freckles23

freckles23's Latest Activity

1. 

   Wait for open position?

   freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

   Hi everyone. I have been a tele/med-surg nurse for 6 years. I moved to a bigger level 1 hospital 2 years ago from a small community hospital. My dilemma is that I feel im super stagnant in the position im currently in. I want to learn more and do more. My current manager happens to also be manager for CCU. I would like a CCU position but there are no openings right now and there is also a list of staff that would also like to go when positions open up. I really don't want to see myself in the same position a year from now, not learning anything or just going thru the motions. I saw that there are some ICU positions open at the moment. Should I go to ICU and get my critical care experience and then maybe transfer to CCU when/if a slot opens up? I love cardiac but I need to make some career moves. What would you do?
2. 

   Food donations

   freckles23 posted a topic in Disasters

   How are food donations being handled at your hospital due to the pandemic? I know some places are setting up gofundmes. I ask this because the other day I had a coworker call a place and ask if we can have food delivered to us for free at the big hospital in town. I actually found it rude to ask for that and figured if they donated, the restaurants do it at their discretion. Thoughts?
3. 

   Venti vs nonrebreather

   freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

   In the event a patient is SOB Or distress, would you place a NRB or venti on them without a Dr order? I dont want to overstep my boundary but also dont want the pt in distress.
4. 

   Staff drama

   freckles23 replied to freckles23's topic in Nursing

   I have also written several emails to management regarding certain coworkers not fulfilling their job needs and it seems like they want multiple emails before they even take action of anything. I try not to come off as complaining to management because I am sure they are sick of hearing all of the complaints but I do not feel supported when it comes to working as charge it becomes very difficult. Also many nurses will come to me to complain about somebody not doing their work but they do not want to write the emails to management so they come to me for a resolution but how do they expect me to resolve something that They don’t even want to send an email about? I tell them to write an email to management because nothing will get resolved otherwise. So do not come to me to resolve something if you do not want to resolve it yourself. I am not superwoman.
5. 

   Staff drama

   freckles23 replied to freckles23's topic in Nursing

   They complain to all charges. Some might handle it better than others. I hate confrontation so alot of the time I throw my hands up like “i dont know, you figure it out if u want it changed so bad” because its alll the time. U can never make anyone happy. They need to realize nursing is always changing and you will never have the same patient load twice usually with all the admits and discharges daily, although we try our best.
6. 

   Staff drama

   freckles23 replied to freckles23's topic in Nursing

   We are a brand new unit so they took us from our 17 bed unit to a 38 bed unit and we have maybe 7 experienced nurses and the majority are the new grads. We get pulled to help the new grads, answer their questions, deal w their patients and issues because they cant handle their assignments or dont know proper protocol. I dont mind helping at all but it all becomes too much when the secretary is calling u to tell u they put 3 patients on the books and to review their orders before we accept the patient, go help the new grad, get vocera’ed for every little thing and then im more prone to lose my train of thought w my patients making it risky for me to make a mistake. They hired all of these new grads and there is barely anyone with experience on the same shift because they try and spread us out throughout the week. It can never be a shift of people knowing what they are doing or handle their own. I have to be in 8 million places at once every shift and in exhaustedddd
7. 

   Staff drama

   freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

   Does anybody else feel like nursing is making them jaded? I am a pretty easy-going person and usually get along with everyone but I realize my role as charge nurse has made it very difficult to have relationships with staff. There are people that don’t like their assignments especially the new grads which furiates me because they expect their same assignment even when they have been off for days or they will look at the assignment board and question me on why they have the difficult patient on the floor or why they dont have their same patients. These new grads feel entitled for some reason or feel entitled to change assignments or other things. They honestly dont realize how good they have it. They have max 5 maybe 6 patients. I came from a unit of 9 patients. Also management does not want to give the new grads the difficult patients because they think the more experienced nurses can deal with it better which made me really mad the other day because I said the new grads are just as capable as I am to handle this patient and if they do not learn now when will they learn? So a patient was taken off of my assignment so the new grad could have it , it was someone with a CBI. if you are going to give me such a difficult patient then do not expect me to be charge on top of it with the floor of 38 patients, 5 including my own patients. Somebody has to have these patients and they seem to take it personal and then I start to take it personal because they start questioning me after I’ve had five years of experience and I am also charge. This has led people to not like me. I really try to give everybody their assignments back but our unit is so big that if I were to give everybody their assignment back they would be walking all over the unit and not be in blocks. There are also nursing assistants that give a lot of Push back whenever they are asked to do some thing. People are becoming lazy and do not do what is in their job description which leads to drama because it becomes talked about and work does not get done. I hate being charge nurse we don’t get paid extra for it and I don’t have time to deal with the drama of the nursing assistant and nurses when I have my own patients to handle especially if my assignment is heavy. The reason why our charge nurse has a patient assignment is because our nurse ratio Will go down a nurse so we all decided to keep the nurse and somebody will be charge. I don’t have time for the petty drama, like I did not get this room can you please change that assignment or give me this patient or why am I doing a clip and prep for this patient. We try to divide it up as evenly as possible but sometimes one of the people will get an extra clip and prep based on staffing. This has led me to have a very sour attitude and on edge all the time and I find myself always talking about the issues or complaining about the issues on the floor and this is not who I usually am but it has become too much and I don’t like the person I am becoming. How can I make these situations better? I am 27 and I feel like people do not respect me because I am not older. When people tell me how to do my job as charge nurse I take it personal because it makes me feel like I am not doing things correctly or doing things wrong so it makes me want to make them do the assignments Themselves or fix the other situations. If they want to be charge so bad then be charge I don’t want to be it. I don’t have time for the drama. What can I do? sincerely very frustrated nurse
8. 

   MSN

   freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

   I have my BSN and work on a TAVR unit. Been a nurse for 6 years. Not sure what direction to take my nursing career. I believe its important to keep educating and getting the highest degree possible to give myself the most options for the future. I want to get a MSN but I dont know what interest I will have and dont want to waste time going to school if its going to be a waste down the line. But I want to get an advanced degree while im still single and have the time to dedicate. I just dont know if its worth it to waste my time now if im really unsure of my path. I figured I would have gained clarity since ive been in the field for quite some time. I was thinking maybe education and become a clinical instructor or work in a facility with nursing students and work as an RN per diem or vice versa. I dont think I have a desire to be an NP because of the struggle people have even finding someone to precept them has me terrified and that I wont find a position since its so overloaded with NPs these days. Also, dont you need to maintain a certain amount of clinical hours as an NP to practice? So say I wanted to teach with my NP, id have to maintain my NP license by my clinical hours (please correct me to clarify). Any advice on either situations? Also, if I get my MSN in education, what are usually the requirements to keep my MSN in education active? Does it become inactive if I dont teach? Need some clarification.
9. 

   Starting on a brand new unit

   freckles23 replied to freckles23's topic in Nursing

   I would def like to! And the policies are iffy. Like we opened for a certain patient population but are taking patients beyond the expectations of the unit so its hard to tell exactly what the expectation is I work nights so alot of the management is on day shift. We do have an on source person but shes been searching for answers as well. We have a unit educator but shes getting acclimated herself. Sure we can ask cvicu or cpacu but it still differs from our unit. I guess itll be a learning process
10. 

    Starting on a brand new unit

    freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

    So my small tele unit (17 patients) just moved to a brand new cardiac floor (38 patients) that was built In our hospital and it is supposed to be majority tele and then 9 cardiac stepdown unit beds (TAVR patients). They hired a whole bunch of new grad nurses and then there are those of us that transferred over. We basically have new nurses training newer nurses which is very scary to think about. I have 5 years experience as an RN but still find myself asking millions of questions a day. Anyways, we are starting this new unit from scratch, all new management and there are so many things that has gone wrong such as figuring out how to properly staff the unit and how to assign which patients to who. There are so many things missing on the unit as far as equipment or minor inconveniences. I know it will take time but I feel like they rushed to open this unit and they really should have had nursing staff view the floor to give their input which would have helped the now minor inconveniences and I feel like we need a nurses touch to be like this should be added/removed. Management is open to our suggestions and we are all excited for this unit. But even management doesnt know how to go about alot of the problems we have encountered. Has anyone started on a brand new unit and what was the outcome? Im excited and I know kinks need to be worked out and im trying to think if the kinks are something that could have been resolved if it was planned out better before moving there or if its easier to have trial and error while in action on the unit. It is cool because we can add our touch on things and ideas will be nurse driven and it makes me want to get involved more and im excited to learn more. i do feel like there wasnt adequate training given to us to care for stepdown patients. They gave us some online modules to go over and to shadow in cpacu and cvicu but we didnt see much in there. So now these patients are coming to the unit and im clueless. I know it takes some understanding on my part to dedicate time as well. I just dont like that I feel we are blinded into what kinds of patients we can accept, what procedures, drips, protocols (since there really are none in place). Curious of other peoples opinions, ideas, thoughts, suggestions.
11. 

    Precepting

    freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

    I have been a nurse for 5 years. I am supposed to be precepting one of the ex nursing assistants on our unit. I feel like I am not a good person to precept because I still question alot of things myself and dont feel I know as much as other nurses because im constantly learning everyday. I want her to be able to get a sufficient orientation and I dont know if I feel she will get that with me. What can I do to make me a good preceptor? What advice can you give me to make sure she has a positive experience?
12. 

    Board certified

    freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

    How did everyone study for their board certification? Im scheduled to take my cardiovascular certification and bought the mometrix review book but not sure if I should be studying test questions or content? Is it similar questions to nclex? Any advice is appreciated
13. 

    Shared governance

    freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

    Hey all! So I finally finished my BSN and I want to get more involved with nursing committees/activites, etc. I have been on the cardiac/tele unit for 1 year but worked in another hospital for 2 1/2 years. I have been a practicing nurse for a total of 4 years. I am currently getting pressure from management and nurse educators to become co-chair of shared governance. I do not feel confident to partake in this role because I lack confidence in my nursing practice period. I feel like other nurses are alot smarter than me. At the hospital I was at for 2 1/2 years I was always in survival mode and not learning much, just trying to keep everyone alive and get thru med pass. But this current job allows me more time to learn skills and ask questions and think critically. I dont know if Id be a good fit for co-chair which eventually leads to chair the following year. It is kind of intimidating being close with management for this role. Anyone with experience in shared governance? What exactly do you do in shared governance? What other activites or committees are you a part of? I want to be more than just a staff nurse.
14. 

    Crying at work

    freckles23 posted a topic in Nursing

    I have been an RN for 4 years. Today I had an emotional shift where a patient’s care became escalated very quick. He ended up needing to be intubated and had to have massive transfusions and eventually had to go to SICU. I followed everything I needed to do and reached out to our ICU nurse and other nurses for opinions and thats when the residents and everybody.. 20 or so people came in the room... finally escalated his care. It wasnt a rapid response but it should have been but it all happened so fast once the ICU nurse came and there was no way to document accurately and timely. There was chaos everywhere in the room and once I transferred the patient, I broke down. I cried infront of coworkers I felt comfortable with about how I feel I shoulda, coulda, woulda did this so it didnt escalate so quickly but it was also the MDs fault alot of things werent carried out. I felt like a fool crying infront of them but I couldnt hold it back. Usually im okay but the fact that I bonded with him and his family, it just hurt a lot more. I feel like when something like that happens, everyone looks at the nurse like why wasnt something done sooner or that I didnt carry out my duties well enough. I was with the patient ALL night, busted my butt and my concern was being neglected by the PMD. Anyone else ever feel this way? I just feel guilty. I admitted him and he was alright but 2 shifts later he eventually decompensated. It made me upset that he decompensated when I took care of him twice. It made me upset to see the family walk into ICU because I dont want them to look at me with ill will like I caused it or didnt act quick enough when he was fine when the left at night. Share your stories pleasee.
15. 

    Nurses with bipolar or anxiety/depression

    freckles23 replied to freckles23's topic in Disabilities

    I have been a nurse for 4 years. I left my old job because the ratios were 1:9 and I feel like thats where my anxiety came from because I was always in crisis mode and stressed out so I left the job. Im currently at 1:6 which is a tad bit better depending on the acuity. I had an appt for a therapist along w psychiatrist but then a snow storm hit the day I had a therapy session and it got cancelled so I never rescheduled. I keep telling myself my feelings and problems are miniscule compared to someone else and I have my days where im good thinking I dont need help but then when im low I tell myself I should really go talk to someone.
16. 

    Nurses with bipolar or anxiety/depression

    freckles23 posted a topic in Disabilities

    Any of my fellow nurses diagnosed with bipolar or anxiety/depression? I was recently diagnosed with bipolar w hypomania but having difficulty accepting it. I really thought it was just anxiety with depression. Reason I say anxiety depression is because I have been feeling low for the past 2 years or so where I just dont have the same desires, motivation and just want to sleep all the time, hopeless, sad, no confidence and poor sed satisfaction. Then when I go to work I am anxious due to all the duties of a nurse and become annoyed very easily. So it is hard to tell if I really am bipolar or just anxious? I do tend to overthink things, binge eat which has caused significant weight gain, irritable or angry over small things, difficulty sleeping or sleep too much because I work night shift and sometimes when I go out im either happy or in my feelings. I feel these are normal feelings due to life and its stressors and how annoying people can be majority of the time. Any advice/tips? I was started on lamictal about 5 weeks ago and I know these meds take about 6 weeks to notice any changes depending on dosage or if its even the right med for me.