RN0310

A speech impediment/stutter are all in the same. Thanks for sharing your story with me.

Yes I do...thanks

The off going nurse says, I'm sorry before she gives you report. You can hardly hear the nurse in report because the nurses station is full of organized kaos....

Hello Everyone How many you know a nurse or health care professional who stutters? How does it make the listener feel? Do you view that person as less intelligent or incompetent? These are a few of the questions I ask myself on those days my stuttering takes control of who I am. I have suttered since I can remember and throughout my life I have tried to hide it from other people. The last few years I have embraced it, managed it through speech threapy and tried my best to control it during important situations. With all that being said , on my not so good talking days. I allow it to consume me. The last shift I worked was a pretty easy day until around 4pm. One of my patients started to decline , I used all the proper protocol , keep her safe and stable and ultimately had to send her to the ER. I called to give report to the Er nurse stuttered all over the place. It seems like I couldn't get a full sentence out w/o pausing , using filler words or changing my words mid sentence. I hung up the phone feeling defeated. When I transported the patient down , I didn't want to look the other nurse in the eye. To make matter worse she is in my leadership class at my job. So I'll have to face her on a more frequent basis. I am so embrassed. The report I gave her could have Been 10x better but it wasn't because my stuttering took over what I had in my mind. I keep telling myself , you kept your patient safe , Alive and acted when you needed to. But I still feel incompetent. Out of all the successful talking situations I have encountered , I still dwell on the failed ones..... Stuttering Nurse.

Most of the tiime, no one knows I stutter..I think we are harder on ourselves then people are.

When I watched my nephew come into the world. He was delivered by a midwife and since then I have wanted to become a nurse. I am not working in labor and delivery as of yet but that is my ultimate goal. To help bring life into the world. My calling was verified when I helped one of my patients who experiencing hypoglycemia. Everyday I would come to work, he gave me a hard way to go. But when I noticed he wasn't his normal self and he was sweating I took it finger stick and it was 40 so I followed protocal with milk and crackers. Once his glucose returned to normal, his daugther came in and he said to her "She took care of Me, I am glad she was here"...That was the conformation. Did I mention this patient gave me a hard way to go everyday before that...lol..

It's good to hear so many positive responses from my fellow nurses. As I said I was almost ready to give up because of my disability. (serious face) But I would be letting the situation defeat me.

KJ STARLING. That's what I was thinking about doing, just giving letting the other person know. That's a good question, Ill ask him if it's covered.

Lol, that's a good idea for the work place. I may have to put that in my locker at work. But my anti-stress, is a bottle of wine, a soothing bath & a night full of excercise...wink..wink...

I wouldn't tell them right now.

Wow, I am speachless right now. I never knew it was so many nurses with the same issues as myself. My whole life I have avoided jobs that require me to speech in front of a lot of people but I have always known that I wanted to become a nurse. Crazy thing is I love to talk...lol.. During nursing school,I would avoid answering questions although I knew the right answer. I would keep alll my statements short and sweet. I would hesitate on answering questions but I knew just as much as the out spoken person in the class. It even go to the point during the last class in school I was ready to drop out because I stammered so bad during my presentation. But I told myself I refuse to let this get to me because. Each and every preceptor I have had, has gotten a person statement about how good of a nurse I would be. When I say during clinical, each one. At least one patient came to my teacher and told them how well I did. So I refused to let that define who I am as a nurse. It's a little embrassing at times but my patients come first and as long as I am caring for them that gives me the inspiration to continue another day....

I am a new nurse in LTC and I feel the same way. Unlike you, I have been in orientation 2 mths and I am not ready to be on my own. I feel I can handle the load when everyone is baseline and nothing major is going on but if something hits the fan. Im going to be a little lost. Because it's a lot of things that I don't know when it comes to paperwork. Medications that Im not familar with some I am constantly looking up medication before I give it double checking myself. In my opinion I think LTC is a set up for failure. We have 32 patients for each nurse and 2 CMA. Sometimes we work with no medicine aid so you have to do your regular treatment and pass out routine medication to all 32 of your patients on top of that you may have an admission. Talk about stress..It's just too much. Thiers no real time to be a nurse.

I have to see it

That movie just slipped my mind. Because of my busy schedule I have not be able to see the movie yet, but I plan to see it on my next day off.

Chin Up Wow, its good to know that I am not the only one out thier..lol. I'ts a difficult situation if you let it control your being as a person. But I have done more then what I ever thought I could do. One of my goals is to teach health because I love it so much. So that's one of the goals that I want to overcome and reach. I will try a toast masters class.

LPM WEEZY I pause mid sentence a lot of times too,

patient 1977, I agree with you when you say that. Thier are times when I am stressed, and not of those stressful situation have affected my job as a nurse at all. Thanks for the encouraging words. My son is 2 years old, so I am working is speech development right now. The first sign of stuttering, Im sending him to the speech therapist.

Hello All I have a confession to make. I am a nurse who stammers. Most people may or may not know that I stammer because for years I have done thinks to cover it up. Like use fill in words for what I want to say. Use the "um" in between my phrases so that I wouldn't stammer over a word. Pretend that I can't pernounce the word and spell it out. Or talk in a lower tone so that people don't hear me stammer. Or just remain quite most of the time. This is something I have been battling since I was a child. Before I started my nursing job I saw a speech therapist and he encouraged me to just tell people that I stutter and not be embarassed about it. Because I wanted to be the most effective communicator possible. He said the most important thing is that you communicate and take care of your patients. No one cares if you stammer over you words when you talk as long as you get your point across. It is so embarassing. I tend to go out in the hall and do my report because the nurses station is so crowded, and I don't want anyone to hear me stammer. Or I don't explain report as well as I would like to for fear of stuttering across a word, but I write detailed nursing notes. I give the important life saving information, but it's not as smooth as I would like it to be. I am so embrassed to tell anyone because if they hear me stammer over a word, I will loose my self confidience that I have worked so hard to build. I am a good nurse, I just have a speech impediment. What should I do. I have been seeing a speech therapist but because of my busy work schedule I have not been seeing him as frequently. But my goal is to set a aside at least one day a week to see him, so that I can keep my confidence up. What should I do? I fear that if I tell my Director of Nursing, she will fire me.

I agree with making friends with the CNA/CMA because they do help you out a lot when it comes to patient care. Well I am working on a rough draft for my own census sheet, since the facility doesn't provide one.

No we don't have a patient census sheet. I was thinking about creating my own, because I really need to organize myself. I have a small child at home, so I can't afford nor do I want to stay several hours after my shift is done. Thanks for the advice.

Hello I was hired as a inexperienced nurse in a LTC facility and I am stressed to the max. The patient to nurse ratio is unreal. I am on orientation, and not once have a left on time. Thier is so much to do and so little time. I am so afraid that this job will consume my life once I finish orientation, because most of the tiime the nurses dont't leave til 1 or 2am in the morning. Just because they have to finish up work they didn't complete on the previous shift. It's unreal to me, and its def not safe. I am so stressed. I def don't want to quite but I just need some advice from someone working in LTC .

Hello After what seemed to be a hopeless journey, I finally passed my NCLEX examination & found a company that was willing to hire an inexperienced nurse. I am so happy for the opportunity to practice and learn as a registered nurse. I have been in orientation for about 2.5 weeks and I am not confident in my time management as far as our patient load. I talked to my preceptour and she said I was doing fine and it would take a while for me to develop organization because of our nurse to patient ratio. Its starting to become overwelming. Does anyone have any advice for me.

I was in the same situation. So I decided to get a NCLEX tutuor. I posted an Ad in my employeers daily news letter and someone responded. Basically what the tutur did was go over Patho of each and every system. He helped me break down the system and do a head to toe assessment based off of case studies in those systems. He gave me practice questions after every section. I took detailed notes of every system and did NCLEX questions based off each system daily. And I finally passed. I was like you, I had given up hope for a while....but anything is possible.