Kayauhs

Thank you so much. I cry when I think about it all. I was a single, new mother and just trying to do my best. Now that I know what I know, these babies are just far, far too important to be considered a nuisance or an obstacle in the way of our "Successful careers". Nursing is just a way to make a living to pay the bills. I honestly think that if having a baby is that huge of a hassle and that big of an impingement on the OP's drinking and partying and schooling that she's getting depressed then she should seriously think about adoption. Hanging on to a baby you view as an obstacle to your goals isn't healthy for either of you. There are families out there just dying to give a baby a good home. I love my children so much that I took many years off from nursing so I could be home to raise them. We were completely broke during those years but guess what? You can only raise a child once. There are no "do-overs". Those years are more precious to me than ANY career or material thing that I might have bought. I will never regret my time with them. The same cannot be said for my nursing career. Ask just about any nurse out there how much they actually like their job and they will tell you this is a very difficult job to go to each day. The patients are very often rude, management blames RN's for the financial problems. We CONSTANTLY are working short, more work piled on every day. The burn out rate for nurses is astronomical. This is why hospitals and nursing homes have to pay us the high wages that they do. I have to go to work here in a few hours and if it weren't for my high wage I don't think you could ever convince me to go there. The patient load is entirely different than it was 25 years ago. I don't recall the patients 25 years ago being this rude. 25 years ago the hospitals kept the surgical patients much longer, usually until they were well enough to go home. Today, hospitals discharge these patients as soon as they possibly can and send them to nursing homes to rehab/convalesce until they are strong enough to go home. Unfortunately the nursing homes are still using the staffing model from 40 years ago so we have CNA's who are constantly calling in, staff that is continuously working overtime, double shifts and a work crew that is woefully underqualified to care for these new surgical patients that come here for rehab. Add to all of this, the federal government's desire to remove pharmaceuticals from the line of treatment of patients with horrible behavioral problems and on a daily basis we all step into a dangerous, chaotic 3 ring circus. I blame 99% of this on the medicare reimbursement system.

Word of advice, when you get out of nursing school head to the nearest medical surgical floor and stay there at least 2 years even though you will want to cry every day when you come home. You will then become one of the most employable nurses out there. You are welcome.

Yes. I did. I was in a completely unrelated field and went to nursing school and became a successful nurse.

P.S. Go to your state's Board of Nursing site and look under either FAQs or something along those lines and they will have a list of board approved education providers. Keep the board happy and you will always be happy.

DON'T DO IT. In the very rural area where I live, nearly all the RN's are ADNs and it puts us all at a major disadvantage. We are continuously unable to apply for a wide variety of jobs because we don't have BSN's. A major care provider in our area refuses to pay ADN's higher than LPNs! For that much $$ wait and get into a really good 4-year college, something you can be proud of and something that you can build on toward your eventual masters. Besides that? our state's Board of Nursing only recognizes a few online providers to do the accelerated RN to BSN course. The tech college that I went to promoted how easy it was to transfer credits and then when people went ahead and tried it very few credits transferred. Very disappointing. AND??? If you go ahead and get your ADN and start working you will be making way too much $$ to qualify for many of the scholarships and aide that you could be eligible for now. If I had to do this all over again I would never get an ADN.

I found out I was pregnant in nursing school after only being there 2 months. (My baby is 27 years old now). Here's the thing; being a new mother is an enormous responsibility and you are FOOLING YOURSELF if you think you can give birth and get to school in that short of a time. Part of being an adult, a parent, a professional nurse is understanding your limitations and understanding how those limitations effect those you are caring for. That baby is only going to be a baby once. TAKE THE TIME OFF. I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. Nursing school is very important. Do it next year. You have a new life to take care of!! Ten years from now none of this will matter to the school, but IT WILL MATTER to that new little life and to the patients that you eventually will care for. (I was up all night with a new baby and in school all day long. I truly don't know how I did it but I lived on caffeine. It wasn't fair to me, my baby or my schooling but I'll tell you without that new baby I don't think I would have had that inner fire and drive to finish RN school). Life isn't fair so don't expect it to be. In one year your baby will be older and be SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Plan for sickness, have a backup sitter. My baby got the chicken pox when I was getting ready to do my final rotation of clinicals and missing one day would have failed me from the course.

All due respect; there is something fishy about the details of this story. If you left your children in the care of an adult and that adult turned out to be negligent, the state isn't going to charge YOU. So, this begs the question about just who you left the children with in the first place. At some point you just have to stop worrying. All that worrying isn't going to change what the State Board of Nursing does. Just go along with whatever it is they say you should do, classes, probation ect...and get on with your life.

Gather up all your data and call the doctor on-call. Do a thorough assessment, vital signs, lung sounds and then paint an accurate overall picture of the patient for the doctor. Nurses are pressed into a position well beyond their scope on a daily basis. Step back, look at what our standard of care, scope of practice is and then ACCEPT the fact that we are NOT doctors. I didn't go to all that schooling and that is why I don't get paid what they do. I'm a nurse. I'm just a garden variety, all around RN with just enough knowledge to get me into trouble. Stay out of trouble. Trust your gut. Keep it simple, ,stick to the basics. What is their blood pressure currently and how does that compare with baseline. Nursing as a profession needs an overhaul. In our quest to establish ourselves as a recognized health profession we have pushed our boundaries of what we are responsible for far beyond our scope. Basics. Call the doctor. Chart everything. Collect your paycheck. Go home and pet your dog. Retire. Wonder why you picked nursing for a living.

Working in a very small, rural ER one night. Family comes in with several kids in tow, the youngest about the age of 7 had a big bloody bath towel on his head that mom was holding in place. The story was the kids were rough housing just before bed, this one hit his head on the corner of a metal closet door. I got him seated on the ER exam table and lifted up the towel and a thin bright red stream of blood shot across the room. I replaced the towel and held pressure while I waited for the on-call doctor to show up. Practiced my deep breathing techniques while I waited. On call comes in and asks what we have and I explained in short simple terms. He says, "IMPOSSIBLE!!" "There are no arteries that run that close to the scalp!" So, I removed the towel and a bright red stream of blood shot past him and over his shoulder. He immediately went over to the phone and called for a transport. Another time I was working in a very small rural, "ICU" and the AM nurse gave me report on a "Rule Out MI" patient. "Oh you don't have to worry about him at all!! I checked him out and hes FINE. I bet he'll go home in an hour." (She had just graduated from RN school about a month before so...) I went in to do vitals and something was odd about the way he looked. I said, "How are you feeling?" He said, "I'm not sure, I just feel off and my pinky finger on my left hand aches." The telemetry did not show any ST elevation, but as I stood there he started throwing PVC couplets. I upped his O2 a notch and called the attending doctor. Heart enzymes were climbin and off he went to Cardiology! Massive MI was evolving. I always felt really good about that. It made up for a whole lot of other stuff.

You are giving this person far too much power over your own reactions. Ignore it and move on.

I'm amazed you had to ask if this was wrong.

Well, here is an update: In order to remain employed and not quit in the middle of the shift and run off screaming down the road; I had to lay down some rules. 1). I never go in this patient's room alone anymore. Not once, not even for something small. This has nearly eliminated the constant lying. I now have a witness with me. This patient isn't dumb either, this patient knew exactly why I was doing this. 2). I check this patient on a frequent schedule, set my phone to alarm and then go in. This has also nearly eliminated all the lying about "No one checks on me for HOURS!!" 3). Absolutely under no circumstances do I talk about myself, my own feelings on something or share with this patient ANYTHING about my peronal life. and WOW I had not realized how manipulative this person truly is until I stood firm on this issue right here. This patient will try nearly anything to get me to talk about my family, social life ect...when I have a complete poker face? Doesn't like it. 4). When the verbal abuse begins, I simply do not respond. Not with a raised eyebrow, a deep sigh, a look of disgust or surprise. I give the vulgar comments absolutley no power when I don't respond to them. So far all of this has worked very well. I hope it helps someone else.

Thank you for this post. I agree, I shouldn't have shared my sensitive information and that is exactly what this narcassist was looking for. This particular patient has become somewhat of a professional laying there and listening to everything the staff says, then using it against them. The patient also lies and lies and lies about everything. The patient then threatens to "go see the administator" and get us all fired. It's a daily occurance and every shift. When this patient has used up all the time on one theme, they just go on to the next. ANYTHING to harm the nurse.

Free speech does not include hate speech, racist statements, threats of violence. Those are and always will be illegal. I decided at the time this was said to me not to react, not to give this patient the satisfaction of seeing me react. On the outside, you would never know but on the inside I'm filled with anger and hurt. Very sad that we have to go through our lives and our nursing careers with a mask on so as not to be hurt by the very people we dedicate our lives to care for. I would not, nor have I ever threatened a patient. I'm just going to move on. Nothing will get done, boo hoo on me.

Well, I didn't exactly "report" it to anyone like the police or the health department. I just wrote a note to my administrator and also my DON. Both of which are very aware of the behavior of this patient. I took a low tone with it all because I know nothing is going to get done. I also have put my armor on. Nursing simply is not the way it use to be. Hospitals and any facility with Medicare funding are held to a nearly impossible standard especiallly now with patient satisfaction ratings going toward dictating the rate of pay, % of complaince, star ratings ect...Most administration are terrified of doing anything to upset the patient for fear they will get bad reviews and that is exactly why people behave the way they do. It's time for a change. Years ago nurses took control of the floor and took charge over the patient. Hence the name, "Charge Nurse". The nursing shortage is going to get much worse as the general public goes through this phase of gluttony and bd manners.