12/31/15: What I learned this year

[ixchel]

Happy New Year, friends, colleagues, and nurse enthusiasts!

It's been a busy, challenging, and thought provoking year à chez Ixchel. Certainly a lot of lessons learned. Here's a summary of what I can recall at this moment:

1. "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger," said no nurse, ever.

2. Night shift takes 2 full days of recovery time.

3. Never, ever, ever utter the word "bored" on the full moon on a holiday inside the walls of a hospital. Don't even do it in the parking lot. In fact..... If you have ever in your life received a paycheck from any place that offers medical care, never say the word "bored" on a holiday during a full moon regardless of where you are.

4. I cannot believe how much blood can pour out of a healthy young person while pouring nonstop fluids and blood back into them before you lose their pulse.

5. It is not "helpful" to have the in laws pick up the kids at noon for lunch after a very sleep deprived 3-night stretch. (No matter how absurd he may think that sounds.)

6. It actually is normal to take a couple of days to recover from these long and brutal shifts.

7. When I compartmentalized my patients, thinking of them as science in my nurse brain, I can give compassionate/empathetic, yet unemotionally involved care. The second my mom brain turns on, it brings me to my knees.

8. The charge nurses I was warned about turned out to be worth the warning. This was so disappointing to discover.

9. I survived my first year after licensure and I've realized I'm a good nurse.

10. You should still never remove an African American woman's wig. I'm pretty sure that story will never die.

11. The human body WANTS to live. This helps me stay calm when the patient is crashing.

12. I love code team.

13. I suck at IVs and I'm not sure this will change.

14. After having three patients with life-long, life threatening complications after a surgery I will hopefully be getting soon, I'm afraid.

15. It takes at least 4 days off work to feel fully recharged to go back.

16. Day shift is hell.

17. Some shifts, success depends on having a great tech.

18. I'm still thankful for an intact and fully functioning rectum.

19. I have a terrible, overwhelming fear and hatred for progressive neurological disorders, which doesn't help me be an impartial nurse or granddaughter.

20. Being a nurse has changed me. I am sad more frequently, and I have less patience for what people perceive as problems (when in all actuality, these "problems" are more minor inconveniences).

21. Sometimes I forget that the people I am close to aren't desensitized to the same things I am. This has required a few heartfelt apologies.

22. I used to go all out on cooking as a SAHM. Now that I am working? No. I have no effs to give.

23. My children are genuinely interested in the lives I touch as a nurse and will actually ask me what I saw and did at work each week. Sometimes I wonder if my daughter pictures me with a cape and superhero mask when she pictures me at work. Honest to god I love this and wish I could keep them at this curious, interested age forever.

24. This is the most lucrative year my husband and I have ever had as a couple and we have nothing to show for it because baby sitters are expensive.

25. I am ready for grad school.

26. The friendships I've made here have gotten me through quite a bit. Thank you all, and best wishes for a beautiful and awesome 2016!

U2 > New Year's Day

[RegisteredNuisance, RN]

I so agree with OP's post, most of it. Where she says, "being an RN has made me less patient with thing people consider problems" was spot on with me too, except that it's more like I'm more dismissive of things that I don't see as attention worthy problems. If anything, nursing has greatly heightened my stress threshhold and you learn to prioritize what is burning, what might burn and what is nowhere near combustion, and deal with them in order.

[Farawyn]

I so agree with OP's post, most of it. Where she says, "being an RN has made me less patient with thing people consider problems" was spot on with me too, except that it's more like I'm more dismissive of things that I don't see as attention worthy problems. If anything, nursing has greatly heightened my stress threshhold and you learn to prioritize what is burning, what might burn and what is nowhere near combustion, and deal with them in order.

One of the things I have learned as a nurse is unless the baby's head is crowning it can wait a bit.

[rfrishe]

So this is my first time posting because I didn't think I had anything to contribute until now. I've applied to start nursing school to get my BSN in the summer, but I'm working as a CNA/med tech at a LTC facility now, so I have learned a few things this year.

1. Night shift won't kill you, but allowing them to schedule you for 11 days straight probably isn't the best for your health.

2. Saying no to call-in's will save your sanity. And your sleep.

3. The best people will leave, and it's okay. You take their training and work in a way that would make them proud.

4. You're gonna screw up.

5. Sudden deaths happen. Touching dead bodies isn't as freaky as I thought it would be. You still seek to place blame when it's a resident you like, even though it wouldn't have been prevented.

5a.Watching family cone rushing in after a sudden death is probably the hardest to deal with. Watching the old pros handle it restored my faith in humanity. (also having them pick up where I didn't know how was a life saver)

6. Expected deaths happen. And they're both sad and beautiful. The resident is no longer suffering, but you'll miss them dearly. Last words are important to me, and I'm glad our last exchange was heartfelt.

7. There will always be someone complaining, I have to keep focus on why I love my job and not the problems with management.

8. I will be forever terrified of contracting MRSA

So yeah, I'm an aspiring nurse working my way into the profession and if there's one thing I have learned this year above all else, it's that this is the field I want to be in.

[Farawyn]

So this is my first time posting because I didn't think I had anything to contribute until now. I've applied to start nursing school to get my BSN in the summer, but I'm working as a CNA/med tech at a LTC facility now, so I have learned a few things this year.

1. Night shift won't kill you, but allowing them to schedule you for 11 days straight probably isn't the best for your health.

2. Saying no to call-in's will save your sanity. And your sleep.

3. The best people will leave, and it's okay. You take their training and work in a way that would make them proud.

4. You're gonna screw up.

5. Sudden deaths happen. Touching dead bodies isn't as freaky as I thought it would be. You still seek to place blame when it's a resident you like, even though it wouldn't have been prevented.

5a.Watching family cone rushing in after a sudden death is probably the hardest to deal with. Watching the old pros handle it restored my faith in humanity. (also having them pick up where I didn't know how was a life saver)

6. Expected deaths happen. And they're both sad and beautiful. The resident is no longer suffering, but you'll miss them dearly. Last words are important to me, and I'm glad our last exchange was heartfelt.

7. There will always be someone complaining, I have to keep focus on why I love my job and not the problems with management.

8. I will be forever terrified of contracting MRSA

So yeah, I'm an aspiring nurse working my way into the profession and if there's one thing I have learned this year above all else, it's that this is the field I want to be in.

Awesome first post. Love your #4.

As for 8, you probably already have it.

[rfrishe]

Awesome first post. Love your #4.

As for 8, you probably already have it.

Thanks! I've been reading the forums recently to get my nursing fix while I'm waiting to get my decision and start classes (April 1st and June 11th, respectively, can't come fast enough). Thankfully landing this job in November has helped the anxious wait some too. I also never thought I'd enjoy working with the elderly, but here I am, happier than ever.

About the MRSA, I'm just praying it doesn't colonize. We have a resident that had an active infection a few months ago, so I'm trying to be extra diligent about gloves and not allowing my immune system to get run down (which is easier for me, at 21, than for her at 83)

[Farawyn]

Thanks! I've been reading the forums recently to get my nursing fix while I'm waiting to get my decision and start classes (April 1st and June 11th, respectively, can't come fast enough). Thankfully landing this job in November has helped the anxious wait some too. I also never thought I'd enjoy working with the elderly, but here I am, happier than ever.

About the MRSA, I'm just praying it doesn't colonize. We have a resident that had an active infection a few months ago, so I'm trying to be extra diligent about gloves and not allowing my immune system to get run down (which is easier for me, at 21, than for her at 83)

Best of luck!

[CHESSIE]

After reading what I just wrote, I realized it would be a very good thing to just click on the "Cancel" button. I learned maybe it isn't the best thing, being so wide open. I 'talk' too much.

11:47 PM. Happy New Year and goodnight.

Don't apologize, please. Nursing, especially if one is conscientious, is stressful, and venting to others in the profession allows you to continue being conscientious, and dedicated.

Venting and some dark humor is essential to staying sane, especially while dealing with staffing shortages that are continuing to worsen, and the fact that although many coworkers are supportive, others are not.

[NICUNurseEliz]

That being on day shift agrees with me much more than night shift did!

That being compassionate is more important than rigidly following rules sometimes (but not always!).

That sometimes it's better to have a person out of your life rather than constantly trying to reconcile with someone determined to constantly be offended.

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

One of the things I have learned as a nurse is unless the baby's head is crowning it can wait a bit.

Unless the blood is shooting a metre across the room, stick a bandage on it:yes:

If the person is talking, they are breathing

My sister is an ED consultant, I'm a nurse, the kids pretty much know they dont go to the doctor unless its really serious

[suni, BSN, RN]

I agree with you, after 35 years as a bedside nurse I have moved to an office job. I love being able to sleep at night and feel rested. I have some issues with my back and knees from all my bedside nursing.i also wish I could save more money but somehow something always comes up. I continue work full time when I had hoped to retire because who can afford health insurance.

[Debilpn23]

I have learned that even though I love being in Florida with my daughters and granddaughter, I miss my friends and family up north.

I miss my old job and co workers up North.

Miss my Sun- Thurs night schedule.

I learned I liked working in memory care.

[Cheyenne RN,BSHS]

I've learned to feel like a normal part of society now that I work during daylight hours for the first time in many years.

I've learned to enjoy wearing business casual clothes to work for the first time in more than a decade. I'm enjoying the slacks, blouses, boots, high heels, winter scarfs, sweaters, pencil skirts, and sweater dresses.

I've relearned that I'm a continual work in progress. :)

Aren't we all a work in process? I want to hope I am. I am at that place....looking at retirement with lust in my eyes, seeing it on the horizon, so close I can almost taste it now. And two things worry me.

1. Not too many of our old timers get to retire, they suddenly start getting written up and suspended for things in the last year or two and then suddenly asked to retire early or be fired. So very wrong.

2. People who have retired and then within 2-3 months end up having a diagnosis of brain cancer mets from the lungs and having to endure chemo, Ra, and surgery. Another dear friend had a massive MI.

Those break my heart. I tell God all the time just how unfair that seems to me To allow a person to work themselves into old age and finally have the time to "Live" their life and then KABOOM: death and disease is taking it from them.

I love finally being on day shift and looking at just 2 more years until retirement. I cannot wait,