MThomas92

Hey guys, I know there seems to be a plethora of posts regarding new nurse woes but I just need to let off some steam and vent a little bit. So I've been an RN for four months at an LTACH and couldn't feel any more incompetent and discouraged. Previously I had worked as a CNA for three years and truly believed this experience would have made my transition into the nursing profession a little more easy (needless to say..it didn't). The floor consists of patients that are mechanically ventilated and/or patients that come directly from the ICU. It's difficult for me because oftentimes, I feel like I don't know what's going on with my patients. My orientation lasted a mere four weeks and then I was on my own. Labs will pop up and I'm unsure of what exactly is going on. Patients' conditions are always changing rapidly. I think sometimes I am too focused on getting tasks complete rather than focusing on the overall patient. To be quite blunt, I feel like an idiot. To make matters worse, some of the nurses on the floor aren't the nicest. My preceptor was extremely sarcastic and would look at me like I was a fool when asking a question. She told me today when she was charge "You need to get your sh** together." While she said it with a smile, I don't find the humor in it. She is a very hot and cold individual. If I make a mistake she always says "Don't tell them I trained you." It's also discouraging when you hear the nurses talking about nurses on the other shifts and/or the other new grads. I'm an overthinker and paranoid person as it is and it makes me extremely uneasy to think about what they could be saying about me. My nurse manager is also the type that'll say hi to you one day and will walk by you the next. I am under the impression she finds me incompetent as well. I was spoken to last week by her because of an audit that was done concerning scanning medications. I fell under a certain percentage and explained to her that I would never just click 'admit' for a medication and that I only do that with creams and powders that I can never find in the patients' rooms. She just looked at me and then proceeded to tell me about how I documented a critical value in the wrong place. Sorry for the rant guys but I just feel so bummed! I did my preceptorship in nursing school at a well-known hospital and the environment was entirely different. People were extremely friendly and I never overheard any badmouthing going on. I truly just hope things get better. I want to stick it out at least for a year to gain some experience and then get the hell out of there but it's just so difficult when you have a sense of dread in your stomach before each shift. I knew people said being a new nurse was rough, but definitely didn't expect it to be this bad! Thanks for listening everbody, I've needed to get this off my chest for quite some time now!

Hi everybody! I need some insight on where to aim my focus when formulating a picot question. For those who are unaware of the acronym...it stands for the following: Population/ Patient Problem: Who is your patient? (Disease or Health status, age, race, sex) Intervention: What do you plan to do for the patient? (Specific tests, therapies, medications) Comparison: What is the alternative to your plan? (ie. No treatment, different type of treatment, etc.) Outcome: What outcome do you seek? (Less symptoms, no symptoms, full health, etc.) Time: What is the time frame? (This element is not always included.) Now I am currently working on a bone marrow transplant/hematology floor and need to formulate my question regarding these patients. While it seems rather simple, I am having difficulty on what to focus on specifically. Should I focus on holistic treatments such as reiki therapy (which some of the patients receive) or should I focus on chemotherapy in general? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, I am a student nurse on an orthopedics floor. This semester we have to educate the nurses on a topic of our choice. We unanimously chose to educate the staff on student-nurse communication. As you all know, being a student nurse is difficult especially when you feel as if you're bothering the nurse. What we are evaluating is how thorough the nurse is with the student. Will they give a bedside report with us? How much of a detailed report do they give us? Are the patient's whiteboards filled out? We are using questions like that, but need more questions in order to evaluate if they are informing us on everything we need to know about the patient. I was wondering if anyone had any good questions/advice we could use in this 'test'? Any input would be extremely helpful as us students are struggling to think of a full list of questions we could subtly use to test how thorough the nurse is with students. We were thinking about asking patient's as well but are unsure due to each patients' varying reliability. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone, I have a competency exam tomorrow that involves hanging an IV. I am confident in spiking, priming, and calculating the gtts/min. Unfortunately, I have an issue when it comes to counting the actual drops in the drip chamber. I have a very difficult time counting the drops and looking at the clock simultaneously. For example, if I had 42 gtts/min, how can I accurately count the drops without messing up. It isn't correct to adjust the roller clamp while counting, correct? Can anyone give me some tips regarding this? I'd greatly appreciate it! Thank you! -Mike

Hi everyone, I have a competency exam tomorrow that involves hanging an IV. I am confident in spiking, priming, and calculating the gtts/min. Unfortunately, I have an issue when it comes to counting the actual drops in the drip chamber. I have a very difficult time counting the drops and looking at the clock simultaneously. For example, if I had 42 gtts/min, how can I accurately count the drops without messing up. It isn't correct to adjust the roller clamp while counting, correct? Can anyone give me some tips regarding this? I'd greatly appreciate it! Thank you! -Mike