Satori77

I find this thread interesting to say the least. Do I believe male patients deserve modesty? Of course I do. I've had many male patients who seemed embarrassed when I had to perform an intimate task, but most won't say anything. I've only had one male patient tell me I could not see him naked or touch him, that he required a male nurse. And I wasn't offended. I work on a unit in a hospital where there are quite a few male nurses. However, I have had many more male patients request a female nurse for those intimate procedures. That have "fired" one of our wonderful male nurses because they don't want a man to touch their genitals. I had to take over a patient once that was yelling at a male nurse claiming he "is not gay, don't touch me". I have also been asked by numerous male patients to wash them or touch them in a way that was inappropriate because they thought it was funny to sexually harass a female staff member. And I know many of my coworkers have been in similar situations, but when asking my male nurse colleagues, they have not had sexual comments made to them by female patients. So claim all you want that female patients and staff members get preferential treatment because of some feminist plot, but we have our own issues to deal with. And its not always easy.

I'm in Colorado, not California. But for me personally, it is a little bit of both. Even if I only had 2 patients, I know I am not a med surg nurse. Its not the specialty I want to end up in. But I do think it would be a lot more doable having only 4 patients. Where I was working it was usually 5 patients on days (and with discharges and admits, there were times nurses could have 7 patients at one time), and on nights you have 6-7. Its not always safe.

Update: I tried sticking it out for the year. But there have been some major changes lately where I work. Census has been low. Like we have had to close down an entire hall for over a month now. Med surg at this hospital is the whole second floor. Two hallways, while they renovate the 3rd hall to open up for a geri psych unit. So for over a month I get called off at least once a shift every week. Sometimes two. I can't make my bills. Its not picking up. Charge nurses were supposed to start taking patients themselves, but instead they call off a nurse or 3, and stick the ones there with more patients. AND they call off our CNAs almost every shift. So now on top of a busier workload, we have to answer every call light, help people to the bathroom, help them eat, etc. We end up staying late and missing breaks...for which we get written up for. And we have so many confused patients on bed alarms that we have had several falls in the past month (and several almost falls) because there isn't enough staff to run to 4 rooms at once. I decided I had had enough. I'm not learning anymore, and the environment is unsafe when I work. Which I'm not working enough. So I started applying to the other major hospital system in this area and got offered two positions. One was med surg....it seemed like a much better floor than where I was, but it was still med surg. And I'm so burnt out. The other position is on an ortho floor. Out of all the med surg patients I take care of, surgical and ortho are my favorites. And there is a bridge program to get from ortho to periop, which is one of the areas I'm really interested in. I think this will be a much better fit for me.

I would definitely apply. I got one of those positions with only 6 months working as a nurse in a LTC. And I had classmates that got a position right out of school. I can't say you will definitely be hired, but they will hire new grads into those positions sometimes. Loveland is nice, though I don't know a lot of the area. I work on the med surg floor of McKee, and I do like where I work. Its a smaller hospital, which is nice when you are newer to working in a hospital setting.

I started on nights end of March. So it hasn't quite been 2 months. I am a night person and thought the adjustment wouldn't be too bad. Maybe I just haven't given it enough time, but I'm not adjusting well. I'm always tired. I have headaches a lot, my digestive system is messed up. Even my period is all of a sudden irregular. It doesn't help that I can't consistently stick to my night schedule on my days off. I have kids who have things going on. And being a newer grad, I often have classes or forums during the day. I'm beginning to wonder if nights really are for me.

I work for a Banner facility in Loveland CO. I graduated a year ago. My classmates and I just applied to positions. I only saw one that specifically stated New Grad. They will hire new grads for general med surg and sometimes other areas. Just apply to what you are interested in. I personally live in Fort Collins. There, Loveland, Windsor and surrounding areas are really nice. There are nice places in Greeley, but I wouldn't want to live there.

I am definitely afraid of burning out and leaving nursing all together if I have to stay on Med Surg for a long time.

No, I work at a pretty small hospital. They don't offer an OR residency.

That's incredible. NICUs around here will not hire you without experience. Some require 6 months of NICU experience, which is frustrating, because how can I get experience if I can't get hired anywhere in a NICU?

Thank you. That's exactly what I was thinking. But I think I needed to hear it.

No, its definitely not like that. I do think there are nights when I have an unsafe load (I think many nurses feel that way), but I wouldn't say my license is on the line.

I prefer to work 3 in a row and have 4-5 days off. The first day off (when I'm getting off my 3rd night) I will sleep all day long. The 2nd day I am still pretty tired. I don't think it would be so bad if I could just stay on a night schedule, but with kids, appointments, etc, I have to switch back and forth a lot. So if I only get a day or two off in between, its really rough.

I started on nights over a month ago. I thought it would be the perfect fit for our family. I would work nights and be home during the day if our kids needed anything, and he would be with them at night when I worked. I'm a night person too, and hated waking up to be at work at either 6 or 7am. I like the flow, less staff, and though it still very busy, I do have more downtime to chart and talk to my patients. And to be honest, I like the extra pay. But its only been a month and I'm rethinking it. I feel like I rarely see my husband or kids. My husband leaves before I get home and goes to bed early, and I often have to stay up late so I can handle it when I do have to work. I miss a lot of things or am super tired if we have plans during the day, which especially with kids is unavoidable. It is doable, but I find it very difficult to spend quality time together.

Had a patient with dementia and a UTI getting increasingly confused through the night. All his meds were PO and he would pocket on them or start choking. He was on O2 and kept pulling it off, and he was desatting pretty bad. He was also getting very agitated, trying to fall out of bed, swinging at staff, even grabbed another nurse by the stethoscope around her neck. Called the doc to see if we could get something IV prescribed to calm him down. He was going to either hurt himself or a staff member. His only reply was "I'm not worried, he'll live" and hung up the phone.

When I went to nursing school, I knew I didn't want to be a floor nurse. I had little interest in med surg. Now when I did my clinicals, and most were med surg, I enjoyed them for the most part. I like taking care of people. I don't mind the tasks. I have no problem cleaning up people, helping them to the bathroom or to eat. I like talking with and educating patients and family. I don't even mind the rudeness. But I can't stand being understaffed. High patient to nurse ratios. Very acute patients and little help from charge nurses or docs. I worked in a SNF full time for 6 months, and still do PRN work because I love the residents. And then I took a med surg position to get my foot in the door at the hospital. I have been doing this for almost 5 months and I'm just not sure I can make it a year. There has been such turnover. We are constantly pushed to discharge patients and do more admits. Its very task oriented, and I don't believe I am giving the best care that I should be giving. And still being a newer nurse, I'm afraid of missing something and a patient getting hurt. Plus I am seriously getting burned out. I work nights (which I like the flow better, but it is still quite crazy with half the staff and a higher patient load). With how rough it is, and knowing that I am not passionate about floor nursing, I'm wondering if I can/should look for another job. Now I can't search within my hospital system because you need to be in your 1st job for a year before transferring. Which I completely get. Should I just suck it up for another 7 months (at least) and try to apply elsewhere in the hospital. After all, I have worked hard to get where I am. Or can I start applying at other hospitals? Would they even consider me? I don't want to be someone who jumps jobs every few months. I want to find my home and stay there. Anyone else able to either not work med surg out of school or only do it a few months before landing a job that is a better fit? For reference, the areas I am and have been interested in since before school is OR (including periop where I did my senior practicum) or WIS (including NICU). I just feel like those areas are so specialized and so unlike med surg that I wonder how much med surg (besides time management) is really helping me.