Corrin1RN

I was scanning through all these posts and my mind started to race with all the positives and negatives, and all the things I felt I needed to say, then I realized all of that does not matter, all that matters is one of my patients looked me in the eye last shift, held my hand, and said "You are one of God's special angels." I didn't even do anything drastic for him, just basic nursing. I never affected anyone that way in any other field I have ever been in. 'Nuff said.

I work for a hospital that was bought out buy hca about 7 years ago. The pay is great, great benefits, no more than 4 pts on a tele/stepdown floor, and managment is working hard to better our hospital. I think It has more to do with the managment at each individual hospital than HCA. Then again It could be different in other parts of the country.

GiVE YOURSELF TIME. I have been out of school for about a year, and at first I almost hated it, primarily out of fear. Fear of mistakes, lawsuites, codes, angry doctors, intimidating family..... everyone told me to give it 6 mo to a year. I thought, whatever, like that will make a difference. But, the money is good and I was in school for a long time so I just prayed with my husband before every shift and stuck it out. To my suprise at about 6 months I started to feel O.K. about work. now at almost a year out I am feeling like I am really good at this. Night before last when I worked things were crazy, we are full and it was me and another rn and an lpn from the medical floor on my tele/stepdown floor. I helped out the lpn when her pt's sats were falling, did her iv pushes, and ran to her pt's room and then helped her interpret the rythem and call the md when her pt had a 26 beat run of v tach that looked a little like torsades, that morning when the other rn's pt started to crash i stayed over and assisted with a femoral central line and transfer to icu and the family member put her arm around me and said that she remembered me taking care of her mom a week or two ago and how her mom calmed down when I would whisper in her ear about the procedures and what were going on around her, the night before that I assisted my old Preceptor(an awsome nurse) to program and calculate a dopamine drip. my other pt's family looked at me when I walked in to the room at the begining of shift two and said, We are so glad you are his nurse tonight. As I read this back it sounds a little like I am tooting my own horn, but that is not how it is meant. I still have bad nights when I feel like the dumbest nurse on the floor and I have no clue what is going on with my pt, but this is meant as encouragement from another new nurse that It really does get better. If you spend much time on this site you will find the posts about how much some people say they hate nursing, just understand that they probably have had a rough few shifts and need to vent to other people who understand, and the other half are just burnt out. I still have some rough times at work, but I just pray a lot and let God put me where and with who He wants me, and to guide me, and it always turns out O.K. It is fine to feel overwhelmed sometimes (or at first all the time!) because you are helping heal and save peoples lives. You Can Be Good At This And Enjoy Your Job.

Yes, I would definetly do it again. At first I felt overwhelmed and didn't know if i would ever enjoy it, then one day I just decided to pray before every shift, and just go in to work and be happy. All it took was just setting my mind that I was going to be happy and positive, and now I am. I think people like to work with me because the people's attitude you are working with seems to rub off on you. My motto is if I have to suck it up and smile then so do you. Don't get me wrong, I get irritated at some of the decisions that managment makes, and some patients and familys get on my nerves, but when I think of any other jobs I feel that each would have it's own set of complaints with half of the pay and a fraction of the job security. There is probably a forum at this moment where someone else is typing about bieng a teacher or cook and hate it and wish they would have become a nurse. I have found that in a profession of women there is always somone who is complaining and when you are feeling stressed at work it doesn't take much for a negative personality to rub off on you. For some reason we have a tendancy to eat our young. Yes I think that health care and managment needs to make many changes, but I think that will start when we as nurses stop complaining so much that noone listens anymore. sorry this got so long but as you can probably figure out it hits a personal note with me. The hospital I work at is going through a lot of changes and I think life would be easier for everyone if we all just decided to work together. Sometimes when I hear one or two people whining about nursing I think "well just quit then and maybey your replacement would be better to work with."

I am still relativley new to the nursing game but before a shift I used to feel anxiety about things that could go wrong, wich nurses I was working with, which floor I could be pulled to ect... Now my husband prays out loud with me before every shift for my patient to remain stable, for there to be enough help and resources around me, for God to help me with the difficult situations and answers, and for people to see the light of God in me and be calmed by it. I don't know if you are a prayer or not but after a prayer like that with someone who believes in me and God's power I am usually in a good mood when I go in and my anxiety stays down and even if things get a little hairy it always works out ok.

we always hang 20 0r 40 meq bags diluted in 100cc at no faster anan 10 meq per hour with lido if needed, does anyone know if there are any incompatibilitys of K with anything, this is a frequent question at my facility, heparin also.

My biggest is when a Dr. talks with a patient and the patient says that everything is fine and they don't have any questions for the dr. and as soon as the dr. leaves the pt starts complaining about the staff (houskeeping, nursing, ect...) they are having pain or trouble sleeping and need new meds becaus e"what I have is not working and my pain hasn't been below a ten" I also hate when I have a patient who is sweet as pie and a joy to work with and the family seems angry, especiallty when they won't talk to me about the problem and whisper when i walk out of the room. I actually had a patient family complain (did not realize I was in the hall and could hear) about the fact that I assessed her mother's pain and did a quick head to toe assessment when they insisted that I give their DNR snowed sleeping mother morphine. I gave the meds but I guess they wanted me to just give it on their command. I almost feel bad complaining because most of my patients and familys are great, and God blessed me with the ability to smooth over most situations. I actually don't mind tangled lines and messy rooms if I am not busy because I know how slammed day shift can be and I enjoy "fixing" things and handing over a clean room in the morning.

A few years ago I visited a website that had free lung and heart sound, and I can't find it now. Some of the other nurses I work with are also interested. I am starting to wonder if there is something wrong with my ears! Every one just sounds clear, diminished, or "junky" to me. One of the respiratory therapists gave me a mini sound lesson but I am still not always sure what I am hearing. Is this person wet and in possible need of lasix, or just congested and in need of deep breathing and coughing or a flutter device. I hate to call a dr. in the middle of the night and say "I think I hear....." when somone is having some respiratory difficulty or decreasing sats. Would appreciate hearing form anyone who has some recources. Also, any good info or websites on labs? sometimes when labs come back I have no idea what they mean and if I should call the doc or just leave it till rounds. While I am at it ABG's also. It seems like in school they just pounded in resp. or met. and acid or alk, and I am still not sure what all that means when it comes to a clinical situation, and the more people I ask the more I think not many people have a good grasp on ABG's. I am wondering about Co2 retainers and how much 02 is to much with these pt's and acid/alk, and resp patterns in relation to ABG's (blowing of co2). A pt had some abg's come back bad and the resp therapist said that the ordered cpap would help blow of co2 and I don't really understand how. Sorry so long, the more questions I ask the more pop into my head. Much Thanks.

I recently started working (7mo) ago in a small hospital. I don't know the pro's and cons of all the different "new grad"programs (they just put me with a great preceptor on a floor with NICE nurses) but I do think the floor I am on is a good start. it is a tele/stepdown unit, with a 4 pt max. I get to see some drips, and some pt's that are sick enough that i am learning, with out the high stress of the unit or critical care. I get pulled to the unit on occasion and enjoy it but I feel the stress level is to high for a new grad to work there full time. Experienced nurses sometimes take for granted things they do routinly without stress is something that we may feel anxiety about or have not done enough to feel secure in our knowlege. I also feel med/surg is not a place for new grads. I got pulled to med surg as a new grad one night and had a horrible night. there were to many patients and things to do for me to just stop and think about what i was doing, i feel that things were to fast paced for me to really learn, and i had to be a lpn resource, wich i was not ready to be. Don't get me wrong, my floor is busy, but, I only have 4 pt's to keep straight, not 6-7. I feel comfortable on med surg now. To my surprise, some of the nurses on the med/surg floor feel intimidated on my floor because of the telemetry and drips, things I am O.K. with and eager to learn from this one great supervisor who has kind of taken me under her wing. I think God has blessed me to be on a floor that is the perfect balance between the basics and critical care. That and plenty of prayer!

I work in a tele/stepdown unit and graduated 7 months ago. Our assesments and charting are all online so when i started i just wrote down a check list of things to do including the assessment on my clip board. I just go head to toe, while talking to the patient, also I like to do little things that day shift might have been to busy to do on my first stop in the room. after report, underline all things i need to do or check on with red pen check med times for night and write in margin of report sheet check for precaution or npo sighns on door introduce self to pt and family check for proper braclets check ivbag, label, rate, tubing label, iv date listen to lungs, heart, bowel, check bilateral grips, check radial and pedal pulse, all the while looking at incisions, for edema or bed sores, pick up room and ask pt if there is anything i can do for them or snack write small list of things to bring to room on second round into rooms for eack room(iv bag, ice, ambien, lol...), this saves on running up and down hall every time i forgot something before leaving room, glace back over report sheet to trigger my memory on anything i might have forgoten if overwhelmed by milions of things to do running around in head, write things down on back of clip board and cross of as i go, minimizes forgetfulness. while i was learning to do assessments i simply had a head to toe check list written out that i used at the bedside, as you can see i am a list person, but sometimes i think my pt's are comforted when they see me writing down things about them, they seem to know that i am trying to do everything i can to make them comfortable and it makes them happy, and a happy pt, along with plenty of prayer before my shift, usually equals a good night.

OK, I am a new nurse (grad in december) and if I was in your situation I don't think I would go back even once, parents bagging patients because there aren't evough ventelators!! I am as I said a new nurse, but this sounds like something out of a tv show about a hospital in the jungle out of a third world country, i work on a high acuity floor with only occasional peds patients and our patient ratio is 4/1, 2/1 in the icu, and 5-6/1(total care, not team nnursing) on the surgical and medical floor, and i thought that that was bad. I sometimes feel very stressed and my biggest problem is when we don't have a tech/unit asistant, or when a lpn or less experienced nurse than me is floated to us and I have to be charge nurse. but there is always an experienced rn or supervisor somewhere on a different floor near by. I am a christian and I pray before every shift for God to protect me and my patients, to keep them stable, and guide my actions, and He has never let me down, I have had some rough nights, but I always make it through. If you don't want to quit and go to a hospital or floor that will nurture you and all that you are facing, and learning as a new nurse, then i would at least go to administration and insist that this dangerous situation not go on for even another shift, and fill out an incident report about the situation for potential danger, you are a patient advocate, and you owe it to those precious little souls to speak for them. sorry this was so long, it just fired me up reading your message, Good luck and I will be praying for you.