Pleaides

Drip factors.....I have never, ever had to worry about drip factors in the real world. We have one size tubing, period, for everybody. Rate is controlled by a pump. Why are students still calculating drip factors?

Can you start Peds IV's? Of everything we do in the ER that is the thing I hate the most, it is ofen very difficult and babies and children always cry. I would rather help intubate or do a chest tube than a Peds IV. OB is also very positive experience, there are some small rural ER's that have to handle OB cases. If you know what to do when delivery becomes imminent and how to treat newborns, then you already have some very valuable experience. Take the ER job.

When I first worked as a nurse in LTC, I had the license but did not know how to dress a combative pt, get a 400 lber out of bed, etc. Everything practical I learned from CNA's. It is a very stupid nurse indeed who does not appreciate a good CNA. (I have worked with some bad ones, but they usually didn't last long). A really good CNA is worht her/his weight in gold!

I was a flight attendant for 24 years, and would be today except for american airlines dirty tricks. Now I work in the ER, but am considering going to OB.

Just go one day at a time and do the best job you possibly can, if your patients are happy you are doing fine. I too hated my first RN job, on a Med-Surg floor, at a facility with lots of infighting and bickering. There were plenty of things I did not know how to do (such as complex drips) and I was made to feel really stupid and clumsy. Now, a year and a half out of school, I am in an emergency room on an Indian Res and have more good days than bad. Every day I learn something new, I work with good Nurses and MD's and I like 99.9 % of my patients. The people you work with will make or break the job. There are too many good nursing experiences out there to stay stuck in a bad one.

I am nearing the end of my "orientation" program in my first RN job. The first two weeks were spent observing various departments and then we went to the floors to orient. A month later and all the preceptors are tired of having new grads ask questions. "Didn't you people learn ANYTHING in nursing school?" Sure we did, we spent a gazillion hours on care plans, which are not used much here. Right now I am absolutely hating this hospital job. After a six week orientation we are supposed to be full-fledged RN's, ready to do anything! My feeling right now is that I am on a sinking ship. Never in my life have I felt or been made to feel incompetent, but I sure do now. I know I should say **I CAN do this** and so every day I say that mantra over and over on my way to work. But when I get there, and try to do everything for 4-5 patients as well as new admits and computer charting on a very user-unfriendly system, I am not sure if I really will be able to do this. Is being nervous and having a constant feeling of cold fear and dread normal for a new RN or have I made a wrong turn in life by going to nursing school?

NOTHING is more problematic than smoking-related problems. So preventable yet the it-won't-happen-to-me and then "why me?" folks who continue to waste money on cigarettes instead of treatment to quit. Nurses who smoke are a complete mystery to me!

So what if some of us became Nurses for money and job stability/mobility? I became an RN precisely for that reason. For 24 years I was a flight attendant until American Airlines destroyed that world, stapled me to the bottom of the seniority list and then furloughed me. Airline employees always have to be looking out for the next job. Anyway, after years of dealing with the traveling public, I found the transition into Nursing to be not difficult at all. I liked airline passengers (most of them) and I like my patients (most of them). Nursing work is much like flying, it's sometimes difficult and chaotic, usually very rewarding both emotionally and financially. I tell the truth when I say I chose Nursing for reasons other than the lame "I love people and love to help them" stock phrase. So there.

Well, I didn't hear last week whether I had been hired, so I figured not and sent out some resumes today. At 1705 I was informed that I had been hired at a place I had given up hope on, and that it was unusual to be hired as a new grad into float pool. Hey you experienced Nurses out there, should I be worried or just go for it. I really do want some hospital experience. I was a float Nurse at the LTC facility I worked at for 2 years and liked it, mainly because I didn't get totally bored in one place. All advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Just do it! If you don't you will regret it later. You will certainly get older, but not neccesarily wiser unless you take that path. The old retirement age of 65 will recede until retirement is 70, 75, 80. That is a lot of years to work. I will graduate 01 May as an ADN (BFA, 1974) and will go on to University for a BSN. I'll be 54 on 4/17. Learning does not stop just because you hit a certain age. Don't let the naysayers, even the ones inside your head, tell you not to.