mayberry

What I find the most frustrating is when the designated decision maker and/or the family/friends decide that they know better than what the patient has expressed a wish to have or not have done to them. And don't ya know the patient is headed for less than positive outcomes. I'd like to see more education not just for the patients but for the decision maker and families.

Look in to the Indian Health Service. They have a pretty good loan repayment plan and it's not just the physicians they cater to.

best of luck and best wishes

First, as far as the day shift charge, try not to let her get to you so much. It sounds like her bark is worse than her bite and really not worth the aggravation. She sounds like an unhappy, miserable person who is taking her personal life out on everyone (ie...belittling coworkers on the floor :angryfire , hum...just a bit unprofessional) Second, pick and choose when, where, and how your going to help your coworkers - fact is, you can't do everything and is SOOO much to be said about teamwork. As far as being assertive, it is really hard to stand up for yourself the first time but after that it gets easier and if your coworkers get bent out shape, let them. Nurse generally will have a little more tolerence for you when you stand up for yourself and then will tend to leave you be more. "Eating Our Own" well, unfortunatly, I don't see that changing anytime soon. Far too many hormones and power trips...how sad! Big hugs....hope everything works out for you!!! :) :balloons:

joining an outside union, to the best of my knowledge, would probably be of little to no use in your facility. if you wanted to be part of a union, you and your co-workers would have to unionize in your own facility. there is getting your co-workers and facility to agree to it. just make sure you cross every i and t b/c most facilities don't want a union.... gee, nurses being afforded a few protections from administration - we (nurses) must have something wrong with us

I work on a busy intermediate care unit and more often than not I wish we had a locked policy. Realisically, this type of policy will NEVER happen in the health system I work. Sounds like it works for the above posts and I wish you continued luck.

No extra pay, a full load, plenty of grief, no appreciation, and often leave with a migrane.....am I cynical and a bit jaded...sure, and with good reason. I pray for the nights I have a strong staff (which are few and far between)

We get absolutely nothing and completely NOT worth it. Yet, other hospitals in my health system get "hazard" pay. Where's the equity it that!

Go for the ICU...my suggestion/advise, if your preceptor is not working WITH you and FOR you then demand to work with another. There is nothing worse than being precepted by someone who is making your life miserable (been there, done that, VERY unpleasant :imbar )....nothing that drives me up the proverbial wall than nurses eating thier own, esp. new grads and students.

Much of the "view of nursing" depends on the culture of the hospital and the specific unit. And no matter what, you will get the sour apple who just doesn't have a positive opinion about anything. If nursing is what you want, go for it and keep the negativity in perspective. Good luck.

I work on an IMCU where I routinely have 6 pts. Would LOVE to have the 4 pts out policy states we're supposed to have, techs or not. Nurse/Pt. are a great idea and we as "professionals" need to find a better way to get that message out to the public. (As opposed to letting Administration and the MD's do it for us - NOT!!!)

There should be mandotory ratios on all floors and units. Staff and pt. safety doesn't stop on med/surg and having graduated to an intermediate care unit I am more and more for lower ratios. It's atrocious and most frustrating when you have more patients you can possible safely care for and when something goes wrong - we are left holding most of the full bag. Great to be a part of the bottom line - isn't it?

Don't be suprised if you change your mind several time while in school. Frankly, you may find that once out in the "field" that it may take some time before you find the job or field that fits you best. Wouldn't stress about it too much. Good luck with school!

I often ask myself - why did I go into nusring and why do I stay in? There are other options also - medical sales, equipment sales (ie - home health co.), pharmacutical sales. You might also consider going in to some educational area - in hospital, continuing ed, company sponsored equipment inservices, etc. Home health, occupational health, college clinic, or school nursing might be worth looking into. Lots of options out there.

I agree with repat. And RNin92 - stop blaming and pointing the finger at everone else for a systems problem in your hospital. In the big picture of things it's not the floor nurses fault. I could go on but it's not worth wasting my breath.

Like it or not - we all have it tough in different respects. Most of the places I've worked the units/floors really do try to take report and accept pt's in a reasonable amt of time - do we always succeed - no! However, the question I have for the ED nurses (and no need to bite my head off) is - how many times have the doc's down in your dept. sat on a pt. for hours on end and then suddenly at change of shift the pt suddenly HAS to be transferred out of the ED? Frankly, it happens more often than many of us are ready to "admit" (For instance, when the ED doc's just can't bear to wake the attendings up @ 0200, or I want to leave on time - what a concept!!!) A suggestion for both sides - better communication can really make things flow a lot better rather than biting each others head off.

The comment that just absolutely crawls under my skin is - "You nurses think you know it all" or "You nurses think you know more than the Docs". Although a few of us might like to think we do - the comments are particularly annoying when they come from your immediate family.

If John Q Public really had ANY idea of what goes on and were educated as to why ratios were a good thing for thier own health and livlihood - perhaps everyone (including nursing) would benefit:idea:

Although I have worked in nursing for a few years I just started on an IMCU floor working nights. Routinely we have 5-6 pt's and our assignment is often changed at about 11pm b/c we get a Med/Surg nurse (no offense) who are not permitted to take drips and often don't read the tele strips; therefore,after doing most of the work for the patient we wind up passing our pts. off so that we can take admits. Many of my coworkers have expressed concern over staffing levels. So, despite the fact that most of the night staff is new to critical care or new grads we are feeling who happen to like what they do but are frustrated, tired, etc. (the more experienced staff have also expressed many of the same concerns). On the good note I happen to like to company/hospital I work for but it would be interesting to see Joint Commission come in unannounced and what their report would say.

It shouldn't matter what state you take your NCLEX in. However, which ever state you take it in - keep that states license no matter where you move. I have had many friends in the military (granted they are active duty but....) and they have always said keep your original state of licensure. Also, I have lived in a # of states and have kept my NY license and never have had a problem. No matter where you apply for a license...that state is going to ask you where you took your NCLEX/where you were originally licensed.

Although well intended and a potentially good learning tool; my concern is that it would be used as a tool in evaluations and as a diciplinary/firing tool. What a way to have to keep the eyes in the back of your head open all the time - yet another sad commentary on having to CYA....unless, of course, there was a specific hospital/corporate policy stating that these videos could, in no way, be used against any of the staff involved in the videotape?!?!

Ditto

More patients, higher acquity, less help, staff being pulled elsewhere inhouse or constantly elsewhere, less respect all the way around, compensation staying the same or going down, and rarely a thanks for coming in extra. Try to make the best of it...most of the time it works and sometimes I just can win for breathing. I've also recently just changed jobs and in some areas you would never know there is "nursing shortage".