nursling2013

Hello! I am curious how many people are mandated to pick up OT shifts at their facilities? I work nightshift on a step down unit where the schedule is 6:45-7:15, three 12H shifts a week, scheduled every third weekend and on a rotating holiday schedule (where on night shift, the eve of the holiday AND the holiday count as "holiday" shifts though we only get paid holiday pay during the official holiday hours, so if I work the eve of thanksgiving and thanksgiving day, holiday pay starts at midnight on the eve and ends at midnight on the holiday. Make sense?) Ever since I started working here three years ago, every quarter we are mandated to sign up for two extra weekend shifts; a Saturday and a Sunday, not necessarily on the same pay period. The longer I work here the more asinine it begins to feel. It is August and we are also expected to self-schedule all the way through December at this point, extra weekends included. It makes planning your life outside of work, AROUND your work schedule, a daunting task, and I don't even have kids yet. Just curious who else has had this type of experience. Is my disdain warranted or am I simply being a princess, essentially is what I'm seeking to understand.

I've found that I need to take a mental break at least once or twice to gain my clarity. Close your eyes, deep breathe, play a song in your head. Get up and go to the bathroom; if you have proctors like I do at my school, take them with you PROUDLY. Their job is to escort you and do not feel silly for taking advantage of such a ridiculous thing. Don't worry about the students around you -- anything you do, be it mid-test meditation or an extra long bathroom break -- is for your mental clarity and benefit. Also, make sure you are hydrating and eating well before exams, and of course, getting enough sleep. Good luck!

As a soon to be graduate, I feel your pain. I, too, am too receptive of these things, allowing the negativity to pierce my atmosphere and cause me to doubt myself relentlessly. One thing I've learned is that finding a resolution to conflict -- whether between others or within yourself -- is understanding what motivates people, or yourself, to act or feel a specific way is a huge step in attempting to correct the problem. You already said that using "stress busters" is ineffective, that maybe you need to change something internally. Understanding yourself enough to identify this possibility is the first step. Try to apply the nursing process to it. (Dreadful, I know, but you devote your time and efforts to helping others in this way, why not view your own problems from the same professional perspective?) Assess and diagnose; Identify your weakness. What is affecting you, how does it make you feel, and how are you responding to it? If it's something you're afraid of, ask yourself WHY you fear it? Plan and implement; how can you approach the problem differently? How can you look at your stressors in a different way? Is it outside your control? If so, then stop worrying, because worrying will not change the outcome. If you can change it, then get busy working on that change. Or perhaps instead of thinking that someone else's negative comment is a reflection upon YOU and your inadequacies, consider that it is more a reflection upon THEIRS. Evaluate; how does changing your perspective help your work through the problem? If it doesn't, then you know to get to planning again. I hope that wasn't a crappy response, but essentially, I think this is something internal you have to work through somehow. You didn't specifically state what the issue is, just that you feel stress and you have difficulty coping. Find support, if you can, from friends and family. Don't necessarily seek advice, but just know that they are behind you. Simply knowing you aren't alone can be helpful during stressful times. Looking at the bigger picture can be helpful if you're stressing about the details in your life -- like your grades, where you're at job or relationship wise. As a BSN student, you're just at the very beginning. You have an entire career with hundreds of options before you. Look at each obstacle as a little, inconvenient road bump on your journey to where you ultimately want to be in life. Stress feels like crap, but it's only temporary. Hope I helped a least a little. Good luck to you

Personally, I find it's helpful to ask them what they normally like to eat, and then perhaps make suggestions towards healthier modifications. A lot of the time, people have misconstrued ideas regarding what is healthy. They just don't know; they never received the education, and they trust the labels on their food products more than they ought to. At a senior center, I performed a demonstration alongside a few of my classmates -- we took a few items they knew and loved, iced teas, juices, yogurts, granola bars -- and measured out the grams of sugar and put that sugar in clear plastic bags for them to visualize. They were shocked at how much sugar they'd been ingesting from these snacks and foods that they thought were "healthier" options. They were also shocked to learn some of their favorite juices and teas had just as much sugar as a can of coke. We then demonstrated similar but healthier food choices. They loved the demonstration; it was more effective than simply talking AT them about healthy eating.

I agree that you can't really prepare for those specific courses. You've learned a lot in pre-nursing, but now you will learn an entirely new way to process and apply that information, which you shouldn't try to teach yourself. Instead, I recommend brushing up on your medical terminology! Understanding how to break words down is very helpful when sitting in lectures where you're moving very quickly through material that has many words you may have never seen before. Understand hypo- versus hyper-, as in hypotensive VS hypertensive, or hypo/hyperkalemic, etc. Or tachycardia VS bradycardia, apnea VS tachypnea. If you're already confident with these things, then brush up on your basic anatomy of the body systems. The better you understand how the body normally works, the better you can understand what happens when something is WRONG -- a critical skill you'll learn/need to master. Other than that, seriously, enjoy your free time. Good luck to you!

I'm 24 years old and graduating with my BSN this month. On my application to the board of nursing, it asks if I've ever been convicted of, plead guilty or no contest to, etc a misdemeanor. It then states "This includes crimes that have been expunged IF there is a direct and substantial relationship to nursing practice." When I was 18, I plead no contest to a petty theft charge. I had no other history at the time, was working and in school full time, and was thus offered a diversion program. I paid my restitution and fines, and my record was sealed. My question is whether I HAVE to disclose this information, or if it would be in my best interest to? I understand the importance of honesty here, but the "IF there is a direct relationship to nursing" disclaimer has me a bit tripped up and I don't want to make the wrong move. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks so much