browneyes3000

41 is not old. I had classmates your age in nursing school.

I agree with nursel56 that most of us can relate to what you are going through. You have to remember your patient "was an older man with multiple issues, copd, a fib, etc". Death is inevitable. It was his time to go so nothing you could do to change it. It was in God's hands.

Please do not quit. I know it is hard, but please try to stay at least a year. It is stressful to be a new grad and you are not alone with the thought of quitting, but you will have more options after gaining at least a year of experience. Nursing world is small and please try your best not to burn any bridge. You will have the final decision, but I really hope you think carefully before you quit.

I answer sick calls, paperwork, and doing prior authorization. The phone is my new BFF now because I am on the phone all day.My experience as a bedside nurse is helpful because I am still working with patients, just not directly. The patient will tell me their symptoms and I will decide if he/she needs to come to the clinic or go to ER or just stays home. Patients normally will have more than one problems and take many medications. As a bedside nurse, I administer medications to patient so I remember a lot of the medications and know what to expect. I can recognize when things are bad. I might not know exactly what it is, but I can "feel" when something is wrong from having that bedside experience. Even with the most unhappy patient on the phone, I am still ok and will not complaint. My experience with difficult patients at the hospital: Patient who is awake, alert, and oriented x 4, but likes to scream for help with everything and refuses to use call light. Aggressive patient and abuse nurses verbally Patients who need restraints PCA pumps, feeding pump, chest tubes, multiple IV lines, wound vac Incontinent, on lactulose, and no tech (( ......the list goes on After working in the hospital, I can relate to patients better because I know what it is like for them to be hospitalized or to take care of family member in the hospital. Every job has its own pros and cons. I am not saying the clinic is perfect, but I am satisfied. When I applied for clinic positions, I did not hear from many places, got auto-rejection, or rejected after an interview for not having enough experience (2 years). I thought for sure "hospital is my destiny". I turned down a clinic job offer once because it did not feel right to me. I wanted the clinic job, but I told myself not to just take any clinic job if I was not really sure I would like it. I finally got another offer and felt much more happy. You just have to take action and apply. Good luck! P/S: I will send you a message. Please check your inbox.

I was stressed and lost as a new nurse. My body could not tolerate the 12 hour shift. I survived the first year of nursing and felt so proud. I truly admire and respect nurses who have been a bedside nurse for many years. They are really special. I left bedside nursing due to many reasons. I work at a clinic now. The stress is gone. I work everyday but I am not tired. It might be a boring office job to some nurses, but I enjoy it very much. I miss direct patient care sometimes so I still work as a bedside nurse PRN. I also do that because I am grateful to my manager at the hospital for giving me the first nursing job right out of school. I do not miss the busy 12 hour shift with interrupted lunch break or even no time for break! You will be able to find a nursing position that you like, you just have to look for it. Please do not give up on nursing too early. Put your resume out there and start apply everywhere, it does not hurt to try! Good luck.

1. After cleaning up a pt's diarrhea several times/day, q2h pain meds, long list of tasks, and there was no tech that day, the pt asked me after I finished giving shift report "Before you go home, can you water my flowers and go get me ice and a sprite?". 2. "I just paged the doctor about your concerns. Is there anything else you need?" -"When will the doctor call you back?" -"You have to ask the doctor that question. I don't know the answer." -"Does the doctor want to see my vomiting? do I need to save the vomit bag for him?" "Please ask the doctor this question when he rounds on you. " *I don't know why this patient kept asking me the same type of question "where is the doctor? what does the doctor think?when does the doctor do this or that? what is the doctor doing right now" over and over. It became ridiculous after the 7th times. 3.Pt got angry because he lost his wallet and requested the RN to go find it. I called admitting, ICU, recovery room, and went around to look for it with no hope. I came to apologize to the patient. The patient "Oh I found it. I gave it to my wife the other day."

You tried your best to take care that patient. The patient is still alive when you left. Do not beat yourself up.

To STcroix, phD, RN: The doctor might need to increase the dosage or change to a different type of pain medication if the current medication does not control her pain. I took care of patients with PCA pump + other IV pain med + Oral pain meds and still hurting. They just have a high tolerance to pain medications.

A vacation and time to decompress could be helpful. When you feel ready, put your resume together and start to apply for a clinic position or something outside of the hospital. You do not sound like an a-hole, you sound burn out. I hope you find the answer to your situation soon. BIG HUGS to you.

Pt who is awake/alert told me: "you are a worthless piece of sh*t. D*mn you! GET THE H*LL out. Leave me alone!. I don't trust you. you are WORSESOME", and the patient repeated that over and over and over during my shift. Keywords: morbidly obese, angry with life, depression, bed-bound

Not all RNs hate their job. Nursing field has a wide range of career opportunities IF you have at least 1-2 years of acute care experience. I have a love/hate relationship with my job. On a good day: All patients are happy. Medications are available. I am able to chart in a timely manner. I have time to sit down to listen to the patients and be a wonderful caring nurse. It made my day when the patient's family member said "oh you are his nurse today? I can go home to get some rest now because I know he is in good hands." or "I hope I have you as my nurse again before I get discharged". I remember walking into a patient's room and I could not breathe because it smelled so bad. The patient was incontinent, but he was clean. I just could not understand why his room smelled so bad. I did not want to go into his room, but then I thought to myself "I just came in the room for a short period of time and I could not stand it, what about the poor patient who has to stay in this room all day?". I took out all of his dirty linens, all of the trash, and used bleach wipes to clean his room up. I was there when he needed me the most. The patient and I had one of the most meaningful conversations in my life. He was not going to make it, and he was totally aware of his health problems. I did not know he was a doctor until the end of shift. I will never forget his watery eyes from tearing when I said good bye. Taking care of him reminds me of why I want to become a nurse. It is an amazing experience that only nurses would understand. You will always learn something new and every day is different as a nurse. On a bad day: No tech. Answer phone and call lights all day. Medications are not available and you have to call pharmacy 10 times to get it. Tube station is down and you have to take everything to the lab by yourself. All of your patients need your attention at the same time. The patients are 3 times bigger than you and they are incontinent. You are trying your best to clean the patient up while the patient is cursing you. No matter how hard you try, it is never enough. All patients deserve equal attention and care from the nurse, but sometimes it is impossible when there is a significant change in a patient's condition or health status. You will spend a lot of time taking care of the unstable patient while "ignoring" your other stable patients. You are not allowed to say you are busy and you are not allowed to say "H*LL NO" when patient or patient's family members ask for "ice, coke, food voucher for visitors, ice cream, salt/pepper, coffee, a fan, etc." (Note: You have been working all day without eating, drinking, or using the restroom.) You will be so good at multitasking. The list goes on. The RN is the key communication between patients, doctors, PT, social workers, kitchen staff, and others. All team members are equally important. Sometimes I feel frustrated with the situation, but never at the person. In conclusion, I wish you the best of luck in your career choice. People can give you their opinions, but only you know what career suits your personality.

Getting fired is a traumatic experience. I am sorry for what you are going through, but I have faith that you will be able to find another job. All nurses make mistakes, and we learn from it. The good thing is that we will never make the same mistakes again. I hope you do not beat yourself up over that incident at work because you were not intentionally harm the patient, the patient is still alive, and you lost the job already. For the new apps, it is best to give facts only and be completely honest about it. I am kinda curious, you caught an error from another nurse and got in trouble for it? was that patient assigned to you or to another nurse?. Anyway, I wish you the best. Hugs.

My manager called me to her office twice for bad time management. It was not an easy feeling, but I appreciated the fact that she gave me an opportunity to improve. I have 5 patients each shift. At the beginning of the shift, I write down important lab orders (some labs need to be drawn on time), to do lists, medications for each patient. I also look at the patient diagnosis, age, and labs to decide who I will come to see first. -If patient A has 0730 meds and 0900 meds. I will check the vital signs and give all medications at 0800 unless there is a contraindication. -I look at the PRN medications and the previous shift charting to see if the patient takes pain med, anxiety med, stool softener, etc exactly q2h, q8h, or just as needed. If they take it frequently, I will go ahead and bring it with the scheduled medications. It will save me a trip back to the patient room. -Before I come into the patient's room, I try to think of what I will need such as saline flushes, dressing change supplies, tubing, fluid bag, juice, ice, etc. (I ask the nurse from the previous shift to see what the patient's preference with taking pills. If they prefer to have their pills crushed and put in chocolate pudding, I would bring pudding and spoon to save time.) -While I am in the patient room, I will go ahead and empty the urinal, take out dirty tray, and ask if the patient need me to do anything before I leave. If the patient want me to help her/him to the restroom and the tech is not available, I will stay in the room charting while I am waiting for the patient to use the restroom. By staying in the room, I can be available right away to help the patient back to bed safely. -I am bad at charting, but I learn to make time for charting as I go. I tell myself "it only takes a couple minutes to chart patient rounding, don't leave it until the end of shift." Charting is part of the job. I used to run every time a patient call for coffee, coke, ice, or whatever. I delegated these things to the tech if possible, but the tech is super busy so the patient or the patient's family has to wait. These things are not life threatening issues. I will try to finish what I have to do first, and then I will take care of it. -For emotionally needy older patients, I will chart at the bedside. Sometimes, it helps a lot because I am right there to open a bottle of milk, give them a straw, or just simple tasks and be done. If I was at the nurses's station, I would have to stop charting to go check to see what they want. -I tell the tech thank you many times/day because I truly appreciate their work. Without them, the job will be so much harder. My time management skills are not great, but it has improved significantly. Being a new nurse is not easy. I was super slow after I got off orientation. I have 1 year of experience now. You can do it. Ask experience nurses at your work to see what they do differently, don't give up. You have my support!.

I took care of a SC patient last week. The poor patient was in severe pain constantly. The physician ordered dilaudid-PCA pump. The dose was not effective. The doctor increased it. The new dose was still not effective. The doctor increased it again and again and again until the pain was under control. The patient is 1 year older than I am. It was really sad. I admired and respected that doctor so much because he took the patient's pain seriously.

Being a new nurse is not easy. It is not uncommon to feel miserable as a new nurse. Don't be too hard on yourself. I would suggest you not to apologize to your preceptor for making her angry with you. It probably will upset her because it means you take things personally. Just try your best and things will be better. Actions always speak louder than words. Hugs.