LiLev

Same

Background: Im an ER nurse with almost 6 years in the ER plus a little over a year on a Tele floor and a year of Med/Surg experience. I just started (1week) at a new hospital, only having worked at 2 other hospitals in my career. For the first time in my career, I’ve encountered doctors who treat nurses like they are servants and I just can’t get past it. I’m not an emotional or sensitive person; I've spent the last 6 years in a hospital where the norm patient population is verbally abusive and too frequently physically aggressive. I’ve never gone home and cried and I can’t tell if its because I’m angry or hurt. I got a patient whose chief was ‘trouble breathing’ so of course I went in to assess the patient right away. I found a 28 year old child bearing age woman who had a laparoscopic surgery the day before in extreme post op pain who said ‘the pain is so bad I can’t take a breath’. I logged in and saw the doctor who had not seen the patient yet had ordered a battery of expensive tests including 2 CT scans and a bnp. I went to the doctor and said “so and so is actually a post op patient who is in so much pain she can’t breathe, do you still want to order - at the point the doctor cut me off with a ‘yes’ and stood up and walked away. Later in the shift the unit secretary finds me to tell me that the doctor wanted to see me to get an update on a cellulitis patient. I was in the middle of inserting an IV so thanked her and was planning to finish the IV first. My preceptor comes in to tell me the doctor wants to see me even though she knows I heard and she was nervous so I got the picture that if a doctor summons you the expectation is that you stop what your doing and answered the summons. So I head to the dictation office on the other side of the large ER and check my Zebra to see if I missed a call or text on the way and had not. She had indeed summoned me for a status update on a patient in what I feel was retaliation and a message that she would not tolerate being questioned. I've never had a physician treat me this way before and I worked with surgeons. Was I just very lucky? I in turn have never in my life treated or believed that CNA, or EVS or ANYONE was inferior to me. I’m a nurse because I want to be a nurse, I could easily have been a doctor if I wanted to…with the straight As and sterling record to match. I can’t get past this mentally,..ugh. I feel like I’m being a drama queen and can’t stop. Do doctors deep down really believe we are inferior to them?

I keep our orders protocols for reference.

We have a packet of resources to give them but more often than not it gets thrown back in our faces. They are usually not ready the moment they find out they are not going to get the dilauded they have been waiting for several hours to get, sometimes they even get violent. If you do come up with resources to give them stand a few feet back when you give it to them.

I don't know about Mayo clinic but I know in my hospital when we are really busy or most of the beds are filled with 'holds' the triage nurse orders labs and diagnostics and sometimes the doctor sees them in the phlebotomy/EKG room just off of the waiting room. I've had it happen quite a few times that I will get a new patient and before I can even meet them they are discharged or admitted. Sorry, meant this as a reply to the post about being astounded by the Mayo clinic moving patients in 30 minutes or less, didn't 'reply' properly.

I'm not sure if you would get your 'thrill' fix in the ER, but in my opinion its definitely less tedious than floor nursing. Sure, you get your occasional exciting cases or codes but percentage-wise your dealing with mostly primary care issues, drunks, drug-seekers, and psych issues.

I just moved from Tele to the ED myself 6 weeks ago and LOVE IT! Hope you do, too!

Those are mistakes you'll never make again...hang in there, it does get better.

Its called an assessment but it really just asks you about your experience...no need to study. There may be a written test later in the process but that isn't it.

There are plenty of State Universities that have online RN to BSN programs...University of Wisconsin,Arizizona State, and California State University Dominguez Hills are a few I can think of off the top of my head if you are that concerned about it stick with them - State University Credentials the safest bet for transfer though I'm sure there are many other for-profits that are just fine as well.

All of the community college programs are comparably good and they have all done away with wait lists. The new admission system is based solely on points so you could get in right away. I would just choose the one closest to where you live. i.e. East County...Grossmont, South County ...Southwestern, Central County...City College, North County....Mira Costa

I did both ATI and NCLEX practice questions since ATI produces the NCLEX as well. Read all the rationales, even on questions you get right and you should do fine. For me reading the book wasn't as helpful in retaining the information.

Until they pass gas; they can't eat until their GI system is working again.

Depends on how you learn. I, personally do better on ATI's when I do NCLEX practice questions. I have an app on my phone, my computer and my Ipad and I always get a Level 3 on my ATI's. Remeber ATI also writes the NCLEX so the questions are pretty much the same content. Make sure on your practice questions you read the rationales even for the questions you get correct because that is where all the useful info is.

I agree that she was fortunate to have some company for her final hours of her life. I'm a student as well and I would have cried if any of my patients in my first clinical died on me.

I would totally appreciate the opportunity to show up having at least one competency to my name, I'm sure she did, too.

The state schools are the cheapest and are easily recognized as fully accredited. I'm sure there is a CSU close to you, I know CSU Dominguez Hills has a good program. All the private schools are going to cost a lot more.

I'm currently on a Peds rotation and I get so depressed about my patients I go home crying. I see that my instructor and the nurses are able to detach themselves from the situation but I can't even fathom being able to do so. When I see a sick baby crying I can't for the life of me figure out how a nurse is supposed to walk out of the room to attend to her other duties much less inflict more pain on that baby. All I want to do is hug them and kiss them; and I get so angry that there are rarely parents there holding the baby all the time. I know its unreasonable and that is my own personal hang-up, but I can't control how I feel. I do manage not to let anyone see my emotions while I'm there but its very hard! Now I'm wondering how I'm going to be able to be a nurse if I always take work home with me and it drains me so much. *sigh* If anyone has any techniques for learning to detach emotionally I sure would like to know them. My instructor is a little intimidating and I'm pretty sure I would just get a "cowboy up" if I brought this to her and my classmates seem to be doing fine with it. Thank you

I'm sorry to hear about your losses. I know it's no consolation but maybe it's a chance for you to have some personal time to cope with all you've been going through. Best of luck to you.

Congratulations!

Good for you!

You guys are great, when I went to clinicals yesterday I told my nurse that I would love to learn anything she was willing to teach me and it was an entirely different experience. What a difference the right words can make, she had me stick with her for all her patient's-not just the one I researched and I learned more in 1 day than I think I did all semester. Now I feel like I wasted most of the semester because she seemed genuinely happy to have me stick with her and share her knowledge with me. I guess better late than never, I still have a year and a half left to get the most out of my clinical experience and I'm looking forward to it now more than ever. :) THANK YOU

Thanks for all the advice. I definitely will make sure to check in with my nurse frequently. Sometimes I can go for a couple of hours without even speaking to them beyond a cursory all is stable and I see that I need to make myself much more accessible. I thought I was making their life easier but in doing so I was probably missing out on learning opportunities.

I have recently noticed that my classmates get to learn and do many more things in clinicals than I do; even though I've been paired with the same nurses as them on many occasions. This leads me to believe that the problem is how I communicate with the nurses. I suppose I am a little bit shy but mostly I don't want to be burden to them so after report I tell them I would be happy to do anything they need help with even with their other patients and I pretty much stick to taking care of my patient and making sure they are very pampered and taken care of. How should I let my nurse know I am interested in learning anything she is willing to teach and that I would like to do as much of the care as possible without seeming pushy? Advice appreciated.

Oops ... forgot to mention it under the "specialties" category