shortsteph12

oldest child with an abusive father I have a cousin who is the oldest and a RN and another cousin who was an only child and an RN although my baby sis is a RN

I work on a 32 bed tele floor. We do get many med surg patients who have some cardiac history also. Our ratio is 5:1 max. ( the last time we had 6 patients was the day I had my "telemetry nightmare.") since that day we are not allowed to have 6. We do not have a tele tech but we all try to take turns checking the monitors and we carry the pagers.

Just yesterday I had a son of one of my patients come up to the nurses station and very rudely yelled at me because the doctor was not there yet to discharge his father and he had been waiting for two hours and he was sick of waiting. Then stormed off I said I dont even know who that guy is ( until he turned into his fathers room) which he wasn't there because I had been in his dads room right before lunch. Which everybody knows how much lunch breaks we get. I had answered him that I had paged the doctor but she hadn't called me back. The patient had no problems it was explained to him that the doctor was not on to make rounds in the hospital until the afternoon. Another time when on orientation I had taken a 20 min lunch break and my preceptor was "supposed" to be covering my patients when I came around the corner she said " oh good your back room so and so needs pain medication." I walked into a lions den with the mothers grown children pissed as he## at me because there mother was in pain. So assessed her got out the pain medication and gave it. Then while getting out another patients meds the daughter came and literally screamed at me that I know you were at lunch but someone should have been covering your patients (my preceptor who certainally wasn't) and that this will never happen again with so much anger.. Now that I have more experience I would have said yes someone should have been covering my patients obviously wasnt and dont you get a lunch break at your job? The abuse from the families is the worse part of the job... My sister worked in ICU for 6 years and she said she used to get screamed at by people all the time. I dont feel that we are peoples servants Nobody asks questions to the docs... I spend a good time of my day answering peoples questions or taking calls sometimes several family members call me about the same patient I have thought about saying " I spoke to Susie and do you have her phone number I updated her," I am afraid that I will get in trouble.. What does others people think..

I bought a guide while a student there is a book at Barnes and Nobles Ekgs made easy. First look at the rr interval is it regular? Then measure your pr interval see is there a p wave? If the patient has a pacemaker is there pacer spikes? Then look at qrs and measure then qt/ check your rate doing strips gets easier with practice

Yes the family is wrong to threaton each Rn with suing. I hate when people treat nurses like crap that way... You did the right thing and hopefully will not to have to take care of that pt again

yes the nurses on our floor do pull pacer wires. I thought thats all I need is a patient to cardiac tamponade or go into torsades... The docs always come up right before change of shift and order us to pull pacer wires and chest tubes. I will take ACLS in march when it is offered. I think I will feel much better than.

thanks to everyone for replying. I am considering switching to the ortho/bariatric floor if possible. Yesterday I worked and it wasnt too bad in fact word got around that " one of the new nurses had a really bad day." one of the night nurses said "I hope its not stephanie." she thanked me for comming in. Shes been a nurse for 16 years, supposidly new ratios have started I should never have 6 patients again. According to the organization that controls magnet status tele should be 4/5 ratio. We are so shorthanded on nurses on our floor, on Weds or Thurs only one nurse is scheduled for days. Which means lots of floaters from other floors or angency nurses. I am afraid what it will be like without a manager. Its nice to know I am not alone in this boat....

I was on orientation for 12 weeks. My preceptor would leave me alone quite a bit, I ended up trying to figure things out for myself. My manager was in the room during the code and she did help me set up for the cardioversion and stayed in the room during it. This was the day shift. I agree that maybe this is not the best place for a new grad. I am scared I am going to lose my liscence. Also the ABG's on the above mentioned patient were horrible, PH 7.10 and CO2 108. The patient didnt have a respiratory history as far as we knew and the ICU nurse was trying to figure out why this patient went into respiratory acidosis.

Hi I am a new grad and have been working on the tele floor for about 4.5 mos. The other day ER sent up a patient with COPD exacab., who was on nonrebreather 100% 02. patients heart rate was 120's at admission to our floor. 02 sats were ok 93% but you could see patient was using accesary muscles paged DR for orders no call back page Dr again no call back. Patients heart rate was steadily climbing I decided to call a rapid response. They stabilized the patient and I was told there were not enough ICU nurses to take care of the patient. I had 3 other patients at this time and I had spent 2 hours in this patients room. Dr had called back during the rapid response ( patients hr had gone up to 170's but the monitor was reading 220). Then Dr alled back and ordered stat ABG's patients PH 7.14 and C02 was like 100 finally they transferred to ICU. Where the patient should have gone in the first place. Then yesterday I had 6 patients. One was on the call light constantly for pain meds, I was in her room at least 10 or more times. The other patient Dr decided to cardiovert in room. I was in her room for an hour setting up and recovering. Then another patient complained of pain gave Dilaudid, ( which patient had taken before) about 2 hours later patient complained of Nausau gave Anzemet. Patient had had a CABG x3 about a month ago, came in with difficulty breathing and leg swelling. He was a diabetic bs were 177,176 on my shift. Well as I was trying to start a bad IV on another patient Dr ordered pacer wires out on yet another patient. This was at 1445 my shift was supposed to be over at 1530. and I had only charted on two of my six patients. Well I was trying to wrap up a few things on my other patients and then I was planning on pulling pacer wires and then chart. Well the above mentioned gentleman was found unresponsive in the room. We called the operator to call a rapid response and the operator wasn't picking up so we called a code. well they worked on him for quite a while I froze and the Er doc screamed at me. ( I am not ACLS certified yet) I was going to take the class in the spring. I ended up in the hallway crying. we dont have enough support on our floor my manager is leaving in the middle of Jan the prior manager walked off the job. I just found this out yesterday and two of our nurses have left in the past 2 weeks ( one had been there over 10 years)/ Needless to say I did not pull the pacer wires. My manager told me not to. So the nurse today will probably be mad. I ended up punching out at 1745 over two hours after my shift. I was going to try and stay on this floor for two years to get the experience. Dont know if I can do it any suggestions?

I am working on a tele floor, and I am up to 6 patients. I have been on orientation for about 10 weeks now. I know exactly how you feel. My preceptor sometimes keeps me over to go over my charting and we don't leave until she sees something wrong. On Friday I made some mistakes there was a rhythm on the tele strip that my preceptor said not to label and that the Dr was aware. Well at the end of the day she berated me for not calling the Dr with the strip, since the patient was having some more PVC's. So I called the Dr and the Dr came and looked at the strips, at one point the patient bradyed down to 38 for a couple of seconds. The patient was asymptomatic. I go in and out of my patients rooms all day, to check on them, give meds, make sure they are not in pain. I take a 15 minute lunch break if then. Otherwise I am doing patient care. Sometimes I feel so stupid, how did I pass nursing school? Its nice to know others feel that way. My preceptor berates me for every little thing that I miss. My manager said I am getting better, calmer, more organized. ( by the way I am working days). So I think that 6 patients is quite a bit to handle. I have had to take 5 patients and a CHF transfusion patient. Which I think is just insane. I am doing the best I can but sometimes I think maybe I have made a mistake.... But then at least once a week I have patients tell me I am the best nurse there. Which helps me feel better

I am a new grad and have started on a tele floor. We do get all sorts of patients besides the cardiac ones. Sometimes it can be quite overwhelming althought I feel that I am learning alot. Some times it seems more like a step down unit with the acuity of the patients. I am in my 7th week and just started taking 5 patients which keeps me very busy, sometimes too much so... I am trying the best that I can. ALthough sometimes I think I should have started out on the general Med Surge floor. Eventually I would like to work ICU or work L&D or mother baby. I wanted to get my floor experience firtst. So it depends on the day whether or not I like my job.... Thats the only answer I can give you at this time

I live in Illinois we also have to be fingerprinted by the FBI. Good luck to you I know how you feel about having to work as a tech. You want to go ahead with your career. Hopefully it will not take too long Good luck to you!

I graduated July 8th and will be taking my boards on Aug 31st. I am starting my job on Aug 8th. I will be working PT evenings due to not wanting to leave my kids 5 days a week. ( my youngest is almost 3 and has never been to daycare other than grandma). And on the other extreme I have a 15 yr old girl. So they both will have to make a transition to me working again. I hope this will not be too bad for me as a new grad working PT. I will be starting on the Tele floor..... Very excited and nervous hence I am up at 230 am

I just graduated from Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove. After finishing my prereq's I applied to start in the fall and got right in. Just recently have students had to wait maybe a semester. We have smaller classes but students start the program 4 times a year. Each starting class is about 27 students. I thought the school was great. I heard our pass rates our pretty good, havn't taken my NCLEX yet... I also heard in CA there is a 6 month waiting list to take the NCLEX I met a girl who is going to take her boards in Wi and then pay the fee to transfer her liscence. She already has a job in CA.

Thanks for the replies. I was told that we get a day in the peri operative room to practice. I think that the patients will already be nervous enough, going into surgery. Thats a great idea to shadow an IV tech I will ask my instructor about that! I know I have to suck it up and do it but, still scares me:)