NurseTricia99

I had a Dr. Butt who referred me to a Dr. Finger one time! LOL!

thanks so much for your support, guys! i have been a nurse for four months now and work at a large teaching hospital in the heart of a city that was ravaged by a hurricane (hint hint). i work on an extremely busy and hectic med-surg unit (sometimes floating between 3 different med/surg units). i feel as if each shift i am struggling to keep my head above water. on top of being a brand spanking new nurse, i am working in a place where we are so understaffed, it is crazy! i thought working nights would give me more time to spend with my patients, but most nights, i'm doing good to get all my meds passed and charting done. on the other hand, i am getting lots of great experience, management is very supportive of nursing, my co-workers are wonderful, and the pay is nice. again, i thank you for your input. i would still like to hear from others!

last night, i made such a stupid mistake and have been beating myself up ever since. i called a doctor about a patient's high blood sugar (493) and got new insulin orders. while i was sitting there writing the orders, my pct and i were discussing why the blood sugar could be so high. we realized that this high blood sugar was actually on the patient in the next room! imagine my horror when i had to call this doc back and explain that i had made a mistake! boy, was he angry! he chastised me and told me that my care was "sub-standard" and that our hospital was run like a third world country. by the time he finished chewing me up and spitting me out, i felt like scum. my charge nurse tried to make me feel better by telling me that none of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, i caught my mistake (by divine intervention, i believe), and no one was harmed, but i just can't get over it. i wanted to break down and cry, but i managed to finish my shift without breaking down. i've certainly learned from this and am so thankful i caught it before i bottomed my poor patient out. i will always be more careful when it comes to accu-checks, but tell me, how do you cope with your mistakes and stop beating yourself up????

I myself am a brand new nurse and I feel your pain. I too am struggling with feelings of inadequacy, stress, fatique (i work nights at a hospital an hour away from my home) and unhappiness. I went to my nurse manager and told him how I was feeling and he told me that what I am going through is normal and that I'd feel like this for a year or two. I wanted to cry. I can't feel like this for another year or two! I am working on 3 different med/surg units. I go into work never knowing what unit I'll be on. Our patients are very high acuity and staff is stretched thin. A lot of the other nurses I work with are new grads also and they are feeling the same way as I do, so I keep going in, night after night, hoping it will get better. The last two weeks only seemed worse! I came home crying last week for the first time. It was horrible. I'm sorry I rambled, but what I wanted to say is that I applaud your honesty with your supervisor. You felt uncomfortable in your current situation and you are doing something about it. To me, a future employer could possibly see that as integrity and honesty and having the guts to speak up when you just don't feel right about a situation. But that is just my opinion. Good luck in whatever you decide! Remember, you are not alone!

Thanks for your advice. Honestly, I'm still deciding what to do, but since I do have a prescription for it and use it sparingly, I'm going to quit fretting! I certainly don't want my nursing instructors to think that I cannot handle school; that is my biggest concern about disclosing it. I am aware of Xanax being addictive and am very careful with using it. I'd still like to hear other's opinions.

My doctor put me on Celexa and Xanax a few years ago for mild panic attacks and to help me sleep at night. I use the Xanax every once in a while when I just absolutely cannot sleep. When I got my health form filled out for nursing school, the nurse said she wasn't going to put the Xanax on there. Is it bad for me to be using this drug? I should have asked her right then and there, but I didn't. Now I'm worried that when I have a drug test at school (which they do randomly), it will come up and look like I'm doing something illegal. Does anyone have a word of advice?

I am so sorry to hear about what is happening to you. As a new student starting in the Fall, I am often worried about losing my licence because of a mistake, instead of being maliciously neglectful. I find that praying about my problems and giving them over to the Lord helps me to deal with things, but when your licence is being suspended, that is easier said than done. Please keep us updated.