LauraRN1

Smallish town in AL: $17.25 base with $3.00/hr shift diff and $2.00/hr critical care pay (ICU only).

I really appreciate all the replies. I do want to try to stick it out for a year (only 9 months to go! :/ ) I just hope I can keep my license for that long and not harm any patients in that amount of time. I'm really considering home health as my next move. Normal hours, normal shifts, much less intense. I just hope I can make it.

Oh gosh, did I write this? I, too, often forget to look at the big picture and forget to about my labs, etc. Unless I've been notified of a critical lab value, I tend to just forget about them since it always seems like I have so much going on. I've been called out a few times for not knowing why a patient was still in ICU and just this morning I didn't realize that a patient's K level was 3.0 and the nurse who was taking my patient was annoyed (rightly so) that I hadn't called in the result to the MD and got a order to replace her K. I'm three months in to my first job as a nurse and I'm not sure it gets better but just know that you're not alone.

No. That nurse/patient ratio is horrible.

Yes, 6 weeks. I've talked to my preceptor/charge nurse about it and she talked to our unit manager and you know what I got? 1 extra day. I was told by our nurse manager that we are expected to just come to work with a lump in our throats for the first year just hoping we don't kill anybody. I feel like I've made several errors already and that it is only a matter of time before I could lose my license. I've never felt more unprepared for a job in my life.

I'm three months in to my first job as an RN in the ICU...night shift of course. And I absolutely hate it. I had 6 weeks of orientation and I just don't feel like I know how to take care of my patients. I feel like I've already forgotten so much that I learned in school. I never had a real interest in ICU, I just applied for the position as I was considering CRNA school (which I've now decided against). What I dislike: feeling overwhelmed and underprepared, needing help to do anything for my patient besides giving meds and basic assessments, working night shift, the acuity of the patients and all the drips/ventilators. I am so depressed and but I just don't feel like I can leave. First of all, I don't think it's professional to leave a job after just a few months and I don't think I'd have an easy time finding something else since when the only nursing experience I'll have had is just three months. I'd really like something with less stress and where I can work days. In school I really enjoyed clinicals at the health department and home health/hospice. I don't know if I should try to tough this out for a year and then try to move into one of those other areas or if I should just start trying now. I'm just so unhappy right now and even though everyone says it takes a year to feel comfortable in ICU, I just don't know if I'm cut out for it. Any advise? I'd appreciate any that I can get.