Jen2010

When you find out the patient you've been taking care of all day comes back positive for TB.

I work as a float pool RN in pediatrics. Yesterday, I called in to find out where I was going and I was told to go to the heme/onc unit. No problem; I've been going to this unit many, many times over the past two years. You know you shouldn't, but you create bonds with the kids who call the hospital home for months at a time. In morning brief we were told one of the patients wasn't doing well and wanted to be a full-code status. We assigned roles in morning brief to be more prepared. The patient ultimately coded twice, and the second time, our efforts weren't enough to bring him back. During the codes, I tried my best to remain calm and collected. It was my first code, EVER. They go over code situations pretty frequently in my hospital, but when it's the real deal.. it does something to you. How did you cope with your first patient loss? I luckily got the day off from work today; I didn't sleep an ounce last night. Any advice to help me move forward? Thank you

I've been a pediatric float nurse for a year now; hired as a new grad. I float to three different med-surg units, heme/onc, and the NICU. We're being trained to go to PICU and the ER in the next coming months. My orientation involved going to each unit for three weeks. On one of the units, I found that they seemed to have a higher acuity patients than the other med-surg floors so I asked for additional orientation on this specific unit and it was approved for three more weeks on top of the three I had originally. Whenever I go to a unit, I always ask for help if I need it. Which would be the case if I had a home unit as well. I will be honest though and say that I have gotten really bad assignments and have been taken advantage of before. If I feel that my assignment isn't fair, I talk to the charge nurse or ANM immediately before starting care to see if it can be taken care of. You definitely have to learn to stick up for yourself. Overall though, I love my job and I love floating. I've learned SO much by floating to the different units. And I've met so many great people along the way. I have such a great support system whenever I go to any of the units because I've gotten to know so many people. Everyone is always willing to help as they know I would do the same for them. Ultimately the decision is yours to make though. Good luck!! :)

I've been working as a float nurse for a year now and I had to miss a few breaks because of how crazy the unit can get. I usually get one hour of unpaid break time. However, on the times when I'm unable to get to take a break, I'm working for free. My employer doesn't pay us for missed breaks. So basically, I'm working for free. And whenever I have to stay past 7:30pm, the managers hate having us clock out for some reason. Usually at my job, you only clock in and they assume that you leave exactly at 7:30.

Congrats on your new job! As others have said, the patient's parents can be hard to work with sometimes. I've learned upon admission and change of shift, I always tell the parents the plan for the day and what goals we're looking to reach. If you have a frustrated parent, try to understand where they're coming from - having a child in the hospital is extremely tough on them. Also, child life specialists will soon become your best friend! Use them! Whenever my patient has to get their blood drawn, an IV placed, a foley catheter placed, an injection administered, etc. I always call child life to see if they can come and distract the child to help them feel more comfortable. They usually come in with an iPad and have them play a game or something of that nature. And it actually works wonders! And if you have treatment or procedure rooms, use those instead of the patient's room. We always want the child to feel safe in their room. As for little things, I have a Minnie mouse penlight I keep on my ID badge reel for when I need it. And my badge reel is some sort of animal. Lately I've been using a Monkey :) But you can buy them on amazon for pretty cheap. The badge reel & the penlight come in handy with the little ones. They're usually distracted by it so I can listen to their lungs without making them upset. Bubbles can definitely come in handy especially for respiratory kids. They'll love blowing the bubbles and it helps open their lungs at the same time. It's a win-win! I always have them handy for my asthma patients. Good luck on your new adventure as a Peds nurse!! :)

Hey everyone!! I'm very excited to say that I passed my NCLEX in 75 questions as of yesterday! The two days after my exam were absolute torture as I decided against using the PVT and wanted to get the actual results. Just wanted to share what I did to pass My school offered a free live ATI review course. It was 2 days after our graduation too. A rep came to my school for three days and gave us a bunch of free exams to do after, but ATI never really helped me honestly, so I decided to pass on those. The rep, herself, though was excellent and the review was definitely worthwhile. It was very interactive! I took a week off after that and went on vacation After that, I studied all the time. I watched hurst videos that a friend shared with me to brush up on content. Overall, that took me about three or four days to complete. I printed up my own workbook through Staples for about $30 and it helped to have the notes during the lectures. They were definitely interesting and full of great information! I would really recommend watching her videos just for the review of the content. I didn't really use the questions provided. Kaplan was in June for about 8 days in total. I had two excellent instructors! As I listed in another post, here are my scores: Diagnostic - 69% QT1 - 67% QT2 - 65% QT3 - 59% QT4 - 67% QT5 - 70% QT6 - 63% QT7 - 61% Readiness - 71% Qbank Avg - 65.7% As recommended, I finished all of the Q trainers and all of Qbank. Honestly, I found the test to be somewhat easier than the questions on Kaplan. It really threw me off during the test because I thought for sure that meant I was failing! The screen looked very similar to Kaplan's also, so that helped ease my anxiety also. For more questions, I used a 30-day free trial of UWorld, which was great also! Those questions are difficult and really get you to critically think. The rationales are far better than Kaplan's though, hands down. They go very in depth with their explanations. I also used Lippincott's Q&A Review for NCLEX-RN. I did three of the comprehensive exams and did a bunch of questions throughout each chapter. I liked how the book was split into each body system and it was further categorized from there. Overall, lots of information! And lastly, I used NCLEX Mastery App on my phone while I was on the go. If I was on line waiting somewhere, at a restaurant (I know, so rude lol), etc. I was always doing questions. I would say overall, I devoted about 10-12 hours a day on answering questions from these various resources. However, my main resource was Kaplan. My NCLEX didn't have any drag-n-drops, hot spots, ekg strips.. which is why I thought for sure I was failing! I only had about maybe 10 SATA questions and 1 math question. The rest was priority, delegation, etc. I was very surprised, especially after all of the stories I've heard of some people getting over 30 SATA in 75 questions alone. To end my lengthy post, I just wanted to thank all of you! This forum really helped me throughout the years!! I wish everyone taking their NCLEX soon good luck! You got this!!

I took the Kaplan live review class, and our instructor told us to complete Question Trainers 4-7 after our class finished. I had two weeks worth of class. I did one question trainer per day after finishing up. And your scores are great so far! :)

Thank you, missmollie! I'll have to come back & let you all know how I do :) And thanks, mzrRN - I only did the first two sample tests so far. I'll have to do 3 & 4 tomorrow for sure.

Thank you everyone for your words of encouragement! I took my QT7 today and got a 61%, so I made it over the recommended 60%, but it makes me worried that I wasn't able to do better especially considering I'm testing in only a couple of days! Can't believe how fast time goes. Also, unfortunately QT4 isn't all SATA, or I would definitely be ok! haha :) None of the question trainers are all SATA. I'm just going to try to focus on doing those & use the T/F method you shared with me. Thanks again!!

Hey everyone! I'm just a few days away from taking my NCLEX exam and my nerves are definitely getting the best of me. I watched Hurst videos for review of content, did some questions from Lippincott Q&A, but Kaplan has been my main focus. I had two weeks of the live class and I feel that it did help some. Here are my scores: Diagnostic - 69% QT1 - 67% QT2 - 65% QT3 - 59% QT4 - 67% QT5 - 70% QT6 - 63% Taking QT7 tomorrow! Finished ALL of the qBank with 65.7% average. Readiness - 71% Did anyone have similar scores to mine & passed the NCLEX? Also, does anyone have a good strategy for answering SATA questions? Unfortunately, this is my weak area and I know the exam could end up being a majority of SATA.. which only adds to my nerves! Please someone calm my nerves! lol :)

Hi everyone! I'm very excited about graduating in just a few short weeks. My professor has been asking all of us if we've started looking for jobs yet and I just wasn't sure if it was too early? All of the jobs I've seen say that you must have your bachelor's and current license to apply.. Should I be applying for these positions anyway? I'm hoping to take my boards the end of June/beginning of July. Some people are telling me to wait until I pass my boards to apply, however, others are saying "Why wait?! Apply now!" I'm just curious what the best advice would be. Thanks!! :)

Did you perform a peripheral vascular assessment on the patient? What other info can you share about the patient's circulation status?

Thanks everyone for your input! I guess I just have to give it more time. I wish I had a rep come to my school. We had a "webinar" on how to use ATI but our connection was spotty so it was difficult to hear anything the rep was saying. We did get a box of books also, but I just wish they had a table of content or something to help me pinpoint where I have to search in the book to find something rather than skimming through everything. Hopefully this will be something I can get accustomed to. Thanks again everyone!! :)

Hey everyone: I just have a quick question. I'm doing my concept map and care plan right now for my clinical rotation and I'm stuck on trying to decide a psychosocial nursing diagnosis for my patient. I was thinking: Self-Care deficit r/t impaired mobility AEB inability to ambulate and perform toileting tasks independently. I think I'm having a moment right now, but is that actually a psychosocial nursing diagnosis? Not sure why I'm having so much difficulties on this. Here's a quick report on my patient: 95 y/o, altered mental status, UTI, (AMS due to UTI -- never had confusion or any other signs of dementia before UTI diagnosis as per her daughter), muscle weakness on lower extremities due to peripheral vascular disease, unsteady gait - requires assistance from personnel and her walker as well, unable to perform ADLs due to mobility issues, urinary frequency/incontinence. She's very calm and non-combative, tries to follow directions to the best of her ability. Am I on the right track with my diagnosis? I've never done a psychosocial nursing diagnosis before. The only one I ever used was "Anxiety" for one of my patients with PTSD. Please let me know what you all think! Thanks a bunch!

Thanks, fteralynn3! I'm hoping that I can get used to it. I was spending hours and hours on one exam and still getting 70% correct. It was very frustrating for me considering how much time and effort I put into completing the exam. My professor won't let us get the correct answers and rationales until we reach at least 80% on the ATI exam. It's just frustrating for me I guess.