in healthcare when the survey is based on perception only. Still though, the hospital should have a policy in place and back their nurses who are simply trying to care for sick patients.

I get what you're saying. I see it all the time. Nurses these days are viewed as personal assistants rather than medical professionals. I was admitting a patient last night and during the assessment, the family member kept interrupting because they were hungry and wanted something to eat. This is what nursing is becoming and the hospitals cater to it because they want/need high patient satisfaction scores which nowadays includes making sure the entire family is satisfied.

New nurses in Florida make around $20/hr...sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the county. Keep in mind though...we have no state income tax. The tourists pay that. 😁

Volusia county/Daytona Beach is one of the lowest paid counties in the state for nursing.

Had a male patient ask me to wipe his butt clean while he was on the toilet. He was perfectly capable of doing this himself, but he seemed to enjoy having a female do it. I told him I would get our male pct to help assist him. Suddenly he didn't need anymore help in that area.

It's another one of those things that looks good on paper because JCAHO is pushing for 80% of hospital employees to be vaccinated. These hospitals that are firing employees for not complying...makes me wonder if everyone in administration is also under the same rules. Or are they the 20% that are allowed exemption without any consequences? My hospital hasn't gotten that brutal (yet). If someone refuses the vaccine, they have to wear a surgical mask everywhere inside the hospital...except the break room.

My hospital only pays 10% more to work on a holiday. I'm sure if it were time & a half, they'd have more than enough volunteers. I managed to get all of Thanksgiving & Christmas off, but am working all of New Years.

The hospital I'm at doesn't have much of a code team. An ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist. Your fellow nursing staff is the team & it is run by the charge nurse. No doctor ever shows up. We are all required to be ACLS certified.

My first semester professor had approx 6 months floor experience before it overwhelmed her & she went running into the education dept for a job. Regardless, she was a good teacher even though she couldn't handle actual patient care. It's not for everyone.