sarahjuly

Wow, some of you are very dedicated to your job. I am a wife and mother and my first priority is my family. Second, my mental and physical health. Then my career as a nurse. I work part time and when I'm at work I give it my all. I don't really pick up shifts. Work calls me every week to come in. My hospital is very understaffed and they are allways calling, so if I said yes I would live there. I refuse to do that! While I am there it is very very stressful. I NEED my time away or I would no longer be a nurse!!!!!!! Good luck. Work to create balance. Life is more than WORK. : )

I am a baby nurse. I had a very similar weekend. I voiced concerns to everyone about my Pt on Friday. I came in to start my shift on Saturday and found out my Pt. was in pretty bad shape. Thank goodness for a very supporitve and helpful shift supervisor. It was a very long night, and I was pretty mad that my concerns had been ignored the night before! By the end of my shift my Pt. was in our hospitals ICU.

oh sorry forgot one more thing.. after I got my job a manager gave me advice. She said if you know you really really want to work on a unit find out who their manager is. Send them a resume and cover letter. If they want you or are understaffed. They may push to hire you. Sometimes the hospital in an attempt ot save money well tell a unit that their are no good applicants.

Honestly It may be to late to do what I did. When I was in school I knew getting a job when I graduated may be challenging. So at every clinical I worked really really hard to stand out at the hospital. I took the time to get to know the managers and who I needed to impress. I know it sounds a little manipultive, but hey you have got to do what you got to do. You may need to do some networking Could you apply at any of the hospitals you had clinicals at? or contact a clinical instructer for advice? Also prior to an interview research the hospital find out what they are trying to improve. The one i'm working is trying to work on costumer satisfaction.. so i worked my resume and my answers to that. Also I figured out what I liked about the hospital before I went in. They want a nurse that we'll be a good fit an and happy in their.

Speech had already been involved with the pt on admit so they were familiar with her. They didn't really do an "evaluation", but gave an opionion on it to the nurse. Yes, I agree the guy is a real jerk. I believe that the hospital is watching him pretty closely. The pt is full code and the family wants everything possible done for her.

actually, the doctor came in ordered the ngt, and then inserted it himself because he said that he didn't trust the nurses. the pt is 92 and came in after a fall two weeks ago and has steadily deteriorated. i believe she was admitted for her mental state after the fall, because she did not sustain any injury from the fall. she has stage two renal failure, dm that has been poorly managed, while in care the pt developed a uti, yeast infection and c-dif, and her orientation has been progressively becoming worse while in the hospital. as of today the docter refused to order a consult from speech therapy. nursing talked to speech therapy and they said they thought that pt should be puried at least.

Thanks for the quick input. My clinicals is in a pretty small hospital, so I am glad to get input into situations that a pt was being feed with a oral feeding and NG tube. The whole thing started yesterday with a nurse asking for a consult with speech therapy for possible aspiration. The docter said the consult was not needed and that he would just have the pt feed via NG tube.

Hi everyone, I'm a student nurse in my last semester, and I was hoping for some help with a question. Today at clinicals a docter ordered supplemental feeding via NG tube for a pt. The reasoning was that the pt is at risk for aspiration and because her intake has been poor the last two days. However the doctor also wanted the pt to remain on a solid diet as tolerated instead of NPO. All of the nursing staff was very worried about this and nursing management became involved. The concern was that the pt would be at an even higher risk of aspiration with the tube in place and eating solid foods. Everyone agreed that they thought when a pt was being feed via NG tube that NPO was indicated. No one of the floor had ever encountered a similar situation nor had my clinical instructer. We consulted literature to try and solve the problem. None of the text books or the hospital policy stated if the pt had to be NPO or not. My text for class says that the pt is normally NPO. When I left clinicals the situation had not been resolved. I was wondering if anyone has ever encountered something similar, or what the policy is at their work place? And if anyone can point to any literature on the subject. Thanks in Advance

A pair of nike walking/jogging sneakers.

First, off sorry to offend anyone who use's the rolling bags, but I hate them, and I do think snarky thoughts when I see them. I do feel slightly guilty after having the thoughts. But anyway I have some problems with my back and my husband started pestering me to use a rolling backpack he thought it was the greatest idea ever! He even resorted to asking my chiropractor if I should use one. My chiro told him the rolling backpacks are really bad for you and cause more back problems and that I should just use a properly worn backback instead, even if it is heavy. So victory for me my husband finally gave up! I just use a jansport for class. We do have heavy books and I typically have to take two 1 in binders, plus two books ( I commute and typically study in between classes), my lunch that I packed, and all kinds of other stuff (I'm a packrat). Somedays I do end up carrying the biggest book that we have to decrease the weight of my backpack.

I'm 6 months pregnant with one semester left in an ADN program. I am due four weeks before graduation. At first I was worried about being fulltime with my due date during the semester, but after discussing it with the head of my program I decided it was best to finish while pregnant. It well be easeir with the baby in my belly!! The program is being great about working with me. I'm sure the last month well be a challenge. My husband isn't eligable for FML because he just started his job in the last year, but he is saving all his vacation (three weeks) for when I have the baby to help. I think in your situation go full time. I worked on baby stuff over christmas break and I plan on doing any other work preparing for the baby during spring break.

I often wonder if the "negitive nancies" are just miserable people. They would most likely never be happy at any job or in any situation. Some people seem to choose unhappiness and they spread it around them. Last semester I struggled with a clinical group that was composed of several negitive individuals. As the semester wore on more and more of the group became negitive and the morale of the group suffered. I spent most of my day avoiding most of my clinical group and when I had break time I would spend it alone if the group morale was bad during that day. What I never understood was the constant complaining about being in school. We are all blessed to have such a wonderful oppertunity, and yes their are sacrifices to be made, but any accomplishment requries sacrifice. I quess my advice is to avoid the negitive energy when you can and when around these types of people remind yourself of your blessing and try to be remain in good spirits around them.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only who is nervous! I still have one semester left and I have started thinking about graduation with a mix of excitement and fear. (especially now that it's christmas break and I have time to think!!!)

oh and I forgot. RN notes has been handy for looking up the steps to a procedure when you need your memory refreshed.

I have nuring central from unbound. I use Davis's drug guide everyday at clinicals, tabers is great and I do use Diseases and Disorders a quite a bit. It's way better then bringing a bunch of books to clinicals.