Bluekal

I'm sure there is, but I have not found any. Like I said, I've heard that Police Officers for example are exempt from that law. I think the company has to have the employee sign a waiver, but HR has denied that option. I don't know if it's true or not. I have seen that hospitals who are able to follow this rule have resource/relief nurses for lunches in addition to the charge nurse. I will bring up that idea to upper management and see what they say.

Thank you, we are all 12 hour shifts. My hospital is a chain hospital, I'm in the process of doing the research to see how the rest of the facilities are doing this. I have heard of a waiver that Police and Fire department use so they don't have to take their breaks so early. I also believe is a knee jerk response to a resent audit by the Labor Board.

It's definitely a cost saving issue. The entire year has been driven by cost saving techniques and what can we do ti save money. It is just very frustrating when we just clocked in at 0700 and management tells us to go to lunch at 0800.

Two can't go at the same time because there is no one to cover their patients. If that happens, it means that one nurse would go out of ratio 8:1 for 15 minutes or 30 minutes (we are a telemetry unit). The hospital has already had issues with DHS about going out of ratio. DHS said we can't even go out of ratio for 15 minutes. We have no breaker nurse and the charge nurse can only relieve one at a time.

Hello Fellow nurses from California, I have a question. There is an issue going on in my hospital at the moment and I wanted to find out how you guys were handling it in your facilities. There is a labor law in California which states an employee must take their meal break (30 minutes) before the end of the 5th hour of work. Are you guys following that rule in your hospitals. What is happening at my hospital is the following: They are asking all nurses to start their breaks as early as 9am or 9pm. We all know that is almost impossible to take a lunch in the first four hours of work. That is when assessments, meds, admissions, and treatments happen. In some instances, we have been told to start taking our breaks at 0730... which is absurd. We haven't even assessed our patients by then. As an example, we have a unit that has a core of 8 nurses. that is four hours of lunch breaks, we have no choice to start breaks at 0730 or 0800. Management and HR is telling us that we can voluntarily decline to take a lunch that early (and put it in writing), but that means you have the chance of not taking a lunch break at all if it get's busy. But hey... that's ok because we have 3 15 minute breaks which we all take right? Are any of you guys experiencing this issue?

Hello Everyone, it has been a long time since I've posted. I have grown a lot since I started as a new grad and I have enjoyed every part of it. I have always been interested in education. Improving myself and helping others improve has always been a major drive in my career. I recently saw a posting at my hospital for a RN Staff Educator. I decided to apply without hesitation. I am in different committees, meetings, and always looking for ways to improve my unit. That's why the job posting really peaked my interest. The posting said that a Master's was preferred, but not required. Obtaining my masters in education is definitely on my list. I gave it a shot. To my surprise, I got a call from HR and they want to interview me. :) I'm looking for any suggestions or input that could be helpful for this interview. What can I expect? Thank you in advance for your help. I'm very exited and scared at the same time!

Thank you all for the encouragement. I will use this mistake as a learning opportunity and make sure it never happens again. I will make sure I'm part of the solution. I am aware that decadron and steroids need to be tapered, and our process generally works fine. However, this time the doctor was new and wrote the orders differently. The other neurosurgeons just write multiple orders like 4mg decadron q12h for 48 hours. Then that order is Dc'd and a new one is placed such as 4mg decadron q12h for 48 hours and so on. That was what I was used to. Unfortunately, pharmacy missed the comments and did not schedule the other doses. They just kept the original going for two weeks. The doctors who followed the patient did not catch it as well. Finally, nurses for an entire week did not catch it either. (no an excuse). I'm feeling much better, and as I mentioned, I'll take it as a learning opportunity. I just don't know what the consequences will be when I go back to work.

Hello guys, I just need to vent a little here. I'm feeling pretty bad right now and like I should have known better. First a little background. If you guys look at my previous posts. I was having pretty bad anxiety and stress in my first job. Now something good happened at around 7 months. Everything started to click and things made sense. My anxiety before work was gone and I was feeling comfortable in my role as an RN. I constantly got praise from my patients and co-workers. I was learning a lot, and felt pretty good about working in the unit. Of course I felt stressed on some situations, but generally I was able to handle it and do a good job. I was happy again and sure that I was a good nurse, a green nurse, but a good nurse. I just recently completed my one year last week and was extremely happy about it. Now something happened last night that shook my foundation and sent me back to square, my first med error. The situation was, a patient had decadron ordered. It looked like a basic order. Decadron XXmg q6h. Then at the bottom of the electronic mar there was a comment that said after 48 hours decrease to q12h, then after 24 hours to xmg BID for 24 hours, then DC. (this is not an excuse for my mistake) Doctors never write instructions like that on our EMAR, they usually just DC the med and reorder the lower dose. I saw that in the EMAR there was scheduled doses for q6h for the next two days. I assumed that since my patient was a fresh transfer my doses would be day 1. I was wrong. The next day, the night nurse also noticed the same situation and did some research to find out that the patient had been getting the original dose for two weeks starting at the other unit. The patient should have been off the decadron a week ago. Now looking back, I know that I should have looked back on the EMAR to see how many doses the patient had been getting. The thing is, we never get med orders like those. People at work tell me it's just a mistake, to learn from it, and not to worry because I'm in the middle of a long chain of nurses, pharmacists and doctors who dropped the ball. I still don't feel better. I feel like I failed my patient. I thought I was a very thorough nurse and was starting to feel strong and confident. Now... I don't know. Thank you for reading, I just wanted to let it of my chest.

Nope, I can't transfer until a year from hire date. I don't think anyone would take me either because of my lack of experience. I was lucky to lad this job because everywhere I applied the wanted at least a year acute care experience. Thank you for your words of encouragement.

Hello everyone, I'm writing this just to vent my frustration. When I got my RN I was so happy, finally all the hard work had paid off and I was ready to start my new career. I got a job as a new grad at a tele floor and was exited about it because I ultimately want to become a nurse anesthetist and this is a great stepping stone for ICU. How my views have changed... It seems that I'm always stressed out at work. The patients are so sick now that it seems I'm always doing things just to catch up with meds, charting, procedures, etc. I can't even put it into words how busy the floor is and everything that needs to be done. In my unit, I always have to be looking at what is going on with the patient, the tele monitor, vitals, subtle signs of complications. In a way, all that is fine with me because I'm a naturally energetic person, and I love challenge, my problem comes after I leave the hospital. I'm always afraid I missed something or made a mistake that will either end up in harm to the patient or me loosing my job. I get home and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night "did I do this?" "I should've done that instead" "what if I hanged the wrong antibiotic or gave the wrong med?" Nightmare scenarios keep running through my mind and I just get so stressed that I can't sleep sometimes. The worst part of my day is driving to work. I don't look forward to driving to work because my heart is racing and I'm having anxiety thinking... "Is this the day that I get pulled into the manager's office so they can tell me what I did wrong and someone got hurt". I really love nursing and I try to do the best that I can, but it's so busy that I'm just chasing meds, doctors orders, and documentation. On really busy days everything is a blur when I leave and that is when the anxiety kicks in... "I know I missed something?". I was so exited about my first job and now 3 months later I do not look forward to going to work because of how I feel before, during and after. Am I just over stressing myself? is this how every new grad feels? I even thought about changing careers because of the amount of emotional stress I put myself under. Thank you for listening,

I have not been contacted by them yet either. I'm pretty sure is the fact that my program was Associate degree. If I would've known things were going to be this bad for ADNs, I would've gone to a BSN program. I have a 3.9 GPA, graduated with honors, years as an LVN, excellent letters of recommendation from clinical instructors and my current manager. So frustrated.

mine still says application accepted, assessment completed, all documents submitted.

Studystudy, i just checked my page after your post and they also took of the X under active, I guess that means I'm out as well. It's probably the ADN program because I had a 3.9 GPA at school, ACLS certified, and 7 years LVN experience, don't know why I keep getting shut down from the new grad programs.

I applied to it October 25th, the day the applications opened. So far i have not received any info, my application status just says Application accepted, assessment completed and all documents required submitted. I'm hoping that i hear something soon because I've been hearing people have already been contacted.

Hey everyone, I applied on October 25th at night. My application went through, with no wait list. I'm anxious because I hear of people already being contacted to schedule their phone interview, but my app status still says received/assessment completed/all required documents submitted. Do you guys know how long it takes from experience? Thank you.