ecerrn

Good point southern. Personally, I'd be happy to work at Lehigh, everything you said is absolutely correct. The other hugely monopolizing organization is just that...toxic. I've not met many people that are particularly happy there as most would be gone gone gone if not for the crash in real estate.

it sounds more like a legal/confidentiality issue. if your a student precepting, and not already hired preception, theres huge issue with you tip toeing around in the charts. likely your not covered to have access to those things.

Go for the job you want. If you don't get it this time you'll try again later. Let them know good employees are hard to keep.

Isn't that the truth. If you can't leave yet, you have to make up some canned responses that put you in a positive light. Consider it a challenge and practice for your acting career. Always maintain a professional demeanor and don't let it under your skin. People can be nasty sometimes but you don't have to be...bless your heart. :-)

wow, it seems like its the same all over. what i dont get is why neither side is held accountable for their jobs. Management knows from all the complaints who is lazy, ie never gets the vitals recorded, rooms stocked , disapears,etc, who hogs the tech for every little thing...so why is nothing ever done about it.? I'd say those places have lazy poor managers in my opinion., seems like, they are the ones not doing their jobs. :/ I've been a tech, and a nurse, so i know both sides of the coin.

Seriously your enthusiasm is leaping off the page. As already stated..do an excellent job during your rotation...when nurses start telling you to fill out an application you will know your right for it. Also ask if they can be e reference for you...in other words, if you are seen as an asset you will be invited. The rotation itself is the foot in the door.

That was something I thought as well..please order the dose as what is supplied in the ampule so I don't have to waste it...time consuming. Also, please add a frequency....and a cap...you just can't give narcs ad lib and ad infinitum in the er, not legally anyway. Also, ask the doc to explain it...just say, I'm new and still learning, will you teach me the parameters on this medication? The oath taken promises to teach others, so Dr don't mind ....or he/she shouldn't anyway. Ha. Some oldtimers like to trust the nurse to figure it out and not keep bugging them on writing additional orders for pain meds....sadly, it is no longer legal.

If you can at least get a line in the AC, you shouldn't worry about that. However, to brush up on your skills now, watch and learn. If you miss it and some on better, hang around and see what they do, and why you missed? 2 out three ain't bad, but it aint great either. You will get alot more experience in the er, heck, some of the patients will even help you, but if someone else has to start your lines all the time, you will owe me. Just so you know.

My first impression is that they are trying to get you out of the nest and flying on your own. It is very difficult thing to be a new grad - do you have any experience in health care hands on? You should be, at the end of orientation, handling your own assignment with little to no help from the preceptor. You may consider stepping down to a less hectic area until you have the basic nursing skills down, then consider adding to that experience. If you are nervous and worried about pt safety why? You would be surprised to know how we can watch you without your knowledge.....they are well aware of what you are doing at all times. Get in there...jump in and run your assignment as if you are on your own. Drive your own day. Show independence now, or apply for a transfer...the patients safety is in your hands...or it will be shortly. You have to prove you can do it. Prove it. Good luck too.

Well, if a pt is that booze soaked it needs an admission, sorry but etoh does kill. There are many out of the way places in the hospital at night, not just the waiting room...although its not my responsibility to find it...nor to pass judgement on a homeless seeking shelter, nor to worry about offending the rest of the 'clients' getting a glimpse of societies real problems. This is a management problem, not a nursing issue, but if you are willing to try to step outside your roll as homeless police and do securities job for them...well, I say your in for early burnout. Sorry, but, I have compassion for them, even if they don't seem human, they still are. Like I said before...when did it become the nurses job to boot people into the street? Discharge them, and your role is over....let admin come up with a solution so I don't have to be the bad cop. Not my job.

Still, whatever it was, it would have been common courtesy to know. I sure wouldn't want to work for someone who used such a vague and pretty phoney catchphrase...there is a manager who truly doesn't care about you, your life and how that offhand reason has affected you. That was diry and underhanded in my opinion. I'm sure that a truly compassionate manager will think so also. Be up front in your next interview, and honest about your confusion. Admit you think you may have been a little slow administering medications but I think that would be an asset. As a new grad, you are unfamiliar with giving all medications and I would expect you to take the time to look it up and be absolutely sure you understood it, even triple checking the 5 rights, that does take time...and once you give it, you can't take it back. I would chalk it up to an experience, one you will look back on and resolve never to treat someone in that way when you are a manager. You sound caring and concerned, and eager to become a great nurse, a blank slate a good employer would love to mold. Good luck, and remember, not all managers are such dragons.

An excellent course, it can be applied to any area and it will improve your critical thinking as well as help organise your assessments in ways you never imagined. As a suggestion, get the book now and prepare...you will get more out of it that way. Don't pass it by!

In my perfect world, the admitting doctor chooses the appropriate floor for admission, and the nurse does not get blamed when they say...we don't take heparin drips on this floor....adding another two hours to the patients stay in the er. In my perfect world, when the floor is notified of the admission, the nurse drops what she is doing and calls me for report....I will drop what I'm doing to give report. Once we both agree this is the right patient and the right floor, I will give a basice report and take the patient to that floor, then I will have a face to face with the patients nurse to fill her/him in any extra little particulars that may or may not come in handy during the patient stay....especially those things I don't want to discuss over the phone where there is ample opportunity for any one to eavesdrop. I don't believe the entire process running amok is solely on the shoulders of nursing....I think it is a system wide failure that has never really been addressed fully by administration....we're always functioning around a faulty system. Otherwise why do so many have the exact same complaints?

If you see someone who looks ill and/or in distress, don't you owe it to the human race to ask them if they are OK? Need of assistance, whether or not you are a nurse? However, once you whip out the stethescope you have entered a binding contract as a professional and are indeed obligated, so be careful of acting above your qualifications. It can be a fine line between good Samaritan and legal responsibility.

So give them a blanket and let them sleep inside...better than getting them back via ems for hypothermia. Have some compassion, geez, these people have many problems.

Sounds like something someone made up. Ask your supervisor what it is and what your duties are to be....they will let you know, maybe even give you a written format of what's expected.

IMO the call you back thing happens so much as to be considered taking advantage of. When the Med surg charge nurse takes the report immediately it goes smoothly, then you can continue your sterile procedure or v/s uninterupted and the er can offload that shock pt from the ems guerney and get him stable quickly. Win win. Call you later wastes so much time...even five minutes is too long a wait, besides, when you call back, now I'm stating a few ivs...where does it give?

I've used littman mostly, if the tubing cracks you can send it back and they'll replace it and the earpieces and recondition it for free, hint, don't wear it around your neck and it won't crack, or use a cover you can wash, also..whatever you get, have your name engraved on it...I've gotten mine back a few times once it was realized who it belonged to....

Yeah, that is a big pet peeve...treating the patients perspective...now how am I supposed to do that....especially if that perspective is sort of irrational. Sometimes I would love admin to try it themselves. I can't be whatever you want me to be...otherwise maybe I'd make alot more money in a different profession. My sane patients give good feedback, but when you get a three page letter written in crayon how lousy the nurse was...I mean, how can you give credence to that sort of complaint? Laughing. How can you even ask me to explain it? I'm not real happy with the way admin is going...it's like they have no brains...or experience dealing with the public. That is my biggest pet peeve...learn to read between the lines admin. My second biggest peeve is other nurses that take things from my rooms without telling me...especially stock....if you are out, go get a handful from the stock room, its not that much farther away....and don't take my IV pumps when I'm expecting a stemi in a few minutes. Grrrrrr.

Sounds like you are defending yourself. But nurses recognize all those catch phrases, the more they change, the more they stay they same....such as, in these economic times. Hospitals are still a business. Attitudes get in the way. There's always an excuse by management on why a unit is short staffed....if a business can't manage its finances well enough to provide adequate staffing, don't put that on the employee to pick up slack, at their own detriment, early burnout, physical and mental fatigue. Etc. Especially when the CEO gets close to a million dollar yearly bonus. Personally, I don't think a business should be discussing its budget limitations with employees, and since they don't want to hear my budget limitations, please keep that to yourself. Besides, there's a reason why you have a limited budget to hire people...money. I don't mean to be short, just giving you a point of view.

Seriously, there are more than one way to draw cultures, variables being whether you are using a syringe, butterfly, what other labs need drawn and tubed first or second. The blood culture doesn't matter where in the order of the draw...only if using a syringe, the aerobic container is last, so as not to inject air. It may also be better to make the culture second if using a butterfly as to to include surface cells. We always cultured last in the draw, very last is the aerobic bottle. Ask the pathologist where you work, they should be happy to tell you how to draw for quality control reasons.

Sometimes those stupid moments can turn into a story where, usually in report you all can laugh until you cry, you could incorporate the head blowing off part too..lol. you did the right thing, obviously the Dr had issues....he has a few minutes to wait...geez. I know it can be tough when you're just trying to make his job easier, you know he can place the patient in trendelenburg just as easily as you, and where did he go anyho?

Those that do should have a really good internship program

You need some experience before working in an er. It is not good for anyone, especially the patient, to have a new grad thrown into an emergent situation, and it will be very unpleasant for you. You need t have the basic patient care skills down pat before you jump in.

Please also keep in mind, how you respond to a patient with any complaint. Whatever the level, or reason they are there, they don't need to be talked down to, if you've ever had some one speak to you in that dismissive way you'll know how obnoxious it is, and it makes the rest of us look bad. Always be kind and professional. (Studies show you are then less likely to be sued) not you personally, I meant the dismissive one, we can learn what not to do in triage as well.