PHXRN1

Why is it every time I hear a Christian talk about their "relationship with Jesus "they end up sounding like a battered spouse making excuses for why they deserve dthat black eye?

Your question covers an exceptionally broad range of skills. For example, are you asking about: -time management -performance management of direct reports -unit productivity -hospital logistics/patient flow -employee scheduling -patient relations -career development of direct reports -project management -crucial conversations with staff -balance of clinical assistance vs executive presence -encouraging work/life balance of staff -meaningful employee recognition -HCAHPS and unit accountability -MD relations -etc -etc -etc There are a lot of hats we wear. Often you just need to put one on and where it till it fits. Any of those in particular that you were wondering about?

PM Sent.

Stop holding yourself to a standard that no one else is holding you to. You're a student. Accept it and revel in it. You're going to "get in the way" of other nurses going about every day tasks. Don't apologize, it's just what students do, and it's okay. More than okay, it's expected. You're an extra body on the floor that doesn't have a patient care assignment (as far as hospital operations are concerned). And when you do "get in the way", rather than letting "I'm sorry" exit your mouth, ask them "can I help you with anything?". As for patients, what apology do you owe them? They're in the hospital and you're there to help them feel better. So what if the tape hurts coming off? It's tape. It does that. Don't apologize for tape doing what it's supposed to do. Instead, explain why it's necessary to keep the IV firmly in place and reassure them that you'll try to minimize the discomfort as it comes off. Don't "fake it til you make it" at this point. You'll miss out on a lot of learning opportunities by wanting people to assume you know things that you don't. Now is the time to be an inquisitive little sponge for information. Be curious, be helpful, be compassionate, and be comfortable in your role as a student. It's the only time in your career that you're expected to be ignorant. Enjoy it while you can.

At the risk of sounding offensive, I would stop all of your test-specific preparation and find an English tutor. From your grammar and sentence structure, I would venture a guess that English is not your first language. Because so much of NCLEX relies on your ability to accurately identify what the question is asking, you need to start with the basics. All of the test preparation in the world isn't going to help until you have a solid foundation of the English language. Find someone who is willing to tutor you or at the very least study with you as you go through your questions. Doublecheck with that person to see if you are reading the questions correctly and can identify what, specifically, the question is asking. Then, and only then, focus on whether or not you know the correct answer.

When you paint yourself into the corner of "no one can tell me", you eliminate any and all possibility of progress being made. Attitude problems are not exclusively a function "them". They are a two-way street. "Their" attitude problems have much to do with our own perception and understanding of what drives those behaviors in the first place. Perhaps rather than waiting for these individuals to accept Christ, a more constructive approach might be to speak with them and offer constructive feedback on those specific behaviors that you identify as problematic.

You're worldly! You're sinful! You're no good! You're a worse nurse than you could be for not believing what I do! You can't make it on your own! Only God can change your ways! And I "have to respect that"? No. No I don't. Freedom of religion means that I have to accept that people are free to believe as they wish, but I don't have to legitimize those beliefs by giving them my respect. If OP wants to wrap their baseless, condescending, preconceived judgments on my personal character and nursing ability in a holy shroud of free religious expression, that's fine. But that freedom of belief and expression does not come with blanket-immunity from those that would challenge its merit.

"Imagine an old friend tells you everything changed for him the day he realized he was destined to marry Angelina Jolie. It might occur to you to ask, why does he believe this? Angelina Jolie is, after all, one of the most beautiful and famous people on the planet. Shes not incidentally married to Brad Pitt. They have something like 27 children! What if your friend, sensing your skepticism, said, Clearly you don't understand. This belief gives my life meaning. I now know my purpose in life: its to be Angelina's husband;? What if your friend said,This belief has made me a better person. I'm now incredibly kind to children, anticipating having to raise Angelina's once Brad leaves? Or what if your friend said,You can believe whatever you want, but I wouldn't want to live in a universe where I don't marry Angelina Jolie? It should be quite clear that your friend has lost his mind and is probably a dangerous person. Yet this is precisely the type of talk that so often passes for wisdom in religious circles, and may attempt to pass for wisdom here. Beliefs are not like clothing. Comfort and utility and attractiveness cannot be our conscious criteria for adopting them."

The General Nursing Discussion sub-forum is a confessional, not a classroom ?

Correction, you are currently in your third semester of nursing school and you are still having trouble understanding how to utilize your resources and think critically. Never expect someone to think for you until you try thinking for yourself. But here's a "gimme" anyways: https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/questions-pt-ptt-161106.html https://allnurses.com/nursing-patient-medications/pt-inr-ptt-595535.html https://allnurses.com/nursing-patient-medications/heparin-high-inr-834675.html https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/please-help-me-107985.html https://allnurses.com/nclex-discussion-forum/ptt-question-410987.html

The current glut of new nurses was created specifically by private institutions of higher education. These vultures realized they could make millions in loan money by peddling associate degrees to prospective students by continuing to hype the nursing shortage that doesn't exist. People can't complain about facilities not hiring new grads and in the same breath claim that these same institutions wanted all of these new grads in the first place. I understand and respect your frustrations about staffing levels in certain hospitals and facilities, but you need to be honest about your arguments.

Nursing takes up 81% of your facility's budget!?!? If that's true, it's a miracle that your facility manages to keep the doors open at all! I'd be shredding nursing employment contracts at a pace fast enough to make an Enron executive jealous. However, I find it far more likely that you bent over and obtained that "statistic" rectally or you are just woefully misinformed about the expenditure breakdown at your facility.

Own your attitude! Don't ever let yourself get sucked into spiral of self-pity. There are a hundred things a day you could find to be critical of and complain about. And in most cases you'd be justified. No one would fault you for being aggravated about the med-seeking patient that's getting on your last nerve. It would be acceptable to release a few therapeutic expletives when you're getting your 4th admission of the shift after discharging 4 others. Everyone has stepped into the med-room (or the "confessional" as I like to call it) to lay into the unreasonable family member that's being too demanding. But resist the urge! These are your "rocking-chair" habits. They feel good to engage in, but they get you absolutely nowhere. Don't be a person that lets situations happen to you. You have to be the force that acts upon your situation. Be a person of action. Be a person of understanding. Be the difference that you wish your coworkers would be. Some are inclined to believe that it's their vast knowledge, or clinical competence, or their number of certifications that will set them apart from the crowd and get noticed. But it's much more subtle than that. What will set you apart is how you handle the day-to-day grind. Go into work each day knowing that you have the power to determine if it's going to be a good day or a great day. Notice I didn't say good day or bad day. Don't even let that be an option! Why would you let that enter into the spectrum of possibilities? This job is exhausting. It is emotionally draining. It tries your patience. But none of these things, in and of themselves, have any direct impact on how you choose to deal with them. It's all attitude and all attitude is a choice. You're exhausted? Good! Look at the physical demands your body is capable of overcoming. Emotionally drained? Remember and appreciate which one of you is in the hospital bed right now and that you get to go home and recharge. Losing patience? Every time your patience is stretched to the breaking point, it grows that much more. Developing this took some time and practice for me. I found music to be very effective. I felt like an idiot when I first started doing this, but it has made a very real difference in my days. Take five minutes before your shift to find a place where you can be alone. Pop in your headphones and choose a song that gets you pumped up. Stand there, feeling the music, and make yourself as tall as you can. Straighten your back, chin up, hands on your hips in a powerful physical pose. Puff your chest out and make yourself smile. Tell yourself that today is your day and that you own this place. It's only five minutes and no one's watching. Forcing your body into a dominant, powerful, positive pose can and will have an effect on you psychologically. Try it and see. You may just find yourself resembling that powerful, dominant, positive person a little more every day.

You've worked for 3 YEARS in the same dysfunctional work environment with the same dysfunctional management alongside the same dysfunctional coworkers and you don't know what to do? LEAVE! This clearly is not the place for you! But having read through a few other posts of yours, I get the sense that you already know this but still don't intend to actually take action. At what point are you going to get mad enough to say enough is enough? So three years ago a freshly-minted BSN walked through the door and the charge nurse got the jitters. Rightfully so. And a sarcastic comment about "hiring her replacement" was probably masking some insecurity and nervousness. "What happens if management brought in this BSN gal to stir things up a little? What kind of new ideas is she going to suggest that I haven't thought of? School sure was a long time ago." Etc... But you know what? She was dead wrong. After three years, this broad ain't scared of you one bit. Why should she be? She's got a spineless manager that obviously sides with her when the chips are down and a whole staff of RNs that are so set in their ways that they laugh at newbies with their shiny, Magnet-friendly, BSN degrees because you're working the crap job that they are. You've got two choices. 1) Learn to keep your head down and accept that you're gonna keep getting walked on. or 2) Start fresh at a new, less dysfunctional facility and bring some good ideas to the table with the backbone and tenacity to support them.

Having worked inpatient oncology, I mirror your sentiment, Luckyyou. Although I'm a professed atheist, I cannot bring myself to conclusively say that there is no god or higher power. I simply don't have the facts to back that one up. I can say, however, that considering the pain and suffering I have witnessed in the line of work (alongside a myriad of other arguments), I find no compelling evidence to support the notion that there is an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force looking down lovingly on all of us. And if there is such a "creator-god" up above, taking a keen interest in all that we do and intervening at his leisure, then he's a sadistic child on an anthill with a magnifying glass. That is how nursing has helped sharpen my perspective on god. In all likelihood, there's no higher force beyond our understanding pulling the strings here on earth. If there IS a higher power responsible for some kind of cosmic organization, it would be unlike anything we've conceived in all our modern religions, and likely entirely indifferent to our existence as a whole. Live your life. Love your neighbors. Make a difference in the life of your patients. These things require no god; only the goodness of your heart, the gift of your intellect, and the skill of your hands.

If you had any other realistic offers on the horizon, I would say wait until you have all the answers in hand and then choose your best path. In the absence of any other prospects, however, I'd say you'd be foolish not to take what's being offered. Remember, it's always easier to FIND a job when you already HAVE a job.