daniela095

I have been a nurse for almost two years as a med surg/tele nurse. I started on nights for my first year, and I had a lot of trouble with sleeping and my general well being etc. I am starting to plan my next move. To be honest my dream was always to work in critical care. In my hospital they only hire people into the icu starting off on night shift. I heard it’s not guaranteed when you will be able to move to day shift if you want. I know someone who has been on nights in one of the critical care units for 3 years with no hope in sight to switch to days. I want nothing more to work on critical care, and my hospital is one of the best in my area with the most to offer. Should I settle for a night position and hope to switch to day shift ASAP? Or look elsewhere?

A little background.. Im 24 and have been a nurse for about a year and a half. I am a float, med surg floors as well as ED on day shift. I’m in the ED a lot. This fall- winter I have been sick 4 times. Once in October with a cold, December with stomach virus, January with a minor cold, and now the flu. Last year In the winter I got sick a few times but not as frequently and close together. I was not sick at all spring and summer. I don’t take vitamins like I should and my eating habits aren’t the best. I also suffer from insomnia especially before shifts sometimes causing me to work on very little sleep. I want to go to the doctor about this issue as well anyway. I had basic blood work back in December for something else and everything was fine but can probably go back for more testing just in case. My coworkers seem to never get sick as much as I do. I guess I’m just posting this to see if anyone is in the same boat as me? I’m starting to get very fed up and upset over this as it effects my work and even my quality of life if I’m spending a lot of my days off sick!! Maybe my immune system can’t handle bedside ??

Thanks for the replies. The fluid was LR for pancreatitis. However, for those saying that I'm covering up a mistake/ hoping no one notices isn't true. I should've said in my original post that I wasn't even sure if I connected the tubing back to the patient or not. Meaning it's possible I could've reconnected them but didn't remember if I did. Therefore it is possible this is me being paranoid and possible that I did make the mistake but cannot remember. The thought of wondering if I reconnected them and restarted the infusion came to me way too late to call the unit and tell them as it would've been 14 hours after I've already been gone anyway. If I infact did make this mistake and it was to be brought up to me the next time I go in I would of course own up to it. So no, I'm not trying to cover anything up. I've been a nurse for a month on orientation with good preceptors and the problem isn't that I need better guidance because I am learning a lot from them. That doesn't mean mistakes aren't to happen. A preceptor isn't with me over my shoulder everytime I'm with a patient. They aren't supposed to be since I am learning to be independent. I am sure I'm not the only one who has made a mistake like this. I will learn from this anyway and will always remember to reconnect if I have to disconnect in the first place. If I am going to make a mistake like this I'm glad it was on a continuous fluids infusion and not a life depending medication etc.

I gave an IV push med to one of my patients today and had to unhook them from the continuous lactated ringers infusion to do so. After I was done I forgot to hook them back up to the infusion. It was end of shift and I'm freaking out hoping the next nurse saw and hooked him back up. Has this happened to anyone before if so was it ever a big deal?

My preceptor was the charge nurse the night I told her. She pretty much just said to be careful next time and didn't write a report.

But is this something that should have been an incident report? I realized this days later actually when I looked back since I was taking care of the patient for a few days in a row. My preceptor didn't seem to think so

Patient I had just admitted was ordered heparin subcutaneous every 12 hours. I gave the first dose upon admission and then the next morning ended up giving the next dose 6 hours after that first dose instead of 12 hours after the first dose. The computer didn't automatically reschedule the medication for 12 hours after the first dose and scheduled the next dose for 6 hours later. After I realized I adjusted the doses afterwards to be every 12 hours. I am new nurse and my preceptor wasn't concerned about it. It's bothering me because I feel as if I made an error. Would this really be considered a big deal?

I just started orientation a couple weeks ago. I am training on days and next week will be switching to nights. I am actually float pool. A lot of new grad nurses at this hospital have done float pool and loved it. Right now I am on a med surg telemetry floor as these are the types of floors I will be floating to. I hope nights are different because days are really overwhelming. I feel accomplished at the end of the day and my preceptor for now is great. But I just get anxiety about making the right judgement calls, knowing whether or not to question an order, etc. I'm also terrified of making mistakes/med errors. My preceptor is really encouraging and gives me a lot of independence which I like but also makes me a little anxious. I know these things come with time. I get scared to go into work each day before my shift. Anyone else have or have had experiences like this?

Here are more details; I would like some more opinions please: My patient had an order for sliding scale humalog 3 times a day before meals REGARDLESS of PO status. Meaning they can still get the insulin whether or not they are actually about to eat, but it would probably be ideal if they did eat I'm assuming. I had a patient who didn't want insulin at the scheduled 9 am time and wanted to be left alone for a while. I then re did the fingerstick at 10 and gave the insulin. However, I scanned the insulin late and put the reason as the patient requested. I am a bit paranoid from scanning the insulin late instead of marking refuse initially I do not want someone to see that as a problem if that's what the patient wanted considering I did re check the fingerstick. She had trouble taking quite a few other meds on time that I ended of rescheduling for later in the afternoon. I ended up writing a note at the end of the day explaining that she was having difficulty taking meds on time. Would this cover me for the late insulin and rescheduled meds? I am also on orientation.

Does anyone use sunrise clinical manager in their hospitals? My hospital is cracking down on overridden meds that we're not used with bar code administration. Technically this is done in emergencies. I'm on orientation with a preceptor. On two occasions we marked refused for two meds that the patient initially refused then went back later and "marked as done" when the patient took it. it asked for a reason but it didn't ask for me to scan the med. is this considered overriding?

Thank you makes sense. I am confident that the patient had no change when I assessed her so hopefully it stayed that way and no one will give me a problem for the documentation. I am new and still working on my time management.

Thanks. I know there is someone in the hospital who looks at the neuro checks I just hope it isn't a big deal if they see I missed

This happened yesterday late in the afternoon. Woke up earlier and realized I didn't document my last neuro check after I did it. I remember getting pushed into doing something else and never remembered. I'm on orientation, should I call my preceptor and tell them or is it too late considering it was a while ago. I feel so stupid

Humalog insulin ordered for patient before meals however it is to be given regardless of whether or not they eat. The patient requested not to have insulin at 8. She got the insulin at 10. Next dose of insulin at one and so forth. Didn't think I needed to adjust the rest of the scheduled times since her blood glucose always runs high. Could I get in trouble for giving insulin late if patient requested it?

Hi, patient didn't eat yet when I gave it late she was just starting to eat. However it said to give anyway even if patient doesn't eat after the insulin. She was just a difficult patient and wanted it a little later.