angiefaye

i was recently hired and overheard some of the nurses discussing the changes including: no cost of living raise anymore annual raise lowered to 2.5% from 3.5% increase in cost of cafeteria food decrease discount on cafeteria food strict NO OVERTIME policy...can only clock in 6 minutes before a shift and 4 minutes after other hospitals have been on hiring freezes in the area and are laying off management type positions. i still feel lucky because i feel like i got in just in time. i kind of feel bad for the students in school now...because who knows what it will be like when they graduate!!

that's not acceptable! i truely believe that some preceptors do the job solely for the perks...at my institution they earn points where they can exchange them for items. I was lucky with my preceptor...she was good but we just didn't happen to get to see all the things i needed to know. it really upsets me when preceptors use an orientee to have an easy night...i think we all know it happens and it's not fair.

If no one told you, how were you supposed to know? That's not your fault. You can't take care of something if you're unaware of the situation! I wonder if the patient fell, was able to get back up, and just happen to mention the incident to their family...and then the family became upset. It's easy for emotions to be more intense for the families when their sick loved ones are involved. I wouldnt worry to much until you actually talk to your manager. Malpractice/neglegence has to have some sort of injury before you can actually be guilty (i'm pretty sure)...if it took a few months for them to bring it up...i'm hoping there wasn't an injury!!

Thanks for everyone's advice. I may go back and peek at that assignment sheet so i can have more insight as to why i may have received that assignment. I do understand that sometimes nurses just have bad nights...but i also feel like it wasn't safe for my patients especially considering my inexperience...which at this point in my career i feel that is still a valid and important consideration when giving large assignments. I do know that The charge nurse was changed in the middle of the shift due to staffing issues on other units, so maybe the new charge nurse didn't know i already had a new admit?? i did ask for help from some nurses that were there for support during an electronic charting change, everything was happening so fast at the end of my shift, my brain was like mush! wish me luck on my next shift friday night!!

i work 7p-7a...i know that is a slower shift but it's still rough!

i guess another issue i had is that if we clock out more than 5 minutes after our shift ends...they send a nasty-gram and then if it happens again we are sent into corrective action!! i guess i should have taken a few minutes even if it took some time out of my "routine"...because who wants a sobbing nurse giving them an injection?!? haha! i'm trying not to start dreading each shift... thank you for the kind words and advice!

I am a new grad; I graduated in November 08 and started orientation for my new job in January. I just came off my 8 week orientation period with my preceptor on a cardiac/telemetry floor. I have had two days on my own so far. Last night I had the worst experience in my nursing career (which i do realize is quite limited--just school and these few months). I started the night with 4 patients--which I can handle. By the end of the night I was assigned two new admits so I ended up with 6 patients by the end of the night. Between one really sick patient, another non-compliant patient, and various other complications that just sort of throw my still-developing routine, I had a meltdown starting about 4 hours before the end of my shift. I know this is probably normal for a new nurse, but I can't help but feel like there could have been better planning on my charge nurse's part. I guess I need to know if anyone else with more experience can tell me if this was an unfair experience...or if new nurses are just thrown to the wolves often and I should just get use to it! I feel so discouraged. I was told that my floor is a 4:1 ratio and 6:1 critical ratio. There were other nurses that had fewer patients than me, although I'm not sure of their acuity and I am feeling cheated out of having a good attitude about my new career. Any thoughts? Feel free to be blunt...my feelings won't get hurt!