WordWrangler

My friend works in an office where the nurses were given gift cards and treated to a group lunch outside the facility at a restaurant just down the block. She said it was fun and relaxing and she felt special. Where I work? I didn't realize it was Nurses' Day until I met my friend for dinner the next evening. Not a word, not a mention. So, that's making me feel like I bust my behind every day for good reason, right? It's not like I do my job in order to be acknowledged, but what's the harm, exactly in acknowledging jobs well done? It's not like they hold back if they need to criticize for pieces of a job that are NOT well done. Generally speaking, I'm not a complainer (not by any means) but this slap in the face (really? Not even a privately emailed letter of thanks from all the docs or the nurse manager? nothing at all?) makes me sad to continue in a place with the potential to do so much better.

Front desk will pass the call back to the RN's line. If the RN is busy (and I usually am) that call goes to VM and the RN will return the calls in order of priority. The VM prompts the caller with what info to leave for the nurse to return the call. From that point, the RN would return the call to get s/s and decide the need for an appt and how soon it would be needed.

Holy cats, I'm wondering if I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote your post myself. You're me in another place, my friend. And you'll be cool. Your subconscious is just telling your "what will be will be" attitude that this test costs some major bucks. :)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! And please do not apologize for posting too much info on how you passed the boards. I'm always just happy to see proof positive that hard work and studying pays off. You go, you RN, you!

Face your insecurities, know they are there, know others have them as well, and move on. You're not great right now and you're not going to be -- no one expects you to be great right now. And others in your class who are telling you it should be easy or they aren't afraid may well be lying or may be TRYING to get a reaction out of you. Who cares what they're feeling? You already know what you're feeling, right? Someone up above said she found someone whose style she admired and tried to emulate it. That's a good way to go about it. You think you aren't smart just because you aren't yet getting the results you want, but knowing you're doing all you can do to get those results WHILE learning and improving continually is the thing that's going to make you smarter and going to get you the results you do want. I hope this makes sense. It's late and I'm tired. Best of luck chickadee -- don't be afraid to vent, and when you finally do start to feel a glimmer of confidence, embrace it and let it grow.

I am right there with you. Three months to go and I am having such trouble motivating to continue to learn (see, I'm right here now!!!) But I know if I stop now, even with all I've learned so far, there's a chance I won't pass the semester. There's a chance I'll have to wait another year to roll around to retake the semester. There's that chance that I won't be able to wait that long and that I'll never be able to motivate myself this hard EVER AGAIN IF I DON'T PUSH REALLY HARD RIGHT NOW. Yeah, I really do get that. And if we DO push really hard right now, it will never, ever, ever again be as bad as it has been the last several semesters. We will be nurses. And nurses rock life.

At my age, I have no modesty left (well, not much, anyway), but I was a tad nervous about going in on my first round of clinicals to do the physical assessments. I was looking for advice and the best I found was from a nun who trained other RNs who said of the male parts, "grab it like you own it." Which I took to mean as if you were used to handling it. But it made me laugh, made my own nerves subside a bit, and when you get in that room and you have a patient whose dignity is in shreds around him, you will not care a bit to anything other than the best you can for him while protecting what is left of his ego.

Stop stressing it. Everybody has a different path and not just those who have had work as CNAs get hired. I have a list of varied job experiences and twenty years of childraising behind me and I'm not going to let any of them lower my confidence in what are new skills to us ALL. Go get em, tiger. Polish up that resume and be prepared to give a killer interview and you're fine. Can't we all stop trying to be intimidating to each other? What is the point???

Oh, ugh.... Ignore, ignore, ignore. We have several who apparently never listen in class and spend all their time on fb asking questions (about meeting times, counseling appts, etc) when if they'd listened in class they would know. Ignore, ignore, ignore.

The teachers who recite from their power points which are taken verbatim (and yet, somehow still contain grammatical errors?) from the books we were supposed to read before lecture? Those teachers get poor evaluations from me every time, every semester so far. They are also the ones who have years of floor experience and yet cannot seem to give us any good examples of care, examples that would pound those concepts into our heads.... it is befuddling to me how some teachers CAN NOT teach but expect us to learn. In YOUR case, I'd urge you not to worry so much about the "fluffing." Nothing annoys me more than people complaining that they don't get enough positive feedback. If someone does something outstanding, by all means, praise them. But to my mind, we are learning to be nurses, not kindergarteners. If I don't get an outright criticism of something I do, I call it a good day!

Consider when you are going through the rotation that you are learning how best to help those who need it most. As you said, not every baby is born into a family bursting to care for it to their very best ability. Learn those assessment skills, get ready to teach those parents some things, and just have the best attitude you can have. Clinical isn't a bad thing at all. Our first day of OB, we experienced a 16 wk delivery --obviously traumatic. For those of us who had experienced miscarriage or other fetal demise, it was more traumatic, but again, learning experience. You look at the whole process differently when you are there in a professional capacity. I had so dreaded that OB rotation, myself, but I'd say it was surprisingly wonderful for me. Not that I'd do it for work (maybe!) but it was way better than I anticipated. You sound to me like you're honest with yourself, so just try to remind yourself to look for the opportunities to learn, to teach, and to care as best you can. And maybe it will suck. but you'll manage.

I was instructed this previous semester to palpate the DP bilaterally at the same time, as well, to judge differences in quality of each. Sometimes it's hard to find those pedal pulses in sick patients, but keep at it. They know you're learning.

THANK you for posting this at a time when there are so many of us slogging through finals, through the ends of long clinical rotations, and hearing how hard it is going to be to find work. THIS is what I'm looking for and it's up to ME to find it by choosing the right attitude in the face of challenges. If you and I were closer, we would be friends.

Okay, first, STOP allowing all non-productive thinking. Focus right this minute on passing, passing, passing. Learn that material. If you don't, you'll never have to even think about why there are people in your class who don't like you. They don't sound like people you SHOULD like, so don't waste time fretting over them. Second, -- nope, that's it. Study your butt off and pass and then worry about the rest next semester, if ever. Nursing isn't nursing school and all you need is that degree. VERY best of luck to you.

Some people are ugly. Some of them are simply thoughtless about the discomfort they may be causing to another person, and some people are just trying to claw their way to the "top" and don't care whom they may step on to get there. I had a girl attempt to do that to me when we had our first group sim and I was assigned a job with which I was unfamiliar. She stood behind me saying "This one doesn't know what to do," and i turned to her and said for the whole room to hear, "My voice works better than yours and I can speak for myself, thanks." And turned to the instructor to say, "Yeah, I'm at a loss... what is my priority here?" It's a clinical simulation and if you can't admit you don't know anything THERE, you're going to be a holy terror on the floor.