emtstudentnurse

Next week I'm interviewing with Scott & White in Temple. I'm looking for some insight on what to expect from an interview there. I've prepared my resume, cover letter, list of references, outfit ready, and brushed up on interviewing in general. I'm mainly nervous because I have to idea what to expect with teaching hospital and trauma center, but I've done my homework on the hospital. Last summer I interviewed with a few hospitals and everyone I met with was more concerned with selling the hospital to me than asking me any questions. I feel like Scott & White might not be like that. I feel confident answering questions about megacodes, protocols, etc. just don't want to be blind sided. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Our Press Ganey results just came in, out patients are not happy. And we didn't meet all of our KPIs from last year. There are quite a few pleasant and supportive people I work with, but they can't outweigh the toxic ones. The comment about commiting battery on a patient is the last straw. I'm looking forward to my job interview next week and if I don't get it, I'll just keep applying until I find a better place to work or go back to EMS temporarily. Thanks for all the advice and support. It sometimes hard to see the bigger picture when looking from the inside. I'm grateful to all of you.

I still help out with tele since they haven't hired anyone prn for nights. There used to be 2 nurses that we could do it, but now it's only me. I do receive my nurse's pay, but I have tele, answer call lights and play secretary. A bit of sensory overload. I have lined up a job interview for next week. It's a teaching hospital, so I'm hoping there will be more opportunity there. I wish I was able to stay here, but the few who make work unbearable don't outweigh the others. I guess I'm disappointed in how this has turned out. Hopefully I'll be able to find another place to work, and I'll go prn here for a month or so. Prn only requires one shift a month and April will be 2 years I've been here. I don't really want to cut it short that close. Thanks.

Update: Just had my meeting with my mgr. Over the phone. I'm working tonight, not on floor, watching tele. It's really hard to defend yourself or anything else for that matter when meeting is on phone. Bottom line was next time I'm supposed to restrain patient to restart IV. Don't think so. I've already had my quick cry and got it out of my system. Going back to work now.

Only about 10 nurses actually treat me like that in general, out of maybe 50 nurses total. This one nurse with the newspaper does this to me on a regular basis. Lately, I've heard that it's harder for new nurses to work on a floor that they were a tech on. I'm seeing this a little more each day. I think it's crazy because I've been off orientation for for over 2 months, and now the dynamics are changing. I'm looking into other opportunities now. I don't believe I'll make it a year on this unit. Thanks for all the advice and insight. I am grateful to everyone.

Since I posted something similar, I do not have work advice except take the others advice seriously. My advice is for your personal life. My personal life is somewhat together although work is not. At first it was a struggle, but with strategy it became easier. First, try to resist the urge to buy single self help books, waste of money in a recession. They all say the same thing. My current boyfriend I met online. Yes, I said it. We actually went to high school together a decade ago, and things happened. I'm not going to go on a how to find a boyfriend jant. But, with mine it works since he works nights and I have self scheduling. It just works. Now, having friends and being on night shift is doable. Most of my friends and family are day people. At first I was most irritated with them calling when I had to sleep. Solution, I told them that 11am for them is 11pm for me. Which kind of worked with some. Others, I told them when I slept, which I pretty much stick to. A few others had to have me call them when they were sleeping to get the idea. Also, I get up at 1630, but don't clock in until 1830. I use this time to run errands and make phone calls to friends and family. When I get my schedule, I call and make dates with my friends. It's a little easier when I have at least 2 days off in a row. If something happens in my life and can't talk to friend right away, like at 2am, email them. I also joined a rodeo association that puts on a rodeo once a year, I'm in Tx. We usually meet once a month until the rodeo, which is next week, then we start meeting every week. It's a matter of putting yourself out in the world, and definately getting some sunshine time. Hopefully some of this will help. Good luck and know you're not alone.

Thanks everyone's advice, suggestions, and hugs. :yeah: A few things have come up since my original post. Before I'll address a few things. My patient load is usually not troublesome as far as number of patients. It's the patient acuity. I work at a rural hospital just outside a metro area. We see everything that doesn't ship out. We have high patient acuity on a regular basis and sometimes it's just luck of the draw on assignments. If you have the rooms across from either station then it might be a long night. I don't have a problem with the acuity or assignments really. I try to be very diligent on checking MARs and orders, but I've made two errors. The first one I cried over it, completely freaked out told another nurse then realized that I'd given med 45 mins early. I haven't made that mistake again and fortunately it was ibuprofen. I think the reason I'm looking forward to computer charting is the paper work I have now. For assessments we chart by exception with the option to check the wdl box. I have a hard time checking that on every body system, it seems that I'm saying I didnt check. Even if I only write AAOX3, I feel better. Filling out assessments and the rest of nurse's notes on 6 patients takes awhile for me to write, add in interruptions. After my initial patient assessment I immediately chart anything out of ordinary or related to admit dx. Then fill inthe blanks later. I guess I'm overwhelmed trying to get paper work done and chart checks and maybe read progress notes. Now I try and schedule my shift which works sometimes or anytime I have down time and do something early so its done, like pulling 0600 meds. I had an extremely long orientation. It took me awhile to get it until a supervisor took me aside and said what everyone else had said but different so the light went off. My first month of orientation I was in an internship class along with working on the floor. Then I was still on orientation the second and third month. I think I had an adequate orientation. After taking a step back I believe my core problem is the amount of paper work and time management, which I'm continually working on. At this time I'm still waiting on having the meeting with my mgr since it was rescheduled. But since then I've learned some new things. First, I didn't get SALTs. To make a long story short, the morning after that shift I made the dayshift charge mad so they went through my charts from the shift before and did the write ups but didn't qualifly for SALTs. I can deal with this, it's been reviewed and yes I documented the sores, no the profile wasn't completed yet but way under the first 24 hrs after admit started on dayshift, and yes I didn't notify the supervisor about the IV situation at 0645 since they were gone. I can live which this, learn, and proceed. There are two things troubling me right now. I spoke to one of my charges about the situation trying to gain some insight. I'm usually the first one to ask for constructive critism. After a very vague conversation where I was beginning to become upset but not crying, I was told maybe I didn't want to be a nurse. Maybe I should go back to ems, maybe I wasn't cut out to be a nurse, and not everyone who comes from ems can be a nurse. This was coming from a nurse who was a paramedic before. At first, I thought I really connected with this nurse because we had that in common. One of my nursing instructors was in ems first, and it was great, she understood how I viewed things and taught me how to think like a nurse. But this charge is different for some reason. But, after she said this she did say I was a smart nurse. Thanks, now crying asked for a break. I know that you are not able to make a decision able my nursing ability, I just wanted to get that off my chest. The other was giving report this morning. I had a nice night with darling patients since none of them were close to station. I had everything done and was waiting at 0630 to give report. After reporting to one nurse I was waiting on the second. I went to the other end to find them. Unable to, I went back to first station. Finally at 0715 I found the nurse sitting in the back drinking coffee. I told them I was looking for them to give them report. They just sat there so I went back. I started giving report, and they picked up the newspaper and started reading before I finished with the first patient. I finished report, got my stuff and left. I'm just irritated about that, but not sure why. Maybe this is just one of the many brick walls I must encounter. I'll just have to either learn how to climb a wall or a solution around it. Thank you to everyone, I truly appreciate the replies, support, and having a place to vent without fear. Post Script- I figured out how to use the smilies, forgive my overuse. :redbeathe

This started out as an email to my nurse friends for advice. I'm casting this out for more than just two opinions. And my friends might not be brutally honest, which is what I'm looking for right now. To begin with, a SALT is like a write up in most cases. But it's mainly there for patient safety. We do them on falls, med errors, skin tears and pressure ulcers on admit, and sometimes just whatever the need. I got an email from my mgr. I have 3 salts. I think they are all from last friday night when I totally wanted to quit. It was the night I wanted to claim safe harbor. Wish I had now. If your gut ever tells you to claim safe harbor, do it right then. It's totally worth it. Go to the bon website and print out the quick form for it. I did last night. Anyways, I get this email from mgr and it lists 3 medical record numbers and very brief description of what it was. I have no way to look it up to determine what the issue is or the patient. I'm supposed to stay late Monday morning for the mgr to come in early to have a meeting with me. In the email it says to come prepared with feedback. Huh? I had a patient pull out iv and refused to be resited, that morning I had a critical called the doc and day shift showed up and wanted report before I could even write the order. Well, I couldn't convince patient to resite, I am not going to force them, that falls under assault and battery. Horror. The other is about interval/profile not being done, I don't know. The last was patient who had sores on coccyx and back not documented. I want to scream. I think I know which patient that was, I remember the dressings were white and photographed on day shift and documented in progress notes. I missed more med orders last night. I reported it as soon as I noticed it. What am I gonna do? I feel thorough and ocd about doing my paperwork but this is blind-siding me. Even this morning when I got home I had to call because I forgot to note a med rec form. Sometimes the extra paperwork I'm doing is left over from day shift. I know it's my fault but how do I change this? Is it the patients? I make mistakes on the nights when I have one or two patients that call every 5 mins. I had one last night who needed to go to bathroom every 30 mins. Her first call was at 1906, no tech I went in to help her and did her assessment while on BSC. I just want to scream. I feel like it's all for nothing. I really regret going into med/surg now. I'm so frustrated I can't even think about what I've actually learned. Maybe I've learned that med/surg is not for me. I still want to cry every shift because I'm so overwhelmed and behind in everything and others are just laughing and having fun. I go in for 12 hours work my bottom off to try and get everything done, for what? To get salts? Salts are now the equivelent to write ups and everyone can do it. I never salt people, but I think that is about to change. But when would I have time to do a salt? I feel completely unappreciated by everyone. Also, I hate when day shift comes in for report and is hateful to me because they're getting my patients. Please, I had them all night, I don't make the assignments so take it up with someone else. I can't even give good reports because I'm sitting there getting the evil eye because of the patients. I forget what is important and should be telling them. I'm gonna quit giving them the details that suck and will tick them off. I hate it so much. I just don't know what to do. Is it like this because it's a corporate hospital? Found out last night we're not getting the bonuses for the KPIs because of budget. We met every KPI but we didn't make enough money. Is it like this everywhere? Will healthcare always be like this? Will it be different with computer charting? Am I really supposed to be a nurse? What about ER? Will I not like it there also? Will it be different? Is this just med/surg? I feel like having an anxiety attack at the thought of going to work and when I get there. I need advice, reassurance, something. I guess I'm just overwhelmed right now. I hate making mistakes or getting in trouble. I try to do everything right so it doesn't happen. Thanks in advance. Also, I am not complaining about day shift. I worked with the same day shift crew for 1 1/2 years before going to nights.

Crimson- I think I'm confused on the part about the pay per year. Do you mean that's the yearly salary if you work full time (40 hrs/wk)? Also, $19.75/hr, I'm assuming that's RN, right? One more thing, telemetry floor is not considered specialty right? Thanks so much. It just kinda made me a little worried when I read that.

I think the biggest different in pay has to do with whether or not it's LVN or RN. I know I'll be making $2 less an hour regular pay and $4 less an hour on shift differential. I've decided to go ahead and go to Tyler and see what happens. Hopefully I can find a part time job to help out. Thanks guys. If anyone knows any insight on where to live, let me know.

Thanks. I'm trying to scramble and find some other jobs to apply for in another area. I took out student loans for school, so I have to plan on starting to pay those back soon. Guess I didn't look before I leapt. Live and learn.

Thanks so much. I'm not supposed to start until close to end of August. But starting to reconsider, I think I might have gotten low balled on the pay. I don't think I'll be able to afford to live there on the salary since I'm single. It seems like the cost of living is higher there than the DFW area and the pay lower.

Thanks so much. I've been looking at the area on Broadway south of the loop. Also, do you know how long it takes from the time you accept a position and do a drug screen to finish the background check?

I'll be moving to Tyler in late August. I'm trying to find an apartment, but almost everyone I call tells me they have a waiting list. Is this because of the college or just normal for there? Which apartments are considered more safe than others? I'll be alone, so don't want to be somewhere that could be unsafe. Also, if I can't find something in Tyler, would Lindale be the next place to look, and if so, which apartments? Next set of questions. I've taken a job with ETMC. I'll be starting GNO first. This will be my first nursing job. What can I expect with GNO? What should I bring with me? Will they be doing PBDS? I've heard some horror stories about it. Lastly, ETMC is tobacco free. Should I just plan on quitting smoking all together? How is the policy with employees? At my current hospital, employees can still smoke on their own time off campus. Thanks in advance. Soon to be East Texan, again. Misty

Hi, I couldn't figure out how to pm you. Congrats. If you need any tips on transitioning to nursing from ems let me know. There are some tricks and sometimes its the easiest answer. Will you be doing RN or LVN? Good luck. I'll be done in one month, can't wait for it.