78BugRN

I was working as an ER tech one night, sitting at the triage desk and answered the phone. It's a man on the other end with a question... "My wife is about 5 months pregnant and she's having some abdominal pain. Not down low where the baby is but kind of up higher... like where I think her stomach might be." I said ok and waited. He says (no joke) "Can you tell me what might be causing that?" I almost snorted into the phone. Then politely informed him that the hospital is not legally allowed to give medical advice over the phone. I'll never know what people are thinking.

I wanted night shift when I graduated. I've been happier as a night owl since I first got the opportunity to work the shift in nursing school. My first two sections of orientation were on days. Very rough on me but, survived. My third section of orientation, I switched to nights and I've been there since. The shift you get hired for will depend on the open jobs on the unit you apply to. Day jobs have been staying open for long periods of time where I am but, nights doesn't seem to have as much of a problem finding staff. Good luck to you. :)

I prefer 3 12s and prefer nights even more. It always feels like I've got more time to myself. The trick for me is to have the scheduling manager put my shifts together so I'm not switching sleep schedules every day.

I know that at my facility I'm not permitted to work overtime while I'm in my internship but, that my internship ends before my probationary period does. I can work overtime after my internship is up.

I just spent a day last week shadowing a nurse on the floor I'll be starting on soon. Most of the day is just watching the routine of a new place (meds, pyxis, doc's, charting, breaks, staff interaction.) Ask lots of questions about procedure, routine, how-to's, expectations, etc. Try to get to know the staff. Talk to people on breaks and lunch to see if you think you fit. I had a blast with the group I'm going to be working with and the routine seems pretty straightforward. My big project is to learn their charting system.

I worked my local for a year and a half during nursing school. Even floating the hospital for a few weeks after graduation is enough to reinforce the fact that I am glad for a change of pace. Do not feel bad for wanting to move forward in your life. I'm absolutely ecstatic to be moving to a new hospital soon.

I'm hoping for you that they handle this internally. If they reassign you and send you to some classes, it will also remove you from the other problems in this unit (the competitiveness, overwhelming situation, finicky MD's, etc). I'm surprised that you didn't apply for transfer when you realized you were in over your head. Talk to a lawyer but give some serious thought to what you really want out of this.

YAY!!! Way to go!! Can't wait until I can post the same. All the best to you in your career.

WOW... that's more than a bit scary. As nursing students, we have pharmacology training and prepare for each clinical day by looking up ALL medications and knowing their effects, side effects, and interactions. And our instructors STILL look over every medication with us before we pass meds.

I've put in 3 years in secretarial/office jobs, 6 years as an Aircraft Electrical and Environmental Systems specialist with the Air Force and wound up in nursing school as a way to be able to teach Wilderness First Responder courses. I think you'll find (and already are finding) that the backgrounds of student nurses vary wildly. I graduate in June and I wish you the very best in your journey to change yourself. "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" ~ Mahatma Ghandi

The norm is a couple days after the first missed menstrual period.

By the same token... Don't EVER tell a patient "I've never done this before so you're gonna have to bear with me." It took us the entire day to calm down a patient during clinicals and he never did stop screaming "Keep her away from me!!" when that student would walk in. :imbar

I work in a fairly small ER and even we have some REALLY bad nights. Two nurses short and the techs have only worked for three months... 6 ambulances show up in ten minutes with - 1 respiratory distress, 1 v-tach, 2 traumas, a pedi code, and an assault. And all this with 1 doc and 1 PA still on duty with 25 people in the waiting room. Since when can we as nurses refuse to care for patients? I seem to recall learning that this is called abandonment. Paramedics dump "crumping" patients all the time, it's their job. They transport and then get back out to the station to be available for the next call. ER's and floors have to deal with that. We put pt's on hallway beds, put them in the waiting rm, move pt's to chairs so more critical things can go in rooms. Having seen some rough days, I'm not shocked that this happened, only horrified that it was so poorly handled by the hospital management. There is a process to divert new patients to other hospitals and it should have been implemented. I applaud the nurses for sticking it out and doing the very best they know how to do. There is a great deal of courage in simply stepping up and saying "I'll try." The danger is that no one person (or even two or three) could be expected to handle everything that happened. I congratulate you for sticking to your guns and your ethics. There is no way you could have continued with your job there and felt confident about care provided or your license. I wish you all the best in the future and I will be sending the original post to my congressman.

Croc doesn't seem to have any that cover the whole foot but, Quarks have a couple of styles that cover the whole foot. If you search for Quark nursing shoes on Google, it pulls up all kinds of places to get them. I've had my Quarks for almost a year now (found them on a clearance rack by accident) and still LOVE them. Hope you find what you need.