Posted by Shadowplayers721 on August 18, 2004, at 1:44:37
In reply to Thinking of becoming a nurse, input?, posted by sdjeff on August 17, 2004, at 23:48:20
I am one, but I wish that I chose something else. When you get out of nursing school, perferably 4 year now, they want you to work the floors for experience. Now, most hospitals work 12 hour shifts in my part of the world. Where I worked, they trained you on all shifts. So, I worked a few weeks on each shift day/evening and evening/night. This was to learn the routine. The pay is good, but you do earn it. Now, you may say 12 hours no sweat, for me it was hard. I went in at least an half hour early to review all the patients charts and get my fast reports from the nurse reporting off duty.
I put on my cell phone, so that docs, patients, and patients families could call all during my shift. Bathroom breaks were rare. I ate when I got the chance. People would get sick throwing up, someone was having an MI, someone was coming out of restraints, someone's family member wasn't happy with a menu choice, someone needed a pain pill, etc. I would run up those floors up and down back and forth. I would check my telemetry strips every 2 hours, take vital signs every four and give meds almost every hour some nights. It seemed like someone's IV poll was always beaping.
I tended to dread patients that had a nurse or a doc as a family member. Nothing was good enough. I had one complain about the curtains not being clean and the floor looked soiled. Of course, that meant extra time calling house keeping. In the mean time, a drug addict down the hall was cursing me out for not coming in right on the dot for his meds. All the while, my phone is ringing on my hip, I answer it and a doc is on line for the patient in room 265 rattling off orders and I have no paper in hand. Then another call, 266 is in A-fib and 267 is out of restraints again. It seemed impossible. Everyone didn't want to wait. But, I did my best. Some docs were very intimitating and no other doc or nurse could ever challenge their authority. I saw a many of nurses cry and sleep on the job. Patients constantly threaten to sue you, the doc, or the hospital for the simpliest of things - like not bringing a bringing a food tray right at 11:30 a.m.
If I got out after working 12 hours, that was a good night. Everything went well. No one died and no med changes. But, most of the time, I actually put in close to 13-14 hours. I go home and fall down from exhaustion. I would sleep and then wake to the sound of the alarm and do it again. Usually, I would work two 12 hour shifts back to back and then a few days later another 12. I had to rotate weekends. Actually, they went smoother, because docs tend to discharge a lot on Fridays.
Nursing is not what I thought it was. I thought that I would have time to talk, teach, and feel like I really made a difference. I felt like I was off to the races when I punched in. Now, I worked on a post Cardiac Cornary Unit. I felt like nursing school was a joke. They didn't prepare me for this at all. The showed me the basics and cramed me full of stuff that I couldn't even remember it all. I felt so scared out there with screaming patients, family member and seriously critically ill patients. I felt like everyone on my unit was a person standing on a banana peel. Some patients just don't like you because of the way you look. They may even flirt with you or grab your butt. It's a anything goes type of thing. Some people love it and love the rush of that atomosphere. Not I. I love helping people, but I hated being the target of so much abuse. Mean old men would throw things at me. Alzhemizers patients tried to punch me many times.
I say it's a career for some. There are many different departments - OB, ER, telemetry, Med-Surg, Psych, etc. If you choose it, good luck to you and I wish you well.
Personally, I hope to not have to go back to it.
poster:Shadowplayers721
thread:378965
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040811/msgs/378991.html