LaceyRN12

I feel like being a nurse is going to decrease my life expectancy. I am always so overwhelmed, stressed, mentally & physically exhausted, etc. I have no clue how nurses who have worked 20 years have done it... How do you make yourself go to work ...

I was drawing blood with a butterfly needle and accidentally stuck myself. The patient said she doesn't have HIV or hepatitis. Her blood was tested and it confirmed she was negative for both of those. My blood results still haven't come back for some...

Thank you guys for your input. I am feeling better about the whole thing. I've talked to other nurses and they all say the same thing has happened to them like 2-3 times atleast. The patient's results were negative and so were mine. Whew.

It's been a year. And I'm already burned out. Is it wrong of me to think of switching to part-time??

Hi everyone. I'm Lacey, and I'm new to this forum! Anyways, I look young for my age. And being short as well doesn't help. I've had people beat me up emotionally for looking "too young" to be a nurse. They think I'm a teenager. People don't take me s...

Thank you all for not making me feel alone. I know I'm not; it's just that hearing it from other people makes me feel a little better. Venting, and hearing others vent, makes me feel a little better, too. If we were just given the proper resources to...

All I have time for is handing out meds. I don't even have time to sit down and actually have a conversation with my patients. In fact, my co-workers were talking about the exact same thing. At least I don't feel alone about it. It's not compassion f...

When you go for an interview, ask your interviewers this: What is the orientation process like?

Thanks for your input. Yeah, I'm trying so badly to get into the area I want to, but it's so hard. And I'd LIKE to do PRN, but I need health insurance.

It's nice that you do that. But you just need to understand how stressful it is to be taking care of a lot of patients just to get another one when you feel like you can barely make it with the load you have already. It's not just getting the admissi...

I feel like I don't have enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do at work. There are always patients and family members needing everything to be perfect. And then you have sooo much charting to do. And then you get discharges and admissi...

What is exactly "on time"? 7pm?? No one I have ever come across has left at 7pm before. It's always 7:30-8:00.

What is CYA?? See ya? (lol)

I can't help it if I have to stay late because I'm waiting to give report to 2-3 nurses. They don't always come on time either and/or they're dilly dallying. I get annoyed, but I have to at least give report before I leave.

It depends on what hospital you're at and how much charting you're required to do. There's SO MUCH to do, plus you have to wait around for other nurses to come so you can finally give report to them. And sometimes the other nurses are chit chatting o...

YES. Patients' families always lie and make me look bad. "I've been waiting an hour for my nausea medication!" No, it's literally been 10 minutes... It's truly upsetting because it looks like you haven't been doing anything at all when in fact, you'v...

Thanks for your words, everybody. I feel like if I stay in the room, the patient will have more things to say or more things for me to do. "Oh, since you're in here with me..." So I don't know about that. I just wish the nurse to patient ratio was a ...

Why do you keep going back? I keep going back because I like the pay. And I keep going back because I'm waiting for my DREAM JOB POSITION. A lot of nurses don't like their jobs... actually, ask anybody about ANY job and they say they won't like it. I...

Ours doesn't use seniority... it's first-come, first-serve.

I'm glad there are a couple people who feel the same way. I don't know anybody who actually likes being a nurse. YEAH, what about NURSE SATISFACTION SCORES? I just feel like the person who passes out medications and a servant to patients and their re...

Whoa... you took the words right out of my mouth. I just feel like a pill-pusher and a servant. I don't feel like I'm making an actual difference.

Uh, it took me almost 2 years to find a job... and that's WITH volunteer experience and knowing people and having had BLS and ACLS certifications. I have a friend who's looked for longer and can't find a nursing job. So it's only been since May... yo...

I never heard of having to be rotated to both days and nights... I guess I was lucky I was hired to days. I mean, they did ask me what I preferred. I said, "I prefer days, but I can also do nights." They still gave me my preference for days.

I first look at the QRS (count how many there are to see what the heart rate is). Then see if it's regular or irregular (example: PVCs). Then I look to see if there are P waves, and go from there.

I was asked if I wanted to work for a month on night shift when I'm off orientation. I'll get paid a lot for nights, especially here in California. But I am soooo nervous. Sure, I've had a couple times in my life when I stayed up all night... but tha...