Creamsoda

I've been a nurse 15 years. Primarily ICU but I've worked ER as well. I HATE the ER. I just hate it for many reasons. I LOVE ICU. I mean we have our days there too but to me I get more satisfaction from it than the ER. I never have time to think in the ER. ER just may not be for you. Especially if its not your first job, and at this point you don't like it, it just isn't for you maybe. Id start looking elsewhere.

Maybe in Canada! Definately not the USA. I've worked both countries and long for the days in Canada only having 1 patient.

Ha, most places I have worked, ambulatory surgery is usually where older nurses close to retirement go to die. They did their 30+ years in ED, ICU, med surg and finally had enough. Day surgery it is! So I know they can cut it and am happy they went to a happy place haha. im slightly envious but im still early enough in my career I dont want to lose any skills.

Thats one I would get, haha. I def dont care for vanity plates, dont see the purpose, but thats a good one

So it sounds to me like health care is not exactly your passion but I dont think that necessiraly will make you a bad nurse or hate the profession overall. Have you been to clinicals yet? Had direct patient care yet? I definately wouldnt want you to waste your time if this truely is not the career path for you, but I dont thinks it the wrong one per say. My experience in nursing school 15 years ago was similar. I was friendly with classmates but didn't really bond with them. I really did not like nursing school and felt there was a lot of drama. I showed up to class then went home and didn't socialize much. I am kind of an introvert. I did go into healthcare because I wanted to help people but at the same time I wasnt that student who was all bringing their guitars to clinical and singing for their patients because nursing truely is their passion. Because I am an introvert I even had one instructor tell me she didn't think I would do well as a nurse in 2nd year clinical. I'm not sure what her deal was. Jokes on her, I've been in critical care for 15 years, get along very well with all my coworkers, and I've had great references from managers and physicians that I have worked with and always have had excellent evaluations. I really do care about giving great patient care. There are so many areas of nursing you can work that are for different personalities. And nursing school is not the same as the real world. I hated nursing school. But you still have to want to care about people etc. Nursing is brutal work. You never have enough time, administrators breathing down your neck, you charting is never good enough even though you were coding your patients all day etc etc. It's frustrating to say the least. Some days I dream of leaving the profession and working in a garden nursery. But that doesnt pay the bills and I am able to garden for my hobby. Working 3 12 hr shifts a week is the only thing that keeps me going sometimes. I love working in critical care, but you become disillusioned with the system and non compliant patients pretty quickly. But then once in a blue moon I will have the most sweet patients and it kind of makes up for it. Job portability cant be beat and pay is decent in most parts of the country. If you do feel in your heart health care is for you, I think you will be fine, but if you are really feeling like health care isn't for you I would find a different path.

Ive seen plenty of men wear danskos. to me they are unisex. Ive seen a lot of male surgeons, male physicians etc wear them. If you just get black or born pretty unisex to me. Or if you want to be more vibrant, get some hot pink ones!

You literally did nothing wrong and everything right. IF she does report you, which I doubt she will, its likely just threats and intimidation, you documentation will back you up. You followed all hospital procuedures appropriately. Not sure what else she could have wanted from you. Some familys are just delusional.

In my experience you dont really need a brain. And I am an ICU nurse who requires a brain sheet when I am working in ICU. In pacu not so much. I might just have a piece of paper that as patients come i might write down basic info like name, procedure done, what anesthesia gave them and then past history once I get a chance to look it up. Youre basically dealing with making sure they wake up ok, managing airway and pain and watching for post op complication like bleeding. There might be a few things that might need to get done, but most post op orders start when they get to the unit. So in my experience Id say you might find you dont really need one Once you start working though you will find out what info you need and want handy to write down

Like someone else said, they wouldnt be fired for not doing CPR, they would be fired if the issues was they didnt find a patient for 5 hrs and they were stone cold dead. You would not do CPR on someone who is dead dead, with rigor mortis Or as others mentioned, because technically our scope of practice on a full code patient is we cant delcare death? And need the ambulance maybe in this situation to confirm that yes, we are calling it. Im not actually sure on this issue

dont give up. maybe you just need to try something non inpatient based. IV infusion therapies PACU is not bad, only 1-2 patients, but you do have to be on the ball watching for airway issues, ensure they are recovering well, but its less chaotic in the sense you dont have 7 people with 300 meds and 500 diagnosis to deal with. Home health? Doctor office? Plastic surgeons office? You just maybe need something with less acuity but more paperwork ? Dont give up. Theres plenty of places to try and you dont need to revoke your license.

If they have a palpable pulse, you do not continue with CPR. If there is any question that there is a pulse, just continue with CPR, but if you have a pulse, even if weak, you dont need to continue compressions. You can get some pressors going like levophed to help with blood pressure. If you have a pulse and the BP is not able to read, you still dont need to do compressions. You have a pulse. The BP is just quite low that many monitors have trouble reading.

What you are feeling sounds very normal, and I think nursing school does not really prepare you for feeling that way, even though I would say most of us went through the same thing. It takes a while to get your groove. Like others said, after about a year, you prob wont feel this way anymore, or at least it will be less often. You have to give it time. Make sure your having check ins with your manager and educator and tell them how your feeling. If they are any good they will validate you and tell you its ok. There were many times as a new grad I felt so overwhelmed I wanted to cry. You are literally still learning to be a nurse, even though you have graduated. Nursing school does not actually prepare you for the real world. Things take you longer because you are inexperienced. It just takes getting more experience unfortunately. I just started a new job as an experienced nurse and even that was a bit overwhelming to me for the first few weeks. A whole new computer system, new staff, new doctors with their quirks etc. I was very frustrated for the first few weeks. It has gotten better. It will for you too.

Patients who insult me? Muahaha bring it on. They could call me literally anything in the book and it would not bother me one bit. I know im doing my job and what im supposed to. If they want to fling insults at me or make fun of my appearance let them. It makes me laugh if anything. Especially the creative ones. Why are you letting it get to you? Feel free to chart the insults that are said too. I work in an ICU, ive been called all sorts of things. Doesnt bother me a bit because im not the crazy one in the bed.

Ding ding ding! exactly. Im not sure why so many nurses think that staffing is their burden. So the DON has to cover for her. let the DON whine about you using your PTO which your entitled too. WHO CARES! They will get over it and also probably find more staff.

me no understand....just take more days off. Its your own fault for capping out and not being able to acrue more. Unless of course they wont approve time off. But you know how much you accure, so plan ahead and just book some days off here and there ahead of time. Problem solved. Time off is a good thing.