cute_cabbage2005

CHANGE PRECEPTORS!!!!! You DONT need to put up with that. Find a preceptor that is WILLING, CARING, and SUPPORTIVE. New nurses NEED that....not one that is there to take advantage of you. Your orientation experience is what sets the tone on how you feel about working in the nursing field. I had to change preceptor twice. My first preceptor was a NIGHTMARE!!! I wanted to quit after a few weeks. Hang in there and DONT let ANYONE step all over or BULLY you. I've been there where you are and now 7 months later Im still a nurse!!! GOOD LUCK AND TAKE CARE!!!

Okay - I have this patient....a male, young, 23yrs. He has a private room. There's a young woman there with him. I assumed its his wife/girlfriend by the way they're acting towards each other....calling each other 'honey'. So around 2am, Im making my rounds, go into the room and the patient and this girl is in bed with each other spooning...sleeping. Whoa! Im like.....UH...huh?? She wakes up...gets out of bed. Patient looks fine...I leave. Im at the nurse's station. The girl stops by and leaves me a note with her phone number in case I need to get a hold of her if something comes up. She leaves the floor. The note says she's his sister. I dont know what to say???? This is waaay to freaky for me!!!

I work 7p-7a. Last night I got a patient from a nurse who was leaving at 11pm. He didnt bother to tell me I was getting a patient from him and didnt bother to give me a shift report. The charge nurse who assigned this patient to me didnt bother to tell me that I was getting this patient either. I find out that the patient was mine at 130am by the PCT who was reporting a sky high blood sugar. I was LIVID!!!! Nurses on that floor tell me that its my responsibility to check the shift assignments at 11pm and that is my responsibility. At that time I was running around like a chicken trying to keep up with my patient care. This is NOT RIGHT. I feel the charge nurse and the exiting nurse could at least tell me that I was getting this patient. The exiting nurse just left a telephone shift report and then took off. What makes it more aggravating was this patient was in DKA and suicidal and I find out about it 2 1/2 hrs later from the PCT????? This is a large floor in which I work in the back area and the charge nurse works up in the front area. The charge nurse could have called my cell phone to tell me I was getting this patient (if she didnt feel like walking all the way to the back area where I was) and the exiting nurse could have told me I was getting a pt from him with a face to face shift report. Im still fuming about it. Am I right to be angry? If something had happened to the patient it would be my behind that would of got nailed.

I have a question. Im a new nurse. When I was a student nurse, my preceptor then always diluted her many of her bolus meds in 10cc normal saline before she injected into the IV port. As a grad nurse, my preceptor doesnt do this. For example in giving 2cc lasix she just pops the medication into the IV line, then flushes it with 10cc normal saline afterwards. Is this okay? Even when using a PICC line, she only flushes with normal saline. Shouldnt she flush PICC line with heparin also?

As a new grad nurse, I had a preceptor who yelled, screamed and flew off the handle over the littlest thing. She would roll her eyes if I didnt know how to do a nursing skill (one that Ive never had done before) and act put off b/c she had to show me. I think alot of it had to do with her own low self esteem and trying to make herself look better by putting me down. I couldnt learn or think under those stressful conditions. I switched to another nurse after putting up with her for 4 MISERABLE days. Im now with another nicer, kinder, more patient preceptor and Im actually learning...feeling more confident....AND taking care of patients on my own. My first clinical instructor was also like that. She would slap my hands when I would accidently mark the vitals signs (temperature only) down in black ink rather than required red ink. She was very abusive to us as students. Her style of instructing was with intimidation. There were 12 students in our rotation and halfway through, 4 of us quit. She was eventually fired. I would talk to your nursing instructor. You shouldnt have to put up with that. First impressions are so important. It may sour your outlook about nursing like it did mine. Hang in there and good luck....

I started my nursing job as a new grad nurse on a cardiac unit that is intense and fast paced. I have been on this floor a month. This job has been EXTREMELY stressful and overwhelming. My training has started off on the wrong foot. I have had 2 preceptors. My first preceptor was good nurse but a horrible teacher with 2 years experience. I spent the first few days listening and watching her slam things around, complaining, and flying off the handle at the littlest thing. I think having to train me and do her job at the same time created a lot of stress for her. After 4 days I couldn't take it anymore and switched. My current preceptor is a more patient nurse with 15 years experience but her skills seems a little sloppy. Lately she has been showing some stress. Normally she is good at showing me things, but yesterday, she was having a bad day and "dumped" 2 patients she didn't want for me to deal with on my own. Patient #1 was grumpy, non-compliant with end-stage cirrhosis and cardiomyopathy on a heparin and Primacor drip via 2 separate IV ports. He was suppose to be transferred to CCU to be monitored during the drip but ended up staying on the floor. He kept getting out of bed even though he was told to stay put for the duration of the drip. His IV pump kept beeping non-stop. His thing was giving me the hardest time over EVERY little thing I asked him to do. It was totally exhausting. Patient #2 was a newly admitted from ED with ETOH intoxication with altered mental status and late stage cirrhosis. His ammonia levels were elevated. He had a bloody Foley. He had bruises and skin tears all over his body. He was a mess. He kept drifting in and out between awake/sleep...so it was difficult to do an admission data report on him. Both patients had ascites and both had bad veins. Someone from the STAT team to start the IVs. The ETOH patient's abdomen got really huge and distended. I couldn't get my preceptor to look at it. She said was too busy (with a discharge) to help me, so she told me to get the charge nurse to look at it. The patient had an NG tube in which very little content was being suctioned out from it. The charge nurse ended up calling the STAT team. The patient ended up getting a paracentesis which had caused his distended belly. Even though the patient was stabilized I cant help but feel what I didn't do (because of my inexperience) that could have hurt him. I've been restless and haven't slept for days because of the scenario of that episode plays over and over in my head. I felt that my preceptor somewhat abandoned me when I needed her help. I also felt very inadequate. I have a feeling that the charge nurse is probably thinking the same of me even though she hasn't said a word to me. This incident has affected me so much that I feel like quitting. I have 3 more weeks of orientation on this floor before I move on to my next assignment. The nurses on this floor get 4 patients. I'm only working with 2. I'm having a lot of mixed feelings going on inside of me. My current preceptor keeps saying that she cant take it anymore on the unit and wants a transfer. I feel like I have no support on this floor. I have to be careful of what I say and do on this unit because it may escalate into a rumor. I can't help think that I'm getting the short end of the stick on :cry:my training here. I dread going back to work and my stomach's is constantly in knot. Has anyone had or is having an experience as bad as this? I've been told to give it 6 months....but at this rate I don't know.....

I want to thank you all for your suggestions. I was ready to give up. Just want to let you know that I interviewed for a nurse rotational internship at another hospital...a VERY respected teaching hospital and............I GOT THE JOB!!!! A kind and sympathetic nurse recruiter decided to give me that chance. She set me up an interview with a nurse who's in charge of the internship program and hired me on the spot! It's been 2 years since Ive been out of school and I know my skills are a little rusty, but Im so motivated to learn and learn and learn and do the best I can! I took your advice and explained my 2 year absence and they were VERY understanding....even to the point of commending me for my actions. (I had put nursing on hold to care for a very ill family member.) So you inexperienced grads who are having a hard time getting work...dont give up coz miracles DO HAPPEN! Dont let anyone tell you or make you feel you arent qualified or not good enough for the job. Keep "plugging" at it and you will get IN. Im SOOO ecstactic...I start in 2 weeks!!!! :anpom:

Hi all...I graduated Dec 2005....passed NClex in 2007. Im having a tough time getting work now coz so much time has passed. I did not work right away after graduating from nursing school due to personal reasons. Ive been trying since Oct 2007 to get a job as entry level nurse...but Im not having much luck. I went to a Job Fair recently and most of the recruiters there told me to come back after I had a year experience. I even looked into a local hospital grad nurse internship program and the recruiter turned me down with reason that there were more qualified candidates than me. Im out of ideas of what to do other than going back to school......which I dont want to do. Thanx if you can help....

I used Saunders CD for med/sug Q's with rationale. I had a study sheet on priority/delegations. I studied 100-150 Q's per day. Overall total was 3000-4000 q's. I studied on/off or about 6 weeks between 2-4 hrs a day. I stopped studying a day before the exam...went out and did some relaxing things. They say there is a higher pass rate when you take NCLEX soon after finishing nursing school. I passed NCLEX first try May 2007 after being out of school 18 months. Hope this helps and good luck to you! :caduceus:

Try not to think about it...coz the more you think about it...the worse the feeling becomes. I took all 265 q's and sat there for over 5 hrs!!! Those feelings you're experiencing are normal. I went through them too. I took my test on a Thursday...found out Tuesday morn that I passed. I kept myself upbeat all day Friday...started to agonize over the weekend. By Monday I was having doubts thinking the worse had happened, but in reality, I had passed and didnt know it yet. My license had been issued on Monday, but the BON didnt post the license till Tuesday on their website. I was getting myself upset for nothing. So don't sweat it. Go do something FUN this weekend!!! ;)

I got my ATT the same day I registered on the Pearson website. A friend of mine didnt hear from BON, so she called Pearson and found out that BON had already notified Pearson and not her. They had her email address entered incorrectly into the system and had sent her ATT to the wrong place. So I would check with Pearson just to make sure.

1. how many questions did you take on nclex?passed with 265. 2. what study materials did you use? did you take a test review course? saunders. did not take a review course...though i thought about it. 3. did your son offer any testing (eri, ati, hesi)? hesi at the end of each course. hesi comprehensive at the end of nursing program. 4. how long did you wait for results of the test, or are you still waiting? 5 days. 5. what were your thoughts coming out of the test (total disbelief, certainty you had failed, confident you had passed)? relief......had hopeful feelings. waiting for results was a bit agonizing... 6. was this your first attempt at nclex? yes.

I graduated from nursing school 18 months ago. Last week I took NCLEX for the first time. Today I just found out I passed. You have to have faith yourself. Those little doubts you have can manifest into "I can't do this" and may set you up for failure. You'll be surprised what knowledge you have retained, it's just that you are talking yourself out of it. Try to dismiss those negative thoughts and work on "YES! I CAN DO THIS!". Study your practice questions everyday and don't forget to give yourself a little break. You don't want to burn yourself out either. Most of all .....believe in yourself. Good Luck with your NCLEX and take care.... :saint:

This was my first attempt. I was SO nervous. Eighteen months had lapsed since I had graduated. But even at that amount of time I was out of school, I still DID IT! Know your priorities and delegations!!! Above all, keep your Spirit and Faith up. Every graduate nurse has it in them to pass this test. Believe in yourself! Take care...

I PASSED NCLEX!!!! I graduated back in 2005, so can you imagine what it took to get me back on track. Yes I was worried, but I kept trying to thinking positive. My test was hard, bit I stayed focused. Towards the end of the exam, I was getting tired, but I took the breaks that came. Now the worse is past me and I can move forward..like job hunting. Good Luck to all who will be taking NCLEX soon. Have FAITH in yourself and think POSITIVE. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!