emmie08

help I have no idea about this cert. my last CPR class was taken 5/28/06 and I was told it. would be good for 2 yrs and I thought that meant 06-08. my problem is I think it's not valid and they don't offer anymore courses for this year at my facility. I just don't know what to do... is this something I could be let go for? I' m trying to get into classes with the red cross but they don't have any until january. please help I'm terrified of what could happen. HELP! thanks fellow nurses : )

I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to help me with this situation. Reading your posts gives me hope that there are nice nurses out there, maybe this gosspiy unit is just not for me. Does anyone have some advice as to how to approach my NM regarding this issue and the fact that I would like to transfer. Being a new grad and only being out of orientation for a few months might look bad? I just not sure how to approach the situation. I don't enjoy the atmosphere of the unit. Everyone is gossipy and back stabbing. It makes me sick to even think about spending twelve hours with them much longer. Can someone offer advice?? Thanks for all of your posts. They really gave me a new perspective.:heartbeat:nurse:

So I wake up out of a deep sleep in a sweat because....in my dream (yes I even dream I'm at work.) ....in my dream I realize ohhh NO!!!! I forgot to give his 0600 antibiotic! Mind you this is now a day after this shift happened. So now I'm panicing because I know they would have caught this error by now and I know I will be written up about it or possibly even terminated because I'm new. This just sucks, but I was so crazy busy at the end of this long twelve hour shift from hell that his antibiotic didn't cross my mind. So does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this situation or what I should be expecting when I return to work in a few days? I mean is this something I could be asked to leave for? Ugh yet another example of why nursing maybe isn't for me.

so this a rant about how much i despise some of the stupid mistakes i make as a new nurse...and the always present embarrassment d/t the fact that i ask questions that are stupid and now all of the unit thinks i am a fumbling idiot. ok so my unit coordinator calls me and gives me a critical potassium level of 1.4. i'm thinking this can't be possible. he would be dead! but in my frenzy of thoughts i decide the best way to approach this is to ask the nearest nurse what she thought about it. after looking at me for a good minute she says ugghhh mm well i would re-draw the ep1....a k of 1.4 is not compatible with life. i'm thinking duh...get him on the ekg monitor and get the k started! then i come to realize that maybe the unit coordinator told me the wrong value. at this point i'm screwed and of course nooo the patients k was not 1.4 rather it was his mg that was 1.4. not only did i want to go hide under a rock at this point...everyone on the unit was talking about me and the mistakes i've made. should i just hang up my nursing license and move on. i mean i know k less than even 3 is critical so i knew that 1.4 is not conducive to life, and yet i ask in my freaking out stage instead of calming down and realizing this is not possible. no, i go and ask a charge nurse who is now probably considering turning this incident over to management. am i really this freaking stupid? should i just move on somewhere i can start over and where everyone won't think i'm and absolute idiot? ahhhh...why did i choose to be a nurse! i want to help people, not run around like a chicken with my head cut off every night. this sucks. i work tomorrow and i'm dreading the looks and whispers that are going to be made behind my back. gossshh...why does everyone on the unit gossip gossip gossip...that is all they do. behind each others back. i don't know if i should just move on or consider moving to another profession. i feel so low and my self esteem as a nurse is less than 0. i have none. i always feel uncomfortable, is it the unit and the gossip or is it me and the fact that i make these silly mistakes. please anyone

As a new grad. my biggest problem is keeping organized and task managed. I think it would be great if anyone has a 12 hour shift pt. care sheet they use to keep organized/stay on track with their patients. I would really appreciate any and all help! Right now I'm just aimlesly scribling all that I can on the back of a blank sheet of paper. I know there are some great tools out there, I'm just not crafty enough to put one together myself...and I don't know where I would start! Thanks so much to everyone, I will really appreicaite your help.

:oToday was my second week on a busy oncology floor and I am feeling completley, I don't even know the word, just stupid. And maybe I'm being hard on myself but I'm a new grad with minimal to no experience in the adult world as I did my preceptorship in the NICU, but decided to work with adults in the end thinking the experiene would be more beneficial in the long run. But I feel so behind! It's a totally different world than premies! The regimens, the assesments and of course the meds...pretty much everything. And my anxiety from being on the new unit, being in a 'new world', and being a new nurse all together impairs the flow of my day. My preceptor is wonderful and helpful but I just feel like she must think I'm a complete idiot. I forget silly little small things like how much I flush with, the tubes in need for different labs, the flow and setting up for certain procedures. Even things as simple as remembering how much to dilute 'x' medication with and getting a band aid for sub c inj., un clamping or clamping for that matter. I just get so task oreiented I forget the common sense things. And on top of this when I'm trying to concentrate on whatever procedure I'm trying to do the patient is wanting my attention and I'm wanting to give it and not come off as pre occupied...but I am!! And the paper work! uggghhh. How do I remember all the different paperwork and protocol initiations and parameters. It's just sooo much and sooo new for me! It makes me feel like maybe I wasn't cut out for nursing. I mean I can't remember the small things, how am I ever going to develop a routine!? I want to help people and make a difference in peoples lives but I'm so busy trying to just get a grip on things myself how am I supposed to make any kind of an imapact on my patients besides the obvious. I am able to keep up and be done on time but I have to still be prompted to do certain things which I have done a few times....is this normal. I feel ridiculous and I feel like I'm just annoying my preceptor. Maybe I'm just over thinking it but I needed to get this all out! Anyone have any advice or anything? Thanks for bearing through my rant!

I am a new grad who just accepted my first job. It was in intense (ICU) environment. I was told not to start off in the ICU as a new grad but I had been a PCA on a med/surg floor and was turned off by it. So I decided to take the job in the ICU. I was weeks into my orientation with very inconsistent preceptors and inconsistent reviews of my progress. I was told I was progressing well and every thing was fine then bam... out of left field I was told that I am being terminated for little mistakes such as scanning a med late, or sanitizing but not washing my hands every time I enter a new room! This is easily corrected and was not something I had consistently been doing. I can't even count the number of times I see nurses who have been in the profession for years make these human mistakes.Especially for a new grad who is still orienting! I could go on and on about this sketchy experience but it was very out of nowhere that all these 'issues' were brought to my attention. I had been told I was making great progress! Now I feel like I'm a horrible nurse and I'm scarred to try again elsewhere. Anyone have any advice or words of encouragement I really need it right now.