lunchboxRN

I graduated at 35, BSN will be 40 or 41. My mother graduated at 63. Both of us second careers. You are not too old to do anything. Some days I wish I'd started sooner, but I was not mature enough in my 20's! Life experience is very beneficial in your practice as well. That said, there are some extraordinary 20-something nurses, I envy their "togetherness". I was a mess in my 20's!

My hospital hires straight day and night shifts. No one has ever been switched without their permission. Once there was a request for a night shifter to fill in days for a few weeks while someone was out on leave. We also hire new grads in day shifts. The other hospitals close by are a mix beteen day/ night and rotating. So yes, they do exist. However, I am in a more rural part of my state. As you get more populated, I'd imagine you run into the places where days go to those with seniority. However, like with many new grads, relocation might be the best option to find a job that suits your needs until you get the experience to be competitive. I agree with those saying not to worry too much now. You have several years ahead of you and situations change.

I have occasionally had the thought that one gender is easier than the other, but really I am just remembering a pt who is an outlier. Those particularly difficult or easy pts are more likely to be memorable. There are certain things that may make care of one gender easier than the other in certain situations. For instance, for those who don't have foleys, a urinal is a blessing. However, a female with a foley is just as convenient for me. Background: I work on an ortho/trauma floor, lots of pain and pain meds. I do have a few generalizations of course, based on my own anecdotal experiences. I think elderly people tend to deal with pain better as a whole. Younger people have not (usually) experienced chronic aches and pains that tend to come with old age and are therefore shocked and less able to cope with it. A LOL with a hip fx is often easier to take care of than a 20 something with a fx from a car accident. The people who are challenging are those who expect no pain after being medicated and those who refuse to tell you they are in pain. Oh yes, and those who are just GREAT until their spouse comes in and suddenly they are a 10/10. Some of my easiest/nicest pts have been those people who I would actively avoid outside of work, such as heroin addicts. I have even had great nurses and doctors as family members - I know I am not the only one who inwardly groans when you hear that in report! I do have of course have a favorite pt...I love my dementia patients, even the combative ones....as long as they don't try to climb out of bed I can't believe I actually read the phrase "internalized misogyny" on this board.

We are given the choice between PTO or a 4 hr shift. Like no way am I using my PTO for that! Some people choose to work a full 3 shifts, plus the class. We are so short staffed right now, it's no issue.

I hated 8's. I did that for 2 years. I was tired after getting home and never felt like I had time to start anything I needed to do after driving home, eating dinner... I LOVE 12's. They go fast! No, I don't like not getting to see my family on work days for more than a few minutes, but I have so much extra time now. Before, weekends were a rush to do mundane stuff like clean and shop on Sat so I could relax/do fun stuff on Sun. Also, taking driving into consideration, I have about 10 xtra hours a week from my job change. Also, when I feel like it I can pickup an extra shift and still have plenty of non-work time.

Did he have the foley strapped to his leg? Foleys can be irritating to the urethra just from the friction caused when moving around, turning, and so on. We have to cause pain in the course of helping people heal, whether it's turning a hip fx pt q2h or cleaning and packing a wound. I try to 1. medicate prior if possible 2. warn them it may hurt 3. do my best to be gentle 4. distract them with conversation if possible. It sounds like you are an empathetic person, that's good! Don't lose that, but don't let it stop you from doing what needs to be done for the interest of the patient.

If this was a typical situation like stress from poor staffing or inappropriately high acuity patients, then I would encourage sticking it out for a year. However, in your case I don't think this is something to just ride out for a year. You are there to be a nurse, not to be abused. Nor to be a change agent for their racist worldview. You are not weak in any way, this is not a lack of psychological strength...this reflects only on THEM as a person.

Passions, to me, are things that I have a strong desire to do, but don't HAVE to. No one makes me hike or spend time with my family and pets. I like my nursing job, I enjoy it most of the time, even when I'm rolling my eyes and griping with coworkers. I take pride in my work, but is not my identity. If I were to follow a passion into a career I'd be a vet or run an animal rescue. However, my soft-for-animals heart couldn't deal with illness, dying, and mistreatment of these creatures. People I can deal with, I don't like people as much, so it's easier to compartmentalize and give good, (yes) compassionate care to them. If that makes any sense. This is a big reason that I wouldn't work in peds as well. Edit: To the PP who insulted older nurses and night shift...come on my floor, on m night shift with that attitude. Please. We will kiss your bum just as well as any day shifter despite your ridiculous notions. ....I'm imagining Nosferatu hovering in the dark corner waiting for pts to go to sleep here...

I have no advice for you, but that sounds fascinating. I have friend in forensic psych nursing, he loves it. The true crime lover in me is excited for you!

I recently went from a very independent position to med surg as well. The easy part is learning foleys and the like. The hard part is critical thinking and time management, which it sounds like you already have. I wouldn't worry about it, I did and I found the transition easier than expected. One issue that you might share with me is delegating. I was so used to doing things on my own, it was difficult to remember to ask for help. I am still working on it, but it makes life and time management so much easier. I second the customer service part. Some patients should be in prison for their treatment of fellow humans... but we still have to smile and kiss butt like they are the special snowflakes they believe they are We get prisoners often on my unit, but we treat them with kindness. Kinda funny, some of my best patients have been the people I would avoid like the plague outside of work.

How about PLEASE do not go into each patient's room and introduce yourself after I have finished giving you the run down for that one person. You will have plenty of time over the next 12 hours to do that. We all know you can't go into a room without dealing with requests. Do that after I have completely finished with all 5-6 patients! If the nurse before me didn't know, the patient doesn't know, and it's not documented....how am I supposed to know either?

I find no make up looks a little bit better at the end of 13 hours than racoon eyes do.

I am a night shift RN on a ortho/neuro/trauma floor with med surg overflow. My duties from 7p-7a include....all the duties of day shift. The only difference is that they occur at different times. Yes, there are some variations : I don't deal with set meal times. However, people still eat at night. I don't deal with rounding doctors. I get to wake them up at 2 am instead. I get to wake people up throughout the night for meds, treatments, and assessments. They LOVE that. I warn them ahead of time when I will be waking them and that usually helps. Day shift sees more family members, I usually don't have that many past bed time. Nights are not quiet where we all sit around and watch Netflix. Dementia people sundown, post-op pain doesn't go away at night, people need things around the clock. No one shift is better r harder than the other. If you have people slacking off on night shift, they are individually a crappy nurse. They would do the same on days. I honestly can't imagine how anyone, let alone a whole unit, could get away with never giving meds or doing assessments. Do you honestly believe that? They all sit around typing out false documentation on 5-6 people every shift? I find this totally, utterly farfetched and I wonder who told you this, since you have not actually worked this shift yourself. In fact, how would anyone know what EVERY single nurse is doing? Another nurse? A CNA? Really? Maybe..it's a unit full of psychics. They don't need to assess their patients, they already know!

You might try bluing your coat, such as with Mrs Stewart's Bluing Whitener (not Martha). This works if some of the stains are yellow, like around the collar. For the ink, I have has success with hairspray to remove it. Also, for permanent ink, if you apply rubbing alcohol right away you can take it out. I havent tried bluing myself yet, but this was the common recommendation from clean queen sites for getting white sheets nice again. Interestingly, bleach reacts with proteins like body oil and makes them more noticable...

TMI for me while in home health was pt spending 45 minutes detailing the last 40 yrs of generally irrelevant medical history. "So yeah, sorry to hear about that cruddy hospital stay you had 30 years ago, now can we discuss your current CHF-COPD-DM-ESRD-HTN-ETC as a brief aside before I have to leave?"