Exhuasted

I can't believe these people... at my job "oh sorry I didn't have time to chart" doesn't cut it. Charting is a REQUIREMENT and if we don't do it to the letter we get written up and even fired. I'm supposed to leave at 7:15 and I stay until after 8:00 almost every night to finish charting, I've even had to stay as late as 9:20 before! We have an insane amount of charting on every single patient and none of it is optional!

I asked to move to day shift and I was moved IMMEDIATELY, no more night shifts ever. I love working nights but I can't handle what it's doing to the rest of my life. So my first day shift is tomorrow. I graduated in May and aside from orientation I've only worked night shift. I went to nights because I've always been a night owl and I thought it would just work. But I guess not. I'm nervous about adjusting to early mornings and the general day shift chaos, all the back to back admits and discharges and all these people running around everywhere, all that good stuff... BUT! I know I WILL adjust, I wouldn't go to days if I didn't think I could, but I'm just anxious about the initial transition... so, any advice for making a smooth transition?

I've only been working as a nurse for 5 months at the moment, so any change I might make would be far in the future... but I've been thinking a lot about ER lately. I work on an ortho/trauma floor, and I really love the trauma, but I want to see it when it's new, when it's just happened. How do I know if I've got what it takes to work in ER? I've been thinking maybe get a year or two of med surg experience then try ER, but what if I do and end up not being cut out for It? Then I'm stuck for a minimum of 6 months before I can transfer to another unit... what all do I need to be considering right now?

Just wondering how full lab tubes really need to be. I usually try to get mine about halfway (unless it's a blue top), but the other day I saw a more experienced nurse sending off blood with hardly anything in the tube, and I really was expecting the lab to say it wasn't enough blood, but as far as I know they didn't, so now I'm just wondering how full they really have to be...

I finally got my first nursing job! I start July 24th in an ortho/trauma unit at a hospital I am extremely unfamiliar with. I know it's a great hospital, I'm not worried about that, but I had hoped to get my first job at the hospital I did clinicals at where I knew where everything was and knew policies and knew the nurses. I know I'll have orientation and a preceptor, but I'm just nervous because of being so unfamiliar with it. I'm also anxious because of how long it's been since I graduated. I had hoped to be working as a tech straight out of school until I passed NCLEX, but now it will be about two and a half months since graduation by the time I actually start the job. Any advice for the nerves? And new nurse advice period? Thanks in advance :)

My school required an NCLEX prep course BUT we knew about this requirement from day one of semester one, and it was only a 3 day course. And yes we did have to pay for it, $425. I know a lot of other people are saying just do it and get it over with, but honestly if it were me I would speak up. If they were going to do this they should have given you advance notice, and if it is not in the handbook, they cannot force you to do it. If it's not in the handbook and they are still trying to withhold proof of graduation I would take legal action. If you know your grades and you know you met the requirements for graduation, then what does it matter if they get upset over you expecting them to have some standards and do the right thing? They can't keep you from graduating if you've already met all the requirements.

Can anyone give me a list of all the types of code status? I get DNR, DNI, comfort measures, full code... But I've recently started seeing things like code A and code B in clinicals, what specifically do those mean?

For some reason I quit getting notifications for this post, I'm sorry. But for those asking about the saline thing, we were in post conference and she had us all in a circle and she was pretending to be a patient sent home with a PICC line and having another student doing pt education, and the point she was trying to make was to flush the line slowly, and she said "so when I flush do I just go like this?" and forcefully shot the whole thing in my face. On purpose. Didn't even pretend it was an accident. As for where I honestly want to be, I would like med surg night shift, or anything perioperative.

It really is everything you hear. BUT if nursing is what you really want to do it WILL be worth it. You just have to keep your focus on that goal.

It's my second time because I failed clinically last semester. Yes, she will fail me if she thinks I'm not competent. She thinks I can't handle a high stress environment. The only negative feedback I've ever gotten in previous semesters was that I need to be more confident. Now I'm still told I need to be more confident but by the same person who will turn around and chew me out in the hall over nothing or squirt a full saline flush in my face (and yes she really did that) or humiliate me in front of the whole class just because she can. She says that I spin my wheels and get too anxious.

So I'm in my last semester of nursing school (for the second time), and apparently my clinical instructor thinks I'm not cut out to work in a hospital, and I'm pretty sure the only way she's going to allow me to pass is if I shift my focus towards other options. I know I can't handle long term care. I don't really see RNs in clinics, it seems like there's a couple of CNAs and MAYBE an LPN. I thought about possibly a dialysis clinic, since there is more of a need for RNs there than most other clinics, but at the one here you start at 4:00am, and there is simply no way I could do that. I know scheduling may sound like a ridiculous reason to rule it out, but I already struggle with 6:30 clinicals, if I had to be there at 4:00 I would be sleeping an impossible schedule, I would be waking up at 2:00, which would mean I would need to go to sleep no later than 8:00, and I just could not do that, I already have sleep issues and I can't fix my sleep cycle (no matter how hard I try). I would LOVE to work nights, I sleep great in the morning after being up all night, but then night shift is mostly hospital and nursing home... Can someone please help me explore my options? Or figure out if this just isn't for me and I've wasted 3 years and countless breakdowns, which is what I fear most... Edit: even if floor nursing is not for me, could I possibly handle pre-op?

First of all, as for the cliques, it really sucks but it's very common. You just have to really work to overlook it and be the more mature one. Now on to grades. In my program they say that quizzes should give you some ideas of what you need to focus on when studying for your test. So maybe anything you missed on that quiz will help you see what you need to work on. The best advice I can offer is to try out as many different study/learning techniques as you can and try to find what works best for you personally, since everyone learns differently. If you find that one method isn't helping, don't waste your time on it, move on to something else. I don't know how different LPN school is from RN school, but for RN school a lot of times if you can get a firm grasp on the patho of a condition it will really help you understand everything else relating to the condition. In your studying constantly ask yourself "why?", don't just try to memorize, try to understand. Don't just remember A leads to B and B leads to C, try to learn A leads to B BECAUSE this and this and this happens, and then after B this and this happens which causes C. Does that make sense? Try to learn the why and the how, not just the what. I promise it will help. And it may help you to study with a partner who you can talk out the information with. I know that helps me. Ask each other questions, come up with scenarios, maybe even google some case studies for the topic.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend it. I don't know about your school, but at mine micro is one of the most hated classes by everyone. Most people choose to take it in summer so that they will be able to take it just by itself and focus just on that, because it does take a lot of focus. If you were going to take another class with it, I wouldn't recommend A&P II, A&P II is definitely not as bad as micro, but it is pretty challenging too.

Okay so I'll try to keep what could be a very long story as concise as possible. I started what should have been my last semester of AD nursing school on August 22nd, but on August 6th my life changed in a big way, and not for the better, and I didn't have time to get my head clear between then and starting the new semester. I already suffer from severe depression and anxiety, and going through extremely distressing circumstances just made everything tremendously worse. I had done fair on clinicals on our 6 hour days - not great, but adequate, but after midterm we started doing 12 hour days and it just totally threw me off, and I just never could seem to catch up. I ended up making an error that did not result in patient harm but had the potential to be harmful, and it was a result of my anxiety clouding my thinking. This combined with my mediocre performance previously ended up getting me kicked out of the class. I was supposed to graduate December 15th and now I'm not and it's pretty heartbreaking. I'm in a terrible financial bind and postponing my graduation is NOT going to help that, and it's extremely stressful, and I'm very depressed that I won't be graduating with a few really great friends I've made in this program, and I just feel like such a failure and like I'll never amount to anything... I'm trying to tell myself that it's just the depression talking and I'm trying to work through all of this. Although I've dealt with some very difficult instructors in this program, I was very thankful for my instructors' attitudes as far as my situation. I was terrified about my meeting with them, but they were actually very considerate; they were honest and realistic, but in a tactful considerate way, and they seemed genuinely concerned for my mental health. They want me to take this time to really work on myself and take care of myself so that if I chose to return next semester I'll be in a place mentally that will allow me to be competent and not send me over the edge. I think I probably will be returning next semester. I've had a lot of doubts about whether nursing is right for me. It's what I WANT to do, but I've had doubts about whether I'm capable of being the kind of nurse patients deserve. Even if I never hurt anybody, I just don't want to give anything less than excellent care. So the best plan I can come up with at this point is to do as my instructors asked and try to take care of myself and get better, and attempt the next semester in a better frame of mind, but if I still can't improve significantly, to call it quits and try to pursue a more appropriate career path for me. I won't try to force it if it's not working. SO, my questions for you all are these: If you've ever failed for clinical performance did you repeat the semester, and if so, how did it turn out for you? Any advice for coping with my negative feelings about failing? If I do determine that nursing is not right for me, do you have any advice on coping with the feelings that that determination will bring about? *Most important* If I do return next semester, do you have any advice on improving my clinical performance? (prioritizing, time management, critical thinking, anything!) One really upsetting thing about this is that I started the semester a little rocky, my first two tests were pretty bad, but I worked my butt off and I pulled my grades up, my grades actually ended up not just safe but actually good! I worked so hard and I was so proud of that, and I just never would have expected that I would be failed for clinicals. This is the first semester in the whole program that I have had problems in clinicals beyond the small things that all students have issues with, this is the first time I have not been on par with the other students, and it hurts. It's been hard all along, I've had to work with everything I've got to even get as far as I did, but I was proud of how far I'd come, and it just really hurts to have ended up here.

A man being a nurse is a plus for me. If you're a nurse it automatically means you're smart (even the easiest nursing school in the world still requires serious intelligence!), it means you have determination, it means you're goal oriented, it means you have relative job security (and I'm not talking about the dollar amount, I'm talking strictly about the fact that you don't have to stress about "what if I lose my job??" the way many do), it means you're responsible at least to a reasonable extent, you're probably pretty strong (nursing requires some real strength sometimes!), you're bound to have a sense of humor because that's the only way to survive some of this nursing stuff, and that whole thing with women liking men in uniforms, for a lot of women that includes scrubs (it does for me!). So the short of the story is, when I think about a man being a nurse, my first thoughts don't go to that he works in a field currently dominated by women and that makes him feminine (which is not true), my first thoughts go to everything he's got going for him and what a catch he is. And remember, if no men are ever brave enough to take on a profession where they are a minority, they ALWAYS WILL BE the minority, it will never change. Women are finally getting brave enough to become doctors and, while the field is still male dominated, that IS changing, and the only way it will continue to change is if more women continue to step up. The same goes for men in nursing. It will only continue to change if men continue to step up and take on the challenge. And that is the only way to get rid of these silly stereotypes; eventually the stigma will disappear, and you'll be proud to have played a part in demolishing it. Nursing is an awesome profession and no one should ever have to feel anything less than pride for being a part of it, and I just hate that the world tries to make men feel badly about being nurses. Recap: Nursing is awesome All nurses are awesome regardless of gender Male nurses are awesome and appealing to women You rock, don't let stereotypes get to you! :) ETA: In answer to your other question, NO a man taking care of a woman is not unmanly or unattractive, it is gentlemanly and very attractive to most women.

Don't worry, if your school gives a crap about NCLEX pass rates, it'll get plenty hard. (Final semester student and drowning)

If I were you I would take the opportunity to start over. Especially if you've only invested a year in it. I'm in an ADN program and only about a month and two tests into what should be my last semester, but I'm already pretty sure I'll be repeating it. My program's policy is that you only get to repeat one semester (each semester only counts as one class, so if you fail, you fail the whole semester rather than just one class). I've had some personal issues interfering, but I'm still afraid that even if I retook the semester at a better time for me mentally and emotionally, I may not even pass the second time because the tests are not in line with the classes. BUT, I would still at least try a second time. And I've been heartbroken thinking about not making it, and I've tried to figure out what I would do if I didn't make it the second time, and I decided that I would start over again, from the first semester. But somewhere else. My school has a reputation for having one if the most brutal nursing programs in the state, so if I was going to have to do it all again, I would go somewhere else. I've looked at the next closest school to me and I would only be lacking one prerequisite for their program (and have a whole bunch that I don't need), so that's probably where I would end up. Starting over. So I would be 28 and spent 6 years (including prereqs and a semester of waiting while I apply to the program) on an associate's degree. But I refuse to let all the hard work I've put in be for nothing. I refuse. I've broken my own heart so many times in these past 3 years- sleepless nights before tests, missing time with friends because I'm too busy studying or writing papers, I even had to back out of being a bridesmaid for my oldest friend, I've suffered losses and trudged through anyway when all I wanted to do was give up and stay in bed for a month. Given my most recent loss, it took everything I had to force myself to come back when this semester started. I've been humiliated by instructors, cried in the med room in clinicals when I couldn't overcome obstacles that I felt I should be able to, had to deal with classmates with bad attitudes, gone totally broke because I'm not able to work regularly while I'm in school. It's been horrible. And I can't live with the thought of all of that being for nothing. So I refuse to give up. Even if it does mean starting over. I hope this helps in some way.

How kind of you.

I'm sorry you're feeling the stress too but I appreciate that you understand! Instead of just telling me to stop doing what I asked HOW to stop lol I just wonder if this is a common feeling at this point. I feel like it might help us to know how others have felt right at the end and how they dealt with it.

Oh my word... No. No you are not wrong. She is though. If you're not in the same class then showing her how to study effectively is all you can do, and if she chooses not to apply it that's her problem. It sounds to me like she just wants somebody to do all the work for her. I can't believe anybody would tell you to do more than you already are. You have to take care of yourself and she should be taking care of herself and not expecting others to do it. I've been told that nursing is not hard by someone I care about and I was extremely upset, I don't know how you have kept calm over her remarks. If I were in your shoes and someone was acting like that, it would only push me away and make me NOT want to help them, and I'm pretty sure that's how the majority would feel. Don't let people guilt you into sacrificing your own academic success (not to mention your sanity!) to appease someone who doesn't seem to appreciate anything anyway.

I'm about to go into my last semester of nursing, graduating in December... And I don't feel ready. I just can't quit worrying about EVERYTHING! I worry that I won't be competent, that I'll hurt somebody, about the criticisms of annoyed experienced nurses, about rude doctors.... And then there's everything leading up to that... What if I fail my last semester, fail NCLEX, can't get a job... And I'm basically clueless on resumes since I've never even had a job that required a resume before, only ones that require nothing more than an application. And I have very little to put on a resume to boot. I'm freaking out and I don't know how to stop. I keep getting told "you've come this far, you're fine" but that's by people who have not been through nursing school, especially not my school which has a reputation as the hardest in the area. Oh and of course when I worry about the safety of my patients I get "you're just a nurse, you're not a doctor, you're not gonna hurt anybody." Clueless. Any advice?

I have dogs, cats, and horses. Nursing school has just about killed me, yet I've never once considered getting rid of any of my pets for even a second. They are my therapy. They are what gets me through, and I took them on for life, not just while it's easy. Pets are for life. I feel terrible for a dog coming from who knows where to a shelter to be closed up all the time and finally going to a home and get a taste of what life is supposed to be for a dog, only to be sent right back. The fact that you're crying tells me you know this wasn't right.

I took saying that he was spared another payment to mean that he passed... ?

I am in my 4 week rotation of mental health nursing and I need help desperately. We keep one patient through the whole rotation, plus have others that we don't keep the whole time. I have 3 dx for my care plan, since it's the same patient each week, instead of writing a new paper, we update each week. So, this being totally different from the dx I'm used to, I had a really hard time with it last week, but I asked my instructor for help and he basically said I was on the right track with most of it, but just needed to expand on it. And I've applied all of his advice except for one thing. My patient is schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur, and on my dx for "disturbed thought process r/t exaggerated feeling of importance" the goal and outcome was super hard for me, because it's supposed to be the short term goal for the short period of time we have with that patient, so it has to be realistic for the short time we have, and I had a goal of "TPW have cognitive orientation" and outcome of the usual oriented x3, "correctly states name, correctly states day of the week, correctly states location" and I know this isn't great, but I was at a loss. He said that doesn't work because they can do all that but still be delusional and hallucinating like my patient was. So I added "Absence of delusional statements esp of grandeur eg 'I am God'" but I can't think of anything else to add. I'm not asking you to do my work for me, all I'm asking for is some guidance so I can get my thinking going the right direction. I'm just at a loss with this one. Thanks in advance for any help!

Those words made a really big impact. I've never looked at it that way. We should all be striving for improvement throughout our lives no matter how good we THINK we already are. We should always have someone to look up to, rather than thinking we are above everyone else, that we're at the top. There's room for improvement in everyone. Thanks!