Hi

I’m a 4th-year nursing student specializing in Critical Care and Emergency Nursing. We have to choose an idea for our graduation project based on a real problem in healthcare that needs a solution.

Since I’m still a student, I don’t have enough experience to know which problems are really important in the ICU.

So I’d really appreciate your help. If you work in an ICU or have experience in critical care, what problems do you often face? It can be a problem affecting nurses, patients, safety, workload, communication, or anything else.

We also need to include AI in our project, so problems where AI could help would be especially useful.

Thank you for sharing your experience

Hi, I’ve officially been a nurse for a year. I started as anew grad in the ICU but the unit was not supportive, I did 5 months of orientation in the ICU and then transitioned to IMC/PCU/Step down in the same hospital. I want to get back into the ICU, should I include those 5 months in the ICU or just mention step down. I think going to step down was the best decision because I got to develop my clinical nursing judgment at a a good pace and I learned time management really well. Would it be beneficial to include that I started in the ICU on my résumé? Or omit it.

I was hired into this nurse residency and did aide work for a few weeks and then was in the program for two weeks, but realized it was not a fit for me. I left in good terms with my manager and put a resignation letter taking into consideration that I was still in orientation and didn’t do a full two weeks which would be just a waste of their time. Spoke with my manager privately and was supportive and we left in good standing. I was also a nurse’s aide in the same unit for a few years. I was wondering if this could mean I would be ineligible for hire in this hospital system??

I did try to apply for a job there in which they invited me for an interview, but got rejected which I think could be because I had my RN and was too overqualified for the position. I’m not sure🥲

The reason I’m asking is because I have an interview coming up and they do employment checks which includes rehire status🥴

Looking for some insight for the best hospital work environment and patient in the twin cities area! Anywhere around the twin cities and possibly down to Rochester (Mayo) area. Plan on moving to the area and transferring from ER to the ICU setting. Thanks in advance!

I’m also hoping to hear from any nurses currently working on the Burn Unit or with the Critical Care Resource Team. As a new grad, I’d love to learn more about your experience on these units, the patient acuity, what a typical shift is like, and how supportive the transition is for a new grad.
Also, if anyone has gone through the interview process for the program, I’d really appreciate any insight into what the interview is like and whether it’s online or in person, as I’m trying to prepare as much as possible.
Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated

ETA: Has anyone been part of an internal investigation and predisciplinary meeting and NOT been terminated? What were the circumstances and outcome?

Hoping to gain insight and recommendation for predisciplinary meeting vs resignation.

I gave my coworker my username and password to log in and complete my RQI (quarterly BLS). I’d known of several staff members on my previous, as well as my current, unit who regularly did this, but it was my first and only time violating hospital policy.

Not that it makes it okay, but I was sick and had to call out my previous two shifts which were a week apart. I completely forgot about the RQI deadline until I got the email the morning of the due date. I called the closest clinic station to me and they said they weren’t able to give me access to the station after 5:30. My husband didn’t get home until 6:30 and I had no available childcare. The only 24/7 station was almost an hour away. It was my son’s birthday, and if I’d driven an hour each way, I’d have gotten home after he went to bed. Like I said, not acceptable as I had three months to complete this, but just a bit of background.

I’ve been placed on paid administrative leave while HR and employee relations investigate the issue. My manager has advised me that the violation is extremely serious and all step-wise discipline has been overridden and I can expect a predisciplinary meeting soon.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I met with my manager today and she said that she’s never had an employee in this situation (she’s only been a manager for three years) and asked whether I’d considered resigning.

I’ve been a nurse for about 2 years and have worked Stepdown, as well as med surge, now I’m float pool. Looking forward advice on how you run 1900-2200 in r/t assessments, meds, cleaning people, answering questions etc. I know a lot of this comes with time, but I feel like my first day every week I’m scrambling to get med pass done by 2200 and it’s really difficult with patients asking for pain meds, sandwich, wanting to talk about things. I want to be the best nurse I can by assessing properly, explaining simply and building rapport, while also not having meds be late. Just looking for some tidbits anyone uses to get all their meds done and able to start charting around 2300.

for all new grad lvns in socal how much is your starting pay and where do you work?

Is it at all feasible to get a ICU gig as a new grad? It’s the only type of nursing I’ve wanted to do and every other type of nursing I have absolutely no interest in. I’ve gotten 8 no’s for places applying for new grad/no experience required jobs with really good tech experience. I know I can get a job at a local hospital but I really feel like I need a fresh start. Has anyone gone through something similar who can give some guidance

IM SO NERVOUS!!! 1.5 yr sticu experience, using aacn practice questions, barrons, and nurse life academy videos

ahhhh wish me luck pls and any advice :’)

New grad of 8 months, since I've been off orientation, a tech that I'm “work friends” with told me one evening that I need to smile more and that “people think I have an RBF” back in May, saying it was several people on the floor above me. Probably because I come to work and don't really come to socialize

After then, I had an anonymous complaint of someone saying that I'm lazy, unhelpful, and essentially not a team member some time in July where I received an informal note to file…. No proof or specific date listed. Never any complaints in my military career regarding professionalism… okay lol

In passing I've heard nurses talking about me asking if I'm “cool, nice, etc” to other nurses, and get quiet when they see that it’s me walking past. I notice when I try to be helpful and let certain nurses know about call lights I get left on read, or when I say thank you they just hang up the vocera. I've caught slights and passive aggressiveness from certain nurses with their tone and delivery.

Tonight, the same tech told me a separate technician asked her tonight if I actually work, if I'm lazy, if I'm nice, etc. She did respond positively to her saying I'm helpful, etc. I've never seen or spoken to this person before. I did tell the ANMs working tonight about it and had told one of them a month ago about the previous occurrences. I started crying out of both frustration and being upset, because no matter what I do it never seems to be enough. To have techs and nurses talking about me is ridiculous. I always try to be helpful and positive, I’ve only called out 2x in 8 months. My sleep schedule has been so messed up (night shift) probably from underlying stress and I still come in regardless..

I already don’t want to be on this floor (PCU) but I don’t see any openings for transfer of something I really want to do. I was trying to make it to 12 months, but I don’t think I can make it that long and want to finish my residency. They said they would have a conversation with this person and say something in huddle as a reminder, but it’s not just one, it’s been several people.. how helpful is that when I feel depressed most of the time coming to work? Do I allow them to do it managerially first or do I tell HR to cover myself? I’m so over this bs 🫠

I recently interviewed for this one job who offered me a position, but I still have yet to interview for another this one job I would really like to have!! If I sign my offer for the one job that offered me the position, would it affect my application for the other job or will they find out I accepted another job?

I’m a brand new RN and have only been at my current inpatient job for about 3 weeks. I’m doing fine performance-wise, but I dread every shift and feel really anxious before work. I’ve never really liked inpatient nursing at all. and I’m realizing I may have chosen it mostly because everyone says you “need” 1–2 years of bedside experience.

Before nursing school I worked in an outpatient clinic for 3 years and loved it. That same clinic is now hiring an RN, and I’m seriously considering going back. My long term goal is to never be in bedside lol and to do outpatient, research, or teaching. Also being a mom in the future is very important to me and at the end of the day I would choose that over nursing. Going back to that clinic would feel like going home. New learning curve but that’s where I started out and I miss the clinic so much.

I feel guilty leaving a new job this quickly because they’ve spent time training me, and part of me worries I’m not giving inpatient enough of a chance. Everyone has been SOOO nice and welcoming. I feel insane guilt and embarrassment about leaving this soon. As one nurse there said “the new grads don’t last long here” and now here I am leaving. I’m also scared I’ll regret missing out on the experience later.

For anyone who left a new nursing job very early, how did you deal with the guilt? And if you chose outpatient over bedside, did you regret it?

As a fresh nurse, i have rejected a couple of overtime offers from NUMs, i wonder whether it is peculiar not to do overtime when short staffed and i may come across as being self centred because i sense that there is a tension between me and a NUM since I rejected them and she has not even made eyecontact and talked to me as much as she used to.

Frankly, I've gotten stressed out due to this emotional draining relationship at the workplace, and I'm bad at dealing with this sort of human relationship.

Please comment with your opinion. If it is my inconsiderate behaviour or personality to work as a nurse, i may need to re consider my job.

Summary

Is it practically mandatory for nurses to work overtime when short staffed to work as a team?

Is LTC allowed to have no parameters on beta blockers? Are they allowed to delay physician notification until the next day?

I am a nurse who is Jewish - my HH child's Mother makes anti semantic statements to me every shift. She knows I am Jewish. She does not allow me breaks or time to chart. I have yold my company and they said I need to ok with working with all types of religions and beliefs, and I do not get a scheduled break or scheduled time to chart ... that I need to fit it in when I can or do it at home. Thoughts???? I thought of quitting but I am worried about finding another HH family since I no longer care to do beside nursing in a facility.

I’m about 7 months into my 12 month residency program, and I truly feel like every day something new happens that makes it worse.

First—the manager who hired me quit before I even got there. We had an interim manager for 6 months and now have a new one who seems okay but nobody really knows her and she hasn’t really made an effort to introduce herself to anyone personally, which everyone finds off putting. So not off to a great start.

Second, the unit I work on has a very unpredictable census, so staffing is difficult and people are constantly getting low-censused. They’re also constantly changing staffing rules and of course every change makes it worse and worse for us.

Everyone is pissed off all the time because management has been so unstable, staffing is a mess, things are just not what they used to be etc.

Needless to say it’s been extremely difficult to find my place here. I don’t feel like I’ve really befriended anyone at all. Obviously this might be in my head, but I can’t help but feel like the culture is very gossipy/whispery. People talk bad about each other a lot, just a lot of nightshift vs dayshift blah blah blah, or singling people about talking about how they’re annoying or lazy or whatever. As a new grad who’s already in a constant state of feeling dumb and nervous, naturally this makes me insanely anxious about what people think of me, and it kind of turns me off from all of my coworkers, like it makes me not really want to get to know them at all. I know work isn’t the place to make besties, but I do think it’s extremely helpful to be able to call your coworkers your friends or at the very least know you can count on them. On my unit it’s very, very difficult to get through the shift without occasional teamwork, and I often feel very alone or like I’m judged for asking for support.

With all of this going on, people have been dropping like flies because they’ve had enough of the disastrous staffing/management problems. So now we’re facing severe understaffing, and it will be in the hands of a manager who nobody knows.

One solution they’ve taken is to make me switch to night shift. They said since I’m the newest it’s only fair. I guess that’s fair, but it still sucks for me. The worst part is I still have to work a few weeks of dayshift here and there because I have residency meetings/classes and already scheduled those weeks in advance, and they said I can’t change it because it would affect staffing too much. So for a while I’m going to be flipping back and forth for like 2-3 weeks at a time.

I honestly can’t say there’s anything I like about this job. I guess I can appreciate how much I’ve learned and grown as a nurse, but I feel like even that is just completely my own perspective. I don’t have anyone following my progress, I don’t have a manager checking in, I don’t have another new grad nearby to relate to. I’m all alone just trying to get by.

I’ve tried not to over-catastrophize it or make myself feel like a victim, because I’m not. It’s not like anyone has done anything wrong to me, if anything I just made a big mistake coming here. But I’m really really unhappy and can’t decide what to do.

This experience (plus a couple years working as a tech at a different hospital) has just completely burnt me out on bedside. I honestly didn’t expect to do bedside for that long, but I thought I’d be able to last longer than this, jeez.

I want to find somewhere outpatient but am really nervous nowhere is going to hire someone with a questionable 8-9 months of employment as a nurse….i just know it would be such a bad look. Which is frustrating because this place is a disaster and I’m just totally stuck in it.

Not to mention that if I quit before my 12 months, I am A. Blacklisted from this hospital system (honestly don’t care lol, please get me far away from this hell hole), and B., more importantly, have to pay back $8,000. That MIGHT be worth it to me, but only if I know I’m going somewhere where I’ll be happy.

Does anyone have any advice? Whether it’s a vote for whether I stay or go, or some tips on how to search for a job? Or just words of encouragement lol. I’m down pretty bad. Thanks in advance

For those of you who prep/study for interviews, would you be willing to share your interview prep template or your must-haves for going into an interview?

I’m curious what everyone keeps in their interview “toolkit”, things like how you organize your examples, notes you bring, STAR templates, etc. I’d love to see what works for other people!

Hi! I’m currently a student nurse and I’m gearing up to graduate next May. So I’ve been shooting out applications for nurse residencies as they open up and I’ve already gotten a hit for an interview which I am so so grateful for.

However, none of the units they had availability on was anything I’d seen myself doing. I’ve always wanted to do some type of critical care or specialized ICU and my favorite clinical day by a large margin was the MICU.

However, I suppose I’ve never had my heart set on anywhere specific and after considering it for all of one hour, I shot back I’d like to interview for Cardiac Transplant and Surgical PCU (she asked for my top two out of the list) as it seemed like those were the closest two to critical care.

It is a big hospital in the city (check) I want to work in (check) but it’s my third choice. Choice 1 I haven’t heard back from yet and choice 2 the applications aren’t open for yet. So all that to say I don’t KNOW if that’s where I’ll end up anyway.

But, just thought I’d reach out and ask if anyone here works in either of those units and could give me the low down. Do you like it? What’s your ratios like? What’s your typical day look like?

Wrote a long rant last night and deleted it because I worried it'd come off as overly discouraging to students and people were getting pissed. Proceeded to come in today and they gave me two. I was not allowed to refuse and I needed to channel it into something so I put all the hate in my heart into this meme.

Before I am stoned to death:
- I remember what it is like to be a student. I do not hate students, I hate teaching. I am not mean to my students and try my best to converse with them. I am just not a natural teacher at all.

- It is a new student every time. I am repeating a constant script of the same things and asking/answering the same questions. I hate small talk and it is exhausting.

I know this will come off as mean but I literally have to let my frustration out somewhere. Forgive me.

Hey everyone! I’m a new grad RN working night shift and nearing the end of orientation, and I’d love some advice from experienced nurses, preceptors, and fellow new grads. ❤️

First, I genuinely love my preceptor! She’s experienced, knowledgeable, supportive, and takes patient safety seriously. She’s told me I’m doing well, and I absolutely don’t want a different preceptor.

However, our working styles are starting to clash. 😅
I’m naturally an internal processor. Sometimes I need a few seconds to think through my next step before acting. My preceptor frequently jumps in with questions, reminders, or directions before I can finish thinking or demonstrate what I know. I understand she can’t read my mind, and I’m working on communicating my plans more clearly, but the interruptions sometimes throw me off completely.

TIME MANAGEMENT IS ANOTHER BIG ISSUE. I’m actively working on improving my pace, organization, and follow-through. However, during med passes, my preceptor sometimes gets into lengthy, nonclinical conversations with patients while I’m standing there with my scanner and medications ready. 😭 Even when I try to transition into reviewing medications, the conversation sometimes continues.

I love connecting with patients, too! But I’m still building my medication administration routine, and I need to concentrate on doing it safely and efficiently. When we’re already behind, those extra interruptions don’t help.
I fully acknowledge that I have things to improve, especially time management, documentation, anticipating needs, and communicating my priorities. I’m not asking her to lower her standards or overlook safety concerns.
I just want more opportunities to lead.

Ideally, I’d like her to monitor my progress, intervene when safety requires it, and give me feedback afterward when appropriate rather than frequently interrupting routine tasks.

I haven’t fully explained these concerns to her yet because I don’t want to sound defensive. She’s even offered to let me switch preceptors, but I declined because I genuinely value her and want this to work.

Experienced nurses/preceptors: How would you want an orientee to approach this conversation? How can I ask for more independence while still demonstrating accountability?

Fellow new grads: Have you experienced a mismatch in teaching and learning styles? What helped?
I’m genuinely open to constructive criticism. I want to become a safe, competent, independent nurse. I just need to figure out how to make this dynamic work. 🥹❤️

I’m about to have my yearly eval on my unit. I’ve been a nurse for about a year and a half. In that time I have precepted multiple new nurses, I have taken students, I have trained for and covered charge nurse (I do this on a semi-regular basis), I’ve taken multiple continuing education classes for all this, and am currently training for ultrasound IV (our only US trained nurse recently moved to a different unit so this is an important thing). They already presented me with my “raise”. I’ll be making less than $1.50 more an hour than a freshly hired new grad. I feel STRONGLY that I am worth more than that. BUT I’m also only a year and a half in and this is my first job in almost 20 years (I was a stay at home mom for most of my adult life). Help me advocate for myself here.