blockmomRN

We all had to start somewhere, at the bottom, as the outsider ...you will do fine. As a fellow night nurse, night shift brings a certain level of comradary(sp) that other shifts just don't get. Stay busy, always ask your teammates if they need help (even if you know they don't) shows you are a team player. Admit that you don't know everything, even after years of experience, I will be the first one to admit that I am still learning daily. Don't be afraid to ask questions, we want you to ask before you do something that might jeopardize at patient's life. Know that you are not alone, all nurses have these same feelings at first....they just don't admit to it. Good Luck! Leslie

The silliest ones that actually made me turn around and walk out of the room, so the pt could not see my facial expressions were ~~ " I just changed my tooth paste and now my gums are sore" ( I asked her, is that it? do you have a toothache, bleeding, fever...etc, "No my gums are just a little sore and I want them checked out" ~~ Ems brings a pt in around 4am from Walmart with "I stubbed my toe at work" yep that was her only complaint, oh and she needed a work note for a week" ~~ Young female states "I got a french tickler stuck up in me, for a month" ................and she did, that took a lot of vicks vapor rub in my nose to get thru You can imagine over 28 years as a nurse in the ER and another 5 as a ED tech, I feel like my eyes and brain will never be right again

Some really terrific responses and information, I do usually put down the patient's complaint and then add other information in the triage note. I too would have made this patient a Level 3, without a history or significant changes in VS he would have gone back to the WR. The coldness, blueness of his hands may have concerned me enough to get that EKG at triage, just to satisfy my gut (your gut is always right, listen to it) Many of these things do come with experience at triage, dealing with family members can also skew your thought process's, You are the triage nurse, don't let rude doctors or snarky nurse comments get you down. Unless they are the person on that front line with you, they should not be judging your intuitions. Keep up the great job!

I was working one night with a fellow nurse that kept complaining of a terrible toothache and jaw pain, my gut kept nagging at me so I asked her if we could just to an EKG on her (she did have a family hx of cardiac disease etc) .....she was having a huge MI , coded on us as we tried to get her up to CCU (this is before we did interventions and took people straight to the cath lab). She did survive, barely. Lesson learned, always listen to your gut..

Just Follow your heart, just like your gut it is usually right. You have to do what makes YOU happy, in the end that is all that matters....right:cat: