jadelpn

"My apologies if I came off rudely the other morning. I get caught up in finishing stuff with patients, that it takes me awhile to communicate effectively." "Ok, well I am just finishing up this finger stick, then I will be ready to report to you" "2 of mine? Ok. I will be ready in 5 minutes to give report." Otherwise hanging in the hall staring at each other gets awkward. And yes, after being up all night, sometimes we all feel a bit cloudy.....

Lesson to be learned: Don't lend money to family and expect it to be paid back in a timely manner or at all. If one has "other responsibilities" a "I do not have money to lend you" and end of story. There are people who generalize "nursing school" to encompass everything from CNA, medical assistant, phlebotomy......and for profit schools use this to attract a LOT of students, and keep them for as long as they can for as much money as they can. There are multiple scams involving schools that when done and tons of money, one can not sit for NCLEX because the school is not accredited, or some other thing. Nurse intern could be a fancy name for a CNA. Who knows? With customer service health care, it could envoke some sort of better feel good image that nurse assistant does. Bottom line, OP, you lent out money. Once you lend, you have lost control of those funds. Unless you have a loan agreement, that is signed, I am not sure of what could be done. He could say he thought it was a gift. Going forward, if you decide to lend money to anyone, have repayment terms written out and signed so all are on same page. Or in this case, ask for a bill and pay the school directly, after spelling out repayment between you both. This manic undercover stuff to "out" him....is this getting any of your money back? So now he has a job. Now you ask his plans on repaying you. Even 20 bucks a week is something. Open a dedicated savings account, and ask that he add it to his direct deposit, 20 a week from his pay. The rest is on him. He also could be a new grad who isn't working at all due to lack of positions. But he has a job. So now he can do something to help get your funds back. I had a family member I gave a little money to years ago "cause it's family". The person had already dropped out of school. Come to find out they still had loans. Now they live off the system. Anyway, don't mix money and family with an expectation of being paid back.

So OP you have realized you can be friendly without being besties. Overshare nothing. That this one quits, the other one pouts, not your issue. Sometimes it is a matter of thankfully getting new staff, now I don't feel guilt about leaving stuff. Other times it is that you worked in acute care, and there's some general "she thinks she's all that" bruhaha. But again, not your issue. More than likely, you are paid what you are due to non-union overnight shift that would classically get a differential. It is a hard to fill slot. In any event, make sure you discuss with the manager how you are to learn the computer and such if your receptor is unwilling to do so. Also be sure to review everything start of shift. If this is becoming some middle school clique poop, then those type of people can set you up to fail, no matter the possibility of patients best interests. As for all the rest of it, don't confront, don't "discuss", don't get into bonding beyond patient focused. I would also think about picking up some per diem at the hospital. Good to have options.

Get off social media "groups" that can screen shot anything at all that you post. Don't even allude to anything regarding nursing/your work on social media. It is the new red solo cup and keg no-no as of late. As far as your page being "scrubbed clean" delete all of your stuff--don't just "hide" it. Nothing is hidden on the internet.

OP, then find something else to do with your downtime. You are there to work, not make friends, so who cares what others speak of at the nurse's station that doesn't affect you in any way but to irritate you. If they have 10 years in age, then I would assume they have 10 years of nursing experiences that you do not. And regardless of how "low acuity" the unit may be, when the poop hits the fan it hits the fan. So whilst you are off at other nurse's stations looking for friends, your unit may be all heck breaking loose...you never know. And really, you have no earthly idea what other experiences other nurses on your unit have had as far as they "have never left the unit" or hospital or whatever. You can be super duper awesome sauce nurse until you turn purple, but the true test will be when there's a critical turn of events, and how you cope with your new found complacency. Good luck with that. If you are that bored, perhaps you can start studying for a certification/specialty in your downtime. And make your life more complete outside of work, so your work life is not based on being BFFs. I will say that one of the best things you could do for you is to create mentors with nurses who have been doing this stuff since you have been alive. I have seen more than a few nurses who believe they are all that and a bag of frito lays with a "you don't know how good you have it, as when I was in the level 1 trauma take 15 patients with ease hospital, I rocked it" attitude have patients coding, falling, or have a change in condition--and the nurse is off swapping war stories with another unit.....

If you documented accordingly and the patient was cared for, I am not sure what you could be written up for, other than patient satisfaction which is such an important thing to the powers that be. Regardless,you can only state what you said here, that in the spirit of teamwork, you did what you could in the timeline you were able until your condition made it impossible to continue. Another point would be did you have anyone to report off to anyways? You wouldn't want to be abandoning patients, so you had little choice. Their short staffing is not your issue. Do not go into any meeting or sign anything without a union rep. Additionally, contact your malpractice insurance for guidance.

"Are you white, or Oreo?" And a coworker from New Zeland called "that kiwi nurse" Most recently, "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and that nurse is trash" Ok,then....

"What is the history?" "Complex and complicated, 3 weeks of it, you most certainly can review the chart for specifics." "Now lets get back to the more appropriate last 24 hours..." If she wanted to get the day one blow by blow, there's a lovely chart she can review for whatever it is that she is searching for...but correct me if I am wrong, and I am oh so not a NICU nurse....don't your patients have the potential to change literally every shift....meaning that NICU babies turn corners or tank at the drop of a hat? Was this nurse not typically a NICU nurse? In adults then yes, the complete story is helpful dependent on what they are there for. But I would think with the babies you have those that thrive, those who do not, and those that do both within 12 hours.....

Op, just be 100% sure that just because the school admitted you, that you are able to sit for the NCLEX, and further, that you are also going to be able to pass the CORI check that would be done for you to be able to get a job. As a pp pointed out, you can go a route of attempting to get the record expunged. If it is not expunged, then you do risk the chance of going to school and not being able to sit for the NCLEX, or even more so, not being able to get a job as a nurse. This is something that happened many years ago. From your description, a very, very wide berth for "assault". With that being said, employers usually don't necessarily give 2 squirts in a firey place about the details, just that your CORI would not be clean. So before you spend a lot a $$ on nursing school, explore what will happen beyond nursing school. Best wishes.

In most every scope of practice of both RN's and LPN's UAP's are delegated. And once delegated, the nurse delegating is the responsible party. CNA's "working under their certificate" is incorrect. They are working under the facility policy, as well as the person who delegates to them, the licensed nurse. OP, when you are asking someone to do something and they are not doing it, they need to be written up each time. You need the support of your manager, your DON. Or the climate doesn't change, and patients get hurt. Document and report anyone who is not doing what needs to be done that you have delegated to do so. CNA's and other UAP's may not directly "work under a licensed nurses's license" in the classic sense of the phrase. However, a patient for instance, has skin breakdown due to not being cared for and the nurse asked the CNA to do peri care and turn and repo every 2 hours....and it was not done for say 4 hours (until nurse could get into the patient's room due to patient acuity/load) who is going to take the fall for that? I can guarantee it may not be the CNA, but the nurse who holds the ultimate responsibility. Much like as an LPN, I have my own license to protect, however, if say a busy and overloaded RN asks me to medicate a patient with IV push. My facility doesn't allow me to do IVP. But I do it anyway and it causes harm to the patient. It is most certainly on me, but also on the RN who delegated inappropriately. If an MD asks an RN to write orders at will as to not disturb them at night--and they will "sign off anything in the morning" and a patient tanks--same type of thing. OP, it may be time (should you decide to stay in this facility) to ask what specifically you are to do if you delegate and the CNA doesn't follow through. The CNA's need to be directed more specifically. And monitored more closely. And you may have some ideas on how that could happen to the benefit of the patient.

OP, I am sorry that this happened. As others have noted, call your malpractice insurance company, your union rep (if you are union) and they can sometimes help you with an attorney, or find an attorney that is familiar with nursing issues. But for the grace of all that is true go each of us. Find professional emotional support for yourself as well.

You don't. You do you, and her thing is her thing. If she starts chewing your ear off? "Why thank you for bringing that to my attention, I will take it under advisement. Now if you will excuse me...." and walk away, go back to your charting, whatever it is that you need to do. You can't put flowers in a butt and call it a vase. So just don't even attempt to get into it.

The best lesson that you could learn is to not sit passively while others gossip and degrade other people on a subject you are so passionate about, OP. "What a horrible thing to say!! _________ is an awesome person, I did clinicals with him and he really knows his stuff, and because someone is not the world's best test taker doesn't mean they are not going to rock nursing!! Lets talk about something else, as aren't we here to stop obsessing about the NCLEX?" Chose your friends wisely. Choose your nursing character wisely. Resolve to not waste one minute of your time engaged in hateful arrogant foolishness in your personal life. Learn to disengage from that type of person in your professional life. Make a reputation for yourself as a person who doesn't tear down someone else for their own sense of entitlement, nor have much patience for those who do.

You can only do what you can do. Period. To take care of sick kids is hard for the most seasoned nurse. First months in any nursing job is overwhelming. You need to visualize a giant stop sign in your head and switch off those thoughts when you get home. Every time. Otherwise you will make yourself ill. Create your own filter. That you are usually not an "emotional" person could work to your advantage. You are part of a team, and not the sole provider to your patients. You can be compassionate without being emotionally invested in your patients. Looking at it from a clinical standpoint, if the pain control is not working, you need something else. If there's a change in condition, you need to advocate for some alternate care plan--and use your charge nurse "Patient such and so is not responding to the pain medication. She/he needs something else" "Patient such and so will not settle, could you assess the patient so we can come up with an alternate plan?" " I am concerned that patient so and so has a change in condition. Not an acute change, but one which will require education for the parents, and other resources. I am going to email the case manager regarding my findings and will document that I have done so. Can you think of anything else I could be doing?" Best wishes and remember, you do you and take care of you when you are out of work. Metaphorically close the door when you walk out of the facility.

But you don't know if the patient was alive when the CNA went in or not. Does take longer than 10 minutes for a body to get cold. Takeaway from this is that your CNA's under your direction today should feel absolutely free to push that code button or immediately call for a rapid response without consequence. Today, you would advocate for an alternate level of care. You know what resources you could use. There were little to no resources in a setting such as the one you describe. And the facility is now closed. Time to make peace with your demons. Even if you advocated your butt off, and questioned every order, the outcome could have been exactly the same. The MD makes the plan. And this was just not a good one. But at the end of the day, what exactly could you have done differently? Not much except decline to take the patient? Decline to give the fluids? Hold the meds? You were really stuck on this. The patient was highly unstable. Whose thought process was it to have him admitted to a floor when obviously requiring an ICU level care? Who made that decision? Perhaps it was for "comfort care"? I am not sure the MD is losing sleep over it. And ultimately, that is who should unless "arrangements" were made for not treating this patient in an aggressive manner. Which could be as "back in the day" at small community hospitals, sometimes things got a tad twisted.... Would've/Could've/Should've does nothing but make you relive something that you can not change now. Only that you are clear with yourself and those working under you direction to never hesitate to call a RR or advise you of changes, you can advocate for alternate levels of care, and that newer nurses know first hand what resources are available to them and steps in how to use them.