akn1563

Tying to get my certification for my unit. How do I start going about studying for this? Are there books that I can use or study questions? I am totally lost help!!!!

I totally understand this I took four months on orientation on a cardiovascular step down unit and I always thought I was stupid and was going to make a mistake it took a year on night shift before I felt confident again. Then I switched back to days because a position opened up and I feel even more incompetent. My advice: find one or a sect few who are your "resources" who you can trust and talk to them. My person is my preceptor on days at the beginning and has been my rock since when we work together. Hope this helps good luck !

I am in a similar situation and we have new I catheters which makes me have to start from. Square one I would suggest asking your fellow coworkers to let you take a whack at some Iv starts that's what helped me and ALWAYS go into a room knowing you're going to start Iv's you are already setting yourself up for failure if you do not! Good luck! God bless

The patient never had anything to say when anyone was in the room and he said he couldn't relay any info (even the OOB and urination part) it was frustrating

I have been an RN for about a year and a half now and I have recently started on days on a cardiovascular step down unit. I had a 29y.o patient who was completely alert oriented and competent. A patient's family member (aunt) called at the end of the shift to have a "detailed report of what happened" with the patient that day. I said to the "aunt", "I apologize, but unfortunately I am only able to tell you that the patient is here and that he is stable" This is what I had been told since day one of nursing because you can never truly verify who is on the phone even if a password has been created. She was very curt with me and stated that she was a nurse and was his proxy for healthcare and that she had been receiving information all along and why would I say this now? I explained that with her being a nurse she should understand that because of HIPAA it is difficult to verify who she is and the patient is alert oriented and competent and so she is unable to receive information about the patient unless the patient tells her then I offered to transfer her to the patient's room phone which she refused and asked to be transferred to the charge nurse. I thought the issue was resolved after the charge nurse reinforced what I had said and was then transferred to the MD. The next day the stepmother and girlfriend were upset (which I knew nothing about) and called Patient relations, and our manager, and supervisor because of this issue. I had my superiors stand by me, but I am still unsure what to really think and what is right. The aunt wanted to receive information such as lab values, radiology studies, tests, what the plan was, and then silly things such as how many times was he OOB and how many times did he urinate and what color was it (she literally said that). I understand she is concerned, but with my license on the line and HIPAA what am I supposed to do?????? Sorry for the long story.