qnmimi

Assault against any medical provider be a felony.

After 15 years of 8hr shifts full time, and now 15 years of 12 hour shifts....I'll keep the 12 hr shifts. The trade off for longer hours is fewer days/week to work. I have actually been able to have time off where I am not completely exhausted. I hope to keep the 12hr shifts until I retire.....

Wow, I was struck by the tone of envy in your letter. Please do not mistake this response as an attack, it is not. Do these other people have the job security, and a wide field of career choices in jobs as you do? Are you happy in nursing? If not, you are still able to make any career choice you have a passion for. ? Maybe a life coach can help you find happiness/fulfillment in a career. I send you a lot of good wishes to find what makes you happy.

No matter what, modest pay means so very different things to the employer VS the employee. Do I enjoy the fact I have to work hard, keep a lot of knowledge up to date, deal with difficult people to name only a few things we nurses have to deal with? NO! Would I willingly do it for less if I did not need to? NO again. Your co-worker's thinking is very outdated, and as an RN for almost 30 years, I have run across all stripes of nurses. Nursing is a noble profession, repeat profession, and we all deserve good pay for the job we do.

You are dealing with a very bad case of "what ifs" over a seriously traumatic experience. Your feelings are real, and are akin to PTSD. PLEASE if you feel this is taking over your life, can't eat/sleep, talk to a counselor...psychiatric, or spiritual. These feelings are natural, in everyday life, 10 year olds don't suffer cardio-pulmonary arrest. I have been part of a code team for 20 years, and every code is traumatic, especially the young ones. Emotional support, and time are the best healers. I'll wager the grieving family was comforted knowing that you came to help, even though it was not the outcome anybody would want. Big hugs for you.

I started in my hospital's float pool as a new grad many years ago, and I can call it a success as I am still there, but have moved up the clinical ladder. Yes success can be achieved with a great orientation program designed to teach you basic nursing along with supporting flexibility, and constant learning. Learning all your co workers names on all the floors can be a challenge, but making sure people know who you are, and stressing you are part of their team for that day helps. You will learn many skills in nursing that nurses who are assigned to a specific unit will not, and your time management skills will be phenomenal with the right mentor. I have found float staff to be quite useful, especially for "that patient that they don't normally get" as you most likely will be able to teach those co workers something too! Be open to the possibilities. If you have the right personality fit for the float pool, talking to other float staff, or their manager during the interview process can help you mesh the float culture(and they do have one) with what type of job you'd enjoy.

Rule of thumb in our hospital is, if infant/toddler & up to young school age, there must be another adult to care for that small child. An older child who needs minimal supervision, and the pt basically has the physical, and mental capacity to care for this child is OK ( think older school age) Sometimes saying no is hard, but most nurses would refuse to take on the responsibility of a non patient. This also applies to elderly folks who need care from the patient too. We often do make arrangements for an elderly spouse to stay, but again, we firmly do not accept the responsibility of the legal side of care for a non patient regardless of age.

I learned so much from "The older nurses" As a new nurse 29 years ago I was fortunate to work with one on the medical floor who was full of great stories...stories that taught me how to be a good nurse, mistakes she made that I could learn from, and how to really read a situation. I feel fortunate to have learned at the feet of some really great nurses! Recently lost a truly great PACU nurse that started at my hospital when I was 2 years old ( I am 55) She could run circles around many of her co-workers until she retired a year before her passing.

a lake of C-Diff waiting for me!

When I graduated in 1987, one thing I remember is the hierarchy of the hospital: Doctor is boss, absolutely, then everything else pretty much trickled onto the nurse's lap to take care of. Few nursing assistants, LPN's to help shoulder the load. All charting on paper as the internet and computers were too new, and no programs available for us to chart on. Nursing "whites" were still the norm, and a few caps were still worn by the older nurses. I recall having your appendix out bought you a 3 day stay on average, and one day surgeries were a rare occurrence. You actually had to touch your patient to assess them...there were no machines to do the work for you. Lippincot was a heavy book to be pulled out if the senior nurses could not answer your questions, and you hoped that an updated copy was on the unit! Eight hour shifts were the norm too, only the ICU's were trying to make 12hr shifts work back then. Oh, and my favorite...orientation was something you had to pass...plenty of time was given to learn based on how well you did, not just you get 3-4 weeks tops like now. Those were bad old good old days!

I would report him in a heartbeat...to his supervisor. Not even a second thought. He is exhibiting behaviors of diversion now.

Snarky nurse says: because said doctor is not educated enough to know that haldol is contraindicated in parkinson's, and confusion is a symptom of pneumonia, with associated multifactoral delerium. Sorry, had to get that out.

I have found that new grads are a mixed breed. Personality definitely helps to succeed in any job, but I have found by personal experience that it is almost impossible to teach a new grad adequate critical thinking skills in an average 6 week orientation. Oh yes, and if you cannot grasp that concept, you will feel like you are not pulling your weight, and may feel the scorn of some of your more cynical, jaded co-workers. Horrible position to be in constantly pushing that boulder uphill. Unfortunately in the busyness of most highly skilled nursing units, there is very little post orientation mentoring done. I understand the draw of wanting to work on a critical care unit, but managers do a grave disservice to new nurses by not making sure that you are given the supportive skills to succeed. Nurses who are clinically supported have extremely high job satisfaction...no surprise there.

Definitely I'd fall more under the Nurse Jackie. I am loud, and opinionated, and not afraid to do what is right with my patients. Fortunately for me my life is minus all the drama and drug addiction. BTW, I have used a stethescope for over 30 years, are nurses truly so obsessive to think you can put it around your neck "backwards"????WTH????

PMFB-RN quoted ruger8mm, then added a political attack. IMHO it was rather misplaced in this discussion.