Nurse_Jessie

Does your facility do bedside report? If so, hopefully you and the outgoing nurse are doing at least a brief assessment of the patient's primary issue. Take a look at their dressing and make a mental note of which ones you'll need to change during ...

I got the same feedback during my residency, and for me having confidence in my own assessment skins and knowledge of what was needed to helped me gain assertiveness. When you talk to a physician can you give a quick summary of the patient, the curr...

Is there any aspect of ICU nursing that you are interested in? My hospital has several different ICU's with different focuses, a Cardiac ICU, a Neuro ICU, an Open Heart ICU, etc. Is there an area that you are interested in that you could use to sta...

ICU patients are always 1:2 or 1:1 (1:1 are rare, generally only if we are cooling them after a cardiac arrest, if they are on the balloon pump, or we are proning them for respiratory issues), however, if we have a lot of PCU and Med/tele or Med/surg...

I agree with the previous posters on the importance of staying on top of your documentation as much as possible. I have a fairly detailed brain sheet and I check things off as they are done, so I know at a glance what is left for me to do. Also, gro...

I think that this is common for all nurses. I've found that if I'm tired my anxiety is worse, so I work hard to get to sleep after my last shift of the week so that I don't have exhaustion adding to stress. Try to find hobbies and activities outsid...

If you can, try to stay on a more nocturnal schedule even on your days off. I'm still single and don't have children, so this won't work for everybody, but most people that I spend time are working during the day anyway, so if I sleep until 2 PM on ...

Pen and notebook is the way to go. We actually weren't allowed to have computers or tablets during our residency classes, they seemed to think we might do something other than take notes with them (a valid fear considering what I saw in my nursing s...

"I want to work in this unit because I'll only have to take care of [X number] of patients" "I figure I'll move on to something better once I have a couple years of experience." "I want to work in the ICU because it looks good on a CRNA school applic...

I came off my orientation in the ICU about 6 weeks ago, and I have to say that work has been so much better since I got off orientation. During my orientation, my preceptors frequently encouraged (aka insisted) that I take the sickest patients every...

I'm a new nurse (6 months into my first job) and I love having 12 hour shifts. The extra days off are really worth it to me, and I generally stay busy enough during my shift that the time goes by pretty quickly. However, I am a single woman without...

Another factor that comes into play is that many facilities know that new nurses will take whatever job comes along to give them the magic 1-2 years of experience that the jobs in more desirable areas require. So they are looking at spending thousand...

When I was a student I started priming piggyback IV tubing with antibiotic, but I started with the tubing unclamped. The entire bag of antibiotics ran into the trash before I realized my mistake. Fortunately, my instructor was really nice when i ex...

California is a really tough market for new grads. However, the method that I would suggest using for looking for job is to search "City Name Hospital" for wherever in California you will be moving too, then do a Google Map search of the city, and r...

The probationary period is standard. Mine goes for 60 days beyond the end of my 4 month orientation. However, consider that they are spending the time and money to train you for this position, so it is likely that they will be willing to work with ...

I don't consider myself particularly old, but I did work for 5 years in a career completely unrelated to nursing, at a law firm, before going back to school to become a nurse. I don't necessarily think that having non-nursing experience should entit...

I'm a few weeks from the end of my ICU residency, and as a new nurse I think it was a great decision for me. I did my senior preceptorship in the ICU and really enjoyed it, and was thrilled when I got this job offer as a new nurse. However, if you ...

Starting as a new nurse is scary. I'm two months into my first nursing job and I worry about making a mistake every shift. A lot of nursing practice and routines will start making a lot more sense during your capstone experience, and then when you ...

I relocated to a different state for my New Grad position. Two months in and I am thrilled with my decision. If you aren't sure about it, look for month to month leases for the orientation period, then consider if you want to move or try commuting ...

Good for you for speaking up. Sounds like an unfortunate situation all around, and it sounds like the education program needs a revamp if they can only get on preceptor for the day shift. It sounds like a situation where nobody is going to be happy

If I'm not mistaken, most hospitals with "New Grad" positions are looking for nurses with less than 6 months of experience. I would think that you should qualify as a new grad for job searching purposes :-)

I also completed the accelerated program last year, and I think it is a wonderful program. Very stressful, but very worth it in the end. It is pricey, but we got a wonderful education. I had great clinical experiences, and I was able to get a terr...

For interviews far away, it is well worth asking if they would be willing to do an initial interview via Skype. If they know that you are out of state, or even just a few hundred miles away, they might be willing to accommodate you.

Learning how to listen and how to interpret what you hear is enough of a challenge in Nursing School without having to deal with a poor quality stethoscope to make it more difficult. My advice is to go for the best quality you can afford. I have pe...

I'm currently in a residency program for the Trauma ICU at a hospital. It involves time precepting on the PCU with a lot of outside classes, including online ECCO classes, then a transfer to precepting on the ICU, then we'll be on our own. I also di...