The ONE thing that will make your nursing life easier

[forumjunkie]

Hi everyone,

This is a broad question to all of us:

What is that ONE thing that will make your nursing life easier?

This could mean many things like:

- Is there something you wish you discovered earlier in your career that would have made nursing easier?

- Is there something you wish existed that will make nursing easier?

- Is there something that you'd like to eliminate? eg. pain points

[NanikRN]

Patients, not customers

[NuGuyNurse2b]

I love Danskos but it I've rolled my ankle a few times wearing them. it's risky business. Those are the only shoes I can wear for a whole shift without my feet singing the blues by the end of the day.

As for support, a good aide is hard to find. It's a low paying gig that attracts either people who aren't the brightest (I'm sorry, there's no nice way to say it) or the super student nurse who's there to tell everyone what her school teaches her to do in your position.

[Farawyn]

I love Danskos but it I've rolled my ankle a few times wearing them. it's risky business. Those are the only shoes I can wear for a whole shift without my feet singing the blues by the end of the day.

As for support, a good aide is hard to find. It's a low paying gig that attracts either people who aren't the brightest (I'm sorry, there's no nice way to say it) or the super student nurse who's there to tell everyone what her school teaches her to do in your position.

Meeeeehhhhh... I've had some amazing aides that were very intelligent, compassionate and hard working. Just weren't educated, like, in college. Doesn't mean they aren't bright.

Danskos. I need to be in a Danskos infomercial.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

You don't need a Harvard degree to be common sense smart, that I know. I wasn't belittling someone's education or lack of. But, those that you describe are few and far in between. And those are the ones I'm talking about when I say a good aide is hard to find. Most of the aides that get hired just aren't that motivated, dedicated, caring or intelligent. The pay sucks, and they know it does, but it's where they're at in life, so they begrudgingly do it. I worked alongside one that never made it into nursing school years ago, and she was just bitter and nasty to work with, questioned everything you did. when she finally retired, it was like a dark cloud had lifted.

[O9eleven]

I love Danskos but it I've rolled my ankle a few times wearing them. it's risky business. Those are the only shoes I can wear for a whole shift without my feet singing the blues by the end of the day.

I use Converse Chuck Taylors. They work the best for me. I'm on my feet all day and at the end of the day my feet feel great. I've tried those moccasins and have also nearly twisted my ankle with them.

[PaleToad]

Out of touch Administration.

[m0lasses]

Altras saved my feet and my back! Never doing nights and a more flexible schedule would be awesome. I'm working on those last two. Second the pause button!!

[sarbo1010]

Problem with a majority of "managers" recently is they are made up of the floor nurses who hated floor nursing after a year of experience and decided to go into management. They now are telling us how to practice and they don't have a clue.

[Roy Hanson]

staff that work well together. Approach patients like the doctor does.

[janlvn76]

Getting rid of customer satisfaction as a way to rate and pay hospitals. How can a patient rate satisfaction when they are not feeling good. Isn't it a known fact rating someone when they feel bad makes them less satisfied. Nurses can't satisfy every patient when staffing ratios are continuing to be reduced by hospitals as a way to increase profits. I have been a nurse for 40 years and am actually glad my career will be over and looking forward to retirement and leaving nursing forever.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Hi everyone,

This is a broad question to all of us:

What is that ONE thing that will make your nursing life easier?

This could mean many things like:

- Is there something you wish you discovered earlier in your career that would have made nursing easier?

- Is there something you wish existed that will make nursing easier?

- Is there something that you'd like to eliminate? eg. pain points

Chardonnay in my water bottle? Please please please?

Call bells that time out if rung too many times in a row in a certain period. Like ring 4 times in 15 minutes? You get locked out for the next 15 minutes.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

* Reasonable expectations from Admin. - You seriously cannot keep dumping tasks on us and not expect patient care to suffer.

* Benefits (including pay) that are reasonable. A happy nurse is a more motivated nurse (at least this one is).

* Competent co-workers.