unicoRNurse

What makes this job stressful? Let's see... Life and death. Constant short staffing. High acuity patients, and too many of them. Families. Doctors. Management. Too much to do and not enough time to do it. Very long hours, often without breaks. Patient satisfaction surveys. Etc.

I'm glad to have found this post, so I didn't have to write it myself! I am a new nurse on a busy stepdown unit and I am having trouble managing my time as well; it is so frustrating. On one hand, it feels like "time management" means "wizardry" -- it seems impossible to get everything done on time when things go sideways, yet others seem to manage. I don't know what changes I can make, and I have yet to find someone who can articulate some specific, concrete ideas on how I can improve (I have asked, but believe it or not, "be faster" is simply not a helpful suggestion). I manage to stay mostly above water when things are normal -- meaning we are "properly" staffed at 4:1 and we have a PCA -- but more often than not we are short staffed, having to take more (very heavy) pts, and often work without a PCA. Even the veteran nurses are struggling under those circumstances, and morale is not the highest. I don't think the OP is blaming these outside forces for her struggles; I think she is simply acknowledging the reality of the situation, and recognizing that those conditions have an impact on the training and practice of a new nurse. Like the OP, I freely admit that my newness is the primary issue, and my need to improve my time management is undisputed; tips on how to do that are what I would hope to gain from this this thread. I spent the better part of a day off making a brain sheet specific to my unit, but I don't have time to fill it out when I'm working. I pre-made dozens of post-it notes with my charting to-do list, so I don't have to write that out for each pt at the beginning of each shift; that saves a few minutes, anyway. I am definitely going to try the color-coded ink suggestion made by the previous poster, as it seems like a great way to organize information so it is more readily navigable at a glance. I hope this thread will produce more ideas -- from color coding notes to how successful nurses organize their shifts, handle occurrences that tend to derail new nurses, and save time. Thanks to the OP for posting this, to those who have already responded, and in advance to those will respond. I look forward to reading more responses, and to hopefully finding among them more ways to improve my time management skills.

I was licensed in July, contacted by recruiting in September to start the process, had interviews and shadowing in October, was officially offered the job in November, and started in December. I was called to interview by the other hospital system to which I had been applying a couple days after I accepted the position with the first system (November). Just keep plugging away and applying. Even if you don't start out in your "dream job," you will have your foot in the door somewhere, and the opportunity to get that critical first year of experience.

30 min, unpaid.

I know this is an older post, but I wanted to add that I have one of those nylon pocket protector things in which I keep my pens, scissors, penlight, hemostats, alcohol pads, Sharpie and dry erase marker, and it's proved invaluable. In addition to making it easy to empty my pocket and not lose that stuff between shifts, ink ruins white scrubs (and I'm not huge on fashion, but ink-stained pockets on white scrubs is not a cute look) and it's too easy to not click a pen closed before putting in in your pocket. In my other top pocket I carry my watch on a lanyard. In my pants pockets I keep my own stuff -- a tissue, lip balm, gum, and a few dollars for lunch. In my cargo leg pocket I keep my phone; my hope is that it's low and lateral enough that it's out of harm's way.

I would be surprised if your facility's policy didn't require you to report something like that to management.

So this person is willing to sacrifice patients' and staff members' health and safety to ensure she isn't awoken again at night. Nice. I wouldn't wear it on my neck. I would do lanyard in pocket, as suggested by a previous poster, or put the keys on one of those plastic coil key chains and wear it high on my arm, above the elbow, on the outside of my sleeve. Or maybe even clip them to my pants with a mini carabeener. There are plenty of ways to attach (yet another) item to one's person without making it a dangerous, swinging mass of bacteria.

1:4. General, but lots of cardiac (we recover cardiac cath with intervention), and there are also 4 dialysis beds.

Let go or be dragged.

TBI = traumatic brain injury.

In my area, and in my experience, knowing someone is key. Despite a stellar academic record and receiving awards for my clinical practice, I couldn't get the time of day until a friend who works for the company emailed the recruiter for one system saying, "unicoRNurse applied for x job, and I just wanted to let you know that she would be an excellent addition to the team, yadda yadda." Even then, it was over a week past my follow-up email (which I sent a month after my friend's referral email) that I got a call. I did eventually get hired (for a different position), but haven't started working yet. The only other people from my class who have jobs (who didn't already work as MAs or PCAs for the systems that hired them) are people who had friends give their resumes to NMs, totally bypassing the recruiter/HR. That is how a LOT of hiring seems to happen. Full disclosure, I only applied for jobs I wanted (FT hospital positions, with two hospital systems only), and I actually did end up getting a call from the system at which I did not have an "in," a couple days after I got hired at the other system. Had I applied for LTC/SNF, home health, or other systems, I may have been hired sooner than late October, but I have a good job that permitted me to be a little more selective. Good luck in your search!

Nurses in all white. :/

Milysa made a good point; I wore white scrubs because the NM asked me to. I would definitely ask someone what to wear (if it weren't specified) rather than guessing.

I agree with Swellz. When I shadowed, it was strictly observation (I'm sure there is a liability reason for that), and the NM told me straight out that the purpose was for me to get a feel for the culture of the unit, and see if I think I would be happy there, and for the nurse I shadowed to offer the NM an opinion on how well I would fit in with their culture. The NM's position was that the nursing skills will come with time and experience, but you can't teach compassion, good interpersonal skills, integrity, etc., so it was important to her that the right candidate have those traits (and a compatible personality) more than anything else. I wore nursing whites (what the nurses there wear), and made sure to look professional (clean, pressed scrubs, shoes polished, subtle makeup, hair pulled back, no gum, etc.). I'm pleased to say that 1) I wanted the job more after I shadowed than I did before, and 2) lucky for me, I was offered the position and will start next month! :). Good luck to you!

In some places (Canada, for one) they say they "wrote" an exam instead of saying they "took" an exam. I don't believe the OP is the author of the test.