distractable_89'

yea. i was wondering how this is legal. I am in TN. I just graduated as RN in may. Been working at this facility for 5 weeks. I work the Rehab part of a LTC facility. I have up to 16 patients. Most pt's are on a ton of meds and I can't seem to be up to speed in the med pass. They brought me in yesterday to inquire about my issues of being so called slow. All I know is repetition is key. But honestly you don't know what half of the patients are there for. We have a tx nurse which is nice but then again I feel like I don't know the patient holistically bc it's not like she really communicates with me on what's going on. We don't do a physical assessment on every patient every day or any day after admission for that matter. Occasionally a focused assessment is done. Rehab floor has a lot of people wanting pain meds every 5 minutes which is understandable from them but hard for me. Then not to mention all the orders. That is why they asked me to come talk to them yesterday about what was going on bc I was not helping with the orders bc I did not have time. They should have one of the tech's trained to put the orders in and give us copies. And they should add a nurse and a cart to our floor and all the floors for that matter. I just don't feel adequate as a nurse. But I only have a month of experience and no one else wants to hire around here without at least a year of experience. This is ridiculous. It's more patients per nurse on the other floors, granted they are not quite the acuity that we have but still.

Ok, So my husband is possibly getting a job in Denver, Co. I am graduating nursing school (associate) May 6th, 2011. I am really at a loss here. I do not know how that transition would go. I know that out West, they are very keen on education. Some of the hospitals I looked up will not even hire an associate degree nurse. I know here, Nashville-TN, that it will take a couple of months, maybe even longer, to find a job. There are a lot of budget issues here right now. So not only do I not know if that is a good idea due to no experience, but I also do not even know if Colorado would be too excepting of an associate degree nurse. I know that my school is a favored school to hire nurses from here, but Denver does not know that. I'm feeling out of my league on understanding right now. EEK! Please help me!!