Geslina

I feel your pain. I've been a nurse for 5 years, and I still have nights where I lock myself in the bathroom and cry. I have never been good under stress, and I find nursing to be the most stressful job I've ever had. It's not so much the general work, or even the constantly being understaffed - it's all the ridiculously redundant charting, which takes up so much time. Add that to the pressure to finish before your shift is up, because your employer doesn't want to pay OT, and it just makes me angry. A lot of time doing charting and other paperwork that could be spent with patients. Seems the state and their love of forcing all this paperwork has sucked all the joy out of nursing.

The day shift nurse, who had left for the day, called the patient's MD from home and got verbal orders for PRN narcotics for a patient on a sub acute floor. I'm supposing she didn't have time to do this during her shift. This nurse then calls the nursing supervisor and gives her the orders. The supervisor writes them down, and passes them on to the 2nd shift floor nurse who has that patient with the request to write the orders. The orders were for four narcotics, including OxyContin. What would you do? It's not possible at this point to reach the doctor personally.

I work with the elderly, and currently have 3 former nurses in my care, and there have been several in the past. I find that it can go either way, but mostly they are nice...and very understanding of how busy we are!

Sharpies. Highlighters. Hand cream. A little notepad. A good quality tote bag or backpack. Lots and lots and LOTS of pens. You wil find that you spend a lot of time looking for lost pens. I bought those little pocket protector thingees, but find I never use them, I just make sure I buy scrubs with lots of pockets and stuff everything in them. other helpful hints: if you wear it, buy makeup that lasts, you won't have time or want to be bothered with touch ups. If you have long hair, you can wear it up or in a ponytail...otherwise, invest in an easy shorter haircut style. If your hospital doesn't require a uniform, cute scrubs are a plus. It may sound superficial, but I am a firm believer that when you look good, you feel more confident, so I do spend a lot on quality scrubs that are flattering to my figure. And people DO notice - both staff and patients. How you present yourself matters, because that is what people's first impressions of us start with.

I failed the last semester in my program...and I wasn't alone. We started out with almost 200 in our class and just under 60 made it to the end. I was devastated to fail, being so close to the end. But our program was crazy - the last 2 semesters, we only had two tests: a midterm and a final. Imagine the sheer amount of information you had to be confident on, had to remember, for only 2 tests. You had no real chance to fight for your grade. The program's rational for so few tests was that they were "preparing" us for the state board, where we would only have one shot. Which made no sense, because being in school and learning is different than taking the NCLEX. But whatever. I went into the nursing program on the deans list, but graduated, finally, with a C. It was brutal, hardest thing I ever did. I aced the NCLEX, though. It was easy compared to school. if you want to reapply, you just need to go to the school and tell them. I had to wait a year, and do the last semester with the class behind me. Luckily, because of all the students who failed in my class, they increased the number of tests.

Wow. I haven't taken a lunch break in 3 years. I barely take my 15's either, because I like to get out of there at the end of my shift. i tried to get paid for them in the beginning, and was just told that I HAD to take lunch breaks. Puts you in a bind, because they don't like to pay OT where I work either. So, I just eat while I chart, at the end of my shift. It's become routine. Just another wonderful aspect of nursing, haha.

Sounds like where I work, we will take ANYONE. Even rapists and murderers. No one cares, as long as the beds are full. I've seen patients whose medical hx clearly states problems with addiction, but the MD, no questions asked, will write scripts for whatever they want, and then I'm stuck having to give it to them when they are in "severe pain" q 4 hours. Yeah, sitting in your WC, licking potato chip salt off your fingers while watching TV and talking on the phone, and you need 2 Percocet for severe pain. What can I do about it? I know the patient isn't in severe pain, but we are taught that pain is what the patient says it is....

Haha, have to say I agree. Given a second chance, I'd have chosen another career. It's not that being a nurse is so bad, it's the daily staffing shortages, the constantly growing state documentation requirements, the lack of time to give patients any emotional or spiritual attention - i could go on and on.....I feeling like someone is standing over me at work with a whip, telling me to get it all done, get it all done faster, get it all done better, get it all done with less help, and God help you if you make a mistake....I've had lots of different jobs in my life, many of them stressful, but without a doubt, nursing is the MOST stressful. I swear, nursing will probably take 20 years off my life.

Ha! Our current manager always wants to be the good guy. Someone was just fired, and the next day the nurse called me and told me that management told her she was out of there because I had reported something she did, which is an outright lie. And there is nothing I can do about it. I work for a bunch of backstabbing witches. I'm sick thinking a single mother with kids to support thinks she lost her job because of ME.

I hate finding med errors, because we are legally obligated to report them. I've had to report a few, and I've made a few myself. If it's something I can fix without reporting it, I try to....but if there is nothing you can do about it, you have no choice but to report it.

My supervisor was doing an evaluation on a new nurse, ands the new nurse told her that she looked up to me and hoped to be the kind of nurse I was someday. And beleive me, I'm hardly Super Nurse. I was really touched by it, though, and it made me strive to be better. I think your new nurse could have been sincere.

Ahhh, that's me every single night. Sad that almost every problem that makes nursing overwhelming could be solved with just a little extra staff.

Wait...I'm confused...why with 16 years of sobriety are u even IN a monitoring program?.

The joint commission coming is serious stuff. Everyone is under enormous pressure, including CNAs. There will be enough to worry about for the facility without having "beginners" around. It's hard enough under survey scrutiny for seasoned staff, and the ratings that places get are very important. They can't risk having a student make a mistake, even an innocent one. Possibly the joint commission has rules about no students as well, because you are not official staff, which is what they are there to evaluate. Just bad timing for your group, I guess.

Haha. Honey, you will be soon be so far up the creek in mind numbing unbelievably overwhelming amounts of information to memorize that you will look longingly back on your days of boredom and nursing for dummies fundamentals. Enjoy the calm before the worst storm you've ever been through.

I put "pt sleeping comfortably, call bell in reach"

In my experience, NPs can be difficult, but that is because where I work, the NPs are miserable. They work long long hours, are on call all the time, get all the crap jobs the doctors don't want to do. So they take it out on us. I am really careful not to bother the doctors or NPs unless there is a real emergency, unlike some of my coworkers, who page them at 10pm if a patient sneezes.

I work 3-11. I started on that shift, and though I've had many chances to switch to days, I just prefer the peace and quiet of the night shifts. I'd work 3rd shift if I thought I'd be able to sleep during the day, but it's just too noisy where I live. I also think 2nd and 3rd shifts are killers to your social life....but I still prefer them.

I work in a nursing home, I'm an RN. I work as both a floor nurse and a supervisor. I have more patient contact than I want sometimes. Our DON and ADON, our unit managers, they all have lots of patient contact. I think it's up to you, how much you have. I will warn you, nursing home nurses bust their behinds, it's a lot of work. People are living longer today, they don't just go to nursing homes to die, and care is more complicated than it used to be. The average floor nurse has 25+ residents, and at any given time I'll have at least 2 on IV meds or fluids, a couple peg tubes, all sorts of respiratory issues...not to mention 60% have dementia of some sort and all of the behavior issues that that implies. So yeah, it's a hustle for sure. But if you enjoy the elderly, and don't mind being so busy you don't have time to pee all night, you'll love it.

I was/am an artist - a painter. While I wish I could still devote my time 100% to my art, unfortunately, I need to make a living. Selling my paintings was feast or famine, and I had no benefits. I got tired of living that way. I'm not happier being a nurse, but at least the bills get paid, I have benefits and savings. The big problem is, I have very little time or energy to put into painting now. Nothing like a brutal, high stress 40 hour work week to suck all the creativity out of you!

One that doesn't require any patient care....like research, lab work, medical writing. I am seriously considering some of those!!

Haha! So true. But I do occasionally get genuine compliments. We have this sad little Jamaican lady, with an accent so thick that very few of us understand her, and most will not take the time to listen to her. I do. A few weeks ago I was caring for her room mate and when I was leaving the room, she called me over and told me I was " born to be a nurse "..... which although I don't really agree, I found very sweet....and I agree with the poster who said its because of people skills that we usually get compliments. That is SO true. And makes me sad, because I have so little time to take care of the emotional needs of my patients.

Imodium??? Loperamide, the "opiate" in Imodium only acts on the intestines, it can't pass the blood/ brain barrier, so Cant actually effect the users brain or mood. Even not allowing Benadryl is ridiculous. Only in Texas.

I had an almost 2 year gap after graduating, and no one cared. For one, it is typical that it takes time these days to find work, even for seasoned nurses in many cases. Second, people have different reasons for waiting. In my case, I could financially afford to do so, but I don't think it matters. And a gap of one year hardly requires refresher courses. Maybe your friend doesn't really want to work, or feels it is worth it to wait for the job she really wants.

Me neither, except out of curiosity, or when making small talk. After all, does it matter? In the end, we all have to be able to pass the same state test.