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Post by Rivka P on Jun 24, 2008 15:33:49 GMT -5
Please share any tips you might have for our new nurses. Hopefully, this will become a great resource of nursing tips from experienced nurses from all over.
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Post by Rivka P on Nov 10, 2008 18:17:57 GMT -5
Check out the book, Your 1st Year as a Nurse, by Donna Wilk Cardillo.
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chanab
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by chanab on Nov 19, 2008 0:06:55 GMT -5
Obviously not applicable to everyone out there, but... some things I've learned in my first 6 months:
1) Don't toss the leftover urine from a dip until you're REALLY sure the dr doesn't want to send a culture out to lab! (OOPS!)
2) Better safe than sorry. If you have a question - ask!
3) Gather all you're hx and assessment info BEFORE you have to present a question/case to the dr or NP.
4) Apparently a pulse rate of 35 doesn't always mean the pt is on death's door - don't panic if they're still walking/talking/ breathing/in no apparent distress - just follow instructions from #3. (Hmm. Can you guess what I did?)
It has been an educational and sometimes downright hilarious first 6 months in this field! I ALWAYS appreciate advice - so please share if you have some for me. Thanks!
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Post by Rivka P on Nov 20, 2008 14:00:10 GMT -5
As a night nurse, our response to a heart rate of 35 is usually "someone go in there and wake them up!"
And uh, we aren't kidding. I usually go in and shake their shoulder and say, "Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so, are you feeling ok? Oh good, because the heart monitor was just beeping, so we wanted to make sure you were alright. Sorry to have to disturb you. Is there anything I can get you to make you more comfortable? Another pillow?" (I usually get a response like, yeh I would be more comfortable if you would just let me alone, but it's worth making sure the patient is alive)
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chanab
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by chanab on Nov 26, 2008 9:16:55 GMT -5
LOL!
So question for all the non-newbies. I do triage in a clinic. Because I'm a new nurse/new to the clinic, I was told I have to run all my triages past a supervisor after I've assessed. Now they're telling us we have approx 10 minutes per triage pt. And sometimes it takes longer than that to actually track down my supervisor. I fully realize that my assessment skills need work and speed, but I haven't even been in practice 6 months, they're triage pts so there is never a clear expectation of what I'm going to encounter when I talk to them, and I'm panicking just a bit, but I don't want to seem incompetant if I would say something to my supervisor. I haven't figured out if this is an unrealistic expectation, or if it just means that I really am incompetant. HELP!
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Post by Rivka P on Nov 29, 2008 19:04:32 GMT -5
You need to point out to your manager or to whoever gave you this requirement, that your supervisor is sometimes unavailable, and if you have a time constraint, you need him/her to be available, in order to meet the time deadline. They won't see you as incompetent, they will see that you identified a problem and took the right steps toward solving it.
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chanab
Junior Member
Posts: 64
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Post by chanab on Dec 10, 2008 12:17:51 GMT -5
I did mention some of my concerns about time-constrainst and triage to my supervisor - who assured me that we're in a state of flux right now and things will calm down and she'll be available. Still waiting for that to happen...
Meanwhile I had 3 triages walk in during the last 1 1/2 hrs of my shift on Monday and while I could have quickly sent 2 of them on their way and out of the clinic in approx 15 mins each (not too bad overall), I had to wait for her to get off the phone so I could check first and in the end I left work an hour late b/c I had to finish charting. Still waiting...
Ha-shem yerachaem!
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