sandytoes

Can you pinpoint what exactly you hate about it?? Is it the pace? The population? The hours? The unknown (aka you have so much more to learn and it is stressful being a new nurse!). No support on your unit?

Discharge orders. Verify with provider they are ready to send them now. Then I take and chart a set of discharge vitals. Review discharge instructions, meds, follow up schedule/appointments. Answer any questions. Then I remove the heart monitor and IV. Check the room for all belongings, send their ride for the car, and pt taken to the door in a wheelchair. I have more more than once found a patient suddenly hypotensive or febrile right at discharge time, hence my vitals check and waiting on the IV. Hate to have to stick them if they are staying after all...

I think the rounding sounds like an excellent idea. I work on a high acuity unit with a high proportion of RRT vs the rest of the hospital. Would be great to see the RRT and also get to know them outside of an urgent/emergent situation.

I did. Quite a big one. Nursing is harder than I ever imagined but I'm glad every day I go to work that I made the move. I was miserable in my old career. And life is too short to be miserable. Now I'm tired. A lot. But I'm happy. The money will come.

This is something I am working on. I have a hard time finishing report on time (not for me being wordy but for report being involved and having to report to multiple people and basically having to wait my turn...). I do try my hardest to have all my charting done before report but the 5-7 hours are so busy that doesn't always happen. I also struggle with knowing when it's OK to not do something for the oncoming shift. I'm a relatively new nurse and I want the reputation of helpful and the nurse you want to follow. But I know I need to find the sweet spot there too. Anyways, Getting out on time is on my list of things to do better this year... I imagine it's practice makes better (never will be perfect!!).

I'm a new nurse so I recognize that I'm overly cautious, but I do it for the same reason. That and I feel like it's never a bad habit to get into. That way no matter where the tube is for the patient, I pause the feed out of habit. Rather over pause than forget once and have a problem, I figure....

Where I work, you may be hired PT but you absolutely can work FT hours (and then some...). Before I started working as a nurse, I didn't see the value of m/s experience but now I do. It will be a good foundation for you.

Well it's only been 4 days?! So your assignments for those days can't really tell you if there is a pattern. Maybe all of the patients in the floor are less acute? Or maybe they are trying to keep nursing assignments consistent and another nurse had the harder patients on shifts previously?? Or maybe your charge is being easy on you because they recognize you are new and want to ease you in. If it was me, I would be so thankful. Being a new nurse is so hard and there is so much to learn and managing time and doing all the charting is much easier with a less acute load. I would take this as a blessing! The hard patients will come, trust me!!!!!

Ha I know it! I spent 10 minutes googling it and got both answers too. So who knows! Not trying to start an argument lol bc I have no clue! It's just one of those random things that boggles me!! (And I think I may have too much free time on my hands!! Hehe)

Funny - it's honestly one med I always feel weird saying. Our MAR actually lists it as ce-FAZ-olin (including the capitalization!) so that's how I say it, but I want to call it cef-ahh-zolin!

How does she say it?? I love that our MAR helps us with pronunciation bc I kill some med names sometimes!!

Just had to google more. It's apparently called a triple lumen hemodialysis catheter. I had never seen one before my current unit. They are pretty handy!

It's a lumen that looks like a lumen on a Picc or central line. I don't know if they have another name?! There are the 2 HD ports/accesses (usually taped off/together) and then the one lumen flopping out of there too that is used as a usual access for fluids or meds. I feel like I hijacked this thread (sorry!) so I can ask this somewhere else if I need to!

My unit often sees patients with a "nurse port" off a HD cath. I'm still nervous to even use those, never mind touch the HD cath (never never never). Any advice on those? Besides the obvious of good central line care/maintenance?

I don't like to carry a ton of stuff. My basics are Stethoscope Bandage scissors Pens Mini flashlight (on my badge!) Sharpie Hair ties Cell phone Also I bring a lunch bag every day that I keep extra snacks and a small pouch that has Tylenol and tampons and a deodorant. Never know when you will need any of those! Otherwise I use paper from work for report and don't drag a ton of stuff back and forth.

I had this problem personally. I figured it out accidentally. I used to have awful sinus problems. I cut a food group out trying to solve a different problem I was having and voila, the sinus problems were gone. I had no idea. All that to say it's not a stretch to have this thought that food could be causing it....

True. I should have added the same caveat. I don't mean mouth intended items (we use those some and you definitely need to suck the troche, or swish the nystatin). And YES!! I'm constantly amazed at how many pills people can swallow at once!!

This might be a stupid question, but I am a relatively new nurse and I figured I might as well ask! Is there any harm in swallowing chewables? Ex: I gave a Tums to a pt who just swallowed it. I realize it's more readily available when it's chewed, but other than that, for pills like this, is there any harm? Thinking about chewable vitamins, probiotics, asa, etc. (And I am not talking about things like dissolvable zofran.) I know this is a random question and I will ask my unit's pharmacist next time I see them, but wanted to ask here too! Thanks!

She said on the previous page "I ordered a chest X-ray and he pneumothorax had not increased."

My facility is mask for sure. Clean gloves to remove the old. Sterile gloves for the new one going on.

Is there a way to get there from the App?? (Besides clicking the link above).... Not that I need another time suck lol but I can't help myself!!

I think we have the same instructor! Lol my favorite CI sounds a lot like that. Available but not hovering. Demanding but not mean. She expected professional behavior but was also very encouraging and your biggest ally!! She had us do a lot of reporting, even if to our group only in conference.... Which helped us feel confident in handoff. She also grabbed us all if something cool was going on or neat to see. Also expected at least one head to toe physical exam from you that she was in on. She provided great feedback and always made me comfortable with questions. I have not had a bad CI, thankfully but some in my program have..

Yes!!!! I've been dying of something totally obscure and random at least 3 times lol never mind all the common things I think I have!! Lol thankfully I've survived it all so far

I was one of those who went into it after having kids because my experience was rocky yet awesome. But then once in school discovered it was not for me and so many other things were much more exciting. The ideas of babies and happy families is alluring but most people don't think far enough to see the family drama, fetal demise, and intense overall pressure that goes on in L&d! I will never say never, but for now, no thank you - not for me!!

I am a big fan of drawing things out. Make a game plan for each condition that you are looking at. It's likely that your med/surg and patho/pharm overlap talking about conditions a lot anyway so this will be helpful. So for each condition you are learning about I would make a list of WHY this happens (just a few bullet points to help you understand the process), what a patient with this condition looks like (signs/symptoms) then a list of treatment options (meds, surgery, whatever it is for that condition), then a list of nursing considerations (ie: elevate HOB, apply o2, check sats, suction at the bedside, check blood sugar, etc whatever nursing things you need to remember for that condition). I know that there is a TON of information often presented in PPT or books, but you really just need to understand WHY it happens, what it looks like and how we are going to fix it. From there, I find that I can reason my way into and out of a lot of questions I get on exams. Also, youtube is GOLD for understanding conditions!! If you dont understand something, google it and watch videos until you do! There are a lot of great ones out there that break it down. Last bit of advice - get a good NCLEX book (or 2 or 3 or 4) and do practice questions. If your exam is on respiratory, in your NCLEX books, find the respiratory section and do a ton of questions. You will learn where you are weak, read the rationales they give for the answers, and you may surprise yourself and see some of those questions on your test! (this has happened to me more than once!). Good luck :)