Wondergirl0905

Melatonin doesn't do a thing for me, unfortunately. My husband works rotating shifts and has a Rx for both Ambien and Lunesta (no, not for the same time!) I've tried his Ambien a few times but I feel like I have vertigo if I get up in the middle of the night. I tried his Lunesta last night and it seemed to work really well. I just don't want to get stuck on anything. I try to get sunshine on my days off, although it's frigid cold here already making it hard to be outdoors. But if I do my 3 shifts in a row there is no time to get outside - I have an hour+ one-way commute so I end up being gone for at least 15 hours at a time - that leaves me with just enough time to feed our dogs and myself and sleep for 7 hours if I can stay asleep. It's the days off that I'm having the most trouble sleeping, especially if I need to be up early for something. Thanks for your responses.

I've been an RN for about two years now doing 12-hour shifts on a surgical floor. I started out rotating between days and nights but switched to just nights in March (the rotating was too disorienting for me). I had been doing fine on nights until the time change last month. Since then, I'm only getting 4-5 hours of sleep, even on my days off. I wake up and can't fall back to sleep. I'm exhausted all the time, cranky, no motivation to do anything. Anybody else experience this?

I'm on a surgical-tele floor at an academic medical center. Our patients have pretty high acuity at times. We also receive overflow of medicine, trauma and neuro patients. Our floor has 4 pods with 2 nurses on each pod and 1 LNA. Our ratio is 1:4-5 for the RNs and 1:9-10 for the LNAs. We have a charge nurse during the day with no assignment (unless someone goes home sick and there is no flex RN available to cover) and the charge nurse at night takes an assignment. We also usually have one of our nurse managers around from 07-2300. We do our own admissions and discharges - which could be every single bed on the day shift. We have unit secretaries between 0700-2330, and then the RN does all the transcribing for new admits during those off hours. We have a phlebotomoy and vascular access/IV team 24/7. I feel pretty spoiled when I hear about some of the ratios out there, including the OP's!

While I also wished I had been an LNA (they are licensed here in NH) during nursing school for the experience/exposure to the hospital setting, I was able to get a job last Feb just fine. Out of our class of 26, only 2 were LNAs/techs during school - and they did have RN jobs lined up for them at the hospitals they were working at. But all of us got jobs fairly easily. But if you can do it, it won't hurt!

I am coming up on my one-year anniversary of becoming a nurse; this was a career change for me. Prior to being an RN I basically worked M-F 9-5 jobs with occasional weekends or late nights, but no overnights. I worked most recently at a small non-profit where I felt a lot of passion, but also became burnt-out. Currently I work on an intense surgical floor (vascular, cardiothoracic, transplant, telemetry). I really like my job and find it challenging, but I don't find a lot of passion for it. I work 3 12's each week, a mix of days & nights. This wacky schedule has me exhausted on my days off and I feel like I don't do anything anymore besides work and recover. I like having 4 days off each week, but I never really put them to good use. My schedule also conflicts with most of my family/friends' schedules so I don't see them often. My husband works nights and weekends so at least we have time together :) But he's tired too from his schedule so we just watch TV together half the time. Anyway, how long does it take to adjust to becoming an RN and the messed up schedule?

Agreed! I always "default to the good" so to speak. I can't know for sure whether a particular patient is addicted to pain meds or has such chronic pain that they have become dependent on narcotics just to get through their days. I'd rather risk giving narcotics to a "drug-seeker" than to withhold them from someone who needs pain relief.

This is great. I have been working on an inpatient surgical unit the last 8 months and still worry that I'll miss something. We have a huge variety of patients (vascular, CT, transplant, bowel) that it makes my head spin to keep up with all of the possible things that could happen over the course of a shift!

congrats! sounds like you're in a good place - good luck!

In my area - NH/MA, it is very difficult for new grads to get positions at acute care facilities. We just graduated in December so some of the problem is that hospitals here only hire new grads after May. Out of 26 of us that graduated, about 10 have jobs, including myself. But I am commuting an hour to get there. I wish I was starting at $58K!! I'm at $45K, which is great and it will be a little closer to $50K with shift differentials. I guess just do your own research and don't necessarily believe what faculty tells you. Good luck!

Hi all - I just need to vent. I graduated in December, passed my boards in January and started a new grad residency program with a surgical floor in February. It is an intense program at a Level 1 trauma center, with a three year contract. I was so excited when I applied for and accepted the position. But now things have changed as my husband is divorcing me. So on top of the stress of learning a new job, I am coming home and filling out financial affadavits, etc. I am so worried about not being able to handle all of this. We have a condo together that he doesn't want, and I do, so I'll be taking it on myself (if we sell now we loose/owe a lot of $ that we don't have). We have two dogs that he wants to split up, which is breaking my heart even more. Plus, even with me keeping one dog I now need to figure out a way for someone to let her out since I'll be gone 15 hours at a time (13 hour shifts plus a one hour commute each way). At least I only work 3 days a week! I guess I just need to hear some words of encouragement! thx

nursemissy8 - is it going any better for you lately?

for me too!

Does anyone know if you can write off the cost of a new RN license, including the fingerprint fee and NCLEX fee? Thanks! :)

The online tutorial through NCSBN I thought was helpul - it has tons of practice questions and they are the ones that write the NCLEX. I thought it was helpful to see their rationales. http://www.learningext.com/students/ Don't give up! Give your mind a rest, you are probably exhausted. Take a few weeks off - eat well, get some exercise and papmer yourself a little. Don't beat yourself up. Then look at your weaker areas, decide how long you want to study and write up a concrete study plan. Maybe find some stress relaxation techniques - stress itself will ruin your concentration. Good luck!

Congratulations!