Scared.....No Nursing?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello All,

I have posted on here several times before, but in short, I am a relative new grad. Only a little over a year out of school. I have failed out of two med-surg orientations. I am currently working at a nursing home and it was going fairly well, up until recently, where again, I am being told I'm not good enough/my assessments are not up to par, I'm basically incompetent. I'm scared and angry..... Everywhere I turn, I am being told apparently nursing isn't for me. This is all I have ever wanted to do. So now I have a nursing degree and very little clinical experience to get into anything like informatics or..... So now I'm stuck. I don't really know what else I have an interest in. I don't know where to go next. I really don't want to be stuck at a desk job or sitting in front of a computer all day. I have a nice nest egg (financially) and I still have my job at the nursing home, (so I don't need to make a decision in the next couple of days) but I don't know if I will be staying. Any other suggestions on where I can turn to? I LOVE nursing. It hurts and breaks my heart to even consider walking away, but no matter what I try, I'm told that i can't do the job.

Essentially I am calling providers with lab results and haven't done an assessment. In my mind, I'm just calling to give a heads up. I think I would do ok with the actual assessment if I actually slowed down and did one?

You are calling providers with lab results, but haven't actually assessed the patient?

Am I understanding you correctly?

If so, I can understand provider frustration.

Never, never, can a provider regarding a patient's condition, unless you have done an assessment.

Be prepared for typical questions you will be asked: vital signs, drug allergies, and symptoms.

Have you been offered additional training?

Can you give specific examples of problems you have experienced, besides the one you shared?

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.
I wish I really knew. All I have ever been told through this nursing journey so far has been the underlying theme of "I'm incompetent". Really hard to find confidence/strengths in that

May I suggest that you stop listening to 'them' and start listening to yourself?

They cannot tell you what are your core strengths and weaknesses because those are only revealed through time and introspection. Sit down and start writing out a list of general strengths and weaknesses and then try to rate yourself 1 to 5 on each so that you can start to winnow these out for yourself.

You say that you've been told that your assessment skills are poor. Presuming that's true, that's a pretty easy thing to rectify. Grab a used copy of Jarvis or some other assessment text and start reviewing it during your break on each shift. Pick a system and focus on that for a whole week. Review the whole ABCD and head-to-toe concepts multiple times each week. When you're home after a shift, review a patient who is stuck in your head. Essentially, continue on as you might have while you were a nursing student but serve as your own instructor. Assessments are pretty easy.

Try to find a mentor who can help you think through what you're facing and help you identify your pertinent strengths and weaknesses (pertinent meaning those that are germane to your present position... no point worrying about OB stuff if you're working LTC, for example).

And by all means, as Davey Do stated, look to blossom where you're planted.

I promise you, nursing is not that hard so if you're struggling, it's just that you haven't yet put it all together.

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Specializes in Med-Tele; ED; ICU.
Essentially I am calling providers with lab results and haven't done an assessment. In my mind, I'm just calling to give a heads up. I think I would do ok with the actual assessment if I actually slowed down and did one?

That is just a new-nurse kind of thing. It didn't take me long to figure out that docs would always follow with a predictable set of questions when I'd notify them of abnormal findings... and generally focused on ABCD... which don't take but a couple of minutes to assess... honestly, it takes longer to chart the assessment than it does to do the assessment (once you've done it a number of times).

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Thanks. I'm in a nursing home, so my standing orders and such are pretty limited, but I'll keep that in mind

Korky's Advice is right on! Also, is there a manager you can confide in and request a mentor? Not all facilities or managers care enough to work with you in this way, but some do. It sounds as though your orientation to the position may have been inadequate. Best of luck to you my friend!

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Korky's Advice is right on! Also, is there a manager you can confide in and request a mentor? Not all facilities or managers care enough to work with you in this way, but some do. It sounds as though your orientation to the position may have been inadequate. Best of luck to you my friend!

I had my first one on one with my one supervisor. I think they have a really good plan to help support and grow me

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You have been told that your assessments need improvement. Ask how you can improve; what you can do to improve your assessments. Ask for help. None of us were born being competent, but with time and help from ours peers and supervisors we learned. But we had to ask for help. Asking questions shows that you recognize that you need more information.

One of the skills I learned to improve my assessments is being nosy. Ask "Tell me more about..."

Also, you were asked to assess your strengths. This means asking yourself what your strengths are as a person as well as a nurse. This might give you a different perspective or direction for your career. Bedside and Office are not the only choices

Guess the common word here is ASK.

Best wishes on your journey.

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I work in a nursing home too. Day shift is the hardest nursing shift I think. I go with the night or evening. Ask if you can change shifts and you know the work might be different.

If she's having trouble on Days when there are other nurses around, how could she function safely on off-shifts when she'd likely be the only nurse in the house?

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If she's having trouble on Days when there are other nurses around, how could she function safely on off-shifts when she'd likely be the only nurse in the house?

Imma stick with my days:) I do pick up pms occasionally but it's different!

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Trying to not give too much information.... I called on a lab result. Provider asked about the residents breathing. I was not familiar with this resident or their baseline at all. So I mentioned what the aides said...... she took that as me not doing a full assessment. I agree that I could have probably done more to assess, but it's hard when you don't even know residents baseline

Part of a full assessment is reading the history if you don't know it. Do a little chart review before calling doc.

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Hello All,

I have posted on here several times before, but in short, I am a relative new grad. Only a little over a year out of school. I have failed out of two med-surg orientations. I am currently working at a nursing home and it was going fairly well, up until recently, where again, I am being told I'm not good enough/my assessments are not up to par, I'm basically incompetent. I'm scared and angry..... Everywhere I turn, I am being told apparently nursing isn't for me. This is all I have ever wanted to do. So now I have a nursing degree and very little clinical experience to get into anything like informatics or..... So now I'm stuck. I don't really know what else I have an interest in. I don't know where to go next. I really don't want to be stuck at a desk job or sitting in front of a computer all day. I have a nice nest egg (financially) and I still have my job at the nursing home, (so I don't need to make a decision in the next couple of days) but I don't know if I will be staying. Any other suggestions on where I can turn to? I LOVE nursing. It hurts and breaks my heart to even consider walking away, but no matter what I try, I'm told that i can't do the job.

Hi Name,

I read some of your other replies as well.

I wonder if you are distracted easily and that is what is getting in the way at times. But I need to say that nobody is perfect and perhaps you just have to work on getting a structured routine in place. Example: When you call a provider follow the SBAR - which is a communication tool. Follow the steps on the SBAR forms and have it in front of you when you call the provider. It helps you to go through all the critical steps (situation, background, assessment, recommendation).

A lot is about keeping a structure in place in the middle of multitasking and chaos...

Good Luck!

SBARTechniqueforCommunication.pdf

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There are sooo many areas of nursing for you to explore and find your niche. You may consider community health clinic-browse your county job website for public health nursing opportunities too, clinic nursing (ENT, Dermatology, etc), Surgery, Psychiatric, private duty nursing where you care for someone in their home- there are a lot of those in my area with peds through agencies. Touch bases with local agencies to see what they have- I got to try corrections, psych, private duty and school nursing through our local nurse staffing agency. Don't give up, there are way to may nursing opportunities to find what you like. I personally don't like floor nursing at all.

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Specializes in Varied.

I wish you all the best, please keep us updated!

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