sawice

I now work in a pre-operative area doing pre-surgical interviews both over the phone and in person. I still miss the rush of code, new hot-mess admission, all of the fun bedside excitement. It's a desk job and I'm able to work from home every now and then. Do I miss bedside? Sometimes yes, but more than not, no. I've found in this role I have more opportunities to educate peers, I'm active in our Orientation process, etc. I'm still able to do 12h shifts, so I'm not stuck running errands on the weekends with EVERY SINGLE OTHER PERSON IN THE WORLD!! There most definitely is life after the bedside!! You'll find your niche.

I'm wondering if this is your first job? Because I think just about everyone who is employed has had these feelings at one point or another. That being said, I do think nursing has a different stress level and burn-out factor than others. Before becoming a nurse, I worked in Finance. I made a lot of money but remember being frustrated by the "critical" projects that meant I had to delay my weekends, vacations, nights out, to meet some arbitrary deadline. I remember stating that nothing I did was "life or death" but that's how these deadlines were conveyed to us. I loved the stress, but not the way it imposed on my personal time. Now I'm in a job that actually can be "life or death". I still love the stress, the challenges, the satisfaction of getting everything done during a shift, but most importantly I love making a real difference in someone's life - even if they don't realize it, appreciate it or thank me for it. Don't come into nursing expecting to be thanked - you need to draw your own satisfaction from this job and not necessarily from your patients. I'm hoping some of what is being said during orientation is to try and weed out those who are entering the field for a pay check. And to prepare you for those shifts where no matter what you do, it isn't enough. After those shifts, you will feel burnt out, frustrated and exhausted. But if you are entering nursing to make a difference - even without the gratitude of others - you will find satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, pride and maybe even and heartfelt, tearful "thank you". Heck, you might even find yourself picking up an extra shift to help out, learn more and for the time and a half. I make a fraction of what I once made, and I wouldn't trade what I am doing now. In fact, I wish I'd started sooner...

Thank you for sharing this and I'm glad there was a positive outcome. I am now motivated to find out if the staff at my children's school are trained. If they aren't, I am going to push for it. I am also going to look into what I have to do to become a certified trainer/educator. While AEDs are made with easy to understand instructions, I think most people are terrified that they will do more harm than good if they were to use them. There is no reason that everyone should not have a basic understanding and comfort level with using an AED and I hope to improve that understanding. Thank you, again, for sharing.

Thank you for the clarification, Rose_Queen. I was told otherwise by an earlier preceptor and figured she knew what she was talking about.

Like you, I also left a career in Finance to become a nurse. Therefore I was precepted by an RN almost half my age. I never found the age difference to be an issue and the thing I tried to keep in mind throughout orientation is that what I did was under her license as well as mine, so any errors made were putting 2 licenses at risk - that helped me keep my focus on learning and away from any perceived personality conflicts. As horrible as it is to have a crazy workload, I also found those days to be the ones that helped me grow the most as a nurse. I was forced to learn how to prioritize tasks, and when to delegate functions to techs. I'm not typically the type of person to ask for help, but when things are overly busy, that is what you have to do to survive. I'm not sure how much you are able to delegate tasks to others vs. doing them yourself, but perhaps that will help. Half way through orientation, I had a conversation with my preceptor and let her know what I found to be most effective to my learning and suggestions for changes - it was her first time as a preceptor, so perhaps she was more open to listening than your's. Maybe this is how your preceptor was trained and she simply doesn't know any differently. Her frustrations over things that slip both of your minds may simply be frustration and not specifically addressed toward you. I'm not sure what you did in Finance, but I used to work on a trading floor, so I learned to listen for the feedback message and to assume that other people's frustration are based on their own bad days and something that I shouldn't let ruin my day. So if it seems like someone pisses in her Cheerios every morning, just let it be. Do what you need to do to survive but understand that assignments are going to change in real-life and you just need to roll with it. Orders are going to be placed right before shift change that fall to you to complete and you just need to roll with it. As others have stated, you may just need to develop a tougher skin and listen to the feedback you are receiving and not taking said feedback too personally. Most importantly, remember what you are feeling now so that when you become a preceptor, you can break the cycle.

His new playlist is a bed-alarm.

I would also suggest that you ask to shadow on the floor where you are interviewing. If that is granted, pay special attention to things like the patient population (e.g. walkie-talkies vs. total care patients), how well do the techs and RNs work together, how active the resource/charge nurse is, how/when nurses can possibly transfer off the floor if it isn't a good fit, how many orientees do not get hired each cycle, etc. The other thing to pay attention to is the "vibe" on the floor - ask questions about staff meetings and the Nursing Director and then really look for subtle clues because this will give you a sense of how much management supports the floor nurses. As I look back on my interviewing process from 6+ months ago, I wish I had done this, and here's why: - patient population (e.g. walkie-talkies vs. total care patients) - we often have a high census of total care patients, but our tech ratios rarely change and since they are staffed more thinly at night, things can get extremely hectic when you have 5 patients at night and 1 or 2 techs spread very thinly to help. - how well do the techs and RNs work together - finding out what tasks techs are expected to perform vs. the RNs helps you better understand how challenging time management will be. It also speaks volumes to how some shifts will be insane while others will flow smoothly, depending on who you have on the tech schedule - how active the resource/charge nurse is - I know I'm going to have a crazy shift if one or two resource nurses are on; While shadowing, ask what types of scenarios would be appropriate to involve the resource nurse vs. what the floor nurse is expected to handle on her own - I called a resource nurse to help with with setting up a new PCA infusion and was told that I'd have to get someone else to help me because she was eating... - how/when nurses can possibly transfer off the floor - I asked this during my interview and told that it is easy to accomplish, the reality is that on my floor, very few transfer off with our Nursing Director's support - they either have to do it completely on their own or they leave the hospital. I don't find that to be a supportive environment, but maybe that's just me. - how many orientees do not get hired each cycle - for some reason, our Nursing Director always chooses to not hire at least one person from each orientation group, often not even letting their Orientation Coach know that there is an issue so that shortcomings can at least attempt to be addressed. While I love the RNs I work with, I definitely do NOT love the management, floor and hospital, for a variety of reasons. For a first interview/shadow I think it can be easy to simply be so excited to be potentially starting a new career and be really, really nursing, but try to pay attention to these things and what sort of chatter and banter is happening in the break or charting room. I hope this helps and good luck.

Thanks so much, michlynn!

Interested to hear how things are going in your first few weeks. I start on what sounds like a very similar floor on Sept 8th as a new grad and while I had a clinical on a Telemetry floor, it was really more a med/surg floor so this is my first cardiac rodeo....

Hi everyone. Reading these comments has been helpful for me since I now find myself in a similar position. I will be a new grad on a Cardiovascular step-down unit starting Sept 8th. I am going to be reviewing ECGs each day until I start and based on prior posts, will be watching youtube vids on chest tubes and cardiac caths. Would someone be willing to provide me a list of meds you commonly see so that I can brush up on those prior to starting? Any other tips not previously mentioned are also welcome!! Thank you all so much!

Thanks. I never got the message saying I had passed but I also never got sent to the credit card screen, so I was a mess for 3 days. Then saw my license on the Maryland BON site and cried!! So glad the exam is over. I really wish I had found these tips prior to taking the test - they seem like they would have helped a ton. Good luck to all who are taking the NCLEX!

What is the "bad" pop up? Is it "Our records indicate that you have recently scheduled this exam. Another registration cannot be made at this time?" ~~bracing myself~~