Fiveten

There's no need to be hostile. I can tell you from looking up other nurses licenses in my state that most revocations are narcotic-abuse related. Mistakes in nursing judgement happen, and these may result in losing a job or reprimands. Revocation is the last straw.

So true... maybe that's why I'm burning out. Because I try to do things right.

The 30 min requirement has to do with the "standard of care" being required to keep hospitals getting approval to take care of medicare/medicaid patients. Our facility is pushing back against this.

I am a new nurse and I do not make my difficult patients wait longer for a blanket, meds, anything; I cannot do that. But I had a difficult patient this week who refused many meds and treatments; she made it harder to care for her because it took so long to get through anything that I would forget things. Then I would have to go back into the room to empty her Foley or turn/position her, etc. She also would become so physically tense when being repositioned that she made it more painful on herself.

Thanks to all for your advice! I really do want to help my patients get better. It's frustrating with those phones. Would you beleive I had a patient who wanted me to call the nursing supervisor at 1 a.m. so we could figure out how to hook up his video game system?!?!?!?! I'm sorry, but my other patients need things that I can provide. I suppose it's going to just take time. I'm always having to call another nurse to show me how to do something, etc. One day at a time, I gues..

Hello all! I am a brand new nurse. I just completed my orientation. I work on an inpatient surgical unit. We get ortho patients, other surgical patients, and medical patients as well. I am overwhelmed by the struggle to balance safety and time management. I come on shift at 7, have to do my own vitals (aides are not allowed to do them on my floor), get my assessments done, and pass 8 and 9 o'clock meds within my first few hours. We have a great link to MicroMedex to look up meds, but I can't seem to find the time when everything has to be done in those first few hours. I try to be familiar with the meds that are passed most often on my unit, but the medications for the medical patients are overwhelming, especially one patient with TPN through a medi-port with a PCA and other medications piggybacked into it. I am trying to learn to be proactive; clustering care and learning to push through assessments when a patient want to share personal stories or things irrelevant to their current hospitalization. More often than not, we have no aide at night. I can't say no when when a patient has to go to the bathroom when I came in to do their assessment. I can get them to the bathroom, have them pull the call cord when done, and try to get partway through another patient's assessment in the meantime. We have phones that our patients can call directly and we are tracked on how often we answer call lights, etc. I am afraid to ignore a patient call as it could be important, but I am often in the med room when I get a call that a patient can't get their TV remote to work or something as trivial (although I know it is important to the patient and customer satisfaction percentages). When everything has to be done "right away" and when my co-workers are often busy pushing through this beginning of shift rush as well, what can I do? Also, how can I encourage patients to be more self-sufficient? I don't mind helping a fall-risk patient to the bathroom, but patients who could care for themselves at home a week ago are suddenly "unable" to adjust their own pillows. I came into nursing because I wanted to help people. I am quickly starting to feel that often times I am not.