kalanel5

Wow at some of the reactions here... Well I will admit this happened to me at the beginning of my nursing career but I must say I was paranoid of this kind of thing happening so I would look my meds up before I went to give the patient's meds. OP you are only human you are not going to know everything the key is to never show your patient that you don't know. You are new as you build your knowledge base on various drugs this wont happen but geez you are new. Don't beat yourself up. I know, the majority of the presently used drugs and new ones but often I have 80 and 90 year old patients who take meds that are not used much today so I have no clue about them. That doesn't make me an incompetent nurse you just learn as you go along.

Wow I am a cardiac nurse by no means an I work on a neurosciences med-surg floor. We get post heart cath patients on bed rest, titration drips such as heparin, insulin and cardizem. We are usually running with 5-6 patients at night with 2-3 techs for 32 patients. We too can't keep nurses. I am appalled that we take care of similar patients that you guys do but you all are in ICU's and stepdown units. We also get patients post pacemaker placement.

I am appalled at the person who seems to keep defending the bad behavior of the male nurse who is the center of this discussion. Confused or not when a patient makes enough sense to say she doesn't want to be changed by a male he could have attempted to find a female caregiver to change her. It is her right to have privacy and dignity preserved in that way. Also just because a patient may have a history of being difficult doesn't make it okay to mistreat them. Sheesh for every wrong the nurse does the poster has a rebuttal for why he may have done it. What!!! It is wrong there is no good reason for why he did what he did. Sure we don't know all of the specifics but from the account of the family member on the other side of the curtain all of his actions look horribly wrong.

I have never worked as a staff nurse for the company but when I work there as an agency nurse it is awful. The times that I have worked, there would be one staff nurse and the rest of the nurses working we're agency just because they can't keep staff. They want to keep the beds full regardless of if there is enough staff. They also expect you to have everything done when they overwhelm you with admissions and discharges. I have heard of times where my fellow agency nurse was called to come in and offered a great pay incentive but when they got there they had 9 patients. They pay well but they often put their nurses in unsafe situations. For this reason even knowing I will be paid more hasn't propelled me to go back. They call everyday too, that in its self tells me if I accepted a shift more than likely it would be bad. I would say keep looking

I'm sorry that this happened. It almost seems like the nurse manager is in cahoots with the student nurse. I don't feel like the OP's statement was wrong at all I would have said more. If the nursing student thinks what the OP said was bad she definitely couldn't hang at the facility I work for. I would transfer out ASAP it's not worth the aggravation of trying to make your point of view heard. The manager should know the OP better from her history of interactions with people. A nurse doesn't all of a sudden become rude when they didn't act that way previously.

I have to say for all the things there are to complain about such as salary or conditions of the facility you are upset because the recruiter didn't call you by your title and instead used your name..... It seems petty and a waste of anger and energy.

On yeah I live in Georgia and renewed this year. My employer was really good about telling us about that requirement. My job also was adamant about renewing early to allow for any issues that may have come up. I renewed on December 16 and my renewal date still had not been updated. I ended up having to resend all my documents again the 2nd week of January. The process this year definitely wasn't easy and convenient. Sorry that happened.

What is SVD?

Good question...I have not been able to discourage any of my patients that are drug seekers. They come in telling me in my admission assessment they want dilaudid and if not that Demerol IV. You can make the MD aware that the patient is a frequent flyer. Otherwise if it's ordered give it as prescribed to give yourself a couple of hours peace from them. I never can understand the nurses who withhold pain meds when it has been more than enough time with stable BP and mental status. It just makes your job so much harder.

This sounds like a pretty bad preceptor experience. People don't always mesh well with their preceptor. It is just a fact. Your manager should have tried to let you precept with another person. You very well could have blossomed with another person. At this point it doesn't seem like manager plans to do anything that will benefit you. I would find something else as quickly as possible in order to resign. If they are unwilling to work with you and are only listening to the concerns of the nurse that is precepting you, it would only be problems if you stayed on. This is a foreshadowing of what would be to come. Get out as soon as you can. When I first started I was put with a nurse who wouldn't allow me to do anything for our patients even though I had my license. She then would belittle me and say the other nurses were more efficient than me. Keep in mind the other preceptors allowed the other nurses to do every thing. I promptly went to my manager and asked to be placed with a nurse that I had seen precept others very well. It was a perfect match. I felt supported. The horrid preceptor ended up leaving the company and I am still here doing well. Leave as soon as you can.

I personally do take up for myself. I set limits and when they are crossed I am firm and I will even let the patient know that I will excuse myself from their care. I say all of this nicely though. My employer always sides with the patient. So if you don't stand up for yourself no one else will.