ICUnurse1985

Why do you want to be a nurse? All jobs have negative aspects, people dislike. You need, to decide what is your "dream nurse job." Some nurses do research, some teach, some are leaders and yes some of us work in hospitals. There are icky, gross body fluids we need to deal with every day. My answer is "I can make a difference in a person's life." Maybe, it is the patient, maybe it is their significant other. That is what it is all about to me. The rest is aggravating and annoying but bedside nursing is the most wonderful, rewarding, terrifying, degrading, heartrendering and challenging professions which exist. If you hate what you are doing and their is no reward in performing simple tasks to give your patient's comfort, bedside nursing is not for you. That is really OK, best wishes in finding a job you love. Nursing is very hard work and if you cannot find joy in giving a patient a bath, wait til the more difficult challenges come up. You have to be tough and dedicated. Noone ever said it would be easy but is anything worthwhile ever easy?

Now, I remember why I hated some of the "rules" in nursing school. I think their point is "look professional" which means no underwear showing under your white scrub pants. I think flesh tones are best. My hospital tryed to mandate the color of our scrubs twice in the last 5 years and lost the battle twice because it was so controversial. We donot get any compensation for buying our uniforms from our facility. So, I guess the battle continues on even after you are out of school. Good Luck in school!

300 bed community hospital, cafeteria open with grill, drinks, soup, salad bar and cold sandwiches and deserts until 0200. Scattered vending machines with candy/snacks/drinks on some units like our ED. Dayshift has a full service with hot, healthy full meal choices. If the administration worked night shift, we would have more variety and choices on our night shift menu with extended hours. Sorry to read, some facilitys don't have hot food at night or any food at all unless they bring it in from home. Definitely makes me appreciate the choices I do enjoy.

WOW! What a terrific question and some great ideas from so many. Trust your "gut" feeling about all things, it usually is right. There will be shifts when you donot accomplish all you hope for, remember to appreciate that you did your best and the next shift will pick up where you left off. Treat your patients and their loved ones the way you would like to be treated in a similar situation. Stand up to physicians who order potentially harmful medications/interventions or fail to order therapeutic interventions. Always go up your chain of command when there are pt. care issues which you cannot resolve and document it when you do. Always assess your sickest patient first. Help your coworkers even if they may fail to help you, it's all about helping the patients and we can't let them suffer because of ill feelings (even if justified) we may have about our peers. When you are notifying your manager about anything important, whether it is a schedule change or a pt. care issue, put it in writing and keep a copy for your records. Don't gossip about anyone, sooner or later those people you are gossiping with, will be talking about you. If you are the person everyone is talking about this week (negative talk), remember what my Mom used to tell me: If they are talking about you, they are leaving someone else alone. Sometimes we all make mistakes or experience a family/pt. fire you. When that occurs, take a deep breath and learn from the experience. Forgive yourself. Try not to take your job home with you. This can be difficult, try to have some fun at least once a week, you deserve it. Cherish your loved ones and let them know how much you care.

I feel sad about your situation. If you really want to be a nurse, persistence usually will be rewarded. It is very difficult when you are "in a hole" and feel like there is no hope of climbing out. Many people in nursing and other professions are having trouble finding a job, in this lousy economy. One thing is for sure, the nursing field is full of Baby Boomers who are gradually aging out of the system because of our own personal health care issues and retirement. As we leave, new jobs will be opening up. The economy will eventually recover and as it does, more jobs will become available. There are members who are new grads who are finding jobs as evidenced by entrys on this site and even at my own facility, new grads are being hired. I pray you find a job soon.

I am an ADN RN. If I had to do it again, at this moment, I would get a BSN instead. It just gives you more options. Yes, you can always go back to school and get your BSN later, if you decide to go the ADN route, however it is difficult to go back to school because life constantly changes, marriage, kids, other obligations. There are so many opportunities in nursing and as you get older you may want to change your career toward management, education ect. Get your BSN while you're young and your obligations are limited. It will empower you in this difficult job market and later in life it can only be an asset while job hunting.

Nice for her but not ethical. We all get paid to care for our patients at our jobs. I was taught you never accept a financial reward/tip from your patient. The job should be reward enough. If this happened to me, I would politely decline that huge volume of cash and let the lawyers sort out who will get it. Would I be tempted? Yes ma'm but it just wouldn't be right..

"So what's it gonna take for nursing to change ...?" A better question might be what can each of us do to change nursing for the better? Each of us has the power to change our own behaviour. I believe in teamwork. I don't mind emptying the trashcans and often do on my shift. I am blessed to work with other disciplines who act in the same way. Respiratory therapists who help us pull patients up in bed, radiology techs who help me turn patients, lab techs who will go get my patient a blanket if I am tied up and unable to help at that moment. It is all about the patient. Without patients, we are out of a job. They have a right to express their opinions about the care we deliver. After all, sooner or later we are all patients. I try to treat each of my patients the way I would wish to be treated if our roles were reversed. Yes, seems like someone is always looking at our documentation and critiquing it. If someone is trying to find something wrong, they usually will be successful and most of us fall short at one time or the other because we will make mistakes, being human after all. Noone ever said nursing was easy. It is one of the most difficult, challenging professions as well as the most rewarding. The stakes are high. Is it worth all of the hassles? I think so. We need to be tactful, honest, fair communicators. We need to support each other. We are most powerful when we are in short supply which unfortunately probably is coming around again in a few years. Things are tough right now because of the economy. I wish I could say all of our jobs are secure but obviously that is not true. There are no guarantees. Maybe you can be the leader you are looking for...there actually is a book on the market with a title close to this idea. Instead of looking for others to address our concerns, we need to take action ourselves.

My nursing instructor, decades ago told us "You will make mistakes, hopefully they will be small ones." I have made med errors in my career. It always upsets me. I look at each situation and try to figure out what I could have done to prevent it. Sometimes I have been in too much of a hurry. Sometimes it is poor judgement/critical thinking. We have a new medication administration process where I work. Each pt. ID band has a bar code, each medication and IVF has a bar code. You must scan the pt. bracelet and then each med at the bedside, before you give each med. If there is no order for that med, the scanner device will tell you. You also have to enter any waste needed in the device so it prevents overdosage (for example giving a whole tablet instead of a half.) This scanner is reducing our med errors significantly. Changing your process, can make a big difference in safely administering meds. Please don"t beat yourself up about this error. Learn from it and move on.

I have been on both sides of this question. I was treated rudely or worse ignored as a new employee, in two different jobs and it still hurts when I remember it. I have also had the honor of being a preceptor several, times in my career. I would talk to the preceptor privately and see how she responds. Maybe, there is an issue going on that you are not aware of, sometimes it is just a personality issue and you may need to change preceptors, if the situation does not improve. As nurses, we are not always supportive of each other. We forget, all too soon, how it feels to be the new person in the unit and how difficult it can be. Once you are there for a while and get to know some of the staff, I hope things will improve for you. This should be a reminder, to all of those reading this, how we should make an extra effort to welcome new staff members and be eager to offer help when needed. Hang in there!

I worked part time at a teaching hospital, which was a 45 minute drive years ago, night shift. I also struggled to stay awake driving home in the summer months, using the tricks you described and was also unsuccessful. Too many mornings I found myself crossing the yellow line, involuntarily falling asleep at the wheel for a few moments. It is a true miracle I didn"t kill myself or someone else. There were some problems on the job but the drive was the most compelling reason I had to quit that position. I have friends who drive an hour one way, who work night shift with me and they do fine. I think some people are able to stay awake and alert better than others. Your life is more valuable than any job. You may have to consider accepting a position much closer to your home. I am sorry you lost your friend. Maybe, that also is a signal that you should not accept a position, so far away, before you get hurt. Your family needs you, you are irreplaceable to them and no job is worth that risk. My only other idea is to work your shifts in a row and stay in a motel or with a friend/family member on your stretch. This would be cost prohibitive for most people and not very practical, especially since you have a family which needs you. I wish you success in your job search. Please be safe for your sake and the sake of others.

That is fantastic. I am very happy for you. Thanks for spreading the word that good jobs for new grads are out there.

Don"t give up. You sound discouraged and afraid. You will eventually find a job, just keep trying. You need to get some help! Not having a job is very stressful but talking about killing yourself about it, scares me. You can make it. Get some counseling and some support from people you trust. Look around, many people have burdens equal to or worse than you do, take a deep breath and keep going. Life is worth living.

Thanks for letting me know I am not alone. This has been going on at my facility for over a year now. They don"t want you to stay late for any reason. They want you to leave on time no matter what the situation. Do what you can and walk away at quitting time. They donot want you to clock out and then finish your work because it is against Labor Laws where I live but alot of people do just that since you will also be "counseled" if your documentation is not complete. Talk about a "Catch 22"!!! I don"t want to quit since it is the only place I want to work where I live and I donot want to move, plus I can retire with benefits in 1 year. I try to focus on what I love, patient care and adapt to the rest. Anyone remember the good old days when you could work late without being hassled? We didn"t know how blessed we were. The only constant is change, perhaps this too will change with time. I hope so.

Ok, I realize I totally misread and misunderstood the question, and I apologize.(This is what happens after I work a 12 hr night shift and don"t go to bed right away, SORRY.) I believe you can push ACLS drugs in a CODE even if you are not ACLS ceritified but caution to review your state board of nursing regs and your hospital policys and procedures as well as the formulary.