babynurse101

One of my "favorite" deliveries was a 53 year old woman who was having a son and refused to believe it until we literally dropped the baby on her chest. After the baby went to the NICU and she'd been with us a day or so to recover, I went to ask her about birth control options. She yelled, "I don't need no birth control! I'm 53 years old!" Well, clearly, that's irrelevant at this point in time. Edited to add - on a side note, the history nerd in me can't help but comment that your (OP) story is eerily similar to Queen Mary I's in regards to her "pregnancy."

I don't personally have a fertility problem (that I know of, I have no desire to have kids any time soon), but I work in all areas of OB - L&D, mother/baby, NICU, and even occasionally peds - and I'd actually say about half my coworkers were never able to have children or just never did. Granted this is likely a coincidence, but a lot of the ladies I work with say working in mother/baby or L&D, etc., fulfills that part of themselves that "missed out" rather than exaggerates their sadness. One thing I know one of my coworkers became a mom/baby nurse for was the adoption process. We as mom/baby nurses take care of all infants, especially the abandoned/withdrawing/up-for-adoption babies waiting for a good home. One of my coworkers got permission to be a foster parent, and ended up permanently adopting three of the infants she'd cared for in hospital. But everyone is different, and everyone deals with grief/struggles in different ways.

So I am a fairly new nurse still (just passed my 9th month in my first job) and I've made several dumb mistakes along the way. Insulin given incorrectly once during orientation, narcs given too soon after a c-section once shortly after orientation, and not clamping an abx PB after it was done and the bag exploded... oops. Like i said, really really stupid errors but I haven't hurt anyone, never been written up, and I've never made the same mistake twice. However, last week was bad. I was about an hour from the end of my shift and got a new GYN pt from PACU. She came up in the middle of a blood transfusion - her starting count before surgery was only 7.5 - and with two other completely dry lines. I hurried to get fluids going again before her veins collapsed and then stopped the blood as it was done by the end of my assessment/charting. She was due for another unit, and as I hadn't hung blood since my orientation ended several months ago, I asked a seasoned nursed to come in with me as a refresher and back up. Bear in mind, we're the only two nurses on the floor at the end of an incredibly busy shift. No excuse, but fact. So we primed the line with saline and went through all the motions and hung the bag with the same tubing - first mistake, as it was due to expire at 2330 and we were hanging this 2hr infusion at 2215. Stupid, but we didn't think beyond "It's not bad now." Spiked the blood and we started it at a rate of 100 - second mistake, as our hospital has a policy that we can only start at 75 for the first 15min. (We actually were trying to find said policy at change of shift but our hospital recently changed the website and we were lost.) Got all the 15min signs - everything good - and ran down the hall to stop a pt trying to get out of bed w/o assistance, etc. Got them taken care of and it was change of shift time. Went back to the GYN room with oncoming nurse to clear the PCA pump and discovered a pink NS bag, though the line was red as well. Clamped off the saline and gave report, the patient is sitting up in bed laughing and chatting with us during. Realized at the end of report that the tubing expired in twenty minutes and we pitched everything then - over half a unit not given. We called the doc and got a repeat order, and the replacement unit was hung about twenty minutes later. I completely understand that this was a big mistake, and shouldn't have happened if I'd been paying attention. My educator spoke to me about it and said I'd have to probably repeat my "education" on blood and get signed off - I'm all for it, I need the refresher. The other nurse that hung the blood with me is getting similar help. One of the dayshift nurses when she heard about it asked me point-blank why I didn't just "lie and say the tubing was new" but it honestly didn't occur to me. I'm not a liar by nature and I do my very best for each patient every night, so of course I'm gonna tell the truth. My question is that now, the entire unit is gossiping behind my back that I "hung blood wrong and almost killed a patient" and am "definitely going to get fired." They think I'm a danger and completely incompetent. I've worked several shifts since this incident so I'm not entirely afraid of being fired (wouldn't they have stopped me working?), but this horrible backtalking is dealing a severe blow to my confidence. I understand my error was bad and that even though we were having a night from hell I shouldn't have missed it - and believe me it won't happen again, but I don't think the patient's life was ever in danger. Am I wrong? Am I just not cut out for this, as they're making me believe? The past 9 months on this unit have completely drained me. Any advice or help is much appreciated.

Thanks for the responses. I agree my original post sounds flippant, but I wasn't in person. I am flippant about more light things like I forgot to give such-and-such room diapers when she asked, but I knew how big - and ridiculously dumb - the insulin was. Narcotics can't be given until 18hrs after a c-section because the anesthesia they give during the surgery is considered strong enough to last - and therefore too strong to give additional - drugs with sedative/respiratory-depressing side effects for 18hrs after. Whether the moms agree with that or not is another story.... :) I was not put on a PIP or really taken to task in any way, just warned not to do it again. However the gossip and back-biting within our department has gotten horrendous. Even though I am still doing well in patient satisfaction scores, my peer-reviews (both done by nurses I have never personally given report to or worked with), said I was lazy, denied ever being wrong, and that my patients either requested other nurses or waited until I was gone to ask for things because I "blew them off." I honestly tried to think about if I'd ever blown someone off, and I couldn't come up with anything. I've given everything I've personally been asked for, or if our floor is busy and a patient is ambulatory but asking for a lot of kitchen stuff, I walk them to our kitchenette and show them where everything is. I know the lady I mentioned in #3 in my original post requested that I not be her nurse again, but she's the only one I've been informed of. It's honestly gotten a bit too much for me. I can't think what else I could do to change their minds. I haven't seen or heard from my manager/educator since about January, but to hear my coworkers speak of me, I'm incompetent and lazy. I do the hourly rounds mandated to us, I fill every need a patient asks of me and prompt them for needs they might not have thought of yet (baby supplies in the bassinette, supplies in the bathroom, etc), and I try to help my coworkers whenever I can if they're busy and I'm not. I'm really really trying to think of other ways to improve myself. I apologize for my mistakes and try to take every bit of advice given to me to heart. But very few of my coworkers don't actually give advice or constructive criticism, they more or less just email my superiors. Any other ideas I can do? Or am I fighting a losing battle, like I'm starting to think?

Hey everyone. I never intended to make a post like this because I know about the "new grad blues" and how hard that first year is. I expected all that. However, my job is becoming more stressful than that. It's going to be super hard to explain here, but I'll do my best. I was hired onto a mom/baby/L&D/NICU rotation. So far, I've completed mom/baby. But - and my educator has admitted this to me - the orientation is not geared towards new nurses. The hospital usually only hires experienced nurses, so the orientation itself is about 4 weeks. I started in August with the scheduled 4 weeks - 1 of which was spent only in hospital wide orientation (didn't set foot on the floor), and another 1 of which I was out incredibly sick. So they "extended" my orientation to 6 weeks. Even though I still only got 4 like everyone else, they documented it as I "needed an extended orientation." Since the beginning, I've made a few silly new grad mistakes. Forgetting to unclamp an abx piggyback once everything's primed and ready, giving narcotics 12hrs after the sections instead of 18, and once I drew up insulin in the wrong syringe. Like I said, really stupid new grad errors that shouldn't have happened, but I was nervous and they did. I'm very proud of the fact that I've never once repeated a mistake though. My problem is the fact that the hospital management where I work are saying I have many more "concerning" errors: 1) They've brought up the fact that I did a transcutaneous bilirubin on a baby and it was low, then later that day the baby needed to go under lights. When asked what else I should have done in that situation (our policy states only if the TC is "high risk" on our chart can we put orders for total/direct), they said I should have "used my nursing assessment" - but the baby wasn't symptomatic in any way. Not yellow, pooping great, etc. 2) Many many other nurses have apparently been emailing my educator with - and this is her quote - "nitpicking" things like I said the orientation was "******" (I don't curse, so I can't even imagine where that came from), and when I try to explain myself after certain "attitude" comments like this, they say I'm too defensive. I can't adequately put what's been said in this, but suffice it to say that if I am defensive, it's been demonstrated exactly like this, "You didn't unclamp that antibiotic you hung just now but I caught it." -- "Oh, thanks! Sorry, I must have gotten distracted by something else in the room." 3) One of my patients the other night began to get a little tachy on me. I assessed her vitals frequently (q2 without orders) and at the highest, her pulse was 128 radially - this was at 2215, and I paged the doc immediately. As I was giving report to another nurse at 2300, another nurse called our hospital's version of a "pre-code" on her because she was tachy in the 170s (on the dinamap) and claiming she was SOB. I had documented every word this woman told me of her symptoms, and SOB was never one of them. She said she felt like her "heart was racing" and that she felt "a little jittery." I asked if she'd eaten recently and she admitted not since the day before. When I had her eat a meal, she told me she felt fine afterwards. I haven't really been called to task over this one yet, but with everything else I feel it's only a matter of time. My educator has flat-out admitted to me that she thinks there's a certain group of nurses out there "waiting" for me to make a mistake and are constantly sending her "nitpicking" emails that she doesn't care about. However, I'm still being made to feel incompetent over everything. Everything I've stated here has been the worst of my errors. All other complaints have been "personal." But I just had a meeting with my educator and manager where they said I'm making mistakes "right and left" - however nothing but the insulin (my stupidest and most egregious mistake at the very beginning) and when I gave narcs too soon have been put before me as real mistakes. They are discussing putting me on a performance improvement plan for the insulin. I know it sounds like there must be something else for them to act like this. I've thought the same. But the things I've listed here are the only things that have been brought to my attention apart from "defensive" and "personality" comments. I've been at this hospital 5 months now, and I just don't know if this is going to get any better. I've never once repeated a mistake, and my educator says that herself, they're worried because "new mistakes keep happening." But - and I'm trying really hard not to sound like "I'm perfect, they're all out to get me" because I am FAR from it - like my educator said, I really feel like I just can't win with some of these nurses. I've won the patient satisfaction polls we've had the last two months running, and many of my coworkers say I do fine. But apparently with management, I'm a "concern." My main question is at this point, what's the better option? I'm not a quitter by nature and I love mom/baby, but I really don't know if I can go through another couple months of this. I just don't feel like I can ever win here. Do I attempt to find another job now, or stick it out?

No, I wouldn't ask about my specific status - that is pushy. I would just ask if the calls for women's services were through, and I'd think Amanda would know that since she's the only one giving out the calls for that and there are only 10 apparently getting the job. But I don't think I'll do it. At least not until after tomorrow.

I kinda want to email Amanda and ask if they're done with phone calls for women's services so that I know to move on. But then I don't want to seem pushy...

Has anybody's application status changed yet? I was thinking that it wouldn't if we were hired (who's got the time for that?), but that HR would change the status to generate and send an automatic email to all those who weren't gonna be hired. But mine is still the same.

I've just about given up on Emory at this point. 95% sure they're done with women's services by now, especially since they're only hiring 10

Go to this link Employment Opportunities With Emory Healthcare | Atlanta, GA | Emory Healthcare and I guess since you haven't gone before you can create an account and then log in. Though I'm sure it'll say the same thing mine's said since April 16th: "Under consideration." lol

That's a valid question. I can't imagine they'll every single person who interviewed who doesn't get offered - or else those poor HR people will be on the phone for days! I just keep checking that stupid application status like it's my job.

I'm originally from Thomaston, bout an hour and half south of Atlanta (give or take with the horrendous traffic lol). All my family are still down there, except my mom and her parents, who live here in PA. So I've always planned on going back! :) Wow that isn't a lot of time! The one they told me about for women's services won't start until July/August-ish, like Emory.

Yeah, this interview would be for their next round of hires in the fall. I was supposed to go interview with them last month, but I couldn't get away from work long enough to take a trip down to Atlanta, especially when I had already scheduled Emory's interview at the end of April. So I just told them to put me down for the next round. Luckily, unlike Emory, they seemed really impressed with my resume. The manager of one of the units (can't remember which) said I'd be "first on the list" to call. I'd love either at this point. I live way back in the mountains of PA (almost upstate NY) at the moment, and up here it's all retirement homes and hospice - no thank you! Best of luck to you, too! I really hope all of us get the positions we want at Emory so we can meet up sometime! :)

I'm lined up for another women's services interview with them later this month if Emory doesn't work out; preferably L&D or mother/baby again. What unit are you looking at?

Well, if all else fails, I have Northside to fall back on. I just really really want Emory! :) Good luck to the rest of you who haven't heard anything yet! Maybe the four or five I've heard from on hear that are trying for women's services will make up part of those 10?