rtbabb

hi, all! after i get my 5 id/med/surg pt assignment and reports, i'm already behind. once everything hits the fan at 8am, it may be 1pm before some of my pts get their 8am qd meds. i'm trying my best to set priorities, but giving pain meds, hanging iv antibiotics/antivirals, blood products and transferring everyone here and there for tests (we usually don't have a unit sec), and doing tech work (we don't have enough), and still everything seems to snowball. when 6pm rolls around, i totally start to freak out, knowing how much documentation and work still needs to be done. i've made up an hour-by-hour organizational sheet for each pt, which i keep in a binder, with a different tab for each pt, but i can never catch up. any thoughts on how to keep things running calmly and smoothly? thanks in advance!

I know how you feel - you end up feeling slapped for just doing your job. A good technique to use when anyone treats you this way is to use the 3 part message - "I feel ____ when you _____, because _____. For example, "Dr., I feel unappreciated when you yell at me, because I'm doing my best to take care of your patient when you're at home." I would love to have seen his reaction - probably a moment of silence and then an apology. Hang in there!

I've come back to nursing after 23 years and have just had my 3 month anniversary. I still have moments of being totally disorganized, flustered and overwhelmed. The you-know-what always seems to hit the fan between 6p and 7p, and I feel like I've left the following nurse with a hot mess. My info I have for report always seems lacking and/or I forget to mention something that needs to be done. For instance, I left all the needed supplies for an RT to come and do a viral nasal wash at a patient's bedside on Wednesday night, but forgot to tell the night nurse about it. I'm sitting here on my day off feeling incompetent and guilty. Ugh.