sckimrn

If the SOB has a nurse with them, I would go to the dizziness and chest heaviness first. We were always taught airway first, but according to ACLS, perfusion is first, then airway....especially if that patient already has a nurse in the room. Then pain, then family (they are not technically my patient )

Patient's tox screen came back positive for cocaine..."It must have been that crack my daughter and her friends were smoking the other day...I must have inhaled some of it!!"

I feel like we are working in the same hospital, lol!! We get leftover potato salad that has been sitting out since noon...either that or no one bothered to clean up after the "party". We have one charge nurse that seems to think she is in charge of day shift and night shift, I have to kind of laugh at that one. I appreciate her perspective but am perfectly capable of running night shift. Don't have any problems with left over work though. They are very good about trying to tie up loose ends and very seldom leave important stuff undone. It is a 24/7 operation so we just pick up where they left off. Something that does bother me though, we get the short end of the stick when it comes to education. All that happens on dayshift and they expect us to come in in the middle of the day for it....sorry, but I am SLEEPING!!

Totally agree, nursing is a tough profession. LTC is not for everyone though, for many reasons. I did it for 4 years and thought I would do it forever. I got burnt out by all the paperwork and politics, now I am happy in my nice little med surg world. It is hard work too, just a different kind of hard. On another note, I am always leary of recommending people for a job for the very reason you stated. I did it one time and it was disastrous. I think I apologized 20 times for recommending her, lol.

Don't be too hard on yourself. I am over 4 years in and have had a few "aha moments". For me it hasn't been just one thing that clicked. There have been several times I have thought, "ok, that's what they were talking about!". My point is, everyone is different and learning is a continuous process. As long as you feel like you are making progress and learning, you are doing it right. Everybody is different! Good Luck!!

If someone touches you, ie bodyslams and puts you in a chokehold, you most definitely have the right to press charges. The facility may not like it, but no one has the right to touch you, or even get in your face and yell. I am pleasant to all of my patients, but have learned to be friendly, but very firm. It usually works. But I have no problem calling security or the nursing supervisor if need be. And thankfully I work in a facility that will back me up. And we have had a couple of our ER nurses to press charges on abusive patients. Our employers have a responsibility to provide us and other patients with a safe environment. That is the part that usually gets management to listen, if you mention you also fear for the safety of other patients.

Try to remember that nurses are people with all the idiosyncrasies that go with that. Every one has a personality and not all of them are great ones. Keep your head up, you know you are more than a taxi driver. I used to work on a floor that was very intolerant of new employees, it didn't matter if they were a new nurse or a seasoned one. They didn't like anyone new and different. It was rather sad. Even though they for some reason decided to like me, I had to get out of there. Chin up and don't ever stoop to their level. Good luck!!

Look up the policy on terminating employment and follow it. In my facility, we have to give a written 30 day notice. In your notice, state that you are thankful for the opportunity, but have decided to take a job with XYZ facility and try to cite some vague reasons, like closer to home or something like that. As long as you follow the policy, there should not be a problem. Also make sure you set up an exit interview with human resources. You can give them a little more insight if you wish. But definitely get off that floor. Unfortunately, during interviews, we are often not told the real truth and sometimes it is because the manager does not know the truth. But she obviously should know the nurse to patient ratio. RUN AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!! GOOD LUCK!! Sorry your first experience was a bad one, it will get better.

My facility used to have the rule that you had to go to medical records and sign for all the documents, but some time in the last year they changed that. We can look up anything we want on ourselves. Makes sense to me, it's not a violation of my protected information if I'm the one looking it up?...

All of us were new nurses at one time or another...it gets better....errr with time. Just don't let anyone put you down. You earned the right to call yourself a nurse.

This post hits home, especially after my shift last night. I picked up a 4 hr shift to give myself 40 hrs this week. We walk in to 12 pts and they gave us 3 nurses, a tech and no unit secretary. One of the nurses was charge so she is not supposed to take pts until after 2300 so she can get the chart checks done along with all of the other charge duties....well that didn't last. We wound up with 3 admits back to back...and without a unit secretary, we were there trying to get our patients taken care of and assessed plus putting in orders on new pts because our hospital has not started physician order entry yet I wound up staying until 0100 to help them catch up. This is beginning to be a typical shift. I love what I do, but I worry that with all the budget cuts, that this is the new normal and it's scary. It is not safe, not for us and not for our patients.

1. How old are you? Are you that much younger than they are? If so, then there is a chance a generation gap thing going on. If they are talking about issues with children then they won't value your opinion (people with children don't want to hear the opinion of someone without them if it pertains to children), but you may have insight that they may not be aware of, but sounds like they won't listen either. 2. Has this ever happened anywhere else you have worked? If so, you may want to think about the way you are presenting yourself. I am not trying to be rude, but the way you word things sounds a little condescending and that may be part of the problem. If it has not ever happened before, then you need to get with your manager and see if there is a way to work it out. Either way, good luck. It is no fun working with people you don't get along with, makes for more stress. We may not come to work to make friends, but the fact is, we do. We become friends and confidants, it is part of what makes a good team.

We see our fair share of them on the floor I work on. It's usually related to them not being able to leave the floor to go smoke. It insane how mad a person who was admitted with chest pain r/o ACS can get when you tell them that they cannot leave the floor to smoke.

I loved nursing school as well. It was by far the hardest thing I have ever done, but would not change a thing. And BTW, we had a saying as far as grades go: C=RN

I don't have any advice on how to proceed with getting your license back, but I just wanted to post a HUGE CONGRATS to you. You have done an awesome job!! Congrats on your sobriety and I am sure things will work out for you, sounds like you really want this!