ItDepends

When I sent out applications and filled out my employee paperwork, I only listed my cell phone. The hospital does not know I have a home phone. I leave the cell phone on silent at night - in another part of the house. Oh they tried to call me at 0500? Darn its 0800 now. Nope, not calling back. I used to switch with people all the time (their request- always!) and then could not get reciprocation when something came up. Those people don't won't get me to swap now unless it benefits me also. I also picked up extra shifts as a new grad because they NEEEEDED me. Sorry not anymore unless I want the hours. Working short is how we get more staffing. If they can always cover the shift, why hire more nurses? Please don't feel bad for saying NO. It is hard at first, but it gets easier real quick!

Thank you all so much! I appreciate the suggestions and will look into all of them. I love this site!

Dukeblue002 Thank you for the reply. No, there is not a handbook, I fully agree that there should be. Let me explain the situation a little better: We have 24 beds on our floor - 20 med-surg beds and 4 ICU beds. The same nurses (once they are 'cross trained') alternate between floor and unit assignments. They often don't know which area they will work until they show up for work that day. Their idea of training is making sure that we know how to do the paper charting and q2h assessments. I was told that the rest will ''come with time". I have been on this floor for over a year so am not a new hire. The RTs are great and a couple of them are very willing to teach. They absolutely will (and have been) be a go to resource for me. I had considered the 'Made Easy" book, just was not sure if it would be thorough enough, but I definitely will check out the books that you listed. Your resources would be very welcomed, unfortunately under this profile I do not have enough posts to be allowed to send a PM, I may be able to receive them though. My previous profile had to be discarded due to being too identifiable.

I currently work Med-Surg/progressive care at a community hospital, we also have a very small ICU. Recently I have begun cross-training to work in the unit. There is no formal training program and I had one day of 'actual' training before being assigned over there. Our charge nurse and the other ICU nurse are very helpful in the moment, but I would like to do some further studying on my own. I have been looking at Amazon for reference books and am thinking that a CCRN study text may be a good idea. Any suggestions on a particular title(s)? ANY suggestions on working the ICU would be fabulous! I want to be as competent as possible.

Oh, and they hold up forever!

My only issue with Dansko shoes is the amount of time to break them in. It took about 20 wears for my first pair. The newest pair I purchased were the XP pro - They were AWESOME right off the bat. No need to do more than a few days to break them in. Love them!

My hospital requires RNs to wear Olive Green, Housekeeping wears chocolate brown on top, black bottoms, RT and PT wear Gray on top and black or gray bottoms. HUAs wear khaki on top, khaki or black on bottom. We don't have CNAs. MDs, NPs and dietary wear business casual with a lab coat. Our parent hospital is about to go from nurses choice to Navy. I wish they would let us change to Navy also, the green fades out badly.

My hospital requires Olive green for all RNs.

Hi! Sorry, I hadn't looked at this in forever. I did not get in the peri-op program. I ended up getting a position on a med-surg floor. Would still LOVE to do surgical nursing, but trying to get the most out of my current job. How about you?

I am 5 months in and its better than it first was and not yet as good as it will be. Sometimes I wish I could fast forward to when I will feel competent, but honestly the hard times are what you learn from. Most of my coworkers are wonderful people and am not sure I could have made it this far without them. Its getting to the point where I can get my tasks done in a timely manor most of the time, but not to the point where I can head off trouble before it happens. I dream of that day! Thank you for the reminder that experienced nurses still remember the struggle, and don't always expect us newbies to be perfect.

I am 5 months in on a busy Med-Surg floor. We have no techs, no transporters, no help/support except each other. My fellow nurses are AWESOME! and I would NOT have made it this far without them. I see some newer grads coming in now and see how they are struggling. It helps me to see how far I have come at this point, and I love to be able to give them a hand at times. I am no longer staying super late to catch up - usually gone by 2030 This nursing thing is hard. I just hope that it will continue to become more manageable for all of us!!

One of my favorites is "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." It is a reminder that all things, large or small, must be done one step at a time. I also say as long as the Pts are all still breathing, its a good day! Everything else is icing. "Fake it 'til you make it" got me through nursing school/check offs/clinicals.

I am a very new grad (December 16!) and I have an interview for a Perioperative training program next month. They use the Periop 101 program through AORN. It will be a panel interview of 5-6 people from different surgery departments and they are accepting a handful of trainees. The director told me to be familiar with the cirulating role and scrub role. The OR feels like HOME to me and I really want to do well, if there any suggestions or helpful hints that someone can offer it would be very welcome!! :)

We take the HESI at the end of each semester and it becomes a progressively higher percentage of our grade. For example in the first semester it was worth 10% and in the final semester it is worth 40% of our grade. Evolve case studies are a great help in preparing for the HESI exams!