cafegoer

I’ve been a night shift nurse for 4 years on a busy med-surg tele floor. Almost every shift while giving handoff report, an oncoming nurse will nit-pick at something small that I didn't do. Meanwhile, when they give me report, they leave so much for me to do. We’re usually short staffed, with no cna and sometimes no charge. Most days there’s not enough time or help to accomplish everything no matter how hard I try. Some things I have to endorse to the next nurse. For example, if I have to endorse an IV dressing change (that is not expired yet, but just due to be changed on day shift) they comment “Oh. You didn't change it??” Meanwhile, some of these nurses overlook critical things. I had to report to my manager one nurse that didn't hang a heparin drip all day. Her response was “I didn't get around to it”. Another time a nurse endorsed to me: a blood transfusion which had been ordered hours before, a new admission, and a discharge (the discharge paperwork wasn’t done yet despite being in the computer for hours). Again I reported to the charge nurse who helped me and took down the name of the nurse. I do my best to prepare the shift for the oncoming RN (hang new bag of fluids, medicate the pts, clean the pt’s). However some nurses leave so much behind and nit-pick at the smallest things that I didn't do. How do I deal with behavior on my unit? Btw this happens to my other night shift coworkers as well. How do I deal with these nurses?

Thanks everyone for the advice!

Hi everyone, I'm a new grad RN off orientation, working nights on a med-surg/tele floor. I'm having anxiety thinking about things that could go wrong. I'm also anxious because I still have a lot to learn about nursing, protocols, and the new work environment. I would really like some advice and insight on how to decrease this anxiety and also how to stop focusing on everything that could go wrong and focus instead on the things I have control over. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist. I've been told I'm doing well but still I worry about the unknown and about making mistakes. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Also any advice for new grad nurses on med-surg/tele would be extremely helpful. Thank you

Hello, I'm somewhat new to this site. I got my first RN job and am in need of scrubs. Does anyone know of a store in Southern California where I can buy petite-sized scrubs? Preferably in orange county or the inland empire. I am about 5 foot, 100 pounds and am struggling with finding scrubs that fit me. I have different brands of scrubs from Life Uniform but they are all pretty baggy, so I would like to find something that fits me better. A few suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

Thank you both for the helpful advice!! I purchased the Saunders books and will be using those to help me study, along with the test-taking tips. Thanks again! :)

Hm.. that's interesting. Yeah I have taken so many, but the tests are still foreign to me. I think it may be the NCLEX style questions. Most of the time I do end up changing the answers from right to wrong.

They are the "Kaplan integrated tests". We sign up for them and they become available on the Kaplan site, then we take them on campus with a proctor. So far we have taken the fundamentals, physical assessment, med surg 1, peds, and Ob tests. The scores I was referring to are the total percentage correct.

I am having trouble passing my Kaplan Integrated Tests. We have taken 5 so far and while I have come very close to passing some of them, I have still failed them all.. I am feeling discouraged because I don't know how to score higher on these. I get A-'s in class and clinical, but I always fail Kaplan. I have scores in the 50's, 60's and 70's, but always below the schools' cut off scores. I am fine on content, its the questions that confuse me. Also, I tend to second guess myself and change answers. Any advice for how to pass? Also any advice for how to study for the test retake? I assume the questions will be different, but I am not sure.