RLJS

That was my first thought.

Some very nice EMS size bandage scissors and a new pen

Document, document, document! Our physician's get the hint fast and discharge the patient fairly fast.

I eat dinner around 4pm before I go to work; breakfast when I get home from work at 8am; and a healthy snack (yogurt, fruit, nuts) on the run at work because I rarely get a break. I also try to stay hydrated.

Unfortunately, patient satisfaction scores rank higher than employee satisfaction. I've had patient's decline to let me care for them. It bothered and frustrated me when I was a new nurse until my preceptor told me "you can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time so just learn to let it go. It's their loss b/c you're a great nurse." It's usually some petty BS reason why they don't want you as their nurse anyway!

I've been a nurse for 4 years and that feeling has never gone away. My time management and deligation skills have gotten light years better and It helps me to remember that patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one I have in mind. Additionally, that I have 12 hours to get it done.

Apply at a Healthsouth Rehabilitation Hospital. They hire ADN's and will pay for you to get your BSN. You'll build a solid foundation of med surg skills with 5 primary care patients max or 10 patients with a tech. We do IV's, picc line draws/care, trach care, peg tubes, wound care, wound vacs, osteomyelitis care, etc. I'm on my 3rd year there and love it! Learn something new everyday.

Run don't walk out of there and find another job

I work at a nationally known, Texas based rehabilitation hospital and our ratio's are 5:1 on primary care with no tech and 8:1 or 10:1 with a tech. Either way, it's brutal with all of the lifting requirements of the job.

I keep nail clippers attached to my badge b/c I am always breaking my nails popping pill pkgs open and I can't stand going the entire shift with a sharp, broken nail that I could scratch a patient with, so I use the clippers to trim it off. I see nothing wrong with that.

Speaking from experience, do not give up your dream of becoming a Dr., you will regret it later and resent her for it. Do not add the stress of having a baby into the mix until you have resolved your other marital issues. Stop sending your wife's family money until your wife gets a job. Then, she can send them some but not all of her salary. This is America, not the phillipines. There is no tempo tempo here in these economic times. Unfortunately, it takes two incomes to make it here and she needs to be considerate of that instead of putting all of the burden on you...at least until you have a residency and are earning a salary.

I had high anxiety when I was. New Grad and sought professional help for it. I take medication for it on the days that I work. On my days off, I try to leave work or thoughts of work totally out of my mind and enjoy my days off, I sleep, eat well, exercise, and generally treat myself well. I try not to second guess myself but rather learn from my mistakes.

I live 20 minutes away from the hospital and I work 12 hour night shifts. Max for me would be 30-45 minutes away

Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Apply yourself, study hard, don't blow off assignments, and buy some NCLEX question study books. I went to nursing school in my 50's, worked 1 full time job and 3 part time jobs and maintained a 3.38 GPA. You can do it!

Me too. I'm cordial and helpful to everyone but I know who the troublemakers, backstabbers and negative nellies are and I keep my distance. I'm usually too busy anyway. When I'm done with my work, I try to help others, especially my techs. When it's time to do my charting, I usually go to an alcove on my hallway with my WOW for the peace and quiet. I avoid hanging out at the nurses station where the clique and gossip mongers chat. I work nights and we work well as a team...most of the problem children seem to work on the day shift. They are so negative when they come in in the morning that I can't wait to get out of there after report

Obtain your Certified Medication Aide license; work part time doing that; it pays more than CNA work. I worked 16 hour double shifts every Saturday and Sunday while I was in RN school. I also cleaned houses a commercial office buildings parttime. I had to drop out for 6 months for financial reason's but I picked right off where I left off and graduated. I don't know what state you live in but both KS and MO have assistance programs for nursing students through Workforce Development Office (formerly Job Service Center. Seriously check that out.

I think they're demanding and totally out of touch with reality but because of Press Gainey Scores, I of course am not allowed to express that to them. Instead, I just smile, nod, let them vent, and then do whatever the heck it was that I went into their room to do in the first place, before calmly leaving their room and going on to my next patient. If the patient is totally out of line, yelling and being verbally abusive to me... I tell them that I'll be back later when they've "had a opportunity to calm down and compose themselves" or I call a supervisor. Then, I immediately leave their room and move onto my next patient. I don't have time for bull **** and I shouldn't have to put up with intimidation, bullying or physical and verbal abuse from anyone, much less from someone I am tasked with compassionately trying to care for. Most nights, I'm assigned 10 patients. If I'm lucky, I'll have a tech to assist me. Otherwise, I'm assigned 5-6 patients to provide Primary Care to without the use of a tech. Despite what patient's think, I don't have magical powers to clone myself so it's not humanly possible for me to be in two places at the same time. For example, the other night, I had a patient with hypoglycemia. Her blood glucose kept dropping despite all of our efforts to raise it with glucose gel, high carb snacks, and glucagon. I still had (2) patient's left to pass meds to when this occurred. I quickly went around to those (2) patient's, explained that I had a patient medical emergency that needed to be addressed. As such, I would be late giving them their 9PM meds but I would be back later. Additionally, the hypoglycemic patient's room was directly across from their rooms so they could clearly see us (2 nurses and a supervisor) frantically working to obtain IV access on the hypoglycemic patient so we could provide her with IV Dextrose. Yet, that did not prevent those patient's from putting their call lights on 6 times to inquire why their medications were late!!!!!! When I stand at the start of a new shift, I ask God to bless me with vision to see the best in things to come and the wisdom to make good decisions. Then, I try to go above and beyond to do what is necessary for my patient's rather than what is convenient for myself, I try to learn something new each day, and for each setback or something I didn't do well, I try to give myelf credit for 3 things each day that did go well or that I'm grateful for. Then, I let it go....

I had a patient call 911 the other night because he "wanted someone to come and turn the light off in his room" and he couldn't find his call button!!!!!

You need to report the missing medication to the DEA!!! I'm an RN now but before that I worked as a medical assistant in a general surgeon's office. While the surgeon was on vacation, he told our RN, to have us clean and restock the entire office, which included the medication cabinet and locked narcotic cabinet. The RN and I removed, LOGGED IN and OUT, and properly disposed of all of the expired medications. The empty bottles were then put in the trash compactor. Afterwhich, we reordered the expired medications from the pharmacy (which included a bottle of powdered cocaine that we sometimes used for cautery during surgical procedures.) The pharmacy, which was located on the ground floor of our office building, delivered the medications to our office, and they were signed for by the other medical assistant who worked in our office. Fortunately for me, it was my day off the day they were delivered. A few weeks later, during a hemorrhoidectomy procedure in the office, the surgeon asked for the bottle of powdered cocaine so he could cauterize. I went to get it out of the narc cabinet but it was'nt there. We turned the office upside down looking for it. It was no where to be found. Thank God the RN and I had the foresight to go through the medication cabinet and the locked narcotic cabinet together; had logged in and out every single medication in both boxes; and had properly disposed of it. Luckily, the trash compactor bag was also still in the trash compactor so we were able to slit the bag open and show the physician that the contents matched our log. We then back tracked with the pharmacy to find out when they delivered the medications, who they delivered them to, who signed for the delivery, etc. and figured out that the other medical assistant was most likely responsible for taking the cocaine. Of course, the physician had no intention of reporting it to the DEA b/c the medical assistant had worked for him for years and was a close personal friend of his son, but our RN reported it anonymously and the Pharmacist reported it outright. The DEA was swift, prompt, and thorough in their investigation. In addition to the missing narcs, their investigation determined that the physician was also committing medicare billing fraud. He was ultimately convicted of medicare fraud and sent to prison.

Try applying at a major insurance company like UNUM...they hire nurses to review disability claims for case management. Genex Services also hires nurses and places them in insurance companies for case management. It's a desk job and it pays well.

I'm a charge nurse on the 3-11 PM shift at a long term care facility, in charge of supervising 8 employees and caring for 48 patients. This weekend I was left two people short, which is the equivalent of having no coverage on one hall containing 12 patients. Management knew about it well before they left the building EARLY on Friday afternoon to enjoy their long holiday weekend, yet they did nothing about it. If management can leave the building on Friday afternoon with a "clear conscience", knowing full well that they stiffed me two people and that I don't have adequate staffing to safely care for the 48 resident's that I'm in charge of then don't expect any guilt on my part when you call me to come in on my day off and I don't bother answering the phone because "Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part" and I won't be helping you out anymore.

I had to lift a wooden box containing 50# weights from a bed, to a chair, and back to the bed again utilizing proper body mechanics. Just remember to bend your knees, hold the box close to your body, and turn-not twist your back.

I don't want or need yet another water bottle; I'd also like my annual review on time instead of over 30 days and counting late; and I'd like more than a lousy 0.25 cents per hour raise!!!

Follow your dreams. It's never too late to be what you might have been. After graduating from high school in the 70's, I attended a 3 year diploma nursing program but foolishly dropped out in my senior year to get married. I worked 30+ years in the insurance industry as a disability claims representative before being laid off from my job in January 2009 at the start of the recession. Even though I was 54 years old, I decided to return to school in March 2009 to complete my nursing degree. I started out by taking 1 pre-req course (Anatomy and Physiology I) my 1st quarter to see if I could handle it. When I earned an A, I knew I could handle it ,so took a full load the next quarter. I completed all of my pre req's in one year with a 4.0 GPA, applied for enterance into the clinical portion of the nursing program in October 2010, was accepted, and started in December 2010. While in school, I supported myself by working full time double weekend shifts as a C.N.A and my C.M.A. I also cleaned houses and commercial office buildings part time, pawned all of my jewelry, sold my blood plasma, and begged/ borrowed/stealed from friends and family to support myself. Although I was the oldest person in my class, my classmates embrassed me so I never felt like I was the odd man out. It wasn't easy by any means, but I'm happy to say that I graduated with my ASN degree in November 2012 with a 3.38 GPA, passed the NCLEX exam on my 1st attempt, and just celebrated my 1 year anniversary at my place of employment. My student loan balance is daunting and I'll probably die before I ever pay it all back but it was so worth it to finally achieve my goal.

After graduating at the top of my class in 11/2012 w my ASN-RN, passing the NCLEX on my 1st attempt, and applying for over of 500 hospital/clinic based positions in 6 months, I was finally offered a part time position in an ALF/LTC/Alzheimers/Memory Care Facility-w no benefits for 6 months, at $18.00/hour. Although it wasn't my dream job, I accepted the position because my 1st student loan pmt was due in less than 30 days and I needed that elusive "6-12 months experience" that every interviewer kept telling me I needed before they'd even consider hiring me.....even though many of my class mates- who are much younger than I- were being hired by those very same hospitals without having "6-12 months experience" at a starting salary of $21.00-21.95/hour. Very demoralizing....but my 12 months in purgatory is almost up and I'll be moving on. My advice to you is to accept the position and utilize your time there well so that you can gain some confidence and get a good reference from them by demonstrating that you're a reliable, dependable worker w a good work ethic (you're on time, no tardies, no call offs, etc) you're willing to work overtime or fill in for others at a moments notice; you're willing to learn and perform any new task presented to you, etc....in other words, you're willing to take initiative and you have the qualities that employers are looking for in a good nurse for them to take a chance on hiring you for your dream job.