Woopsadaisy

I believe and I live by the motto: Patients Over Profits"!!! You did good. Don't sweat the admin/bottom liners. They have a different job to do. Just my 2 cents.

Hi Everyone, Well, they let me go today. I just read all of your words of encouragement here and I feel pretty awful. I haven't cried, but I might later on. They want me to work in PACU and Scopes and the Pain clinic. At least its a job. I just feel badly for wanting more. PACU, scopes, pain clinic are pretty boring and don't really utilize much skill, I feel. I have been cross trained to those areas since January, while I was waiting for the OR position to open. My boss says that a "couple of doctors" complained about me. They said they really like me, but that they just didn't think I fit in. Of course, they all know me from the floor. So-- what Michele742 just said about me keeping quiet and not joining in.... its hard for me to do. I already have a rapport with most of them. I don't know what to do. Part of me thinks I should just go back to the floor, admit defeat and go back to doing what I was good at. Part of me wants to just leave town entirely... but that is just the depression of being told "it isn't working" talking there, most likely. I am active in my union and am going to a conference next week on "innovation" in healthcare. I don't feel very innovative, thinking a more innovative nurse would have gotten-it with 3 months of shoddy training. I don't know why I failed, or what I could hvae done differently. I am on line now looking to see if any nearby towns are hiring for OR, and wanting to call them to ask them about training. I had no Peri-Op 101. I had no 1 DAY, even, of going over sterile technique. I never had a checklist, or a willing or capable preceptor who's job it was to train me. My one fault I can see is that I let whoever precepted me lead the cases because I always got the feeling from them that they would rather just do it themselves than train me to do it. I suppose I should have been more assertive and said "Let me do this". The odd thing is just yesterday, I DID run the show, for all 3 cases I had yesterday. I was with the travel nurse and she pretty much sat back, and helped when I needed her there. I came out of yesterday thinking "That is what I need now. 3 more months of that, and no doubt I'll be ready." It was ortho cases, all day long. Without a break except when someone relieved us for lunch. But I wasn't complaining. I was glad because I was getting it-- not just the ciruclating part, but the charting WITH the circulating part. Anyway, my boss says she would still like to get me back there when she can. She says it would be great if I could relieve for lunches and take "you know, maybe of the easier cases, some lap choleys occassionally". Why did they have me in so much Ortho then? As a PACU/SCOPES/PAIN float already... floating to the OR... why not? Its just so weird. Maybe I am weird, and so she is coming up with this weird position for me. I know she feels that I would get it, by the end of my training, which was supposed to be done in December... that it was coming. Slowly, but surely. I am sure she knows this. I suppose I could have fought to continue the training, but to be honest with you all, being trained is nerve wracking. I like it, but I dislike how they always TSk Tsk me like a child in front of the doctors. Its almost like there was a competition, now that I think of it. Almost, maybe? Heck, I don't know. BUt I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for reading my post and for all of your encouragement. I read them the other day at work and it really meant a lot to know someone cared. Woops

how is it going, Shanshan? This is what I want to know too. we are to be commended for leaving our comfort zone and stepping up to fulfill an ambition! And I am being eaten alive-- don't know about you, but the nurses where I work are not digging having me there. I feel like an outsider. I told one of them to "shut up and let me work" the other day because he would #1 tell me to prep the patient and then as I am prepping #2 would start telling me how next I would need to do blank blank and blank. Not sure that was cool of me to tell him to shut up, I should probably make sure I didn't hurt his feelings? at any rate-- it was clear, concise, and closed-loop communication. I just couldn't take not standing up for myself any more, at the time, I had to say something. Anyway, he told my supervisor about it. She was kinda laughing when she told me that he had told her that I said to him to shut up. Different personalities cannot train. I have become someone who needs a certain type of preceptor. ... anyway, I am not transitioning smoothly. But I think that I actually am transitioning. Hope that you are. So far, no on has asked me to find any Otis elevators or the Eustacian Tubes. Or told me to catch something while I have my sterile gloves on. I guess that makes me lucky. woops

Hi all-- thank you for reading this, if you are. I am new to the OR, started the day after Memorial Day for a 6 month orientation. I came to the OR after 6 years of step-down/telemetry unit. Sometimes I miss working the floor... and then I think I must be crazy because I was really ready to leave it when I left it! There are 6 full time OR nurses where I work. 2 of them are relatively new RN's with about 2 years experiences each. Another one is a seasoned pro with more than 20 years OR experience, but she only works weekends and has only been working at our facility for a little while longer than the 2 brand new nurses. There is another nurse who has been at the hospital as long as I have been there. And then there is a PRN nurse, and a full time traveler. And then there is me. I don't know what to say about myself except that I think I was good as a floor nurse, or at least I became the best I was going to be. In 6 years, no one ever died on my watch, (some tried, but failed!) and I often got presents and cards from patients and their families. I loved my patients, and I almost always had a good rapport with them. I think for a floor nurse, those are the things you hope to acheive. But I always felt... well, My morale was often low, despite the gifts and accolades from patients. So, I switched to the OR after trying it out for a few days, and really liking it. The OR presented me with a challenge and an entirely new culture, and a whole new way of nursing that was refreshing. Plus, Morale seems to be good for OR nurses! The few days I spent just checking it out made everyone think I'd be a good fit for this. It helped that I worked as TA for Anatomy classes in college. And now, here I am, 7 weeks into training (well 6 actually because I was off for the week of the 4th for a family reunion) and there are days when I feel like a total idiot. And what is worse, is I think everyone else thinks I am one too! Yesterday my charge nurse and the surgical services supervisor talked to me about how I am doing: they had heard some concerns from a couple of the nurses who have been precepting me. One was my sterile technique. Ok, this is something I know I have to work on. I have some habits left over from 6 years of doing things a certain way... on the floor, if the corner of a foley box touches the patients leg, it's no big deal because the part that is going into the patients bladder, and my hand, are still sterile. After all, the floor "is not the OR." So yeah, things were more loose in that department. But now, starting a foley is hard. I could do them so easily before, and now, I have had to throw away so many boxes because... I'm an idiot who doesn't listen, apparently. Anyway! I swear that I am NOT an idiot, and I swear that I know I don't need a TPS for a hysterectomy, and I know how to work a jackson table and what the benefits of a Jackson table are (mostly C-arm ability, and also being able to flip a patient prone). I GET it. I do. after 7 weeks, I think I get more than I don't get. In know how to open and give to the field while maintaining sterility. I know how to chart everything because it's the same charting system on the floor. I know how to order, and do a time out. I know when to do a time out, and I have a loud voice. I know that cautery always needs to be grounded and this includes the Malis, and I know what the malis is compared to a megadyne. I know how to hook up the foot pedal and what we use that for. I know about the H frame, the Wilson Frame, the Gel rolls, mastisol and cloth tape, about bucks traction and the gardner wells.... I know about scopes and insufflation and lights... someone quiz me! If I had to take a 7-weeks competency test, I know I would Ace it! But then I get called in to talk to the charge nurse again today who basically tells me that the traveler who I got the benefit of being precepted by complained about me because I didn't take my jacket off when prepping a patient. She said I just "Don't listen". OK, well, yesterday when prepping a woman for hysterectomy, I DID take it off because I had to stand in between her lithotomy legs position and it's a small area and the jackets are kinda bulky. But today, I guess I didn't even think about it. I prepped only one case, It was an anterior cervical spine fusion. I was wearing lead over my scrubs already. I also was wearing a size smaller jacket than normally. there wasnt anything dangling and the prep area was pretty small, just used about half a Chloroprep stick. She was cheerfully beside me while I prepped... what I was wearing wasn't on either of our minds, I know it wasn't. Anyway. the travel nurse is a good nurse. She is really organized and I respect her work. I requested that she train me, if possible. I am dismayed that she didn't come to me with this feedback. I was getting sometimes every nurse as a preceptor all in one day. It was crazy making because they all said different things, no one knew what I new, and they all treated me like I was a complete moron with instructions on how to take a patient to the bathroom, when I needed to don gloves, and things like that. Or how to transfer a patient from gurney to bed...stuff every CNA knows. Sorry-- I am just frustrated with no one to turn to. I have invested a lot of hope and energy into this new venture. And instead of feeling welcomed, I feel like I am being chased out. I don't want the new-ish nurses to train me-- one of them is very nervous when I am in the room with him, and it makes me nervous that he is nervous. The other one is very nice, but doesn't totally have his game together. The gal who has been at the hospital there as long as me is often busy with cases that aren't good for a newby to participate in (robotic or otherwise), and she kinda acts like she resents the extra work having to teach me. There isn't anyone warm and willing, who is competent. The traveler is actually the best nurse we have, and so I asked if I could just stick with her. She said today that she didn't want to be training me becasue she doesn't know the hospital's particularities and policies, etc. This is a good point. But then she went and told the charge nurse that I don't listen! I don't get it. I asked her after lunch if I had done something wrong becasue she was mad at me for not being there to position the patient. I had gone to lunch after getting the room ready and interviewing the patient (she was at lunch while I finished up the previous case and took it to the PACU). My lunch was not long and I returned to the room I had prepped after eating, as I was instructed to do so by the charge. She said "You just missed the most important part. It's the positioning that you need to do." I didn't know what to tell her. I guess I wasn't supposed to take a lunch then. Obviously. And she had no idea that I had actually done that positioning before... a few times. Granted, I can always learn more, but... how can I communicate to her that #1 the charge told me what to do, so that is what I did. and #2, maybe it isn't a super huge deal that I missed the positioning since I had, technically, helped with it 2 times before? I would love to have been there for it. But... I also get told to LISTEN and I show that I can listen by doing what I am told to do, which at that time was "go to lunch". Lucky me, I can't win. Look, I care about my training here. In just 19 more weeks, if I pass (in the eyes of my coworkers/preceptors), I will be on my own. Yet, I have NO measuring stick to tell me how well I am doing. No checklist, and no one single preceptor who actually gives a dang and knows I'm not a flibbetygiblet! Or who knows that I have already been taught XYZ, but might still have questions. I feel like I"m drowning and no one is throwing me a rope. I don't give up easily, and I ASKED for this experience because I wanted a challenge. Buy my challenge thus far hasn't been with medical know how or actually running a room. It has been with convincing my preceptors that I'm not a moron! O, and then, I made a joke. Lots of joking going on in the OR at my hospital. It wasn't a good joke, and it wasn't one, in retrospect that I should have made. But I am trying to fit in and learn this culture.... Lots of crass talk, lots of sad fun-poking about crazy people or fat people. Hey! At least my joke wasn't one of those. They are just as valid human beings in my mind as diplomats are. So, my question is-- how do I deal with this? I feel like I've talked to my charge nurse about it, and she basically has no advice. Just that they will continue to watch me and make sure I'm getting it. But how can I prove myself when no one trusts me to do a thing without barking out orders at me? They say "If you have any questions, just ask!" So I do and they look at me like I'm dumb. Or they say "After you get the patient on the table, stay there by their side to help intubate" but then they snap at me and accuse me of not listening because I didn't get the SCD's, which are on the boom, hooked up before the patient was under.... and then I get the lecture about how SCD's need to be on BEFORE sedation occurs...I know this, but they just said not to leave the patient's side to help with intubation! And they were there with me setting up the room. They knew where the SCD machine was, and it wasn't a problem. Some of my preceptors hook them up afterwards. I feel like I can't win. I feel like a brand new nurse all over again... remember that? Coming home, crying at least once a week? Wondering what we had gotten ourselves into? Wondering if we should just quit? Anyway, thanks for listening. I ranted a lot. I really do'nt have anyone I can talk to about this, and I don't remember what I did as a new nurse to survive it. It seems to me like I just kept showing up and after a while, the tension went away. Hope you all are having a grand day! Woops

I have found that as long as I don't wear the same pair of shoes every day, that my feet don't get so fatigued. I alternate a pair of danskos with a pair of trail runners, and sometimes a pair of cheap knock off tennis shoes. I wear Ted hose in the winter, they help a lot. I just nabbed a brand new pair from the supply closet garbage.... they were opened but were the wrng size, so were being thrown out! Shhhhh! But hey! I think my employer wants me to take care of myself, right?

I Am becoming an OR nurse.... I starts after Memorial Day! I was hired in from PACU and Scopes (with float to pain clinic). I do have floor experience and ED experience, but from what I can tell, I will be going to the OR as the only nurse who has had any outside experience im nursing at all. 2 of them are brand new grads. One has 5 years of psych, but the rest are all strictly OR. So, I'd say your chances are very good of being hired. I know we are hiring another RN for OR....

Speaking as someone with a bachelors AND a masters that are not in nursing, I isimply cannot afford to go back for a second bachelors degree. I would get one if there were some help in paying for it, and/or if it would pay for itself.... But it is not enough of a raise to make it worth my time and money. Plus, I don't think I'd learn anything new I couldn't learn going to NFN or union conventions. Attending the AFLCIO meetings, or the big ANA conventions too.... I am already certified by the ANA. If I go back to school it will be for a PhD, you know? In something that will make enough money to have a phd.I think it could be good for the public's perception of nursing to know nurses all have bachelors, but I have to be honest and say that I still run circles around most BSNs.... Just saying. I am already overqualified, ad they don't pay me for or respect my previous education... Yet, just the fact that I have it speaks volumes. I use all 3 of the degrees I have, daily, as a nurse. Woops, BA, MBA, ASN, RN-BC ....seriously. Look at all the damned letters. I doubt adding BSN to it is going to be meaningful.

Hey, you didn't say where you work now, or what sort of facility you are in, so it's kinda hard to make a suggestion.But I will say that having been around a few years now, that there are a plethora of nursing jobs that are not stressful, or AS stressful. Nursing homes are one, assisted living is another.... Scopes or pain clinic, patient services, TCU, Pacu is a nice job....working labor and delivery might be better?Also, critical access hospitals are usually less stressful. Working at the prison can be nice beaus there is not any family to deal with, not a lot of bedside time, more autonomy than many jobs, and if you don't like the way you patient is acting, you can ask guards to take him/her back to their cell....there is always a guard n with yo. And prisoners are shackled.Anyway, you'll find it, just keep looking.Also, doctors office or any kind of office, cancer center, Cardiac rehab... Med surg is notorious for being stressful, stay away from there. Pediatrics is too... As is surgery and of course ED, ICU, or step down....Hope that helps!Woops

Woops-- I mean CAH. Not CAW!

Hello-- I joined this forum because I am starting to not like my job. Period. And I want to nip this in the bud before I become an unhappy camper. I started my nursing career at a CAW, and loved it. It was 50 miles away tho, and rents too $$ to move there. After a year,I took a float position at the hospital in town. I did that for a year, loved it, but it was night shift or varied, and I ended up taking a full-time day bid on a m/s tele unit 3 years ago. Things have gone OK for the most part. Although, when I took the bid, I had to undergo more training/retraining for reasons I don't understand or know, but accepted joyfully because more training is always a good thing. At the CAW, I was charge a lot. I also got to do ED work, some phlebotomy, some lab, some pharm, and some LTC. Floating was a good fit for me because I was comfortable anywhere. CAW is good because it's always changing and I am always learning. 3 years on M/S tele--I always volunteer for codes and traumas, I always say I'll float if needed. And yet, it rarely happens. I applied to be shiftlead,and did get trained to do that. However,I am just a fill-in for the other RN's who do that job primarily. There is a 2 year RN who is shift lead one shift a month, and I wonder "Why her and not me?" she isn't amazing at it. If she was, I'd understand. When I am shift lead, it's sometimes after not doing it for a month or more, and I rise to the occassion and make sure the floor and the office all have open communication and a good day. And we do! I am good as manager as my background is in business management (and I have an MBA). All in all, I feel most challenged and rewarded in two areas : Charge (shift lead) and ED. I have asked for training, to be thought of if they ever want/need/have funding for an AIT, or an ED newbie. I have said I would come in on days off to orient to ED, and I have let everyone know that that is where I want to be someday (day shift). I have said I wouldn't mind working back there even 1-2 shifts a month, per diem. I keep my TNCC up to date, ACLS and PALS too. Even tho I don't work Peds very often, I do PALS. And when the rare day comes that I do get to help out in the ED, for some reason they give me the peds. Probably because I don't mind. I am studying to get MS Certified, although I wonder if it will mean I'll be type-cast from there on out. M/S tele is not boring, but it's getting... old. Politcally. I am tired of the same people and their complaints. I am tired of feeling like I'm not getting any better at my job, but have already reached a plateau. I am aware that I am still passively learning, but I am not "turned on" by it. The rest of my life is going well! I'm just restless. SO, I started traveling some, just around the state. Working at CAWs again some, and other places. It's mixed things up and been a sort of solution. If I could do it full time and get good benefits, I sure would! But I know that even after a couple years of that, I'd be bored again. I need to be learning. What can I do? Thank you, Woops

I don't think this is about what you said or did "wrong", or what they said or did wrong. This is about the company culture, and it not being a good fit for you. I work in an environment a lot like this one- bullying happens a lot here, good nurses get into trouble for BS reasons. A friend of mine was framed, and fired, and everyone knows it. I am always looking over my back, smoothing over, grinning and bearing it. It SUCKS! You don't want to go back. As dismayed as everyone is, as wrong as they are, changing a corporate culture has to start at the top. Anti bullying campaigns and rumor mill shut down.... sensitivity training, problem resolution... all these things need to be in place, and unrelenting. New rules need made. IN my town, people who stand up against unions get harassed, even harmed. It's part of town history that some have been murdered. I understand the culture that I am in, and I am here by choice, for now. I don't judge it. It is what it is, and I knew that when I moved here and when I accepted a job. I knew it would mean laying low, keeping myself private, finding a "back door" way to practice the way I need to without causing a stir. I remind myself daily not to ruffle any feathers, to give things time, to merely make suggestions and laugh them off if they are not listened to, but to keep making them anyway in a detached sort of way to show I am not emotionally invested either way. And I remain emotionally uninvested. I have only been an RN for 5 years, and am at a stand still at the place I work- no education- no one wants to help me get to where I want to be. It's frustrating to feel stuck here because the next closest hospital is 75 miles away, and for all I know, isn't any better. So, it's up to me to sink or swim. It can help you to take the approach that you will bloom where you are planted, and deal with the hand you're dealt, and this might mean rearranging things a lot. Sorry, I have no other advice for you. BUt the one thing I can say that is GOOD about places like this, is that if you can learn how to fit into it, you can use it to your advantage. I choose not to fit in, I know this worries people. But I am there for patient care, and no other reason. I let my patient's outcomes speak for me. If they want to terminate a good nurse who will work anywhere and do it like she's done it all her life, it's their loss. Medical shcool would be a seemingly good way to show them that you don't need them and their pettiness-- but don't thing the EXACT same thing doesn't happen to doctors. I have watched one lose his malpractice insurance with a freeze on his contact, and I have watched another one lose his MD license outright. Same thing... all libel, all slander... they stepped on toes because they didn't know or chose not to adhere to the culture they were in. Talented, good doctors... out of work. It's sad. Woops

I was taught that after an interview I should fill out a thank you card addressed to the interviewers, and pop it in the mail either as I was leaving the facility, or 3 days later. Then give them a week. It doesn't matter what THEY say. What matters is that you have a game plan for landing a job. Don't ever fall in love with a job at the first interview. And ALWAYS have at least 2 other jobs on the line. Try to set up all your interviews in the same week so that you can feel polished and prepared. Have those thank-you cards in your satchel for each one. Never divulge to them how much you want any particular job, but DEFINITELY let them know that you are considering other employers and make sure to tell them that you are only interested in seeing which employer is the best fit. Best Fit is everything, and subjective to whim (IMHO). The thing about the thank you card is to keep you fresh in their minds. Seriously. This works for me every time. They ARE busy and meet lots of job hunters, most of them qualified. Who will stand out. How can you stand out? This is one way, amoung several. The key things to include are WHo you are, How they know you, When they met you, what position you were interested in... The Thank You cards should be sent separately to each interviewer, addressed to each one personally. If you can, send it to their home. If not, sending to them at work is fine. It should say something like "Dear XXXX, it was a pleasure to meet you. I enjoyed the interview on Monday June 1, and wanted to thank you for the opportunity to learn about working for XYZ Company ED. I hope to hear from you soon to follow up. Have a great week! Sincerely, ME, RN (Make sure your signature is legible) 1 week after you sent the card (I send my card as I leave the building so I can remember what day I sent it) if you haven't heard back from them yet, give them a call with additional references you thought they might like to have, and ask them if they have any additional questions. Ask them again what skills/traits/qualities they are looking for- and if you didn't answer the way you wished you would have at the interview, you have the chance now to say "I have considered what you said/Spoken with my mentor/spouse, or etc, and I want to let you know that I would be Happy to work nights/Float to TCU (whatever it was)." Stay professional, and remember that the interview process is as much about selection for them as it is for you. Meanwhile, go to your other interviews, and do the same thing. When asked where else you are applying, tell them if you are comfortable with it and see what they say. you might learn a lot about the other companies! COme right out and ask them how they compare. Again,you are both looking for the right Fit. Before you leave the interview, ask them for their business card (If you don't have one), and when the best time to reach them is. Write this on the business card. Ask them when they expect to be making a decision/when do they need the position filled by. Ask them also if they have a 2nd interview for likely candidates, and when might they be holding those. During the first phone call with additional references, changes to your input, additional questions, etc... it's OK to ask them how they feel your interview went. If they said they had some concerns, tell them you understand. Ask what you can do to reassure them (If you feel their concerns are due to the fact that the interview didn't go well, or some extenuating factor). ... in any case, the main thing is to put yourself out there. Be the professional they want to hire and can count on, someone with follow-through. Keep yourself fresh in their minds. When the date they expected to have hired someone has come and gone and you didn't hear back from them, for your own professional development and in case that person doesn't work out-- call them again. Ask them what are the qualifications/traits/skills of the person they hired. Ask them what nudged them in that direction, and what you could have done differently. Thank them again, and leave the conversation giving them the idea that if another position should open up, that you would like to be kept in mind. Hope this helps. Woops