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I once answered a call light and walked in to find the patient asleep. The patients wife was sitting in the recliner reading a book. I asked if the patient needed something and she goes "I pushed the call light, actually. I would just love a hot cup of tea with sugar and warm blanket". The room was directly across from the kitchenette. Like literally 3 feet away. Ugh!

I appreciate all your input! This is a surgical floor, with fresh post-ops. I can understand not waking someone if they are observation, or rehab or what have you, but surgical patients are generally more acute IMO, and we are required to chart q4 or q8 assessments. During my current shift I try to get all my patients assessed within the first 1.5 hours that I'm there. I would feel uncomfortable putting assessment off much past that. I have seen people go downhill fast before... As as far as pulling down the covers and turning the lights on, I need to see the patient's skin, and get a good look at their incision(s)/drains etc. A flashlight might be a better way so maybe I'll consider that. I know that assessments need to be done, but I'm just looking for the most polite/effective way to go about it.

I am starting a new job soon where I will be working straight nights. Right now I work 3-11. I've picked up a few night shifts, and one thing that I've found I dislike a lot is having to wake patients up for assessments. I have to turn on the lights, pull their warm covers off of them, ask them a bunch of questions, make them move around, make them use the incentive spirometer etc etc. Patients have gotten annoyed with me, or have fallen asleep while I was assessing them. Family members staying the night, I can imagine, are probably less than thrilled when the nurse comes in and turns on the lights and starts chatting etc. The few nights that I've worked, I found myself apologizing for waking them up, and hurrying through my assessment. What I want to know is, how do you night nurses deal with this? I've heard some night nurses say they use a penlight instead of turning on the lights...but I think it would be harder to get a good assessment this way. Or even one nurse on my floor said that they give the patients a couple hours to wake up on their own and push the call light for something and then she'll go in and assess. I kind of like to get my assessments done asap. I think nights will be hard because I like to get to know my patients, and not feel like I am constantly disrupting their sleep. But it's all that I could hired for right now....Some words of wisdom on how you make it work would help!

So many good ideas!! Which one to choose....

Sounds like something similar to what I went through recently, although I won't mention which Twin Cities area hospital it was... I had a phone interview/pre screen. That went well. Then I had an interview with the unit manager. She seemed interested, and said to keep in touch with the nurse recruiter and I should find out in a week or two. I sent thank you emails to both the manager and recruiter and the recruiter assured me I would hear back soon "either way". I gave the recruiter my references info, they were contacted and the recruiter emailed back saying "everything looks good". Two weeks went by and I heard nothing. I contacted the recruiter asking for an update and was told "I am still waiting to hear back from the manager, but don't get discouraged. I will let you know as soon as I hear back." Two more weeks, still no word. I emailed again. The recruiter told me this time that the position was under review and actually might be eliminated due to "floor changes". I was told again to just be patient, and if that floor didn't work out, I would be referred on to other positions within the hospital. Two weeks later (you get the point)....I still have heard nothing! I have since gone on and interviewed at another hospital and got hired there, but I am pretty appalled by the hiring practices of this hospital. It makes me glad it didn't work out. I wouldn't want to work for an organization that treats its prospective employees that way and seems so disorganized. I read online somewhere to give a company 6 weeks (8 weeks if you REALLY want to work there) from the interview date. And if you havent heard back from them within that time, write the job AND the entire company off. That is my advice to you. In the meantime, follow up quickly and politely once every two weeks.

I like the food AND the poster ideas! It's always fun to have good food, but it would actually be nice to show these people how much I like them and will miss them in a more personal way too.

So I have to move away and start a new job, but I totally love my current unit and co workers. I want to give them a goodbye treat to say thanks/I'll miss you and kind of have a going away party on my last night at work. I'm trying to think of a good idea though about what food to do. So far my ideas are: yummy Costco cake? chinese take out? sushi? pizza? What is something YOU would like to eat as a treat on your floor? I know we all usually gobble up anything that tastes remotely good whenever someone brings in food, but I want it to be a little more exciting than just cookies or candy.

I have no words of encouragement. I have over 1 year of med/surg experience at a large hospital in another state and have applied to tons of positions in the Twin Cities. All I seem to get are rejection emails....and then the same job seems to be posted again in a few weeks. I don't know what's up with hiring in Minneapolis hospitals. It's very very frustrating. I think it's hard to get a hospital job in any large city, and Mpls is certainly no exception.

I appreciate all your input so much. I know it need to leave, and I feel like now is the time. But not having a job lined up, and not having a paycheck scares me a ton! Thanks for listening too. I feel a little better since my rant, and it helps knowing people listen and care, even total strangers :)

So I dont know if I really expect anyone to listen to this or not, but I just need to vent to get some things off my chest... 3 years ago I moved to another state (Iowa) to attend nursing school (wait list in my hometown of Minneapolis was 2-3 years for all schools and I didn't want to wait). I had been in a relationship with my boyfriend for 2 years at that point, but we decided it was worth it for me to pursue my nursing aspirations and do a long distance relationship for 2 years, then return home. Nursing is a second career for me, so I was 27 when I started nursing school. At the time, I had no idea what would happen with the economy, and unemployment and things. Once I graduated from school in May 2010, the hiring market looked pretty dire for new grad nurses. Thankfully during school, I worked as a tech on a med/surg floor and they offered me a position right out of school. I tried for a few months finding employment back in Minnesota (while working as a tech still), then finally gave in and accepted the job in Iowa. I figured I could get this "one year of experience" that pretty much all jobs seemed to require, and then I could finally return home. Well, here I am still in Iowa with my life completely on hold, unable to get hired still. I am almost 31 years old. I am now engaged to my boyfriend, who in the meantime has bought a house waiting for me to move up there and start my life with him. I cannot marry him from another state, or plan a wedding, I cannot start a family, and I have tons of student loan debt which I can't afford to pay on my wage (Iowa is one of the lowest paying states for RNs) plus my rent. My loans are on forbearance right now. I feel hopeless and stalled out. I feel alone and isolated. My entire family is in Minnesota. And I feel I'm slowly running out of time to have children and become financially stable. I never planned on moving away for so long, and while sometimes I feel selfish for complaining (at least I have a nursing job), I'm still depressed about how things have turned out. I miss my future husband, I miss my family and it's just getting to be too much. I had an interview FINALLY for a job about 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis, and was just informed yesterday that that unit will most likely be putting off hiring for right now. The interview went well, and I really started to get my hopes up, and now I feel extremely disappointed. I guess that's it. Vent over. Maybe someone out there can relate....