Monkey Nurse

It sounds... normal. And on a bad shift these things might happen to me. We prioritize and do our best but patients sort of get in the way of the “ideal” we hope to provide. Your preceptor should be helping to mitigate any major mistakes. Just know all new nurses and even seasoned nurses go through a very clumsy stage when starting a new position. Nursing school teaches you ideals but it doesn’t prepare you for naked patient falling on the floor with poop all over when you are supposed to be doing an hourly round while your new admit came up quicker than expected. S*@$ literally happens- and we just do our best! You will get faster. You will get more confident. You will never be perfect! Take a breath and do some self-care. What are you doing well on? Tell us your strengths as a new nurse ?

#momlife

But did the dilaudid work too well? #nursing fears

Hell Ive done the damndest things and some of mine ended up with an on call ob dr running in only to role his eyes and be grumpy because he is awake for... nothing. Spraying an unclamped antibiotic onto a sleeping patient in the middle of the night... never happened.

What about hospice nursing? I’m not sure if its going to be the same idea as home health but maybe the hospice agencies near you would be better employers?

I'll get back to you as I am about to start a new facility, but I can tell you what it looked like for me in a rural setting as the only OB trained nurse on my shift: Keep in mind we were a rural hospital so this probably atypical, but we had to be creative with resources: If no active labor- I did couplet care for up to 8 mom and babies. (I never had more than 3 pairs). If I had an active labor, I would have a CNA round for vitals instead of myself, and I would check in on mom and baby periodically after my initial assessments. (I'd probably have cross coverage from outgoing OB nurse while I did my initial rounds). For labor and delivery I provided the care from labor to transition to the postpartum wing. At the time of delivery I had to call an M&S nurse who would stay until we were sure the baby was stable. I think less than 30 minutes. All our M&S staff were baby friendly certified, Pals, ACLS, and usually NRP. Once baby was determined to be stable I sent them back to their ward because in most cases I am doing nothing in the first hour except guiding the bonding and occasional VS checks or fundal checks on mom.

Best wishes and congrats to the soon to be nurses ? I told my sister who just took NCLEX a few weeks ago-- did you do bad enough to fail in 75 questions and not be given additional questions to prove yourself? No? Great! You passed.

I don’t think Ive ever known someone to take OB positions for the challenge. Most of us have a passion for the field. IMHO being in this field and being good at it takes a certain amount of love for the genre of nursing. Do you have kids of your own or any experience in OB? What do you know about breastfeeding? I feel knowing or learning to teach that skill is essential. Birth is beautiful but when it goes wrong some of the most heartbreaking experiences you’ll go through. Infections? Like any other field of nursing- proper precautions need to be taken. I think also many L&D may have uniforms to wear from the hospital. If not take an extra every day.

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/526562100 Winterhaven, Ca is near Yuma, AZ. Bit of a drive or bit of a move but maybe keep your eye on the federal job worksights.

Have you applied to VA? Are you willing to travel and stay somewhere during the week? What are you prepared to do? I left my area after 6 months of no job leads. i was really discouraged. I went to https://www.3rnet.org/ a rural recruitment website and got offers for more rural jobs that way. I didn't care so long as I got to work!

Im a muslim woman. There are definitely fields where you wont run into adult female women if that is going to be an issue for you. Touching adult females non mahrams is frowned upon in Islam not just their breasts and lady partss. There are some among us who fear to shake hands. How would they manage to do vitals? I do not do anything to opposite gender patients which isn’t medically necessary Therefore I do most tasks required of me. if Ive got someone I can switch tasks with I will but when time is if the essence and the stakes are high- I don’t have time to wait for someone else to get around to it. And this seems to be more often than not that tge schedule is tight and its now or never even if its not urgent/emergent I am sure you can phone triage or work in nicu or as others said- male prisons. Also if you might find some specialties or infusion clinics, maybe dialysis centers, that are less physical contact May God lead you to the best path isA

I for one hate the 5 days a week and feel I'm more away from my family than when I worked 3 -12's. I am a federally employed nurse and have worked hospital and clinic. (VA and Indian Health Service are options for those that don't know). Your pay is quite outstanding for not having a college degree. 6 years ago the starting pay for nurses in Missouri state was 20-21$/hr. I think I entered federal service at 47k a year which is less than you are making now. I do much better than that now after 5 years in a federal facility. I can make slightly more moving to private sector. If you really want to be a nurse- go for it, but realize the sacrifices are many including some good debt. Fed nurse jobs have some good tuition reimbursement plans if you want to re-enter federal service.

I work in a clinic and any major medical emergency is a code blue. Most of the staff aren’t knowledgeable enough to differentiate between what code to call and it would waste team. If someone scares the team enough to call a code its a code blue and we come with all we got. Better safe than sorry. I have no idea what a smart code is even though ive been in a hospital for 3 yrs prior to clinic. The first time a new nurse heard us call cold blue he had out cardiac meds defib cables and all in our treatment room. We usually just grab our bags and boxes of supplies and the aed lol. So far no actual cardiac codes in my 2 yrs but we’ve had respiratory distress and diabetics go unconscious Agreed with others that there should be a debriefing. We do this at both places Ive worked. It helps make things go smoother the next time and gets things off your chest. Also agreed that only those who do this regularly, execute things in perfect ACLS mode. Ease up on yourself and do even better next time.

The more confident you are the more you will be able to put your shyness behind. You might have to imagine you're an actress pretending to be outgoing. I am also shy and reserved but I came out of my shell little by little because I began to feel more confident in my skills. Being a new nurse is totally unnerving. I still feel clueless at times and am changing jobs and will soon feel clueless again. I promise it'll get better. I'm sorry you are suffering such an acute loss. I'm sure its hard to venture out into this new career and new era in your life with someone so important missing from it. You have a family of nurses here that are happy to listen.

Its so hard to know! Let me tell you my recent experience is that I have applied for no less than 4-5 L&D jobs in the last couple months at this one hospital. They went on a hiring spree. I even interviewed for one of them. I have experience. I have extra certifications. I didn't get the job. What I found out is that they hired new grads for at least 3 of them. Those grads had preceptored and had personal contacts there (my sister was one of them lol). They weren't listed as residencies but for some reason decided to go that route and bring on new grads. One of the L&D jobs was filled a week after it listed which told me they already had someone in mind. When I did interview I hit it off with the whole team. The ended up hiring me for a float position there specifically working with the maternal/neonatal center which I am super happy with. A travel nurse interviewed for a position with 20+ years experience under her belt in that field and was turned down within 24 hours after her interview. I couldn't believe it. Who wouldn't want her? She could practically run the place she interviewed for! I tell you this because 1) Having a personal contact can be so important in landing the job. They may already have someone in mind before the perfunctory interview. They wanted my new grad sister before the position even opened. 2) They may be looking for something in particular or opt for a new grad- find something in someone that really gelled with them. This time of year there is an influx of nurse grads. 3) Since I've been on interview panels, I've had people that seem perfect on paper but for some reason their career trajectory or something just didn't seem to line up with the vision we had for the candidate. Its hard to say without us knowing more about you and how you interview. If you have 2 equally great candidates something small could be the tipping point between one or the other. Did you apply for many jobs at one place? Best wishes in finding the job you were meant to be in!

My sister landed a l&D job right out of nursing school because she preceptored with L&D and they liked her. I think that is rare and special situation though. I would network away and maybe see if you can teach some parents to be classes or breastfeeding education. Otherwise look rural. Thats how I made my break amd leaned OB 1 month after starting- including mom/baby, l&d

As everyon else has said- there are way too many fields to say i hate nursing. You don’t have to be in direct patient care. Maybe even phone triage would suit you? I know nurses that travel with Medical device companies and teach. Nursing research will probably need a more advanced degree but theres more of that sciency stuff out there. Beat wishes on finding your niche!

When licensing by endorsement, you just need to have a current active license in the state you came from which you achieved by passing the NCLEX. My original nursing school was also not accredited by the major agencies. It was pending accreditation and then failed and ceased to exist. >.<

To the OP, I'm echoing what was said- if you don't have residency in a compact state, you only get a single state license for that state. I worked federal and had a compact state license but once I established residency in another state, I had to convert my license to a non-compact.

I hear you N.d.y! I am trying not to make it harder than it needs to be. I'm just not the most assertive personality. I'm always afraid to push too hard or come off as annoying. I've got pretty good people-reading skills, but negotiations where I typically fail. I guess this is a great situation to get some practice in.

Is there a particular method for bargaining over salaries. I'd really like to take this position, but base salary is $5k less a year and to have the same level health insurance I have now- it would cost $300 more a month. So I am actually going to come up about $8-9k less a year. I've never been good at hard ball and never had to negotiate a salary before. How do I do it professionally? Is email or okay or by phone? I don't even know if a large hospital has much wiggle room to negotiate or if they're on some algorithm. I've been with my current agency 5 years, and I am pretty secure here, so I can afford to play hard ball a bit. I'm just wanting to go back to the field of nursing I like most (OB). Please tell me what you know. Thanks!

My facility is a little weird because we are not urgent care but we have a rule that everyone who walks in at least sees an RN. We have standing orders for certain routine illnesses (not needing antibiotics)-- like guafinesen and ibuprofen and protocols to order these. We have a pharmacy, lab, and radiology dept all under our roof so we can have certain standing orders for these things. Also suture removal and scheduled injections have standing orders (and of course immunizations). I always hoped we'd get some sort of wound care and/or IV infusion clinic underway just to add some more 'fun' things to do. My clinic is also having me work on a case management certification so I can have a broader role in that regards.

I started my RN BsN with them. I only had a few courses with them so take this for what its worth! I moved states after my first quarter so I couldn’t continue or I would have. I’ve done online classes with ASU and ITT and now Purdue Global (Kaplan). SNHU I felt had the best platform. The classes I took were challenging but in a good way. I had a doctorate level professors. Everyone I dealt with was approachable and responsive from registration to my professors Thats allI know unfortunately! But its a little something at least. :)

P.S. I shouldn't have read the post "Why are nurses leaving the bedside in droves?" It made me depressed and scared, and wondering if I shouldn't stay at my nice clinic instead of going to work in a 'hospital system.' ? ? ?

NightNerd, You have read my post which is a stay or go post- just a little different than yours but ofc I am also considering a job change. 2 years ago I was working 12hr shifts with a 2-4 minute commute. I shifted into M-F work with an hour commute on either side. I realized that my hours spent on the job now consisted of 8.5 hours at my worksite + 2 hours commute = 100 hours every two weeks or so devoted to this job instead of the 5, 12hr shifts in two weeks I worked at my previous job = 84 hours in 2 weeks. When I sat down and looked at these numbers, I realized why I am always feeling like I have less time on my hands before. I say that just to let you know, you may be less thrilled with 'normal' shift work in the daylight. >.< My commute is usually happy with some audio books though and I don't hate it truthfully. I just miss 3 and 4 day weekends I left my night shift job because of burn out too. I knew I couldn't give the patients what they deserved and I had to draw the line. Best wishes finding the best stepping stone to move on to! Its a bit nerve-wracking!!