WickedRedRN

Fellow Walden student too, starting in September. Welcome!

Starting tomorrow as well, enrolled in the MSN in Leadership and Management, transferring to the FNP program in fall. Hope to see you there! Message me if you want to exchange info?

Oh dear, I have been there way too much recently.....my mother likes to throw around the "my daugher, the ER RN at xyz in the big city" card. I can tell right away when the staff is on edge abt me because she has blabbered on before I get there. Once when she was in icu, she and my sister were so bad I made sure I sent doughnuts and a fruit tray upon discharge out of sheer embarassment!

me to icu nurse on transfer of my intubated, active gi bleed from everywhere "Blood. He doesn't have any. He needs more. That's pretty much all you need to know right now."

Worked in both and hands down I would choose med-surg over LTC any day. MS in a hospital generally tends to give you a better new nurse orientation imho. Don't get me wrong, it is stressful, but it's a different kind of stress.

Whoa! If you meant this to be a sarcastic joke, it's backfired. I suggest you step back and re-think this a bit. Until you walk a mile or two in our shoes and get a feel for what we are talking about, you won't understand where the OP is coming from. I have been cussed at, swung at and hit, spit on, had more things thrown at me than I can count, AND a broken finger and not one, but two human bite wounds inflicted on my in my 20+ healthcare career. Do I tolerate it? Abso-freakin-lutely not! You get security, restraints, charges and the whole nine yards when it is intentional. Our silence on this topic is our acceptance. We must speak up for ourselves. OP, good job for speaking up.

Can't leave the floor with an IV because I am legally responsible for their condition. If they are infusing meds, I need to be able to monitor for any potential problems/issues with med and iv. Constantly hooking and unhooking the iv puts them at greater risk for infection and infiltration, so no, I won't do it. A shower can wait til infusion is completed, and you can walk on the floor with the pole.

I trust my floor, know my co-workers and their habits. I know who I would trust and who I wouldn't. That said, I would still be right there with my family member. We are a teaching hospital and some of the interns are downright frightening!! Now, other hospitals I worry about....when my mom was ill I had all kinds of problems with the hospital. She insisted on being at the local, little county hospital. The differences are huge! I jokingly called it the band-aid station in the cornfield, but could not convince her to come to the big med center until she had a AAA they could not handle.

Bottom sheets are fitted ones at my facility, so no hospital corners here. I am particular about no wrinkles in the sheets, draws are folded "just so" and I still face the open side of the pillow slip away from the door. Funny, just the other day I was putting a pillow on a bed and I wondered why I still do that!

Hi everyone, looking for some advice from those who have dealt with this problem. Way back in the 80's I was a fresh HS grad, entering college with no idea what to do with my life. My first attempt at a college education ended poorly, through no ones fault by my own. I did not know how to apply myself and quickly drowned in academics. I left college at the end of my freshman year with barely a 2.0 gpa. Fast forward to 2008. I decided to return to the above school to attend an RN to BSN program. In between time I had grown up, obtained my LPN, then ASN with a 4.0. Worked full time through both programs, honors, Phi Theta Kappa and all. I voiced concern with my counsellor over my prior (1980's) grades. I was told there was nothing I could do about them, and all scholarships, honors, etc were based on my current performance in the BSN program. I graduated that program with highest distinction, Sigma Theta Tau, and BSN student of the year honors. My nursing gpa again was 4.0, with an ending overall gpa of 3.2. I have been applying to MSN programs. So far, I have been turned down at all of them. When I called to ask what the issue was, I was told my gpa was a 3.2, which is not considered competitive enough. I really hate this. I feel like I am still punished for poor judgement at 18, when I am now 43 and my life experience shows differently. Anyone faced this situation, and if so what did you do? I am almost considering going back for another round of classes, but not sure I can since I have already earned the BSN. One thing I have learned, bad grades will follow you FOREVER! Heck, even bankruptcy is forgiven after a set number of years!! Thanks in advance!

Excellent! Such a good experience for you, and when you are ready to take on the role of preceptor yourself you will have a wonderful role model to follow! I wish more facilities would embrace this level of thought when it comes to matching orientees. Glad to hear you are having such a good experience.

I am fortunate in that my husband carries the insurance for the family. It was financially better for us to have him carry us, as a family policy through my employer would have cost us more than $350 per pay, and that was just for the health ins! He also carries the dental, although it is no great policy. Seems to me most dental policies don't cover much. In any case, I have worked in the corporate world prior to my nursing degree and I can attest that hospital and health care workers get the worst insurance out there. Cost per pay is astronomical and the deductibles are atrocious.

Many years ago when I was a CNA, I worked in a good LTC, just on a horrible unit. One of the nurses I worked with was the bomb, always took the time to talk to me, answer my questions and show me things. She knew I was in school at the time and always tried to find out what we were studying so she could find things to correlate with my learning. Awesome lady and I think of her fondly to this day. Now, the other charge nurse was awful. Lazy to the hilt, mean and condescending to everyone. But, she was tight with management so no recourse here at all. I dreaded the shifts I walked in and she was on. The good of this job far outweighed the bad, and I even learned from the bad. My fav nurse asked me on my last day what had I learned while I was there. I said I learned how "NOT" to treat my CNA's, techs, or other people. She just laughed and said I had probably learned the most important thing of all then. You will learn there, and experience is a great teacher. Don't stop looking for another position while you are there, but any opportunity can provide you with a wealth of knowledge. It's all in the perspective.

Reading on a slow night like that used to just do me in. I would lose focus so quickly. My go to task for slow times is cleaning out the drawers of junk in the nursing station. Always intersting what you may find in there!

Having worked in an LTAC, yes, as you are an RN, they will want you to work in their ICU/SCU, hi-obs, whatever it is they call it. That being said, they should TRAIN you and have you orient before you take an assignment there. Speak to the nursing mgr asap and clarify this.

AICU is adult intensive care unit. Our pts are vented, septic, drips, CVVH, neuro all the usual ICU type pts. The only thing we do not take is active MI and post op hearts. We have a Cardiac CCU that takes those. The Progressive Care Unit in my hospital has been closed, so we keep our stepdown pts until they are ready for the floors. Our ratio is 2:1 with the critically ill pts and 4:1 with the level 2, or stepdowns. It is an initiative for the entire hospital to assure the pts have freshly toasted bread that is warm, not the cold soggy stuff thats on the trays when it gets to the units. They never deliver to the rooms directly on my unit, its is dropped at the desk and the secretary will let the nurse know its here. We pick them up and take to the rooms. It's normally pretty quickly. If we are busy, the sec. will take it to the room if we ask.

:yeah:

I love you guys, I really do! The poetry and jokes in here are great and again, so is the support!! I'm off today, sitting here looking at this thread, and wouldn't you know it, I have toast and coffee! :rotfl:

I said, I have NO ISSUE with doing things for people. I like being able to talk to pts and do things to brighten their day when I can. But the God's honest truth of the matter Bridey is that I am insanely busy almost every day I work. All nurses are and so are the techs! I do not think making toast is "beneath me" in any way but this is an unrealistic request. Do you want me to assess you thoroughly and titrate your drips accodingly, safely and appropriately, then monitor for response, or do you want me to titrate and then leave to make your toast? Think the BON will let me off when I tell them that I did not notice that run of vtach because I was in the kitchen making toast for my other pt and thus did not respond quickly enough?

I was pretty upset with this latest round of stupidity! We have a staff meeting this week and I have every intention of voicing my displeasure with this new idea. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem doing a little extra for pts when I can, but to utilize the nurses this way, to me, is gross mismanagement of nursing responsibilites and practice. This whole thing came about as a dietary was seeking to improve their poor comments on pt satisfaction surveys. I honestly wish these ridiculous surveys would drop off the face of the earth. Why is it every one of these surveys leads back to nursing in some manner? I work in AICU, most of our pts are not eating, however this past weekend I had 3 pts waiting on floor bed transfers that were eating. The toaster, was in our kitchen, which is off the unit, down the hall. I can assure you I did NOT make any toast, nor will I in the future. 1.--I BARELY have time to run off the unit to the restroom, let alone to the kitchen and stand around waiting for toast. We have no pt care techs or CNA's in the ICU's, they are medsurg units only. I can maybe understand having this work on the floors, but trust me, the techs are insanely busy too. Thanks for all the support and the humor in the responses! Just had to vent about it since I think this has got to be the dumbest idea I have seen yet.

Imagine my suprise this weekend when I get to work and find out that new policy is that the RN's will make toast for the pt trays!!!! Yes, that's right, dietary will only send bread up and we are expected to toast it in the toasters provided to the unit. So now, I have to pick up the tray when it is dropped at the desk, take it to the pts room, take the bread all the way back to the convienetly located toaster (NOT) and bring it back. I work in AICU, anyone think I really have the time for this malarkey??? I was really frustrated over this one and I told the charge nurse they better get some techs up here if this is what they expect. I can only hear the complaints now..."The nurse didnt make my toast right!" Sorry, just had to get this one off my chest!

Thanks to all who have commented here. I did not intend to spark a debate, however a lot of excellent points have been raised. Do I feel disabled? No. Overwhelmed? Yes, very much so. I know this is managable and I am working with the dietician too. I will speak up to my manager on the issues. I guess I am not expecting special accomodations, just the opportunity for a quick meal and test to keep me healthy. Funny, I also work a prn position at another hospital and they make sure we get our breaks. I don't feel it's an issue there, but in the ICU (primary job) it is. A very different culture that I have noticed since day one. There is a clear disconnect between managment and the nurses on the floor. I am waiting for the right postion to open at prn hospital and plan on making a change as soon as possible because of the culture there.

Type II here. Trying diet mods first (mostly because I asked to try before going to insulin). Doing a lot of testing and logging of BG's to trend when I go back to endo. I was predisposed due to heredity and I believe it finally caught me. I have lost weight, so on that front I thought I had dodged the bullet but genetics can be hard to fight. I am pretty private when it comes to personal things like this at work, but I guess I am going to have to say something. I just know I can't keep up not taking a lunch or break but it happens more often than not. I was told when I took this position by the staff member that oriented me to not expect a break, it doesnt happen. I feel like if I ask for a break I will be pushed out of a position I enjoy with the "inability to perform duties" rap.

Hi everyone, I have a bit of a balancing act and need some advice from those of you that do this. I work 12 hour dayshifts in ICU. As you expect, it is crazy busy and you rarely get a break or moment to even run to the bathroom. I've been doing this for a while, so I know what to expect out of my workdays. Problem I have now is, I am a newly diagnosed diabetic. I am trying to adjust to all the changes in my life, but I am finding I am having problems on my workdays. I try to eat before I go in, but the long day is difficult for me to manage. Those of you who are diabetic and work 12's, any tips or ideas? Thanks so much in advance!

Here's how I see it. Yes, right now new grads are having problems finding jobs. That doesn't mean they aren't getting hired though, it's just that it takes longer. Back in the dark ages when I graduated, you could pretty much apply for things 6 months prior to grad and have multiple offers. Our new grads coming now are being told to wait until you pass boards before you apply. Most hospitals in the area (Indiana) will no longer hire until you have passed NCLEX. Finding a job is not a problem, and by the time you graduate, the job market probably will have picked back up. I wouldn't pass on a career that you want because of what you hear. It's out there, no problem.