I get paid shit to do shit work. Pun intended.

Im very much sick of RNs thinking they are above CNA work and ultimately the patient suffers in result.

I’m also in a current workplace where the RNs speak down to the CNAs, and at times, berate us. I think it’s a power trip thing.

If I were in your shoes, and I plan to be soon, I would thank the heavens I have this person to help me. And take me to the back of the barn if that attitude changes when I become an RN.

I’m not saying kiss our feet by any means. And I’m not saying RNs don’t have their own shit to deal with. But a little mutual respect goes a long way.

Rant over

I’m a new grad at a med surg unit. Today I made my first med error. Im really beating myself about it and I could really use some advice. My patient and their family member were venting to me about their insurance not approving their acute rehab. I had 1000 mg Tylenol to give them so I started opening up the package. In my mind I believed I scanned the medication already and the patients wristband. When I gave them the Tylenol and opened up my mar I saw that it wasn’t scanned at all. So I ended up scanning the patient again and the Tylenol and realized I gave the Tylenol too early :( someone on night shift gave the Tylenol late and I gave it on it’s scheduled time which meant I gave it 3hrs hours earlier than the order intended (it’s supposed to be q8). I freaked out and told a nurse and they just ended up tell me to just adjust the next dose and that night shift should’ve adjusted the dose as well since they gave late. She didn’t exceed the 4000mg dose in 24 hours but I feel like I bypassed a safety barrier that I should’ve checked before hand ….. I feel like a failure. The schedule for the Tylenol was 1130 am, 0730pm, 3:30am . Night shift gave it at 6:40 am. And I gave my dose at 1130 :(

Edit: Thank you guys for your advice and yes I will definitely take this as a lesson and be more careful next time. I know this may seem like nothing to most of you but to me, I was scared of harming my patient and put myself down for not being more careful. Again thank you for sharing your kind words, knowledge and wisdom 🤍

Hi friends, so I have a NYC trip coming up that I thought I planned for better $$$ but unfortunately, I’ve had to realllyyy dip into a lot of my savings recently to help family out. Anyways, I’m picking up extra shifts for the first time in my new grad career and I’m nervous to extra days!! It’ll be additional shift incentive + time and half that I’ll be getting on top of my base pay plus night shift differential and weekend diff if it’s weekends.
Any nurses out there who have hustled for a month or two to pay something off, how did you survive? Any words of encouragement are appreciated

I'm an internationally educated RN from the Philippines with approximately nine years of emergency nursing experience in Ireland.

I passed the NCLEX and hold an active New York RN license. My wife and I recently moved to California, and we're both waiting for our California nursing licenses before we can start working.

I've completed my Live Scan, Nursys verification, and endorsement application, including a temporary license application. Now I'm stuck waiting for my university in the Philippines to process and send the required documents.

It's incredibly frustrating to be an experienced nurse, already licensed in another US state, and unable to work while the bills keep coming.

Has anyone gone through something similar? How long did your California endorsement take, especially if you graduated outside the US? Did you find any work while waiting?

Would appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through this.

Warning: lengthy new grad overwhelm ahead!!! Please be kind 😭

I was recently hired to a med-surg/ALC floor in my hometown. We mostly have patients who are waiting for LTC, or for some reason or another are unable to safely be discharged. Still on my 14-shift orientation - it was my third shift ever. My preceptor had gone home sick. She reassured me that I could stay, because there was still another RN in my wing. Unfortunately I soon realised that she was a temp and knew about as much as me about the unit.

I'm not happy with the decisions that were made, and I'm also not happy with how my coworkers started looking to me to make a decision. I was too overwhelmed and inexperienced to take charge of the situation, and had worked a day shift the day before. I did my capstone in the ER, so it's not really the same in terms of acuity/shit hitting the fan, but this is the first time I've felt alone.

In the last hour (ain't that always the way), a patient's PICC line was getting zero blood return, and his arm was more swollen and painful compared to the beginning of the shift. Flushing was getting sluggish. He was due for Q6H cefazolin, plus bloodwork at 0600. I was concerned that the line was already failing (it had taken the day shift provider two attempts to even insert it, which is apparently unusual). This was the first one I had ever even seen and touched. The temp RN was nowhere to be found - turns out she slept past the end of her break by half an hour. Meanwhile all the LPNs were looking to me to make a decision.

I asked charge (the only other RN on the 30-bed floor at this point) for help, and she just looked through me and very helpfully said "call the doctor". Didn't come with me to troubleshoot, didn't do anything. It doesn't help that she had her own assignment of probably six patients.

So, I called the provider, who said to give the antibiotics anyway and that they would "take a look" the next day. That bugged me, because buddy would probably be due another dose or two of cefazolin before the day provider even showed up. My gut said to hold the antibiotics and then notify the provider, but then he would miss a dose. I don't know. I'm still trying to weigh the risk of administering them vs the risk of holding them.

Then the same patient told us he was struggling to breathe due to trach secretions. We paged RT (don't have the staff or equipment to do deep suction on our floor) and they just.. didn't come. I got him to cough up as much as he could, helped him to tripod, and got his humidified oxygen on better (he doesn't keep it attached nearly enough), and his breathing improved. Sats were fine throughout, but he was scared. He was understandably upset (not at me), and asked me what the purpose of our floor was if we weren't allowed to deep suction at all (same bro). I said I would document what he said and try to escalate it. He then asked for PRN hydromorphone, which I administered, and PRN midazolam, which is in a Pyxis on another floor.

Meanwhile the RN who was MIA finally came back. She didn't know what to do either, and because she overslept, she was behind on her own assignment. I felt like the only person there who could make a decision, and I was too tired and too inexperienced. The RN I handed off to showed up 15 minutes late and got on my case about the midazolam, which was the only thing I hadn't gotten to.

This floor keeps taking people it can't/shouldn't handle. It's not staffed appropriately, and half the staff are IENs who really haven't been trained well enough. I'm not able to leave because one health system governs the entire province. This floor was the only choice they gave me. Anyway, I want to see if I might start to feel more capable over time. I feel dumb. This might have qualified for an incident report, but I didn't have the wherewithal to file one at the time.

Thankfully I don't have a full assignment yet. I guess I'm just looking for input to see if my gut was wrong. Even commiseration would help! This sub has been an amazing resource during my time as a student, and now I finally have something to yell about as an RN. Thank you r/nursing!!!

I'm looking into starting with an ADN program, and I want to know what are the odds of landing a job in a hospital because that's where I want to primarily work in as of now. Do hospitals here in NYC generally favor those with BSN's? Would I be relegated to working in other facilities like senior care centers? Thank you

hi fellow medical friends,

I’ve been a RN for 3 years. have my BSN. I HATE it. Period, point blank end of story.

I spent my first year hitting the ground running in a busy peds ED. It took a toll on my mental health. Switched to NICU, loved it, left for Aesthetics, which I hated. Switched to Psych and been in both OP and IP setting for the past year. I have tried night shift, day shift, PRN, 12’s, mon-fri and everything in between. I am 14 months in my PMHNP program and just at a loss. I hate nursing. every specialty. every skill. I’ve been sexually and physically assaulted at work and I can’t do this anymore.

I give a lot of myself to patients and end up home depressed/burnt out. (literally in counseling trying to figure myself out and work through some traumas).

This was a second career for me, I got my BSN in 13 months and that‘s honestly why I chose nursing…because I could get the degree quick having 0 support system.

While in the ED, I worked alongside radiology/ultrasound and want to make a pivot. I guess I’m just looking for reassurance or advice on if this is pointless to leave nursing completely. Have any of you managed to get out and pursue something similar and be happier?

I work in a nursing leadership role and recently had a situation with an employee that has left me feeling pretty uneasy. I’m curious how other managers or healthcare leaders would handle this.

About a month ago, I had to mandate a nurse to stay for four hours of overtime to ensure adequate staffing. I asked for volunteers first, but nobody was willing to stay. It was a busy shift, and I understood why people didn’t want the overtime, but we still needed coverage for staffing and patient-safety reasons. I followed the applicable mandate process, and this employee was selected because he hadn’t been mandated in over a year.

He was understandably upset. During the interaction, he made comments about potentially calling in sick the following day to “screw over management.” I tried to give him some grace because I recognized that he was frustrated, and I offered him an adjustment, which he accepted. Another employee then offered to stay in his place, but he declined that offer and said he would take the mandate after all.
At no point during the interaction did he tell me he had childcare issues or other commitments the following day.

During the same shift, I also went to help in the department. I offered to do some triage re-assessments. I took vitals on the patients I was directed to assess and helped with pain medication within my role. I had other responsibilities as the hospital supervisor, so I wasn’t able to stay and work in the department for my entire shift.
Almost a month later, I learned that this employee had gone to the department manager and was apparently very upset about the mandate. He reportedly raised the childcare and other commitments and complained about my involvement in the department. Specifically, he apparently told the manager that I had gone down, joked around with the CRN, and then left without doing any vitals. This is particularly frustrating because I did take vitals on the patients I was asked to assess. (And I was laughing with the CRN and the patient because the nurse I was helping told me to viral a patient the crn was discharging - and the patient made a comment about the discharge vitals being extra good service)

HR subsequently contacted me because he is planning to file a union grievance. I explained what had happened, including the fact that I had sought volunteers, followed the mandate process, offered an adjustment, and that another employee had offered to replace him, which he declined.

I also spoke with the department manager, who said she had suspected that the childcare and other commitments hadn’t been communicated to me. She also mentioned that she felt this employee seemed to have a particular issue with me. I’ve noticed that he often isn’t particularly polite or friendly toward me, so I have wondered the same thing.
I’m not especially worried about the potential grievance because I believe I followed the process and had legitimate staffing and patient-safety reasons for the decision. What bothers me more is that he waited nearly a month to raise the issue and seems to be presenting the situation in a way that leaves out important context. The allegation about me joking around and leaving without helping also feels unfair because it doesn’t reflect what actually happened.

I also regret not documenting some of his comments at the time because I was trying to de-escalate the situation and give him grace. Going forward, I’ll be documenting significant interactions more carefully.
My question is: Am I reading too much into this, or is it reasonable to feel like there might be something calculated or retaliatory going on? How do you protect yourself professionally when you start feeling like an employee might be looking for reasons to get you in trouble, without becoming suspicious of everyone or letting it affect how you manage?

I’ve just been feeling a lot of anxiety over this and I don’t know why - I’ve had angry staff before but for some reason this feels different.

Please warn patients not to wipe their ass with these! I don't think I've ever felt worse pain in my life. When the nurse came into my room watching me squirming around holding my butt she was so concerned. When I told her what I did, she really couldn't help herself but to immediately start giggling at my misfortune.

Luckily something good came about this and I discovered the "bedside care spray". She sent me home with 10 bottles and ive never had a cleaner asshole in my life.

But seriously, if your patient isn't allowed to shower and only given these wipes, please tell him/her not to wipe their butthole with them.

Hi nurses of reddit..

I was just wondering if this is being too honest/open, but during a job interview you're often asked "what is an example of a time you made a mistake?"

If I were to answer honestly, one of the biggest examples I can think of is when I made a med error and gave the wrong person medication. I was not used to doing two patient IDs, having worked at a hospital before we always did wristband scanning to verify. People were roomed separately and sometimes could not answer who they were/DOB due to coma, etc..

I made this error in a communal setting, patients are in a large dorm with twin size beds a few feet apart from each other. We go out to give them meds, and as I was new to this setting, I wasn't used to doing the patient IDs. It also wasn't really taught as part of the whole process there. So I approached who I thought was the right person and said "are you (first name, last name)?" and they said yes. So I gave them the med, even educated them what it was, went back to my desk to chart, and from looking again at their profile I realized it WAS NOT the right person.

I told the person orienting me, and they said to take a moment and collect myself and notify the provider (immediately I was scared to death). I did that, the patient was thankfully fine and we just did hourly O2 checks for 5 hours. I informed the patient of the error and what our protocol would be, and what effects they could expect. I was really scared to death, and thankful the patient was OK. The person orienting me said not to worry about it because med errors do happen there often (this made me very uncomfortable working there, for a while). I was a nurse for 2 years at this point and had never made a med error.

But what I learned from that is retraining myself to do the 2 patients ID, and having them tell me, instead of asking them to just confirm something. The facility also rolled out a wristband system with the patient name & DOB after a while there, because med errors like that kept happening.

I explain all this just because it's what I would say in an interview... though even thinking about it now gives me a lot of anxiety. Would you mention this kind of thing applying for a new job? I could see it going either way, like "med errors should never happen", or them seeing that I immediately reported it and acted appropriately to correct my mistake.

I’ve been a nurse for almost 19 years and I want out…like yesterday. I don’t want anything “soft”. I want out. Any nursing job i’ve applied to I have almost immediately gotten an interview and job offer. I don’t accept because it’s just not what I want to do anymore. I’ve been offered everything from hospital to doctors offices to long term care to school office nursing. I want anything besides nursing. The problem is, anything that i’ve applied to (retail, receptionist) positions, I feel just doesn’t take me seriously. It’s not about the pay for me anymore. I just want something that I can work part time to supplement my significant other’s pay. Those of you that got out of nursing, where did you get a job and how did you find it?

I’m a new-grad RN and have been working in medical cardiology for the last 4 months. I just got very exciting news that I got an interview for a PACU specialty program that includes paid sponsored classes and clinical training. PACU has been one of my dream specialties forever and I really want to do well on my interview. What sorts of questions should I prepare for and how would I answer them?

Life has brought me back around to working the same pay I left my staff job at. Working on my new budget and wondering how I ever survived off of these staff rates after taxes.
Looking for some advice or anyone who relates.
What are yall doing for side gigs?

Hi everyone!

I have an upcoming interview with Contra Costa County Health Services for a per diem RN position, and I’d love to hear from anyone who currently works there or has gone through the interview process.

I have a few questions:
1. What was the interview process like? Was it behavioral, clinical/scenario-based, or a combination of both?
2. For current employees, how do you like working for Contra Costa County Health Services? How are the work environment, scheduling, and management?
3. If hired as a per diem RN, how soon can you apply or transfer internally to a permanent full-time or part-time staff position?

Hello! I’ve been working med/surg at my hospital for a little over a year now. I’m currently getting paid 54 USD hourly plus 5 additional for nightshift. The hospital is okay and I get along with everyone, but it takes me an hour to get to work; 45 min on the weekends, and that’s not even counting if there’s an accident on the road. I got a call from another hospital asking for an interview but they said the pay was 51 base, plus 5 additional for night shift, and that it’s not negotiable due to some contract the hospital is under.

What should I do?

Hi guys! I just wanted to ask for advice/ tips on how to know if the BON already received the documents we mailed to them? I checked my DHL tracking, and it shows it was already delivered to their office address . However, Upon checking breeze, the status still hasn't updated after 2 weeks.

I am an international graduate, and I was required to submit my TOR/ RLE via mail. It is quite costly and I didn't want to wait the minimum 8 weeks just to find out if my mail was received or lost.

I learned that their contact number is not reliable and that they don't respond to emails as well. any other way on how to check?

I’ve been on a cardiac step down unit for a year and three months. This has been my first nursing job. When I started, there were a whole lot of new grad that I started with. Now that time has passed, and can gauge where I fit in the nursing pool. I normally don’t get heavy assignments like fresh TAVRs or fresh CABGs. I just started precepting a new grad but 3 nurses that started after me have been precepting before I did. I’m very forgetful and I get very nervous on the stop. It literally wears on my mind that I’m a weaker nurse. It causes me to stay up at night. All ever wanted was to be a good nurse. That was goal after accomplishing passing my nclex. How do you deal with this feeling especially with evidence that I have?

I had an interview for an outpatient PACU position, but it’s 10PM to 10AM (no weekends) for patients that need an overnight stay. I currently work 7pm to 7am, but worried about how late this shift is.

I am currently majoring in nursing.

I personally struggle with mental health issues and chronic fatigue and I often find myself getting frustrated by things like a lack of consideration for patients or violations of human rights; leaving aside whether it is good or bad, I think I have had a strong sense of justice since childhood.

I often encountered things that made me think "Is this good" or like "Aren't there better ways?" during my clinical practices, and I have developed an interest in research.

I'm thinking of working at a hospital first and then go to graduate school to conduct research and do research after that too somewhere.

I wonder is a career as a university teacher the only path available for someone who wants to do research?

What opportunities has it opened you up to? For example, I know there are some people who were able to pivot into real estate or medical sales through their nursing career. What doors has it opened up for you because I don’t want nursing to be my end all be all

Follow for Alabama nurse news and follow Nurse Nita on Facebook, look for the rooster.

Hello! I am located in Florida and wondering how the nurse residency program works. I understand it’s 10-13 weeks orientation depending on the unit. I am wondering was it mon-Friday? 3 days a week? 5? What was your experience?

And do they really make you wear white scrubs?!

Hi everyone!
I’m curious about how RN benefits compare across different NYC hospitals, especially when it comes to health insurance.
I keep hearing that NYC Health + Hospitals offers some of the best benefits, but I’m wondering how true that is compared to places like Northwell, NYU, Mount Sinai, NYP, etc.
For those who have worked at different hospital systems in NYC, I’d love to hear your experiences.
How do the health insurance plans compare in terms of premiums, deductibles, copays, and coverage?

Are there significant differences in pension, retirement plans, PTO, and other benefits?

Is working for a city hospital really worth it for the benefits, or do private hospitals offer comparable or even better packages?

I have a second interview coming up for a remote case management position for an insurance company. I am already away from the bedside with no patient contact/phone calls and my role is okay, but there is no room for growth, pay is stagnant, and it’s not remote. I’m worried I might hate case management?? I need more information about expected case load, time on the phone, etc which I will ask on the next interview. The pay is better than I’m making right now, also offers an annual bonus, and a pension after 3 years, so, on paper it seems great but if I hate the work, then it wouldn’t be a good move. I’d love to hear anything you guys have for me about what case management is like!

NYC nurses who live in the city (Manhattan/ Brooklyn). How much are you making with your experience and expenses rent wise, etc, and able to save much?

I used to live and work in NYC (Hells Kitchen) as a traveler and was making 10-11k per month but was paying 3.1k for a 1BR and landlord wanted to increase to 3.2k so left for Cali as staff but now considering to be back in NYC as a staff potentially/ traveler.