nursesandra

I think all of us new nurses feel this way too. There are some days when you finish working where you just worry yourself sick thinking, Did i forget to do something with my pt? I try not to worry about it because I'll just end up having a burnout! It can be scary being a nurse, having all of this responsibility, but in the end, the patients appreaciate us and we mean so much to them. I find it's also hard to start working and the other experienced nurses expect so much from you.....and it does take years before you can start feeling confident.......or so i'm told!

Wow! Good job on how you handled your hectic day! You should be proud of yourself. I often have days like that too, you can be having a few quiet days in a row than all of a sudden BANG everything goes wrong!!! I guess you guys in the US have the same problem as us here in Canada; with the nursing shortage, we're just overloaded with complex patients with multiple problems. And of course, it's always the nurse who has to deal with everyone's problems, and we always get blamed for everything. I feel like it's us nurses who run the hospital!!! But in these working conditions you can only do your best; we're not superhuman or anything. Just remember, we're there for the patients but we also need to take care of ourselves too. I know the feeling when you work a 12hour shift and you only get one 40 minute break during the whole shift, and you see the patient care attendents getting to take all of their breaks, and they always get to leave on time!!! It's very maddening. :rotfl:

The insertion was done the day before (1 day old). After I left Dr. ended up ordering antibiotics anyways (prophylactic) and the pt. had a pleural effusion (as seen on the chest xray) that had already been there for about 2 months . A couple of days later they ended up inserting a chest tube. :yelclap:

Hi guys, I just wanted to post a situation that happened to me so that I could get some feedback. The other day I had a pt. who was quite young and was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, he had only a few months to live. The pt's new wife was at the bedside 24hrs and she had her own psychiatric problems, was saying that if the pt. died she would kill herself too. The pt. had just had a bilary drain inserted, and I was caring for him. His vital signs were stable and after the MD's rounded in the morning and told him that there was nothing they could do for him (the pt. was in denial about the diagnosis), he started having a panic attack. He was shaking and was hyperventilating, he was tachycardic and hypertensive. I gave him some O2 by Nasal prongs, gave him some relaxation techniques to do, and I told the medical student what had happened (all of the MD's were in the OR). The pt. then calmed down, and was visiting with some family members throughout the day. When the family members were leaving ,they mentioned dying to him, and he started having another panic attack. By this point he had ATIVAN ordered, so I gave him an ativan and some Gravol IV, I checked his vitals and he was tachy, hypertensive, breathing very quickly except this time he was febrile. I paged the MD but he was busy in the OR, he said to page the medical student. I did this, the medical student came and said to keep monitoring the pt. The pt. eventually calmed down, but he was still febrile and tachycardic, and his breathing was horrible. I felt like there was something else wrong too, so I ordered some bloodcultures/chestxray/urine c+s, but the doctor still wasn't coming so I paged him again, no reply, I paged the medical student and told him that the pt. was still breathing rapidly and was wheezing. The med. student said he was coming with the resident to assess the pt.and to read the chest xray. By this point it was the end of my shift, and when i gave my report to the next nurse she was mad at me saying "He's probably septic from the Bilary drain insertion!". I left the floor feeling like I had missed something, that I should have been more persistent in contacting the MD's, as it started out as a panic attack, but it later became something more serious. I'm often left wondering sometimes when I should call the MD, as they often get mad if you call them for something that isn't an emergency. Any feedback? Thanks!

It sounds like these family members are reacting to their loved one's illness by being...well...way too involved. I've encountered some "bizarre" family members before, and it seems that by overdoing their involvement it gives them some sort of solace. Maybe the family member feels guilty about something, and to make themselves feel better they become overinvolved. But, the most important thing is advocating for what the patient wants. Do they want their pubic hair blowdried after voiding??? If they don't want this done but the family member keeps doing it, the family member may need to be removed from the room.

Hi everyone, I'm a new nurse who graduated last year from nursing school, but who is going back to school to get my university degree in nursing, so I pretty much only work during the summer and on holidays. I'm young, I work on a very busy, and hectic floor with very complex patients. I can sometimes have upto 5-6 patients on certain days, and there's always a million things going on and everyone is always expecting you to give them everything you've got. When i'm working in the summer, I really have a problem with confidence. I often feel intimidated by the more experienced nurses, and I often feel like I have to prove myself to them. I'm always asking questions, and I sometimes worry that they find me incompetent. I always feel anxious before going to work, and I sometimes have a hard time when a pt. is going "sour", and often patients code on that floor. I deal with the situations well, but I sometimes worry that I don't assess my patients well enough. I'm always feeling guilty about everything; and also feeling that the staff members think poorly of me, even though I know this isn't true. Help, I need some advice before I give myself a burnout!