adowland

That's why I'm asking! thank you for you input. It doesn't seem like a facility that bends the rules so often is a good place for a new grad to start out. I'm hoping to only be here for 6 months or so. I guess I was more confused at why the night nurse was upset with me. It wasn't "you gave this without an order" - honestly, I would get that. I probably SHOULD have called the on call, and next time certainly will. But she was upset because "Now there won't be enough for the weekend" (Which there is. two full boxes in each med cart and more in the supply room downstairs. Which I did mention)

I'm having a lot of trouble discerning the gray areas of nursing. OTC medications mostly. I'm a new nurse, I just passed my NCLEX last month, had a couple weeks of orientation, and last night was my first solo night at a LTC facility. When is it okay to "bend the orders" for OTC medications? In school, I would have said, never, you always need an order. But since I've been at this new job it seems common practice to bend the rules. For example we have a resident who always asks for tums. They are OTC but she doesn't have an order for them. We would give them to her anyway. This happened for about 2 weeks before we got a prn order for the tums. It doesn't seem like a big deal. Tums certainly won't HURT anyone. So last night, one of my residents was complaining of shoulder pain. I gave her PRN Tylenol at 4 and 8pm. At 10pm she rang her call bell. She was practically in tears saying her shoulder was hurting. Well I checked her chart and she didn't have any other prn pain medications, it was too early to give her more tylenol. She did have an order for a bengay patch at 5am. I asked the resident when the pain is worse for her and she said at night when she lays down she has the worst pain, not in the morning. So I put the bengay patch on her shoulder, she went to sleep, and I left a note in the doctors book to consider changing the order to have her patch applied at bedtime. Apparently this was a big NO-NO. I got chewed out by the night nurse when I gave her report because now she won't have enough bengay patches to get through the weekend. I guess I really don't see what the issue was, especially since I ran it by the nurse in the other hallway and she agreed with what I did. I felt like crap on my drive home, but at the same time, I still feel like I made the right choice. Am I over thinking things here? I mean it's a bengay patch..

I just graduated with my BSN last week, so I haven't taken the NCLEX. I've started applying to jobs, and even had an interview at a nursing home. I got a voicemail from the hr rep asking me to come in for a second interview. I called back and got her voicemail, so I left a message returning her call so we can set up a time. My question is, Im not licensed yet. My transcripts won't even be released for a couple weeks, so I probably won't be able to take my exam until June. If they want to hire me, will I start working once I'm licensed? Can they employ me for orientation/training in the mean time? Or as a nurse's aide until I take my boards? Money is tight right now, so I'm really hoping to find employment soon. Especially since paying for my boards will leave other bills UNpaid.