stress and training

[mustangsheba]

Colleen: 1. My stress comes from having too little time to spend with my patients. All the time I'm doing their care, the shadow of charting looms over my head. Sometimes there is the stress of dealing with co-workers (including doctors) but I haven't found that to be a real problem. The bureaucracy is a biggie. Decisions made that affect nurses and nursing most of the time have no basis in reality. We try to give the best care we can while tap dancing around those decisions. In summary, we don't have time to do everything we're expected to do in the time allowed. 2. When I went to school - barely a hundred years ago - we learned from books and lectures and then were guided through the procedures by instructors, sometimes we used each other (to start IV's, for instance), most often by taking patients and doing their full care in a clinical setting. You learn by doing. (That is why I advocate getting your LPN and then working while getting your RN. That is my bias because that is the way I learn.) You are guided through every procedure until you acquire the skill to do it without supervision. Good luck!

[NurseKrissy]

Originally posted by colleen10:

Hi everyone,

I first wanted to say that I think this is a great site and am really impressed with all of the great advice and caring each of you has.

I am a 25 yr. old. college grad. that is currently looking into LPN and ARN schools and after viewing a lot of your messages I had two questions for all of you out there.

1) A lot of you talk about the stress of being a nurse. I'm interested in where you feel the stress comes from. Is it from the beuracracy you all seem to face, the nursing shortage that appears to be everywhere and covering a lot of patients or, just the stress of having a persons health in your hands and performing procedures on them?

2) A lot of the courses I have examined for schools list a lot of in class learing (ie. book, lecture) how and when do you do training for taking blood, injections, etc.

How do they teach to do procedures? How do you practice?

I am in nursing school right now and I can tell you that there is a lot of practice in lab. Our lab has hospital beds, mannikins, fake arms that bleed, we also have special pillows that are supposed to feel like flesh for practicing injections. You will learn a lot more in clinical, where you actually get to practice on real patients. Your instructor is always there with you when you pass meds, perform procedures, do assessments, etc. We also have lectures and group discussions in the classroom. Nursing school is not easy, but you do make a lot of friends, meet a lot of great instructors, and you will never forget your first patient. Good luck to you.

[colleen10]

Hi everyone,

I first wanted to say that I think this is a great site and am really impressed with all of the great advice and caring each of you has.

I am a 25 yr. old. college grad. that is currently looking into LPN and ARN schools and after viewing a lot of your messages I had two questions for all of you out there.

1) A lot of you talk about the stress of being a nurse. I'm interested in where you feel the stress comes from. Is it from the beuracracy you all seem to face, the nursing shortage that appears to be everywhere and covering a lot of patients or, just the stress of having a persons health in your hands and performing procedures on them?

2) A lot of the courses I have examined for schools list a lot of in class learing (ie. book, lecture) how and when do you do training for taking blood, injections, etc.

How do they teach to do procedures? How do you practice?