alabastershadow

I am newly employed in my fourth job in just over a year of nursing. The first I had was a wonderful nursing home (I know those words seem to be an oxymoron) I disliked very little in the six months I worked for the home, but I met this wonderful cowboy and I wanted to move closer to him. So I moved and found another nursing home job in another city. That's when it all began. With in two months I had enemies at this new job. One of which stemmed from my working as an aide. Yet she was their prime example of nursing, and thus I was "let go" when asked the DON said "you aren't fired we're just letting you go." Ok... Enter home #3... Felt like home again. Nice people, great residents good staff... Until someone decided I wasn't doing my job. Not that the residents weren't taken care of but that I needed too much help. I rarely asked for any help and when I did it was for something I had never done, for a new nurse it only happened enough times in the three months I worked there aroun six times. Taking care of nearly 80 residents by yourself and having to change a catheter on a five hundred lb woman, and the bulb wouldn't deflate is not something I knew what to do with so I asked for help. This sort of thing. So I was slated to "reorientate" (why do people use this 'non'word) on days. I was offered a job elsewhere making much more. That job is a prison and its a completely new world from nursing homes...I'm not really sure if it will last but ya I feel your pain.

ps- i also agree with the statement "I wouldnt ask you to do anything I wouldn't do." and i've proven this with each of my aides, if i'm not up to my nose charting. I am on the hall helping with each of their rounds. I don't think that because i'm an LPN i'm above resident care. After all we are still there fore the care.

beary-nice, in response to your question. I've often taken her questions of the other shifts and acted on them, they get better for a few days, but then they slack off. I tend to handle it each time it comes up. However, the aide in question does not do everything perfect everytime. So, if i were to write up these aides because they made a mistake of not taking out one trash bag, i'd be writing her up left and right as well. I tend to start with OJ and sugar, then as i work nights, I will find some peanutbutter and crackers to help stabilize the glucose in the blood. My own thing. Works well. Yes the aide does at times fall asleep on the job, and then she complains about others who do the same. I tend to walk through the room and bang a trash can or something. To wake them up. I am not without fault i have nodded once or twice (never falling asleep just the initial nod) and then gotten up and checked on residents, done anything to keep myself from sleeping. I think anyone on nights has had a nod or two, but when people start snoring the gloves have to come off. I dont know, I know we have problems the two of us. the aide and myself. Because i want to like her, and I want everything to work well. But she and I apparently don't mesh. Maybe it's me being too sensitive, but maybe some of it isn't me. And regardless I've got to handle it someway.

yes and no. She has told me i have to deal with it first, and then she will deal with it. Pretty much if i write her up, there will be big dealings in the works. I had a long almost hour conversation with the DON the other day. And she said that while she understood where I was, i had to tell her to stop, and make her see it. If she refused to come around, then she wouldbe called into the office. pretty much I have to be the charge nurse. (and I call them my aides, because mostly we all work well together, and i go to bat for them if something goes wrong. Even the one I do not get along with I will stand up for.) hopefully this makes sense

thank you Suesquatch for seeing what i'm having issues with. The DON is aware of the issues, she also has had them with this aide. She was only hoping that it was directed only at her, and as she has minimal contact with 'said aide' that she could continue to use her, instead of trying to find someone new. Unfortunately it's not just 'me' she has attitude with, it is not just what she 'knows' that she tells off about. I have NO problem with her coming to me with an issues. The trash not being changed in resident's rooms, a person not being cleaned up, her feeling that she's being dumped on from other shifts. Those are all acceptable. She, telling me what to do, how to do it, that it's not how her 'best friend' nurse does it, those are accepted until it gets too much. When I started I had a resident who's bs dropped to 30. She was able to drink OJ and sugar. The aide in question tells me "that's not gonna work." think a three year old sing song voice. "The OTHER nurse uses soda pop and it pops it right back up." I looked at her and very sweetly explain to her that I would do the oj and sugar first, and then move on to other venues, because that is what the order stated. She got angry and told decided then and there I was not a good nurse. A resident with chest pain, diaphoretic, bp out of whack. i send him to the ER, of course he's just in 'pain' no heart attack or anything, but I had to follow protocol. The aide tellsme "There's no reason for you to send that resident to the hospital. He's not hurting, and he's not having a heart attack." I can list a million different ways that she's overstepped her bounds as an aide. I wont. I don't feel any different than she does, aside from the fact that I have to keep her working during hte night when she falls asleep. But apparently I dont have the ability according to some here to do that either. I'm at my wits end. I ask for help and apparently i'm the one in the wrong. That's cool, but I can't deal with her anymore, so i guess i'll be looking for a new job elsewhere. In short she gets what she wants... she wins.

oops.

the problem is thus. I can let it fly for as long as possible. She's good at her job, i'll give her that. She can be very accomadating, but she is also the same person who will walk down the hall, come to my cart and not only say. "Mr smith (false name) wants a pain pill." When I reply that it is not time yet, and ask her nicely to inform him of such, which is in her scope of practice. Just to relay that information. Instead of saying "I'm busy, or sure. or whatever." she chooses to nod and do whatever she wants instead of that. I think that the man in question has been informed that he can't have it yet, and then BLAMMO all hell breaks lose on the home front. BS of 44 two people who wont take their medicines, and finally I make it to the end of a med pass. get to the desk, and the same aide says "DID YOU TAKE HIM PAIN PILLS, BECAUSE HE WANTS THEM AND YOU NEED TO TAKE THEM>" Yes she was yelling. the problem is not the fact that i think little of her, or that i think highly of myself. I think she is an excellent aide, aside from when she refuses to go into one resident's room because he annoys her, or things of that nature. My problem is how she takes offense to everyone and everything. She makes it her life's work to run the hall, and she is not the one in charge.

No I've never worked at this facility before becoming an LPN. I didn't want to deal with the "odd" dynamic of working above people i'd worked alongside. I'm at the end of my rope, i feel that I should just give up and walk away, mainly because I do not have the backbone god gave a tuna. I'm afraid that she will hell, i'm not sure what i'm afraid she will do, But aside from not doing it because i don't have time to do the aides work and mine too (all of both jobs) I've over heard the aide talking to people (not just me) and saying things like "it's about time she did something" speaking of me. She's the sort that rants and raves and cusses and I have to hear this all the time. I know what HAS to be done in theory, I just cant seem to act it out, i'm too afraid of the rammifications. Someone kick me in the ass please?

I have an aide that I used to think worked very well. I'm not sure that she is such a great aide anymore. She 'tells' me what to do, 'refuses' to do things that are expected and asked of her. And 'tells' me when to do things that I know how to do. I am an LPN.. she is an aide. She spouts quite often "I've never been written up in 27 years of aide work, and i dont intend to start now" yet she gripes constantly, and she refuses to accept any type of constructive criticism, much less praise. If I say "You are a great aide" before I can get the BUT in there, she says "Of course i am, i've done this for 27 years...." see above statement. I end up fed up and have to walk away, or else I'll jump all over her, and i want to be the professional one in the situation. however, with my BP skyrocketing because of the stress of her 'calling the shots' and my lack of a backbone, i'm not quite sure hwo to handle this. I'll accept ANY advice. (btw i work in a LTC facility and I am her direct supervisor)

Its starting to get easier. Med pass takes me more like 2 and a half hours without short cuts.. and under 2 with. I dont do things half assed, but I will pop joe smith's meds out with John tuckers when they are in the same room and give the first to the first and the second to the second. saves steps. yes I realize this is cardinal sin #1. but as long as state isnt in the building... I dont see the harm. I know what person gets what. And charting is getting easier too. If nothing happens you chart (working nights) vitals, what they are doing.. (resting in bed with eyes closed)...then if something IS wrong you put that here. (Combative with staff during pericare.) it's all simple in the charting business really. What causes the most issues now: distractions. distractions. distractions. Always remember (and this is to me as much as anyone else): You have a 2 hour window that does not include, transferring, emergencies, and the like. If state can't see that transferring two residents in the span of a med pass causes you to seep into three hours... well who cares. Your facility gets a red flag. I've learned a lot since starting LTC. Some of it good, some of it bad. But it's never dull, as I feared it would be during school. I have every hope of going back to school in the spring semester, finishing up the few basics i have for RN school, and then proceeding on as soon as possible. Not because i'm not happy with what I am, but because I aspire for more. I want to work with children, I want to do Emergency care. And who knows after I continue on, I may find myself back in Geri Care. And that would be cool too.

my question is this. evveryone that has had a pain pills script. does it always say "For back pain" or "for lower abdominal pain?" because when i've had them it has stated "take 2 tabs every four hours as needed for pain." not a specific location. To me, and many others it means if i am in pain i can take this medication. As long as the script is valid.

I should also point out that i take HALF of a pill at a time.

your reasoning confounds me. i have anxiety attacks. I have a scrip of alprazolam 0.25 to be taken as needed no more than tid. I get 90 in a script. I can use the same script for 3-6 mths. am I addicted? Or breaking some unknown code with people needing prescriptions? please explain.

A-MEN. I hate feet. ewww... i know they are supposd to be there, but please god dont make me touch them, or look at them EVEn with gloves on! ewwwww lol

we don't know why she had the prescription, it may have been for severe pain before. That makes this post null and void doll. If she has pain pills for pain, she can use them. And why else would she have pain pills? We should all be a little more compassionate I would think you would be able to look it up at the pharmacy you generally use. How many docs do you see? one of them had to have prescribed it, just call to the normal docs you go to. If you don't feel like that, call all the pharmacies your frequent, one of those places will have the information. Worst case scenario they will flag your license and you'll have to explain to the board what happened. As long as you have found the information by then, you will 'probably' be ok. Unless of course the reason the did a pop drug test was becasue darvocets went missing. Then you might have a problem. Just my .02 cents.

i would assume it's a bad thing to be OFF work, and find yourself unable to sleep because you aren't sure how your going to make it back into work on wednesday.... maybe i'm not cut out to be a nurse?

no prob i'm here to make everyone laugh

wtg everyone

oh god. I took a job in LTC! For some reason i think that should really be the title of this post. I mean I've been working at long term care for 7 days, and I'm not thinking it's going to get any better. I have cried myself to sleep. I've made a med error, that I didn't even KNOW i made. I take 6 hours to do the eight pm med pass. The building is so strange in it's design, the rules and regulations have changed twice since i started. And I dont know if I'll ever figure anything out. I'm supposed to do night shift, six pm to six am. But currently because I have no idea how i'm ever going to do anything there, and am completely overwhelmed. I am on day shift working with one or two nurses who do things 'the right way' They are good nurses. But there way is not right. So far i've seen "lets draw up eight people's medications without looking at the mar" "leave the meds at the bedside" "Crush meds for people who are not supposed to have crushed meds." let's play hide the medications in the applesauce...when the patient takes the medication more quickly and with less risk for choking by taking them individually. On nights i have 32 residents to me.. myself.. and I. that would be great if i were three people. And yes I know this is probably a small amoount of people. 32. At six pm every single person has a blood sugar check. that's thirty two freaking sticks. over half of them have scheduled lantus and prn humolog injections on sliding scale. Then you have five to ten who will refuse every medication until you go through them and explain JUST what they do. Still doesnt sound like that much when i'm typing it. I swear to god it is. We have two tube feeders, both of which can take meds and eat by mouth. They each have dressing changes due at that exact time. one or two will be in the floor by the time i get to their room so far everytime i've walked the hall. The aids.... disappear. the proctor/preceptor whatever... disappears... I have literally stopped my med pass, locked the cart and went into the bathroom for fifteen minutes and bawled one each med pass since starting. It's bad enough I've thought of ways that i wouldn't have to go back to work. These are not the good kind of ways (like findinga new job) I seriously don't know each night that i come home (or day) if I can go back into that building and do it again. six hours later after getting there. starting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour early and it's 12am by the time i'm finished. I grab something to eat while i start to chart. But oh no! there is more meds at 12.. not many just a handful, but they are on opposite sides of the halls. I get those out of the way and sit back down to my now cold food, and my charting. (have i mentioned i'm a smoker?) I get up and smoke a super quick cigarette, and now begin charting in earnest. I get two charts done when patient x wants a breathing treatment, well tough. he doesn't have one. and i've been informed that i cant call the doc for one, so i have a patient who is freaking out because he cant breathe (he has copd) and the doctor has denied prn updrafts. go back to charting... another patient wants a pain pill. ok i can do this. I take it down, back to charting (i'm just on my second chart and it's now 2am) somehow they go to sleep. I smoked a cig. sit back down and chart on two more charts. at this point they look pretty much the same 'resident resting in bed with eyes closed vital signs. no c/o pain at this time. will continue to monitor." of course there are skin audits, that would have been great if i'd been able to catch them while awake. Now i've got to hope to catch the aides on their round to check the resident out from head to toe just looking for scrapes contusions, anything. Don't forget weekly progress notes,a nd most of those people are on the hot rack. so i've now got to rechart. i get near the end of my never ending charting and there is another delima teh four oclock feedings. I rush to get those done, switch out 60cc syringes and back i go to the desk to get the last few charts done. I look up and it's already 5am. I have to get my six am med pass done by 15 to 6 so the oncoming nurses can have their count. RIGHT. Of course it's five and i forgot to get temps of the fridges, and high and low levels on the glucometer so i have to rush to do that. i now start my med pass at 515. I give an endless amount of synthroid. do eight glucose checks and finish passing the rest of the medication. Invent a new way to get a dying man to take his pain medication, pray that the man across the hall doesnt choke on the medication he has and i am done. I hope. look at my watch and it's 610. crap. hurriedly count the med carts to find that I made a med error. At this point i cry in front of everyone. I dont think i can do this job. cut to today. did day shift. helped/watched nurse for yesterday and today. and i'm still not sure i can do this job. I'm still not sure i can get up on wednesday and go back in. I got a call from a hospital that pays about a dollar less an hour, but.... has a much smaller work load. would it be very very wrong of me to take the interview??? Can I in good faith accept another job and say 'i can start in 2 weeks' and give the notice when i'm not through with orientation? or is that horrible. I'm just really not sure i can do this job.

i used fa davis, saunders, and some old kaplans. i did about 100 questions a week (all through school, they were required) then once i was through with class, i slacked off considerably. i would do around 20-85 a day. ( i say i slacked off because i wasnt constantly doing school work). i mostly just did enough to make sure i wasn't stupid. i figured at this point i was either gonna make it or not, and that doing lots of studying/cramming probably wouldnt help much. i also (the last week or so of class) was involved in a nclex review course and that probably helped more than anything. more than anything i think the fact that i stopped reviewing two days before the test helped most of all. i wasn't trying to cram the last bit of information into my head, and so my test anxiety (while high) was probably not all incompassing. just my ideas on the test. you may do something completely different.

I woke up this morning... crawled from the bed at 7:15. Again, not my forte. I knew that I had to check, I was afraid to check. In fact my hands were shaking like I was holding a vibrating massage tool. I logged and... nothing. I still had no results. I didn't even have emotions at this time. I knew that I had to be at a job interview at 1pm, and I was just way too sleepy to give a darn. So I somewhat stumbled into my room collapsed on my bed, and woke up again at 11. I checked again, hoping that they forgot to update at 7. Nope, still no news, but as they say no news is good news right? left the house and did the interview thing (where I was hired). Headed to my mother's to spend an hour or so with her, when She decided I should check again. I dunno if I was too exhausted, or if I didn't know my social security number or what. But When I entered the information, and used her credit card (cuz I well, left without one.. yea that sounds infinitely better than mycreditsucks) I found out that yes. I indeed passed. I screamed. I'm sure the people who live down the street, thought that i'd been killed. I cried. Like a baby. The whole while, my mother is asking 'What!??! What!?!?' Once I calmed down enough to tell her, the congratulations started. I don't think I've finished calling everyone to tell them. I'm just so glad that it's over. The stupid thing is over. Now I can go back to my 'monklike' existence and start my new job, where even a little OCD is appreciated.

1. Run around the block... when that fails go to number 2 2. do jumping jacks. again if that fails choose again 3. Read a novel, something you enjoy. you seeing the trend yet? 4. go to a comedy club and laugh until you pee a little. 5. have a cocktail to go to sleep....(you KNOW you need the help) 6. watch one of the fifty zillion movies you have either downloaded or own on dvd 7. call a friend and catch up 8. MUD (multi user dungeon) I suggest http://www.unicornvalley.org (check it out) 9. go for a drive (or since gas prices suck do number 1) 10. Play with a pet. 11. dance. (Doesnt mattere where when or how, just do it) 12. blow something up. (fireworks are sure fire ways to release stress (or add to it)) 13. one word. karaoke 14. play a game (the wii is excellent) 15. go to the movies, the theatre, a concert 16. spend some quality (QUALITY) time with your significant other 17. spend quality time with your family 18. discover your backyard. (sounds silly, but never knwo what you might see) 19. dress up and take goofy pics of yourself. (and let us see em!) 20. listen to you favorite songs 21. treat yourself to dinner/breakfast/lunch 22. go to walmart in a different town and ask for odd items. 23. drool over that litman 24. design a new house. 25. draw a comic strip 26. take photos of landscape/greenery 27. read silly emails from friends 28. be thankful that House MD is not the doctor you work under 29. Watch the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. 30. Help me come up with more of these

thanks! I hope I did! and it's all true.

Hi. The name is AlabasterShadow. The game is... well waiting. I (being a night person) woke at the super early hour of 8am on Saturday, August 16th. I then travelled two hours by car to get to the Little Rock, Arkansas pearson center. After I got to the building, I walked to the door. The same door I'd watch my sister go in only a week and a half before to take her test. It was LOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!! I promptly felt faint, and wanted to go home. I mean they were closed, I just didn't check the date correctly and apparently I wasn't meant to take the test. did I mention I was already freaking out a bit? I calmed down enough to light a cigarette (yes i know filthy horrible *YOUR A NURSE..almost.. HOW COULD YOU!* habit) and walk around to the 'other' side of the building. Where a note was taped to the door. "IF you are here to take a test today, please press the button at the right." I pressed the button and a sweet serene voice asked "Are you here to take a test?" I replied to the affirmative, and they buzzed me in. I bid my sister adieu and walked to the elevator. After pulling a "monk" and checking the room number three or four times (fully getting on and off the elevator each time) I climbed inside and felt as if I would die. The walls were caving in. i was going to... oh I'd made it to the second floor. I walked to the room where my entire future would be decided and nearly ralphed on my shoes. I bit it back, and opened the door. By this time I was shaking so badly i was afraid I'd vibrate out of the room and back to the car by the time the woman had handed me the information sheet to read. I sat down, and honestly I can't tell you now if I read anything on the laminated sheet, but I handed it back, gave the silver/blonde haired older woman my license and my ATT, signed my name on some little blank input device, and had my photo taken. I was then escorted to the 'proctor's room'. The proctor was also silver or blonde haired older lady, who had me put my finger on a probe again and take my indext fingerprint. I tried to do it backwards, and they laughed. I think that helped minutely. After being asked if I was taking the proper test, if the picture they'd taken 2.4 minutes before was still me. I was given my own personal ear plugs, a dry erase board AND marker. I was taken to a computer #3 I think. All I could think at that moment, was at least the chair looked comfortable. I was afraid if i thought of anything else, i'd ralph. the first question, the very first question I'm almost sure I got wrong. In fact when I read it, I wanted to raise my hand and inform that they'd given me the RN test. But I continued. The test took me around 45 minutes, and the majority of my questions was based on prioritizing, delegation, medications. I had around 10-30 select all that apply, they seemed to come in endless swarms. Sometime 5 at a time. I felt like a bumbling, blithering idiot as I answered question after question, and then when I got to 84 I thought to myself. "After the 85th question, I'll take a break. I have to have a break. I need a cigarette. I feel like I've been violated." Yes this thought honestly went through my head. I answered the 85th question and my computer seemed to stall, it's shimmered twice, and went blue! I though "Oh crap I broke it!" I raised my hand, and the exit survey came up. I have no idea if I answered them or not, other than it said I had completed the test. After being led out by the proctor, asking again if I were the woman in the photo, I was allowed to leave. I walked to the car and sat numb. Little was I to know that this was the least of my worries. It is now Monday the 18th and I've still no word if I passed or failed. I'm sitting on pins and needles, the edge of my seat, the pinnacle of a huge freaking MOUNTAIN, and I have no idea if I will climb back down into a new life, or crash HARD into the one I was in before. But as the song line goes "Waiting... is the hardest part." I'll keep you updated. Hopefully I passed.