mrscurtwkids4

I think most nurses, especially new nurses, have a tendency to be hard on themselves when a patient of theirs codes. It's so much easier to be overly critical in retrospect than at the time things are happening. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm still in my first year of nursing also. And as new nurses, we have to learn that some patients aren't going to make it no matter how wonderful a nurse we are. So long as nothing was totally missed, we can't always know something is going wrong. We each have to learn to figure out a healthy way for coping with the loss of a patient. Tearing ourselves up over something that we may have no control over is not the most healthy way of dealing with it. Learn from each experience and that way you might have more insight for similar situations in the future. Having a time of reflection and healthy critique with coworkers is a good thing. This can bring more eyes to the situation that can point out things that could be done better in the future. Just know it's not uncommon for you to feel like you are to blame, but it isn't really the truth, just a normal reaction.

After medication dosing, I normally only flush the line that was used. But all the lumens should be flushed periodically regardless of whether it was used in order to maintain its patency. When in doubt, would think it better to flush it anyway. Won't really hurt anyone to get a little extra fluid from flushing.

I graduated from the traditional nursing program and felt it was good. I heard comments from some of the students that were in the accelerated program...let's just say they felt a bit overwhelmed by the schedule. So long as you have the time to devote to it, it's a good program.

I don't really have any advice for you. I'm kind of in similar circumstances with working nights. Except I only have every other weekend off and a day here and there in between 3 and 4 days working straight. So I end up trying to maintain my sleeping during the day and being awake at night even on my "nights" off. It's become a real pain because I feel like I don't near the time I would like to have with my kids and husband. But I try and spend every waking minute I can with them to make up for the amount of time I'm asleep. I feel like I'm sleeping more hours because the quality of sleep is lower than if I were sleeping during the night like our bodies are used to. If you find a better way to keep up the schedule, please pass it along!

I would agree that the individual needs to consult their physician for the advice about the length of time due to the individuality of the situation. I had a placental abruption with my first child at 32 weeks and had to have an emergency c-section due to hemmorhaging. My doctor had suggested I wait 3 to 6 months. After 4 months I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. I had youth going for me at the time though as I was only 19 and still newly married. The subsequent pregnancy with my daughter was uneventful, although I did a repeat c-section due to the short healing time I gave myself between pregnancies. Now I'm the proud mommy of 4 daughters :-)

I have 4 children ages 15, 13, 11, and 8 and a husband of 17 years. I have never been late due to the kids for school, clinicals, or now work. Once I graduated, my husband and I had already decided that my career is a bit more important now than his since I am making more money and am still new in my position (don't want to cause any problems with a new employer). So if the kids have to go to the doctor or whatever, he is the one that calls into work. This is just something that we've been able to work out between us. Besides, hubby is rather sick of his job and wants to find something else, so if him putting his kids first instead of his job is enough for them to want to fire him, so be it. I would never pull the "I have to deal with my kids" bit to my work only because I know how difficult it is to get a replacement in. My floor is way understaffed, especially since we had several quit. Besides, all these years I've stayed home with the kids and have been there for all the school plays, project, etc....and my hubby missing out because of his work...my hubby says he's glad that it's now his turn to enjoy being more involved with the kids and their schedules. It's kind of worked out for the better in the end after all.

Really it seems to me the main reason for TKO the IV's is so that there is still a flow to keep the IV site good without the nurse having to flush the site Qshift. The few cc's an hour isn't really important as far as intake is concerned. It's mostly to preserve the IV site. As for the IV antibiotics, I believe they are given for times sake. The person is sick enough that they need the antibiotic given more rapidly. The amount being given is more precise as well. You don't have to worry about the GI tract not absorbing the medication sufficiently.

I didn't go to any review classes. It was a little hard to get away with 4 daughters at home to take care of. I did the online Kaplan review. Listened to all the instructional videos that is on it, practiced all the tests that it offered, and wrote a lot of stuff down (I'm one of those that remember things better after having written it down). I think the best thing I learned from the first test to the second is to look at each individual question and what it's asking. You don't necessarily have to know the answer to the question. You need to figure out if you have enough information from the question to be able to pick an aswer that is an action for your patient, or if you need more information in order to do something for your patient (assessing vs implementing). I think I went into the first exam looking at trying to pick the "right" answer rather than looking at the questions as whether I need to assess or implement. Also, when picking your answer...remember your ABC's and pick answers in that order or importance. I think this made the biggest difference in passing it the second time through. Best of luck!!!

I, too, didn't pass the test the first time through. I first attempted it July of 2007. I was so bummed. I felt I let my husband down and my 4 daughters down, as well as myself. But I looked at the big picture of everthing else that was going on in my life at the time and thought to myself, no wonder I didn't manage to pass the first time through. I had a lot fo things going on that distracted my attention from the exam. But I made great use of the 45 days that I had to wait to retake the test. I made use of the online NCLEX review course that my employer graciously paid for and studied like it was a full-time job with overtime...lol. I tried to recount some of the types of questions that I had during the first exam and focused on the type that I felt I was weak in. You can kind of tell the ones you are weak in, especially when you keep getting more and more questions that are similar during the test. So I concentrated on them and practiced as many of those types as I could. I also reviewed all of the basic information that you would commonly be tested on. And the second time through, in September, I passed. I am now a Registered Nurse on a telemetry floor and continuing to learn more and more everyday at work. More about the information that you need to know to treat your patients medically...and more about the emotional/mental knowledge you need to be a trully great nurse. Just as each patient teaches me something new, each new experience during the journey of becoming a nurse taught me a multitude as well. Mostly it has taught me patience, tolerance, compassion, and never give up! You will get there!!

I'm a newly licensed RN also and I'm working the night sift of a telemetry floor. I agree that it's nice because of having a little more time to do charting, etc (depending on the night and the acuity of the patients). This gives you less of a chaotic atmosphere to get yourself used to the floor and how things work and what is expected of you. Granted, there are somethings that you might have to do that are different from what those during the day would be doing, but I think it might be a better atmosphere in order to continue learning and growing in skills before jumping in with both feet, so to speak.

I just received my BSN May '07. I have thought about continuing on for my master's and concurrently getting my NP certificate, but still haven't really decided as to whether I really want to do it or not. My husband is supportive of it. I think I am wanting to get some experience under my belt first. The hospital I work for will pay for continuing education so long as you get a B or better for graduate courses (C or better for undergraduate courses). I figure I'd not be too smart to take them up on the offer of paying me to get educated further. I think I only have a couple issues with going for my Master's. First would be trying to do the schooling while trying to work. I work night shift and I would imagine that I'd normally be sleeping during the time that the classes would be held. I also hate doing research...and a lot of the curriculum is research..UGH. I'm able to do it, just don't like it :) Benefits would be furthering my knowledge and opening up other career opportunities that maybe I wouldn't have without the higher degrees. Another plus is giving my four daughters a good role model. They've already watched me go through college for my BSN and I know how very proud they are of me. I feel I'm showing them that it doesn't matter your circumstances...if you set your mind to something, you can do it. So, still up in the air about continuing on for more college or not.

Besides clashing with a few co-workers personalities, the hardest thing so far for me is being hard on myself. I can sometimes get frustrated with myself for not knowing something. Time management can be an issue as well. Seems no matter how I organize things, I seem to run out of time for certain things. I'm not sure if that's me or if it's my workload with still being so new. Even when we do screw up, so to speak, if you can walk away with having learned from the experience, that's a huge plus. Be proud when you do something well and give yourself a little pat on the back...sometimes those moments can come few and far between depending on the night (just do it on the run so you don't get behind in work...lol). Don't be afraid to ask questions. Most of my co-workers do understand that I'm not expected to know everything....and neither do they. Most are very helpful in answering your questions. The doctors that I have run across so far have not been that understanding, except for one in particular. With all the arrogant type doctors I ran into, the one that was actually nice and friendly that conversed with me was quite refreshing. Another thing I had to adjust to was a new schedule/routine because I took a night shift position (11pm to 7am). My body still hasn't fully adjusted to that change. Not to mention the change that has to take place within my household. I've had to release some of my parental duties that I handled off to my husband, which isn't really a bad thing, just difficult when you were the one used to doing everything. (I was a stay-at-home mom prior to starting college and now getting to work.) That's about all I can think of at the moment. Make to-do lists for what you normally have to get done during your shift and mark it off as you go. That way you don't go home wondering if you forgot to do something.

I graduated with my Bachelor's at 33 years old this past May '07

I'm still new to the profession and recently ended orientation on a telemetry floor. I'm curious about how long you would stay after in order to finish your paperwork? What things do you make sure that you complete and what things would you let pass to the next shift for them to complete? I'm mostly asking this because I was assigned 7 patients and several were quite time consuming patients. I didn't have time to go to the bathroom none-the-less get any paperwork done before the next shift was arriving (I work the night shift). I stayed a little over 2 hours past my shift to get the meds lists done and to get my nursing notes done for each of the patients. These I know are things that I must have done. I'm just still unsure of what things are able to be passed along. Many of the other nurses will get done what they can with new admits and leave some for the next shift when the new patient had come to the floor near the end of shift. I had a few issues with a couple nurses about this and I'm not sure if they are just walking over me because I'm new, or if I was doing something wrong. I was getting conflicting information from different charge nurses. It's not that I make a practice of not completing my work, because this was actually the first time that I hadn't had everything done before end of shift. In fact, I hate the idea of leaving any work unfinished. But shouldn't there be a line somewhere for how long I should stick around to get things done? Thanks.

I'm working a Telemetry floor.