DookieMeisterRN

1. Oregon 2. 6 years 3. Cardiac, Magnet hospital 4. 42.25 5. Nights 5.30, weekends + $2.00 6. Union

Sounds like you went to Excelsior College. If you want to work in Georgia I think you have to jump through those extra hoops. Washington State is the same way and California would not let an Excelsior grad work in their state regardless of the RN's experience.

Like previous others have said, there are ACLS protocols to allow drugs to be administered. I've worked in many hospitals from a small community critical access to large university and have never seen mandatory physician attendance to a rapid response. I would hesitate to judge other professionals also unless you've walked in their shoes. Instead of bashing a doctor without knowing the whole story that PCT could have asked a nurse or even found a way to bring it up to the MD them-self if one were diplomatic and creative. We are a team and it doesn't help anyone to degrade our fellow teammates.

I have seen vacs placed over sutures before. It sounds like this is not your typical patient and that other measures have failed in the past but it used to be that wound vacs were contraindicated for osteomyelitis. But there are atypical cases like this that may benefit from this treatment. The best people to ask would be the surgeon and/or ID doc!

The DON of this facility obviously needs a current course in hospice and what the hospice orders mean. What you did is what I presume to be common nursing practice. Unless it specifically stated do not give prn dose within a certain time frame of the standing order than I see nothing wrong except for the DON. In the future if the visiting hospice nurse could write an ORDER stating the MD okays the PRN dose to be given within say 1 hour of scheduled doses it would make the DON happy?

Unfortunately RN endorsement is a tad more complicated process than CNA. I'm sure it wouldn't take 2 months for a CNA endorsement!

Do you have a unit secretary? Our CN has a sign out sheet and a basket with voceras, tele pagers near the daily assignment sheet. The tele pagers are assigned by number and faxed to the monitor techs and the # of the pager is written on the assignment sheet. We have a rotating carousel that each RN has a slot where our tele strips/communication/lab slips are placed throughout the shift and the CN will put our assigned tele pager/ vocera (already logged in also) there to pick up when we come up to the desk to get our pt assignment. You could do voceras the same way? Our vocera/tele pagers/battery charger are all kept at the front desk near the CN area so all is kept within view. It's been this way forever on my unit and I never really thougt about it until I've gone to other units/facilities and seen what a cluster*uck the morning can become when there isn't any order or oorganization and you can't find a nurse because they 'conveniently' forget to log in or even grab a vocera.

1) I can't believe it's ethical to call the evening shift nurse a liar about the blood sugar and amount of insulin she gave. YOU should have called the MD for the CBG >400 that YOU checked on YOUR shift and just reported objective facts about the earlier CBG. 2) You CAN call the MD for the pts fall and it SHOULD have been reported to the MD whether day or night. There is always someone on duty and your local hospital is open 24/7 correct? 3) You need to stop worrying about what others are doing (makeup, nails, etc) and start worrying about what they're not doing. It doesn't mean a thing that the previous nurse didn't do this or that but when the patient is in YOUR care YOU are responsible. Unfortunately, you have to pick up the slack for what the prior shift didn't do and make the appropriate calls and start interventions.

There IS always time to use the bathroom (I hope you also take all your breaks too). Don't dehydrate yourself b/c you 'think' you're too busy to pee. You aren't. You also aren't going to be doing anyone any favors by being found passed out, withered on the floor. Take care of YOU, you've only got one body to work with....and yeah practice what you preach!

Ask to shadow in departments you're interested in. Honestly though, in my neck of the woods it's almost impossible to get into a specialty besides M/S without a good 2 years of experience. Only YOU truly knows what would best fit your interests ,which are really hard to determine from the little information you've given here.

Oh no, another student who is never going to have to vent because she poops sunshine and vomits rainbows. And she will never, ever be like one of us. Why is it that some people think they're so unique and special? Just because I don't go spewing out ridiculous fluff about how grateful I am to be a nurse DOESN'T mean I don't remember my reasons I started nursing.The OP has to be very naive to think that nursing school and being a paid nurse can EVEN be compared to one another. Us haggard, crabby nurses have all been through NS and knows exactly what it's all about. So please step down from your pedestal and think long and hard about what those uncaring nurses may have been going through on their shift.

Unfortunately your situation is NOT unique. It's too bad the nursing programs aren't being more factual about job prospects for new grads. It's too bad future grads didn't research their chosen career BEFORE starting school than they wouldn't be broad-sided after graduation with the lack of job prospects.When there are so many applicants to choose from its only a given that the ones with experience be chosen first.

Oh I know I unfortunately do know that, it's not that I'm mad at the facility just ticked at this agency I'm with.So I'm thinking if I can get hired on at this facility technically the agency has no recourse since I've asked for a contract 3x's and have received jack?

AMEN. I would much rather be in the "world famous medical center" than take 1 patient but have to be super-nurse. I would also much rather rely on our awesome docs and residents who are always around somewhere 24/7. The only thing we get to do on my unit is draw ABG's and line draws. Don't ask me why since we have 3 RT's assigned to our 24 bed unit.