jacrabbitrn

I will be contacting you by email. I start traveling very soon. I am so excited.

My husband and I hope to go to Hawaii some day on an assignment. He has been there. But I would love to visit.

Im only a four year nurse and have been wanting out of nursing since I became a nurse. Its not what I thought it was, I don't handle the stress well. I internalize everything, doubt my ability, fear making mistakes, dread going to work daily. My co-workers are wonderful and supportive. They tell me Im a great nurse who cares and is agressive and teachable. I dont know if its a rut, a little depression. I usually change jobs and I have been with this homecare agency for awhile, so maybe its itchy feet. I dont know.

I feel the same

The first time I cried I was a brand new nurse and worked a long weekend on nights. My patient stated she couldn't feel her tongue and I thought she was having an allergic reaction. I caught the doctor in the hall who ran in the room and started screaming she was over sedated and needed narcan. I had not given her any pain medications in over 8 hours and she had been receiving them since surgery 4 days ago. The doctor started screaming at me in front of the patient, family and other people in the room as we were giving the narcan. I cried in the supplies closet.

I've been doing homecare for a couple of years now. Best to find one that pays by the hour, hard to do. But I like it and the pay is comparable. Less stress, less time on my feet. We rotate weekends and holidays. I stay at the hospital contigent for experience, fall back plan and occassional spending cash. I see 3-6 patients a day which is considered a full day when you add in drive time and admissions. Be careful, many agencies will try and suck the life out of you. I read here someone had to see 14 patients a day, unrealistic if there is drive time. Considering you must spend 40 minutes per patient and there is always emergency etc... Good luck.

I have read about this problem many times and watch the nurses argue over who time manages well etc... I worked on a busy med-surg unit. It was awful, and we were always promised it would get better. There was always an excuse why things where horrible today. Extra surgeries, not enough aides, someone on vacation, loa, sick call. After months and months of running 12 hour marathons, with few bathroom or water breaks. I started looking for another type of job. I would get my lunch probably once out of every four or five shifts. But I had to take my phone and come back if a patient or doctor needed me. Now I do homecare, at least I have a few minutes downtime between patients to gather my thoughts while I drive. I don't understand why we bicker among ourselves. We need to stand together if we ever want things to get better for nurses.

Wow, I want to work with OBMDPHD, Just got yelled at by a surgeon who felt that new grads cannot work with his patients who are difficult. Then yelled at us for advising her to call at 11pm when there was an unfamiliar change in his surgical patient. Several nurses agreed that the surgeon should be called after discussing the finding. After he yelled at us he ordered a battery of tests and told us to call back if there were any other problems.

Monkeytoes,I can completely relate to your situation and felt the same most of the first year and a half. I was lucky to have a seasoned nurse befriend me and mentor me through. She was always willing to hash things over and help me figure out how to improve. I am finally start feeling more confident and like a "real" nurse. It's the little victories that come more often, getting a few IV starts in a row, sinking the NG the first time. Sometimes the nurses would get tough with me and it would be time to buck up. But after I saw a few experienced nurses crack after a particularly hard shift, I realized I am human and learning. Your heart and instincts will help until you gain much needed experience. I like the fake it till you make it statement, lots of wisdom there (just make sure you get help in the critical situations) Of course this site helped and still helps. Step back, take a breath and regroup. Maybe take a LOA if possible and see if the smoke doesn't clear a bit.

Is there anything we can do collectively to correct this problem and other problems that nurses are facing. I am so disapointed in how this career has turned out that I can't honestly recommend this path to others. I am also horrified by how the hospital is more concerned with customer satisfaction than patient safety

I think a reality show about nurses would be a great idea, all the current shows are about doctors doing nursing tasks. Quick, someone call Hollywood with this original television concept.

I agree that family members get out of control at times, I work on a surgical unit and often I can't even get to the patients after they come up immediatly from PACU. I have learned to firmly send them all to the lounge, but the worst is discharge, when meds, ER admits, OR admits and all other patient emergenies take priorioty. I have had the families hover over me at the desk and even holler at me while I was in another patients room wanting to know how much longer they will have to wait

I am in my first year also, what a nightmare. I am so thankful for all my nurse mentors and co-workers. I hope I get over this trauma soon and can begin to find a level of comfort under complete terror. Good luck to all the new nurses, and thank you to the experienced ones who cheer us on.