marinemom07

The biggest difference I see for new grads at present is the lack of experience they recieve in school. Of course I am a "dinosaur" and graduated from a diploma program in 1979. How can you go from working short 4 hour shifts a couple of days a week for a couple of months to a full time nurse working 12hr days? These poor kids really have no idea what is expected of them! I agree with the statement that patients are sicker. More knowledge and diagnostic tools are expected of nurses today compared to 30 years ago. I see a certain lack of work ethic in many new young nurses. They don't expect to have to work hard and don't volunteer to help. They certainly will help if asked, but have to be asked. Nursing is very, very different today than it was when I first started in 1979! At that time we all wore our caps, our uniforms were white dresses and we wore stockings. When the doctors came into the nurse's station you stood and gave him your chair, you followed him on rounds and carried the charts for them....and I said him because a female physician was rare. After graduation I quickly left floor nursing and started a long career in out patient hemodialysis. After 12 years of being a stay at home mom I returned to dialysis. I switched jobs 4 years ago and returned to the bedside in ICU. At 48 years old I was doing inpatient care for the first time in 28 years. Kinda like a new graduate with a lot of experience. I was helped by having "life" experience and knowing how to deal with people. My co-workers were great to me and my orientation was 6 weeks long. The last 4 years have been some of my best experiences in nursing. I am not one of those nurses who "eat their young"! I want new nurses to succeed. I just want them to work as hard at it as I did and continue to do! :)

Aloha, I am reading this post from the nurses station at my night shift job in ICU. I was also inactive for 12 years, I returned to work as a nurse 5 years ago at the age of 45. Luckily I was able to return to work in the Dialysis Unit I worked in before I decided to stay at home to raise my family. I wish I had some wonderful words of wisdom to tell you how to return. I did find dialysis very physically taxing. ICU is absolutley wonderful! Mentally challenging and very satisfying. Fortunately for me at 50 I am not the "oldest kid on the block". Even though I never took a refresher course I did a lot of reading and take every opportunity I can for education. Don't give up, keep looking-something will turn up!

In the past week I have cared for two end of life patients. One had a MSO4 drip and the other Versed and Fentanyl. (I work in ICU) As long as you are documenting your signs and symptoms for titrating there is no reason on this earth that these patients should not be comfortable! It is my duty and my privledge to make their last moments on earth as comfortable as possible and to make their passing easier on the family at the bedside. On a personal level my Dad died of CHF and renal failure. His last three days of life were made tolerable by MSO4. He died laying flat in bed and comfortable instead of gasping for air and drowning!

Wow-If I felt about my fellow nurses this way I would CERTAINLY resign and return to EMT status. I feel sorry for you. It must be hard to be so superior to all the people yopu work with. you need to find a new faciltiy and a new career!

I returned to nursing after staying at home to raise my children for 12 years. I was a dialysis nurse previous to staying at home. I went back to work in dialysis for 4 years and was physically exhausted by the work. I switched to ICU nursing in May and could NOT be happier! It was quite an adjustment to go from outpatient care to an intensive care setting. I have found that it is kind of like riding a bike-if you were good at it, if you love what you do-it really comes back. Also a fabulous, intensive 6 week orientation program didn't hurt either. Now at 48 years of age I work nights in ICU and I love it. I never thought my life would take this turn!