ladybugbaby161

I feel the same way. They make me charge. We are constantly short. The pay sucks. If I left or stayed we would still remain short. I just applied for another position last week and interview tomorrow! I need to make a change before this job takes the love of nursing out of me!

Hanging blood. Getting post-ops rating their pain 10/10. Helping people move (very RARELY is anyone up ad lib). Lots of heavy lifting. Giving suppositories. Hanging antibiotics. Changing dressings. Pulling pain pills. Pulling drains. Pulling Foleys. IV starts. The occasional re-admit with site infection. Pain pills. PCAs. Pain pills. PCAs. And repeat. :) We send about 1-2 people a month to the ICU. Usually older hip fracture with pre-existing conditions.

I've seen a lot of bullying in my first year as a nurse. I was even bullied when I started. So badly I had to go to the manager. The situation was taken care of quickly, and the nurse bullying me even apologized to me!

I work in Columbia and know that Boone Hospital and the University Hospital both hire new grads. Good luck!

I think we must work at the same place LOL I clock in as soon as I get there. Also something I noticed was that with bedside reporting, nurses that come on shift are ready to do it, but nurses that are getting off shift don't want to do it. So as a night nurse I find myself getting report in the nurses station and in the morning walking around with the oncoming day nurse to give report. Also, some nurses will flat out say they aren't going to do it. LOL. There is even talk about having other RNs in the educational dept who work at our hospital come and watch us give bedside report and even follow us around to make sure we are doing it right. Seriously?

We are supposed to do it like your said management wants it done, but usually we talk outside the room then go in and introduce ourselves and talk about pain meds and look at dressings together. Our management isn't satisfied either, but they aren't the ones doing it and it can become really awkward discussing loose stools in front of the patient. Also, we get a lot of narc-seeking behaviors on our floor and I like to know ahead of time so I can expect it - I don't feel that it is appropriate to say in front of the patient that he/she asks for pain pills once every hour even after we discussed when they were due! Also, the chatty nurses when you have 6-7 patients to report on....takes forever.... It's a good system and means well, but definitely flawed.

One thing I don't understand about nursing is that when you do vent about it, other nurses are like "****GASP**** you don't love everything about nursing, what is wrong with you?!!" I work ortho/med surg and it's not somewhere I am happy. I want to do my skills and learn more critical care, I am an adrenaline junkie I think, and on my floor i do feel like a waitress, although not glorified. I pass pills, pillows, blankets, ice water, etc. and get chewed on by the pt's because we can't give them the 4 percocets at one time like they get at home, and our docs can be awful, and nurses from other floors think we're just baby-sitters, which is how I feel some nights. I am looking to change shifts (nights to days) until I switch floors or a specialty. I am hoping to find my niche, that is what I am banking on. I am sorry ED burnt you out so badly, but it sounds like you just need to restart doing something else. As for the BSN thing, I am a new grad with a BSN and had to settle for nights on ortho/med surg bc my hospital didn't take a second look at me since I didn't have experience under my belt. Thank God I got my BSN because at least I had that going for me!

yes, I have my own stories of horrible preceptors, but you made a huge difference in this nurse's life. Rock on! :)

Hey welcome to ortho/med surg! I am like you - I am just so thankful to have a job. I have been a night nurse since August and have to say it has taken me this long to figure out what type of routine my body needs - not only on my days I have to work, but also on my days off. PROS: you have a lot more autonomy. you have a close-knit group you work with and you have to help each other out or else it doesn't work. It's slower, not as many interruptions from ppl like PT or OT. For ortho, a lot of the pts actually want to sleep so sometimes I pass them pain pills at 2100 and they don't need anything until 0700 the next day (that is being very lucky). You are closer with the ppl you work with and you learn to rely on each other. Tasks can be pushed back or moved forward depending on your schedule. CONS: cranky patients (ESPECIALLY on ortho - they can be downright hateful ), having issues in the middle of the night and having to page the on-call doc and they chew you out bc you woke them up from their precious sleep, since you are close-knit with your coworkers it can get gossipy. at our hospital we still do the paper MARs, so we have to do all the MAR-to-MAR checks and the 24 hour chart checks, so the paperwork gets pretty much, and on nightshift you can easily lose your social life. Just remember, it is an excellent way for a new nurse to start out. I am really glad I started out on nights even though I want to go to days because I work with several people who were willing to take the time and teach me things and I've developed close bonds with ppl I work with bc you are with each other so much. You learn time management and how to be independent. You take on more patients at night and sometimes nights are slow and sometimes you can barely keep up, but you hopefully have the support of your coworkers to fall back on. Good luck!

Intervention: HOLD ALL STOOL SOFTENERS!

I work in ortho nursing and we got a quick run-through about how to move people as well - and ortho is pretty much moving people from bed to commode to chair back to bed...lol. I'm 5'9 and was really hurting my back until a physical therapist came and worked with us and I learned that I was pretty much destroying my back by the way I was bending and trying to lift heavy back-surgery patients. When you are doing cares and they are in bed, RAISE the bed! You get sore leaning over patient after patient. When you are transferring a patient from the bed to a commode, the bed should be in position so that the pt's feet are on the floor. Wrap em in a gait belt, stand right in front of them, keep your back straight, and help lift them by using your knees. If it is a larger pt, ask for help! It will be safer for you and the pt. If you get a chance, ask the physical therapist to show you some maneuvers because they are a great resource.

I feel like nurses who were techs while in nursing school are a lot more comfortable working the floor. They get the basic skills down pat. Looking back, I wish I had been a tech while in nursing school - I learn so much from my techs!