Had a horrible two days. I'm only taking 4 patients at this point and am still with a preceptor but wow. Last week I was doing well, but this week I was beyond overwhelmed. All my patients pretty much needed total care. Constant pain, vomiting, blood transfusions, an incident report, a code, doctors giving me orders (and I can barely understand their accents), chem. strips, IV infiltrations, meds. almost every hour., family members wanting to talk with me.. and to boot my back and shoulder are killing me, I may have pulled them while assisting a patient. I didn't end up leaving until 3 hours past my shift with no lunch and no breaks!
I feel like an awful nurse, totally incompetent. I wanted to sit in a dark corner and weep. I just feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I have trouble explaining things, when something unexpected happens I just don't know what to do.... I know its not good.. just don't know how to fix it. And if I keep "learning" like this (hectic and haphazardly) I feel like I'll never truly learn.
How long until it gets better? I'm supposed to be by myself with 6 patients in less than 2 weeks! I feel fortunate to have a job, and I think the experience of floor nursing will be great - but wow, can't imagine doing this forever.
This area of nursing is not for everyone, it is tough! But hang in there, you are not incompetent~! You are getting experience! What you really need to survive in nursing! I've heard and seen it all, it should get better, and if the workload remains the same, you will end up having plenty of experience to switch to another niche in nursing Take Care
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
You have 24 hours to report an injury as per our state workman's comp policy. I'd say it's the same for nursing school. Please call your teacher, coordinator, who ever is in charge and get this taken care of. You cannot afford to lose your back. It will kill your career.
In Alberta, Canada, the time limit on reporting an injury to the WCB is 24 months... but... there are situations where the time limit doesn't necessarily apply. POLICY: 01-05 PART II - Application 1 I think the OP should report as soon as is practicable even though there was no time missed from work, because as the above post says, a back injury can come back to haunt you years from now.
Ellie S.
20 Posts
This area of nursing is not for everyone, it is tough! But hang in there, you are not incompetent~! You are getting experience! What you really need to survive in nursing! I've heard and seen it all, it should get better, and if the workload remains the same, you will end up having plenty of experience to switch to another niche in nursing
Take Care