w3ndiscott

I have been a nurse for 6 years and have hated both jobs. I don't hate being a nurse, just the companies I've worked for. They made it impossible to be a nurse with all of their demands that wasted time in my day and took me away from my patients. I started my career as an LVN. In my area the only places that will hire LVN's are nursing homes. I worked with a lot of skilled patients, which means they had something going on. Either sick, just had surgery or wounds. Not just babysitting the elderly. The nurse to patient ratio is ridiculous in nursing homes. I rarely had less than 20 patients and up to 30 at times. It is impossible to give the patients the time they deserve at this ratio. Even if they were not sick. And I worked days so there were 2 meal times that the nurses were expected to oversee. So on top of all the admissions and discharges, dealing with family members, 3 hours out of your day for meal times, trying to please management with their impossible requests, scheduling and arranging transport for follow up appointments, doctors orders, labs, med passes, trying to manage staff, answering call lights and so on and so on, oh and charting! Everything you do is expected to be charted on. That is lots and lots of charting. Plus medicare/skilled patients all have to be charted on every shift, every day. God forbid there be an emergency and you have to send someone out or spend a lot of time with them because you are worried you might have to. Management never takes anything like that into consideration. There is no one to help. I had to get all of my own vitals, do all of my own treatments, check all my own blood sugars, do all of my own breathing treatments all while management is breathing down my neck telling me everything they still want me to do that they think should be the nurses responsibility. I've even been blamed for meal times running late. That left very little time to be an actual nurse. Through all of this I bridged and got my RN, I tried to stay because I loved my patients. But it was killing me. It was affecting me physically, mentally and emotionally. I never got a break, I would go all day without eating anything. They allowed no overtime yet you would get called into the office and chewed out if you didn't finish something. All of this is to say that it could be worse. My advice to you is to stick it out until you have enough experience to go elsewhere. You also might consider specializing in a certain field. Floor nurses are expected to know everything about everything and everyone. That in and of itself is very stressful.

Honestly, loving people and wanting to help make their lives better is not enough. One thing they don't teach you in nursing school is that the job is mostly paperwork, or computer work depending on where you end up. Sometimes I feel like a glorified secretary. It is rare that you actually get to spend quality one on one time with your patient. And you definitely have to be thick skinned. Patients, their families and all of your doctors and administrators will eventually get to you. You have to be able to take a beating and still smile and get your job done. And I would highly recommend that if you are considering "going for it" that you get your BSN. Hospitals and the like are moving away from ADN's and I haven't seen any that will hire an LVN. At least where I live everyone wants BSN's.

They fingerprint you and run a very thorough background check. If your worried you can check your own background to see what is there. Go to PublicData.com. Its not free but it is worth it.

I am an LVN and in Texas the jobs are extremely limited for me. If your going to go to school it would be best to go ahead and get your BSN. I does matter what license you have. With a BSN you will have so many more options.

I have worked LTC for 2 years. It's both frustrating and rewarding. You are the charge nurse, everyone comes to you for EVERYTHING from missing socks, to missing lunch trays, to fights between the CNA's. Doctors orders, doctors appointments, dialysis, strokes, skin tears, chest pains, seizures, falls, elopements, nausea/vomiting, sore toes, sore fingers, edema...everyone expects everything from you at all times. You have to be a psychologist, a secretary, a prayer partner, a house keeper, a CNA helper, and if there is any time left a nurse. The paper work is over whelming! And most importantly being there for the family when their loved one is dying. Bring them tissues, offer coffee, blankets, pillows...give lots of hugs and dont be afraid to cry. And just a word of advice, get to know your doctors, PA's, NP's and doctors nurses. You need to build a relationship with them, you are there eyes and ears. They come to rely on you if they can trust you. Oh and about the staff, you will always be short handed. Aids will always call in and you will always be asked to work overtime.

If you have an iphone see if they have an app. I have an app called skyscape and it is an excellent reference. Not sure if they have an OB version

There are too many jobs out there to tolerate this. Obviously this system works for them and the administrators are not in control of the situation. I would look for another job, thats my opinion.

Yeah you will probably have to work holidays being the new person but I look at it this way, it's time and a half!!

I am a brand new nurse working at a nursing home. I am having so much trouble with my CNA's doing what they are supposed to do. Personally I think it's because I'm new and I'm kinda quiet. I actually wrote up a couple of them the other day and I hated doing that, it's going to make for a very awkward work environment now. Especially since I really like and got along with one of them. I was a stay at home mom before I went back to school to be a nurse so I've never really had a real job and certainly not one where I'm in charge of people. I just don't know how to gain their respect without being a "B". Does anyone have any advice for me?

I work 2pm-10pm (at a nursing home) and I love it. When they hired me I thought I wanted 6am-2pm but I personally think 2-10 is the best shift. There is only one meal to worry about and most of the calls to the doctor, trips out to doctors appointments, physician orders, treatments and stuff like that have been done. There is more time to focus on the residents and not sit on the phone all day. And nevermind the 3rd shift which I hate. Your up all night your internal clock gets all messed up plus you talk about boring! The only physical thing that is done is passing 6am meds and I hate that. These are just my opinions.

:redbeatheI am a brand new nurse, just graduated 2mths ago. I am working at a nursing home. I love my job, I never thought I'd want to work with the elderly but I love my residents. I am learning something new everyday. I've got my everyday routine down really well, it's when something out of the ordinary happens and I hear someone yell "Go get the nurse" that I say to myself "Oh crap!" My question is one of the things I deal with a lot are chest pains. I'm always having residents complaining of chest pains, it is kind of routine. But I don't really know what to do when it happens. I take the vitals, assess, look for SOB, ask them to describe the pain. (Thank goodness none of them have been heart attacks yet) But I don't know at what point to get concerned something is really wrong. At what point do I call the hospital and have them sent out? I'd appreciate any advice on this.:redbeathe

I'm a brand new nurse, just graduated from an LVN program 2mths ago. One piece of advice I have is to let you know you will not learn much of anything that has to do with real nursing practice in school, it's mostly bookwork. It is necessary book work though. Even if you are lucky enough to get put in a good location for your clinicals you still will not really learn what you need to know to be a practicing nurse until you get a job. Another really big piece of advice is where ever you have clinicals look for every opportunity you can to do something new and ask LOTS of questions. It's easy to get stagnant in school because you are scared to do things you've never done but it's better to do them when you have the best opportunity to ask questions. My last piece of advice is I would skip LVN and go for your RN. If time is a factor get your 2yr RN instead of your 4yr. As far as salary is concerned an RN is an RN, in some cases you need your BSN but more often than not people with associate degrees are treated the same as those with bachelors.

I am taking all my end of the year tests...ugh. There are a couple of questions that I got wrong and I don't understand the reason behind them, can anyone help? One went something like this "A nurse came into report with alcohol on her breath what should the charge nurse do?" the answer the teacher told me was to confront the nurse, the same with the question "What should you do if you witness a nurse not following wasting procedures". I couldn't find anything in 217.11, 217.12, or 217.13 Rules and Regulations about who you should report these situations to. I always thought you should go to the charge nurse. Does anyone know the proper procedure in these matters. Is it true that you should confront the nurse first?

I've had this happen to me a couple of times and I didn't know what to do. What do you do when you are taking someones blood pressure, you pump up the cuff and get the systolic number but the beat never goes away? How do you get the diastolic number?