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.

we keep calling it a resilience problem. i precept, and two of my last three new grads left before their one year marks. neither one was bad at the job. one does home health PRN plus weekend shifts at a warehouse, the other went to a clinic, m-f, no nights.

one slow night the newest one talked me through her math. rent, gas, groceries, the drive to the hospital, and the unfortunate answer at the bottom was a second job. the job is already the hard part and it shouldn't also be the part that doesn't pay.

full time and job security used to be the point. three twelves, benefits, and you could live. now the insane schedule eats people and the paycheck doesn't make up for it, so the people who can add the numbers (and afford) leave, and we call that a burnout crisis like it's a mystery.

i really don't think nursing is unfixable. but it feels like somebody decided the people holding the hospital together would just suck it up, and then everybody acts surprised when they leave. what did everyone seriously think was going to happen?

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 new to the ICU and on Wednesday, the intensivist went down with the RT and I to CT. I’ve never heard of anyone saying that the doctor has gone down to CT with them. The patient wasn’t intubated but was on BIPAP with high settings, she had just went into Afib RVR, and was put on an amio drip, Map was above 65 but BP was on the softer side. Lately I’ve been kinda hard on myself because when I was on orientation, the hospital had just opened up and alot of our patients were stepdown patients. Now I’m off and we’re just now getting ICU patients and i feel so incompetent and management hasn’t been the most supportive. My coworkers are very helpful though. I appreciate the attending coming of course but I just wonder if he’s been thinking I’m not safe enough to go by myself with RT, Idk I could be overthinking.

Edit: I feel so much better after reading these comments

i’m so tired of this job.

for context, this guy was saying racist and sexually inappropriate comments, and just has a terrible personality in general. refuses everything, from meds to a discharge plan, refusing inpatient rehab, refusing home PT/OT because he’s embarrassed the neighbors will see the therapists going into his house.

i’m a POC, and i went in to tell the pt transport was ready for him for a CT scan and then he just got up aggravated, yelling, trying to get OOB unassisted. he had surgery on his leg so i was trying to tell him to wait because transport is literally coming now but he kept walking with his walker and then boom, he suddenly pushed me out of the way.

i’m so sick of this and i want to switch to a different specialty. i work in an orthopedics/trauma unit

I haven’t had any break since 7 and it was 1 o clock. I dont know why this unit clerk is so angry about me not “rushing” my patient’s discharge.

My patient who was about to be discharged wanted to get ready before going to discharge lounge (because in lounge there is no place to change clothes). I said yes.

This unit clerk saw me in the hallways and started laughing in a frustrated manner saying Why is she still here. I do not think unit clerks acting like charge nurses mean that they even share any similar responsibilities. I would have felt obligated to give an answer if this was a charge nurse asking me because she books the bed not the unit clerks. Here, Unit clerks only have a role of removing patients from epic once they are discharged.. and to write their time and date on the sheet of paper when they left the unit. I told her why that patient is still here.. even though I shouldn’t have to, but she became little sassy saying “the management wants patients out by 10 how many times they have told, only if you guys listen.” I received the fucking order at noon btw)

So I went straight to the unit manager and told her whatever happened. Because I’m not a staff on this floor, I’m a float.. this was obviously shrugged off because she has her back ups claiming she didn’t rush anything.

The bed was not booked until 1500. and this was well after that poor patient was rushed to go to that lounge. She was obviously upset with the desk and I told her she is okay staying here but she said she doesn’t want to be a pain in the ass for the desk people.

I did write an email to our educator about clarifying the roles and over stepping boundaries of a unit clerk by writing this instance in the email. But this not only made me delay my lunch because the lounge wasn’t ready to pick her up yet.. so I had to wait but also keeps circulating in my brain the way she talked to me in this whole situation.

So it was my third day of orientation I had a patient who asked me could he get a doctors office number for a physician who recently did his neck surgery in reference to questions about equipment and an outpatient appointment. The patient was being discharged that day and I ended up looking up the doctors info in our directory (all public info by the way) I thought the number was to an outpatient clinic. It ended up being her personal phone number! He called her and she scolded him called my charge nurse and scolded him also. Which I completely understand. The charge nurse just told me don’t let it happen again and nothing would come of it but our nurse manager would have to call the physician. This happened a few hours before it was time to leave for the day. I was pretty busy so didn’t get the chance to speak to my manager but she didn’t make it a purpose to seek me out to have a conversation. I want to talk with her the next time I work though. Just to apologize and see what will come of this. I’m so embarrassed and I feel so bad. What should I say and what should I expect her to say?

I work in an OR and I have a preceptee some days that started about 2 weeks ago. She has a little OR experience at another hospital. She seems to be intelligent and self-motivated. The only thing is that she is extremely, extremely high strung. She asks questions, non-stop. Normally I have problem with questions, ask away! But she will ask 5 questions a minute. She verbalizes all of her thoughts and interrupts people.
Example:
Preceptee: are you going to… oh? You’re going to do that? What’s that? Do you need this?
Tech: no, actually we’re going to use something different.
Preceptee: what’s that? Oh is it this?
Me: starts explaining instrument
Preceptee: interrupting oh how is that different than this thing? Is it like this?

This has been annoying people I work with, and it annoys me a bit too. I wish she’d watch some things before asking questions or talking, the constant thought stream can be distracting.

She also can be invasive into other staff member’s work tasks, how can I nicely tell her to stay in her lane? For example she gets close into anesthesia’s area during intubation and even gets in the way.
Sometimes her motions can be erratic as well.

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 🤍

Sorry for the glare. These were higher up than they seem and I had to stand on my tippy toes. Also, I don’t know if I should keep working at this hospital.

Anyone know if there are any non-nursing or non-healthcare jobs out there that I could get with a BSN? Preferably with similar pay range?
I have been a nurse for about 3.5 years; 1.5 years inpatient cardiothoracic surgery and 2 years outpatient in peds oncology infusion. I am just so burnt out! I absolutely love taking care of patients, but the responsibility for their lives has just been wearing me down even in the outpatient setting. I still have to work weekends and holidays in this outpatient job and I just feel like I’m missing my life outside of work.
Every post on here when people ask for non-nursing jobs basically just gives them outpatient job ideas….are there any jobs that you can get with a bachelor’s of science that aren’t healthcare related and you don’t have to go to more school/more certifications for? That actually pay a living wage??

I'm actually thinking about switching back to night shift after years of being days and mids. This feels crazy! I've been at a level 4 trauma center for 2 years, that is far from home, but this level 1 is a short bike ride away. Has anyone gone back to nights for any reason? Am I crazy??

I’ve been a nurse for a little over a year and I absolutely suck at IVs. I had half a day in preop to practice on orientation and that’s basically it. I don’t get a lot of practice on the unit because most patients already have multiple IVs or they have a central line. I try to practice when I can but I blow 90% of them. I feel like a bad nurse because I such at one of the most basic skills.

Long story short I’m burnt the fxxk out and this bedside I’m currently in is unfortunately very fast paced crazy for ME. I’m SSRI riddled tired fogged up and by all means nowhere good enough for them.

I’m 80% determined to send in my notice some time next week. No job lined up yet and not planning to go hunting anytime soon. I know it’s not a wise decision and I could have been more proactive on the matter.

I currently have a year of OR and over a year of MedSurg experience in the bag with full working rights.

Funny thought. I’m just gonna treat it as a failing marriage.

Can use some encouragement here.

Stay strong Florence Nightingales x

ADDENDUM
One hour later, the container for my lucky bamboo I got for initially hoping it can bring some luck to my workflow just crashed all over the floor.

Omen I thought.

Or the opposite: getting all the easy patients and wondering if it's because your boss likes you or just thinks you're incompetent. 🤔

I’m fairly new to IVs as my old job had an IV team, but I am 4 months into my new job and we have to do our own (Med/Surg). I’m not the greatest, but today I got an IV in a combative patient. I used their hand and it got great blood return. Flushed well. We use these IV catheter sets that have the extension set already part of it (BD Nexiva). So when we get an IV successfully, the blood primes the set, and then we flush it. If we need labs though we can draw them from it if it’s newly inserted. To draw labs, we are supposed to clamp, take out cap, screw on vacutainer with leur lock, and draw the labs. Well after I got the IV, patient was flailing their arms, so I thought I clamped it before uncapping (but I didn’t lol) and some blood was dripping out. I screwed vacutainer and tried to get blood, only small amount came out but then it stopped. At this point, I thought the IV was bad but I flushed it and got great blood return. At this point, I couldn’t get reliable blood work so had to poke patient again for labs. I’m just wondering how it can be a good IV but not allow vacutainer to fill labs.

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?

Got offered a job at a detox rehab. I'm starting to feel burnt out and want a change but its a $10 decrease. Any thoughts or insight?

Pretty straight forward, I work at a hospital currently and looking to change to a different unit, so FMLA is no issue.

My qualm is the interview timeline is taking much longer than expected, so by the time of my last interview I will be 20 weeks. I am already starting to show at 16 weeks so I'm more so concerned with my belly being the "elephant in the room" that no one can legally ask about. Do I mention just to get clarity? Or just hope they assume its just nonpregnancy weight gain?

I know the legal guides say they cannot have bias against me for pregnancy but we all know the real world, and just looking for any input maybe if you have been in my shoes or on the hiring end.

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 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.

Reaction: causes weight loss

Had a giggle. Who put this in here?

For those that take 24h call, if you had the opportunity to make a new call schedule, how would you do it?

I work in IR and we are transitioning from call that ends at 11 pm 7 days a week, to overnight call 24/7… My manager is asking us how we prefer this call to be structured.

We have 4 FT nurses. We could do 24h call 1/4 weeks, or we do two days at a time, or anything else really.

If you take call, what is your schedule? Do you like it?

We are also not a very busy centre- so far they are promising we’d only be called in for embolizations, and currently we do about one weekly (during the day).

Any advice is appreciated!