BLSQUEEN

CardiacRN you are too funny!!! I take it you have done charge a time or two

I am so sorry that this happened to you. I screamed when my daughter fell off her horse and everyone yelled at me! AND then there were some ladies trash talking me at the barn because I MUST be an awful ED nurse if I cannot even stay calm watching my daughter dangle upside down from the horse with her foot caught in a stirr-up!!! We are mommies first and then nurses! You did a good job taking care of your son. Please follow up but I have seen many syncopal episodes where I would swear the person was having a seizure. I assist teaching a phlebotomy course and like to warn the students that a fainting person can do wierd things with their bodies. I hope all is well with your son!

This is just my opinion of course because only you really know yourself and your life needs. I would suggest working full time for a year before having little kiddos. It is hard to start a new job and have the wants and needs that come with being a mommy...off shifts, holidays and stressful shifts become emotionally explosive when what you really long for is to be with your baby. That being said I have seen many many young nurses (myself included) work part-time and have happy healthy families. I worked part time eves in the ED form many years and while pregnant with my 2 daughters. If this is something that you really want you can make it work!

The great thing about nursing is that you have the ability to move and change. Trying out new roles in nursing is almost expected and the great thing is that if you do not like it there are many more opportunities out there waiting for you! Enjoy the extra time you gained back into your life!!

angelfish I feel for you! Hang in there and you will see that it does come together. You have received some great organization tips here! I am sure you will, but checking name bands each and every time you treat a patient will help you with your fear of mixing up a LOM or two. My patients were often times able to tell me their medical record number because over an 8 hour shift I checked it at least 5 times! I was always able to go to bed, pull up the covers and sleep soundly without worry that I had mixed up my patients! Good Luck and hang in there!

Working in the ED with multiple physicians involved in pt care is indeed frustrating at times. Whenever I was told NOT to do something I made a mental note and moved on. When the physician of the hour showed up and told me to do what I was already advised NOT to do I would go back to the first physician and have a chat. Hard I know in a busy environment but it almost always paid off. I would say something like hey you know you told me NOT to do such and such and now physician number 2 says I should. Could you please share your thoughts about why I should NOT do such and such. Often times I got educated about something, the first physician was made aware that there was a change in the patient care plan and sometimes a potential bad outcome was avoided. If I still had questions about what I was asked to do I would head back to physician 2 and say...I was told not to do such and such for these reasons is it still ok do go ahead with your orders. If I was told to go ahead and do it anyway I felt that I addressed the concerns and was able to document my attempts to maintain patient safety. Like the others said...do not beat yourself up. You are ok and the patient is ok. You will learn from this and be more mindful of conflict in physician approaches in the future. The lesson you learned from this patient may very well save a patient down the road!

vharper4 check your area colleges that offer nursing programs. The program that I am in has many online courses. You really do need to meet in person for some amount of time but there are many of your courses that can be done online.

I am in an MSN program right now and for what it is worth I think that some nursing experience under your belt would make your graduate school experience much more valuable. If you are going to go for your NP they will teach you the advanced practice stuff but you will gain more knowledge, skill and confidence by getting in some time at the bedside. Good luck with your career path!

I was on the BMC campus this week. God Bless those nurses:bow:! I worked in a busy ED for years but the population served by BMC made me a little nervous! I said to a few of my friends in the class that it takes a nurse of steel to work there!

I am new here and your question caused me to join!! I have pretty strong feelings about new nurses going into specialty areas. I worked for almost 10 years in the ED and watched many new nurses try to get their wings and fly in the ED. It is very hard to learn how to be a nurse and learn how to practice safely in a specialty area. I know that M/S is not for everyone but I do believe that it is an important step. So important that after 7 years of ED experience I went to work on a M/S unit for the experience (I had never done M/S before). I was told that if I wanted to be a nursing educator I would be a stronger canidate if I had M/S on my resume. You are going to be a nurse for a long time and have a world of promise ahead of you. Take your time and work towards your goal in a way that you will have good experiences and build on your knowledge and strengths. If you start in a specialty area and have a poor experience you will negatively impact your confidence, skills and career for years to come.