Hoppy1

My advice would be to go straight for the RN. I went the LPN to RN route. I thought I would go back right away but life gets in the way. I have 3 girls now, youngest one is almost 3. If I had it to do all over again I would have went straight for my RN. If you just want to get your associates alot of the colleges in my area only takes as long as it does to get your LPN. But really it is up to you and your family.

I think you should know your hypertensive meds and the boundaries in which to not give. This helped me out a lot. Especially in med surg. Hope it helps..

Night shift is def.not for everyone. I don't know if I could go back to days though!

I have worked night shift for about 7 years now. The best advice I can give and is the only thing that helped me is to sleep for 8 hours and then make yourself get up. I used to sleep my life away. I would sleep for a couple hours get up then try to take a nap before I had to go to work but this always made me feel worse than when I just stayed up. Think about it day shifters sleep probably 8 hours and then get up and go to work. Then come home and relax before going to bed. I try to adjust my schedule to where it is basically the same thing. I get off work. Stay up for a little while for my relaxing time. Go to sleep about 8 hours get up get ready for work and then I feel much better because my body thinks it is morning. I would like to hear back from you if you try this to see if it helps. It seems to have helped all my co-workers that were having problems staying awake. Also you can get melatonin from the drug store which will fool your body into thinking it is night during the day. Just take it about an hour before you go to bed and you should sleep like a baby. Good luck!

I totally agree! I am a night shift supervisor in a nursing home and even though the stigma is night shift doesn't do anything, this is totally not true. All the things that can't be done or is put off goes to night shift. I totally understand not getting everything completed. You are a new nurse and they should take that into concideration. Did anyone take you under their wing to make sure you are successful as a nurse? If not they should! It does get better and before long you will be a pro at multitasking and completing your work on time. Good luck to you!