OlivetheRN

I've regularly wrestled kids who are waking up from anesthesia. Not boring. Especially when the toddler is half my weight.... It will really be facility dependent on how "boring" it is. Are you looking at a surgical center or a hospital? If it's a hospital, is it a smaller community hospital or a large trauma center? PACU nurses are responsible for recovering patients from anesthesia. We give a lot of pain medication but are also responsible for being alert for changes in breathing, cardiac status, mental status, etc. A lot of patients are routine and recover and go on to to post-op or the floor no problem, but they can change on you at the drop of a hat.

Agreed. I used to work OR and the music variations where interesting. Probably my favorite was the vascular surgeon listens to things like Drowning Pool while doing amputations. It was perfect timing when "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" was BLARING as he was handing off some guy's leg that he had just cut off.

I am great at doing a kids' first IV when they're in the 5 and up age range. I always let them see what an IV looks like and I retract the needle so they can hear the noise and see what's actually going to be in their arm and feel and touch it, etc. Everytime I've had the time to do that, the kid may cry while I've been prepping their arm and while I've actually done it, but they 9 times out of 10 don't move and definitely don't thrash around. Don't get me wrong, I still have someone else there lightly holding their arm just in case, but it's usually not needed at all. I'm also great at attracting behavioral patients when I work in that area. But hey, makes for an interesting shift lol

Last night I was in our behavioral area. I had 7 patients who were not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. I did my assessments, my room checks for the shift, pulled what seemed like 100 pills for my patients, had two patients refuse their meds, wasted said meds, had to give IM haldol to my little lady in the hall (who about got her leg up around my neck because we were all focused on holding her hands). We tried and failed to shuffle my patients around to make room for three more behavioral patients that showed up in the lobby in and amongst all that stuff that happened in my first 4 hours. After that it was cruising...checks, documenting hourly rounds, redirecting people back to their rooms, their was a straight cath on my hall lady when a room briefly opened up that we could do it in and change her in, then another IM injection, then just a lot of helping my coworkers with minor stuff (IVs, getting EMS patients settled, etc).

What will be challenging to one person may not be challenging to another based on a variety of factors, i.e. their strengths, their weaknesses, their background (have they worked in the medical field before and if so, as a CNA, an EMT, etc), personality factors (my slightly ADD type personality LOVES the ED and HATED a medsurg environment, so medsurg is "challenging" for me), and also what interests you. Your initial question does not have a one size fits all answer in my opinion, because there are a lot of areas of nursing that can be as challenging as you make it. In the ER I work in they are always asking for volunteers from various shifts to learn how to use a new piece of equipment such as our CHF vest we have and things like that. Your job and your area of nursing is what you make it beyond the required con ed you HAVE to do for the BON and your job.

I think that will depend on the type of acute care area you work in. Working in the ER, yes, I give a TON of IV meds, but if I'm working in our fast track area (or depending on how the night is going in our behavioral med area...) I will give a TON of IM meds. Tetorifice, toradol, sometimes dilaudid or morphine, I've given IM solu-medrol over there, muscle relaxers, and good Lord if we have to give the first Rabies vaccine, it's like a jigsaw puzzle figuring out where to put them all if the patient is on the heavier side (we will literally draw a diagram of where all their injections are going bahahaha).

Working in the ER we get patients and family members who are in high stress situations or, more often, are just impolite people who don't understand that their ingrown toenail does not take priority over the person we are doing CPR on in the next room or the person who is doing their best to die on us. Honestly, I treat them as I do the psych patients I work with. Establish boundaries, give them consequences for their actions, and follow through with the consequences. Im fortunate enough that there is one particular doctor that I work with who if he finds out that a patient or visitor is being abusive towards a staff member will go in the room a set things straight in a hot minute. "This is Olive. She is your nurse, not your verbal or physical punching bag. You will treat her with respect. Is there any part of that that you do not understand or that I need to clarify?" I love that man. Great, great guy to work with.

When I was working in PACU and would occasionally do days in post-op, there was one urologist in particular who wanted us to tell EVERY patient who was going home with a foley how to cut the port in the event that the Foley catheter got yanked on but not totally pulled out. Then there was another one who argued that that should be done for males but not females. When I moved to the OR if the two of them worked together on a case they would get on that topic occasionally and oh my gracious they would drive each other batty hah

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Girl (okay, I'm assuming here, forgive me if I'm wrong), it's been like 4 days! You gotta give yourself some credit where credit is due! The number of patients that you're juggling at one time is a lot, and as a new grad it's a steep learning curve with a quarter of that amount. As a PP said, focus on one task at a time until it's completed, unless of course an emergent situation comes up, then move on to the next. I don't use these for myself because I work in the ER, but you might benefit from something like a brain sheet to help organize your day and tasks. I did like them for when I was still in school and doing clinicals on med/surg floors. They helped me have a visual of what needed to be done all in one place without having to go into everyone's separate chart to see specific orders, med times, etc,and this may be particularly helpful for you given that you guys do papercharting. It also let me quickly do a loose plan of my shift (that usually went to $&*% quickly, but the thought was nice lol)

We have the same system of when we clock out we're asked did we take a 30 minute uninterrupted lunch break. My typical policy is to say yes if I did or if I didn't but had the opportunity to and didn't for whatever reason by my own choice and no if I didn't because I legitimately couldn't for reasons outside of my control. Luckily our management does not punish us when we answer honestly because our numbers for those shifts will generally reflect that we couldn't realistically take a lunch, even if staffing was appropriate because EMS was hammering us or we had 2 CPR in progresses come in at the same time, etc. I will admit I do miss working on a unit that would give us 45 minute lunches because "since we can't really do 15 minute breaks we just put it in with your lunch" and on busy days "sorry, we may have to cut your lunch down to 35 or 40 minutes cause it's a crazy day ya know" Those were the days man

I have yet to come across one

Pt had came in with complaints of constipation and abd pain. Had taken Epsom salts at home the night before and that morning. Wadled over to in room toilet with my assistance and had explosive diarrhea all over toilet and surrounding floor. Splattered up wall and up to my thighs. I had poo squishing between my toes....

Dude. I need to move. Most nights I'm lucky if I get 15 minutes to stand in the break room an inhale something. The other night my lunch was me eating a Tupperware container of strawberries and pineapple spread out over like 3 hours of my shift ducking behind the monitor of my computer at the desk and I drank half a can of diet Mt. Dew.