Lame

Why did I think you were talking about converse shoes?? LOL haven't had my coffee yet...

Thanks for the advice everyone! I definitely don't want the sickest kids on the unit and also know I learn a lot from the more "stable" kids. I hope that I'm at where a person of my experience should be at. My unit has a culture of senior nurses vs. new nurses and I guess I just want to show that I'm doing the best I can.

Yes and I'm trying to not worry about others or compare myself, knowing that everyone is different. I think my problem is that I have been there for 4 months and been off orientation for 2 but I have not recieved feedback after orientation so I'm not sure where I should be at. Like I said, I have scheduled a meeting to see where I need to improve...

Hi everyone! Just looking for advice and also to vent. I recently changed from adults to picu after a year experience. I feel like none of my coworkers trust me with the type of assignments I'm getting. I usually get pairs and sometimes a stable intubated pt. My coworker who got off orientation after me has gotten a post op back and has taken care of a kid on ecmo. She doesn't have any prior peds experience. I haven't gotten any feedback from anyone but did make an appointment to speak with my nurse educator on my progress. I'm trying not to compare myself to others but am feeling a little discouraged as maybe this unit isn't the right fit for me. Has anyone been in my situation or have any advice? Does it seem like I'm not trusted?

I just transitioned to a peds cvicu from an adult cardiac step down. On my first shift (with a preceptor), I went to switch out a syringe for one of the medications that was running out. I accidentally grabbed the wrong syringe. As I was programming the pump and trying to figure out with my preceptor why my gtt rate wasn't matching up, I realized I had the wrong medication. Ugh I felt so horrible! My preceptor was very nice about it but I lost my confidence as I am way better than that. I always scan in a med before administering but for some reason I did not do that this time. After that, I made sure to scan in everything first and to double check all meds with my preceptor. Like everyone else, one of my worst fears is doing harm to a pt. Luckily these drips are always double checked by another nurse anyway but I have been feeling horrible about it for the last few days...

I started off on an adult tele stepdown with no intent on going into any other field. The only problem was that my family needed me to move closer to them so I began applying to hospitals in that area. I applied to the peds CVICU at a well known hospital thinking that there was no way I'd get hired, let alone an interview. Well I was invited to interview and shadow. I fell in love! I just had my 1st shift last night and am so overwhelmed but would not want to be ahywhere else! I would advise you to shadow in areas you are interested in to get a feel for what you like.

I went to a CC first and transferred to a CSU once I got into the program. Like the previous poster said, it saved me a ton of money & I received a great education. I always tell people to go this route. Good luck!

"Are you going to become a doctor next?"

When I was fresh off of orientation, the latest I stayed was 21:30... That shift was insane. Most days I get off within 15 min after my shift ends. I usually always make it on time unless something crazy happens right before shift change.

Thanks for the responses! I'm only 9 months in and still am trying to make sense of things. I sent an email to my manager to see what the actual policy is regarding this and to see what other options may be. In the past when I've stopped any infusion, the phlebotomist has always been able to draw and I've never had any problems or skewed results. I did ask about a picc line but they can't justify doing it for only that reason as the IVs can always be moved

Thank you! This definitely makes sense but is still frustrating as this pt has only 1 extremeity to use.

Last night I received an admit on heparin & amio drips. He had an IV on the right hand & AC. Blood draws couldn't be done on the left because he had a fistula. When the phlebotomist came to draw blood, she informed me that she couldn't draw his blood above his IV even tho I had stopped both infusions for the last 5-10 min. She could try his fingers because they were below the IV but of course the pt refused. She told me it was now a standard of practice that none of the phlebotomists could draw above an IV even if it was saline locked, but didn't know why. Other phlebotomists informed me that it's always been a standard but recently someone actually got fired for drawing above an IV. I was lucky to be able to use the heparin line. Discarding about 20 cc of blood gave me what seemed to be an accurate PTT. Has anyone heard of this before? Couldn't find the policy & none of my colleagues knew the reasoning why. I emailed my manager to ask as well. It's just scary especially when the pt is on these life saving drips.

Hi! I graduated from SFSU in 2015. We had clinicals in the east bay, SF, and the peninsula depending on the semester. I know SFSU has since revised their program, but we were allowed to choose which clinical site we wanted depending on our class registration date. Just to warn you tho, sometimes we wouldn't know what clinical sites we had until a few days before the semester started. I would honestly choose a school closer to your house. A lot of times you'll want to get to clinical before 0700. SFSU does offer a free shuttle for you take from Daly City bart to classes, but the wait can be up to an hour during rush hour.

When I first started out 9 months ago, I felt very incompetent. I was so nauseous on my 1st day of being on the floor! But I learned how to adapt. It took some time, but I learned. I had a great preceptor who showed me the ropes. All nursing school does is give you a foundation. You actually learn on the job as you go. Believe me, it gets better every day. What you're feeling is normal. I still feel incompetent. It seems like every day something new pops up. But I definitely have a better handle on things than I did 9 months ago as to what questions I should be asking and why. Hang in there!

When your dnr pt is on a morphine and amio drip 😩😩😩😩