eccentricRN

First of all take a deep breath & try to relax... looking for a job is always stressful & having looked as long as you have makes it even tougher. Use all the other advice you've received about having someone look at your resume & cover letter, etc... But realize that although there's a nursing shortage, there is an even bigger shortage on medical funding. Now that is not to say you cannot find a job. You need to find your edge... do not make your perspective employer believe you only went to school for a scure job & a good paycheck, they want someone who truly cares for their pts... not saying you wouldn't. It's also very hard to pick yourself up from the dulldrums once you've sunk deep, so you need to find a way to release the negative feelings about yourself... I am positive they are not dissinterested in you as you say you feel they are... that's the depression talking... you know what gets you out of a funk & you need to do it now!! That negative energy goes with you & passes through any conversations you have with people... job searching is boring, heart breaking sould crunching work, but persistence will pay off in the end. Maybe you could talk to some people from school, maybe you'll find you really aren't the only one finding it difficult, as have some fellow posters right here. Go to the job service center in your area, get help with you resume if needed & they can also help you learn how to interview. Use your resources & I truly wish you the best of luck... let us know WHEN (you will find one!) you get a job so we can congrat you!!

Thank you, thank you after the night I had last night this thread hit the spot... Had a chronic call light pusher, stable didn't need to be there anymore & 7 other pts 2 of which were circling the drain, one of which was a full code, thank you very much (CA with mets everywhere!) Plus 3 serious resp pts, but yes I want to come down & hear you fart on the bedpan, & it most definitely takes an actual nurse to go to the freezer & get you a popsicle at 0300. What's that? Your feet are cold, yes I the nurse will now travel ALL the way back down to the other end of the unit & then walk all the way back down here & place a warm blanket on your feet. Oh, sorry it's now been 4.5 minutes & your feet are still cold & all anybody did was place a blanket on them... I'm sorry, please let me personally rub them until they warm up, perhaps you'd like me to bath them with warm water.... never mind the sweet little lady down the hall is barely responsive, her o2 is like 52%, and she has a b/p of 60/40... your cold feet are MUCH more important... perhaps you'd like me to reposition you again for the umpteenth time & each time results in you ending up in the exact same position you started in... I don't need to call the cardiac doc for at least another couple of hours.... the little old lady will wait.... No I don't know how big your clot is... you'll have to ask the doctor, but I'm guessing since they shipped you out of ICU & your VS have been stable & you are able to ask for popsicles & to fart for me...that you're probably not critical & if they give you better service @ the NH, then please by all means return there post haste!!!!

I haven't been a nurse long, but I've seen alot of sad things... I guess the saddest thing to me is knowing a pt is dying and all you can do is make them comfortable (we have a mixed unti with anything from peds to hospice), and the family cannot come to terms with their impending death. They want everything done possible even though it's most likely impossible... When they could try to enjoy their family member, & help them pass comfortably surrounded by theri loved ones. Then of course there is the hundreds of dumps we get every year... you know around the holidays family finally sees their not doing well & they don't want to be bothered so they bring them to the ER & it's up to us to find proper placement. And along those lines the ill spouse who is the caregiver for the other spouse & family refuses to take care of them or seek respite care & now we have 2 pts & the truly ill pt cannot rest due to worrying about their charge who's been dumped in the hospital with them.... Could go on & on, but you all know that already!

2 weeks ago....... in am admin triple "h" enema till clear. pt was inc of stool and on bedrest.

So I've been a nurse for about 6 & 1/2 months now. I currently work 3rd shift which I absolutely LOVE, however, it just isn't jiving with my home life. My husband works PMs & we were hoping to find someone reliable to come into our home to care for my son during our overlap time of approx. an hour. No luck! So my poor son has to go to the neighbors, which is really great, they're good with him & he loves it there, couldn't ask for a better deal, but this causes him to be up to 11pm or later whenever I work. So, I found out there is an opning on 1st shift at my hospital on the same floor. I'm hoping to get this position, but have found out someone else is interested as well. Of course, someone else is interested...it's 1st shift. So please cross your fingers & hopefully I can give my son a more stable home schedule!!!

We are divided into to lists. It owrks out that we end up doing every other holiday & then each year it flips to the opposite holidays... that way everyone knows what they'll work for the year & no one can complain about favoritisim.

Many find the first year a surprise... you are not only adjusting to a new career, you are adjusting to a new career that involves people's lives. You are responsible for the care & welfare of people who could possibly die or suffer severe consequences if you are not on the top of your game. This makes it a very stressful career, & you do learn most of what you need to know on the job, not in school. Everyone learns at their own pace & in their own way, which will make everyone's first year unique, especially when you throw in the differences in preceptors. Some people also begin in a position they really are not comfortable with, for fear of having no other offers or lack of knowledge of their possiblities. So there may be an added discomfort until one finds their "niche."

In my school we were required to break into groups, pick from a list of skills and present. We needed to come up with a visual aid, a handout & of course perform the skill in front of the class. One group had pressure ulcers & they used bagels & various toppings to signify the different stages of wounds. Another group used different colored soda to show the different types of drainage you might see in different drains.

I work a general med/surg unit & our epidural pts are just included in with our regular pt load, as others have said it takes 2 to change the rate. Vitals are the same as anyone on a PCA, q4hrs. Occasionally I've seen cont. pulse ox, but not always. We change the bags ourselves.

Not entirely true, maybe in LTC, but I work in the hospital & with a quick little training session our CNAs can & do blood sugars all the time. When I was a CNA in LTC I did in fact have to get VS, & the facility I worked at as a nurse extern also required CNAs to take VS. However, I have heard of LTC facilities that do not utilize CNAs for VS. I guess it just depends on the location & the facility.

Hey I know exactly how you feel. Remember how in school they taught us about transitions, well you're smack dab in the middle of one now. I've been working for almost 6 months now & I felt just like you in the begining... I almost didn't know what to do with myself & now in the last 2 months or so I've actually become okay with downtime. I have also started doing things for myself... it takes time but you'll adjust to your new role... good luck & congrats!!!!

This is just my top sheet, on my cardexes I put all the other info you're talking about... it's still accessible, but you have a cleaner more easily read flow sheet to organize your shift.

find a system to organize your self... what did you do during clinical so you wouldn't miss something?? some do it by hours, i do it by shift. i carry a clipboard & i write the times & # of meds to be given for each pt... i also write times for next set of surg vitals or bs, drsg change, etc... as i give a med i circle it, then when i have a chance i chart it given & the x it out, i cross out treatments as they are completed once i charted them. example: mr. holdover meds 02-2 05-1 07-2 bs 00, 06 resp tx 00, 04 i put all my pts on the same sheet if possible so a quick glance let you know what you've got coming up this hour & allows you to plan as needed. hope this helps.

I work 4 8 hour shifts a week, but this is my schedule... My dh works pms, so I come home, take ds to summer school & hop into bed right after I get back, usually between 0800-8030, sleep until 1200, when dh drops off ds from school, I stay up until 1800, then I drop ds off at the neighbors & lay back down until 2000, I get up exercise & get ready for work, my shift starts at 2245. I usually don't eat before I lay down in the morning, I eat breakfast around noon, supper with my ds around 1700 & then I pack a lunch to eat at work. I just started exercising about a month & half ago, I was suffering increased stress & I sure can stand to loss some weight, plus I was exhausted all the time. I've only been a night shifter going on 6months... I'm a newbie myself... I found the exercising has increased my stamina, I feel little stress, I'm not always tired & I have managed to drop 11 pounds. I also don't drink anything but water all night at work... which allows me to drop right off when I get home. I do have a coworker who works 5 8s, she cannot do what I do & so her 2 children go to daycare during the summer & afterschool programs during the school year, so that may be an option for you. Just realize that most 3rd shifters no matter how they try, never get as much sleep as someone on days or pms. And it is rarely concurrent. One thing here, I'm one of those people who have no difficulty sleeping anytime, anywhere & can drop off into sleep quickly.... probably helps I only average 6 hours or less a day of sleep, but I was that way before 3rd shift. I do, however, tend to waste my first day off, I'm too lazy & nonproductive. It's definitely doable...but again I don't work 12s & everyone is different. Good luck I'm sure you'll find a way to make it work for you.

Thankfully I have had the luck to work with some really GREAT aides, who are an important extension of myself. They are my eyes, ears, & nose when I don't always have the time myself... I always try to explain my rationale... I never run from cleaning up one of my patients either, and that is a big deal when working with staff in general... It doesn't even need to be my patient, if you need help & I'm available I'm there. Of, course turnabout is fair play. If I cannot rush to help right that moment I explain myself... I need to reassess so & so, or so & so needs meds right now, etc... If I will be busy for an extended amount of time I tell them so... if it'll be quick I'll say get such & such supplies & I'll meet you in 5 minutes... I work 3rd shift, so we tend to be tighter knit anyhow, but everyone has a really bad night now & again & if you consistently work as a team it pays off big when you need it... Not to be funny, but it may be a matter of how you approach the techs... or how you appear to the techs... maybe they see you as someone who is not a team player.... I'm only speculating as I'm not in your shoes here... try to make a greater effort to become more proficient at time management, which may in turn allow you more time to be available to assist the techs at times...I've always found that if you shock them a little by being genuinely willing to help, they tend to see you in a whole different light & may actually attempt to work with you, instead of against you. Just try to remember the work of a tech is never beneath you... it's all part of an assessment.... what better way to assess than be right there in the trenches wiping someone's behind...or assisting a pt to the bathroom you can assess their LOC & gait & oh so many other things. Like I said I don't know your whole story, but a more hands on proactive approach may benefit you, whenever you are able, it may peak your tech's interest & you may find you have just gained an irreplaceable priceless coworker. Good luck to you!!

I consider my co workers friends, but we do not go out & socialize outside of work for a very simple reason, or should I say several, we're all married with children & we work 3rd shift, so we have limited amount of staff which it's very rare to have time off together. We're close, we talk about our home life & we trust each other to have our backs when the doo doo hits the fan. So I consider them my friends. I agree with a previous poster as you get older your priorities & socialization methods change... however I have some very few & very close friends & we hardly ever see each other, but I can call anytime I need someone to be there & listen & just be there for me & vice versa. I have limited time with my dh & my son so rather than go socialize with my friends they either come & visit with my family or we just don't get together but once a blue moon. I do have 1 friend from nursing school that we get together once a month for breakfast, to let off steam as we're both newbies. I have to say I'm very happy and comfortable with this lifestyle, although to others it may seem weird.

I work NOCs in a smaller hospital, we usually have 3 nurses & 1 or 2 aides & we carry anywhere from 6& up... we tend to average 8-10, this includes our "charge"... many nights there is no charge. We too have everything you could imagine, infectious, neutro, CA, GI, cardiac, resp, pain control I could go on & on...most tend to be elderly with sundowners/dementia, etc...& since our other hospital in town no longer takes those without insurance & we have no psych floor, we get our fair share of those, too...There seems to be good NOCs & really beat you down like a dog NOCs... I just feel fortunate that our supervisors appreciate & help as they can & that I work with the most awesome bunch of nurses & aides EVER! :yeah:I still enjoy going to work, simply because I love the people I work with...now if that ever changes... I just don't know, but for now I'm content.

So sorry you had such a bad experience, but to be dropped on the last day is not unheard of, in fact, it happened to numerous students in my class. I am not an instructor, nor claim to know how it all works, but I do know instructors do communicate with one another on various levels & topics &, of course, students do become a topic of discussion. I cannot speak for the instructors, but I would think that being that you were dropped the last day, they may have been making an attempt to give you another chance to prove yourself. I do not mean this as an attack, I'm only posting to let you know that you are not alone in what has happened to you. I hope you continue to work towards your goal & that you succeed. You are not the first nor last NS to have been dropped, please if it is your dream, continue on & prove your instructor wrong... as you seem to feel a grave error was made. Wishing you the best of luck!

I attended an ADN program, and we had a short lecture on each skill, but lab time for practice & to test off was our responsibility... we had to test off in front of the skills staff each & every skill we were required to learn. We had a shedule that required us to complete test of of specific skills within a certain time frame. Failure to do so resulted in an automatic fail for that skill. We had a number scale of 0-4... it was based on whether you tested off successfully on your 1st, 2nd or late, etc... you had to successfully complete the test off for each skill, however, you may end up with a 0 in the end... failure to test off on a skills garnered an incomplete for the class. We were also required to schedule our own times for skill test offs & failure to cancel 24hrs prior or coming late or just not showing up (with legitamite exceptions of course) resulted in you inability to return to the lab for 1 week... it was to encourage accountability in the students. I thought it was effective, nerve wracking, but I learned alot & the skill lab staff was AWESOME... they were always available to answer questions & they really wanted us to succeed...so I'm not an educator...sorry for butting in, but that's my . BTW we had skills in 2 semesters, our 1st, they had to be completed within the 1st 12 weeks & then again in 3rd semester, they had to be completed in the 1st 4-6wks... I can't remember exactly.

Actually yes, care plans are a way of learning to put your knowledge into practice of a sort... you need to understand the disease process vs. normal system functioning... the differences... & how the disease could & how it is actually affecting your pt & then design a plan of care utilizing this knowledge... your care plans in "real life" may not be as indepth, but many of the things you once listed as a student, you just automatically perform many of those nursing tasks...(i.e pt SOB, apply O2, sit them upright, etc...)

Just my here, but nursing can be a very frustrating field to work in... you are often pressed to deal with situations that tangle your emotions & yes, at some point I believe it'll bring you to tears.... That said, about those who feel the tests did not cover what your lectures covered... THERE IS NO WAY to cover everything you'll need to know in 2 or even 4 yrs of schooling... nursing requires you to be flexible, able to roll with the flow & learn on the fly... medicine in general changes all the time... you cannot statically learn information in school & expect to have all the tools to become a nurse. I can't speak for other programs... but we were taught a knowledge base... from this information we had to critically think & base our answer on the knowledge we had applied to this specific situation... you cannot simply learn facts & expect to do well in school... you need to be able to take what was taught & apply it to what you are faced with... such is nursing in real life... there is not someone there to say hey, remember we covered this last week in lecture... you need to know how to use the information you gain in school... nursing isn't a black hole... there is a large amount of variable in what you do, see, learn, do in school & what will actually occur when your responsible for someone's loved one... so yes, nursing school should push you to tears... often you are all that you patient has to count on... after all you are responsible for someone's life, not just passing a test.

Ok, I guess I'm in the minority here, but I oriented for 1 month, 32 hours a week (8hr shifts), on 1st & 2nd shift & then it was off to 3rd shift where I immediately had a full patient load... it was a little hairy at first & still can be from time to time, but I'm about 5 months in & I still have tons of questions, but I also work with great nurses, who are always available to answer a question or come along when I freak myself out about something I've never done before....right now I'm really enjoying med/surg & the variety I encounter even in one shift, so I think it's possible to manage with a shorter orientation... I should add my first week on the job was strictly classroom work...which helped alot. I guess it just depends on the individual & the environment in which you work.

I went through an ADN program & I owe about $6K in loans, I had started out paying cash for everything, but with us on 1 income & my spouse getting laid off & ending up with a lower paying job, & a mortgage & a family to support, I took loans out in the end... I also didn't qualify for financial aid because we made "TOO" much... living paycheck to paycheck...barely making it...that's laughable... but I've been working going on 5 months now & have already paid off $5K in other bills we got behind on, so I'm figuring we'll be all caught up by the end of this year.

Does your school offer the program parttime?? It'll take longer, but I know quite a few of my fellow classmates had to go that route in order to work fulltime... just a thought. I wish you the best of luck in whatever you choose to do!!

Where I work the weekend is sat & sun for the PM shift & fri & sat for the night shift.