julezzz26

could you stay prn at the er job? that way you could stay in their system and pick up a shift here and there if you wanted.

if a pt is npo and wants to chew gum is it ok? thanks.

I am so glad for you! I am a new grad and have been working on ortho/trauma/med surg floor for the last 3 months and I can't tell you how much I have learned. It really teaches you to multitask and my time management is getting better every week. I still have trouble with time management on some days but I am trying to live and learn from each shift and improve. I wanted to go to the ED right out of nursing school but my hospital said you had to have at least 1 year of med-surg type experience. I was pretty bummed at first but I can see why now. Good luck to you, I hope you have a great experience on your new floor!

ditto! i could not have said it better!

Do the externship - you will gain so much experience from it. You can always review your anatomy book on your days off, just review one system at a time. Congrats on the externship, it sounds great!

You can verify licenses online in Colorado. I found out I passed the boards by checking to see if my license had been issued online on the state board of nursing website here in Colorado. They issued my license before I got my test results in the mail!

Are filter needles and blunt needles the same thing? Thanks in advance :)

Quick questions about conscious sedation: 1. Does it matter which medication you give first, fentanyl or versed or do you mix them and give together? 2. How much time do you have to wait in between administering them if they are not mixed? 3. Does the patient have to be on a cardiac monitor? Thanks in advance :)

You took the words right out of my mouth! That is EXACTLY how I feel after almost 2 months on my floor. I am going to be on my own starting next week and I am really nervous....my preceptor is great and says to just hang in there on those bad days, you learn more than you think from those experiences.:nurse

I'm sorry you are having a hard time. Have you thought about other specialties that might interest you? The hospital I work at has a program where you can transfer to a speciality with a mentor......maybe your HR department would know? Good luck and hang in there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am 3 weeks into a new grad position as an RN on an ortho/trauma floor on the day shift. I have 2 great preceptors. I am having a hard time keeping up with things, I am getting distracted and not getting my meds done on time. Any suggestions on how to stay organized? How do you guys organize your day? Thanks.

I just started as a new grad RN in home health, have been doing it for a couple weeks. I have 2 years of experience as an LPN in family practice and urgent care. I am going to quit as soon as I find a hospital job on Med Surg. It is very overwhelming. I feel very unsure of myself. My friend is the sales rep for this company and painted a really pretty picture of what it is like. Like a complete idiot I felt for it hook line and sinker. You go to the patient's house and get paid for that but then you still have to chart which is very hard to get done in that same hour especially if you have back to back patients. You have to call all the patients the night before to get your schedule set for the next day which you are not getting paid for either. I have only one patient this week which is a very easy dressing change so I am OK with that. It is very scary to be out there on my own and I would not recommend it to any LPN or RN new grad. Hope this helps.

It is awful having to wait for the results - I was totally freaked out waiting for mine. I found the best thing is to just try not to think about it. I tried to distract myself, I cleaned my house from top to bottom which helped. Hang in there, I'm sure you passed.

Thanks Tazzi, I feel better. I will definetly take your advice.

It sounds like you are very genuine and speaking from the heart. Make eye contact with the board when you are speaking and try imagining them in their underwear to help calm you down. You can do it, good luck tomorrow!

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me any help here.....I graduated from nursing school last summer and have been working as an lpn for the last 6 months in an ambulatory clinic setting. I work with the same doctor every day. He is a new doctor, he passed his boards about the same time I did. We have been working together for the last five months every day and at first it was OK. We got along fine and both tried hard to find our system to make the day go smooth. After about the first 2 months, I notice he had gotten kind of attached to me (not in a sexual way or anything even close to that) but as far as like lunch breaks and things. He wanted to eat lunch together every day and would get upset if he had to work through lunch and I went out to lunch with the other nurses and MAs. He wouldn't yell or anything but would be in a mood and make comments when I would come back kind of half joking half serious, like "thanks for inviting me to lunch, thanks for deserting me." I got the feeling he was a little too attached to me so now I just say "OK, I'm going to lunch, see you in a while" and take off. About 10% of the time he is Ok to work with. The rest of the time it is really hard.....he is very defensive, passive aggressive, indecisive and rigid. He whines alot and looks for the negative in every situation. He is very sensitive and likes drama. I think all of this behaviour is because he does not have any confidence in himself. He is definetly a hard worker but we are always behind(we see 3 patients at scheduled appointment times every hour) Since this is my first job in the healthcare field, I really don't have anything to compare this situation to. Every once and a while, I am rotated to a different doctor for a day (because of staff sceduling) and have come to the conclusion that this is not normal, based on my limited experience. I have to stay late every day and am planning to start an lpn to rn program at night in July. I am very nervous because I will have to leave on time to be able to get to school on time. I am alos exhausted by the end of the day because I ahve to constantly monitor what I say to him because he will take it the wrong way. One day he was going on and on about some patient that came late for their appt, basically throwing a temper tantrum like a 2 year old. He asked me about 20 minutes later after his tantrum if I was mad at him. I said I wasn't mad but he needs to stop complaining about pts coming late because it is out of our control and we would just have to work on our daily system and find a way to incorporate the late pts into our day. He was in a complete snit the whole afternoon and barking at me. When I went to leave that evening he pulled me into his office and said his feelings were really hurt by what I said and that I had attacked his character. We talked it out and got it worked it and I thought everything was OK. Every day since then, at least once a day, he will make it a point to say "I'm not whining" if he says anything that could be construed as negative and then looks at me and waits for a response. I think this is very passive agressive so I just ignore it. I talked to my nurse manager about switching to a different doctor yesterday (there is an opening in my department, I could work with one of the physician's assistants, who loves to teach and is a great guy, I have worked with him before and he has mentioned to me that he would work with me anytime. Our personalities as pretty similar, he has been a PA for 15 years and is pretty mellow. He does alot of trauma, broken bones, sprains, lacs, toenail removals ect....I would really learn alot if I worked with him on a daily basis) I really felt blown off by my manager when I asked her, she was more interested in if I wanted to transfer to a different department. I don't want to transfer, I love everyone else I work with. What should I do? (Sorry this is so long, I didn't realize how upset I was until I started typing, thanks for letting me vent)

I just finsihed school last week and I will not kid you it was hard to organize school, work, bills, the housework etc.... but you can do it. The house closing will be over by the time you start school, right? Then you wont have to worry about that when you start school. I would try to pace yourself and do a little bit each day. It helped me to do one load of laundry per day so I did not have to spend one day doing laundry the whole day. See if you can pay your bills online through your bank, that will save you time. Get some recipes for food you can make and then munch on the leftovers for the next couple days, such as lasange and soup. This is kind of weird, but I swear I felt had significantly more energy when I drank 8 glasses of water a day and got alot more done. Most important just keep repeating to yourself, I can do it! Good luck, you will do great!

Hi, I thought of something else. Get the pocket size LPN or RN notes and carry them with you at clinicals. You can get them at Barnes and Noble and I'm sure pretty much any bookstore. It really helps to have a quick reference when you are performing a skill, especially for the 1st time. The first time I had to insert a Foley on a patient I was so nervous......When I went to the supply room to gather my supplies for the procedure, I reviewed the procedure in my pocket guide for a minute and felt much less nervous. I was able to get it on the 1st try which was a HUGE relief (not only for me but for the patient!). I would also try to study a little bit everyday for each class if possible. It really helped me to avoid cramming and was less stressful. I would also get a practice RN NCLEX book when you start the program not near the end. It is a great study tool. The one by Mosby is good, I looked around in the bookstore and looked at each book before I made a choice. Alot of my teachers used questions from the practice NCLEX book for test questions. I thought school was alot of work, but it was great, I learned so much and met alot of great people. I was in a small class and we all helped each other for the most part. I was good in the classroom but I was really bad at first at clinicals. (not bad like I was dropping patients or anything but just nervous and unsure....the first couple of weeks I felt totally incompetent and got to the point of tears more than once by the end of the day) One of my teachers told me that you learn more than you realize just by trying to do the skill and learning from your mistakes Of course at the time I did not believe her but it turns out she was right. :) One of my best friends from school was great at clinicals, but not doing so good in the classroom. We used to help each other with our weak spots and it was a win-win situation if I ever saw one. :) Good luck, you can do it !

Congratulations on your decision! It sounds like you did alot of research. It is much more important to be happy in job than miserable. There were only a couple of guys is my nursing class and they both had full scholarships due to the demand for male nurses. I would look on fastweb.com for scholarships. One thing I would definetly know is to really learn and understand the anatomy and physiology of the body. If you know your A&P, both medical-surgical nursing and pharmacology will be alot easier and more interesting. Good luck, you will do great!