Jennyc00

I agree to the previous comment. Pay attention and keep us informed. My pet peeve is also when the pulse ox is alarming repeatedly and the TT silences it and doesn't notify me. By the time it's finally bugged them enough to call me it could be to late where I could have increased O2, gotten a respiratory therapist involved, etc prior to a real problem. And when a pt goes off tele, you call the tech to replace leads, and the tech doesn't do it quickly call the RN to notify them. Some of my critical patients have been off tele WAY too long! Dangerous!

I currently work on a tele floor in Texas. We have a 5-1 nurse patient ratio. We cannot take patients that need insulin drips, BP med drips, and who are generally not fairly stable. I believe our general rule is 2 failing body systems help to qualify the patient to our progressive care unit. This is the only unit between tele and ICU as a patient progresses to further deterioration. Progressive care is 3 pts at my hospital, others might have 3-4 per nurse. In a nutshell if I can't safely (as safe as we get in the crazy world of nursing..) watch a patient with four others they are shipped off to progressive care. I tend to do more task oriented stuff especially getting elderly up to the restroom, blood sugars, changing incontinent patients where progressive care do more interventions with BP, etc. hope this helps. Other larger hospitals have several levels of progressive care before ICU. If it were my choice I would take the higher level of patient care if you can get a lower ratio. Pain meds and potty breaks hourly sure do eat away at my assessment and overall quality of care with five versus three.

Wow this sounds exactly like me.. Exactly. I think it's not just the awful stress of the job but disappointment in how much I dread the work day. I've started on Wellbutrin a week ago. I put in MANY job applications and everyone says I need one hear experience. I've got six months so far. Good luck. Lets all hang in there

Did you start out in PDN? Did you feel comfortable starting?? I have six months tele/ oncology nursing experience and its def challenging and stressful to the point where your in constant panick mode to not get behind. Challenging can def equal stress!!