Switch to Royal Blue

So, my work place has decided to change all RN scrubs from navy to royal blue in an attempt to make us appear more professional and 'uniform.' Okay, so this wouldn't be such a huge pain in the ass if the higher ups actually fixed the 'real' problems within the hospital.

Patients do not care what nurses are wearing. They could care less that a nurse's outfit is off gray instead of a crisp navy blue. I've never heard a patient or their family complain that a nurse wasn't wearing the right color and that they didn't look 'professional' enough. They care more about the care they are receiving versus how fashionable their nurse's scrubs are.

In addition to scrub colors, my work place has spent thousands of dollars painting and redecorating the floors within the hospital. This money could have gone to hiring sitters to sit with hostile patients in the ED. This money could have been spent fixing the computers that nurses use and physicians use. They could have also hired techs for floors that are continuously short staffed or paying for another nurse or two to work on the floor so that our nurse to patient ratio could decrease to 5 like we were all promised when we were hired.

But no. Now our walls are blue instead of beige and the floors are fake wood instead of carpet. And nurses, and other professionals, are now being asked to buy new scrubs in an attempt to impress. I bet the people who are quitting left and right are so glad that their place of work is changing their scrub colors. THAT will make them want to stick around and work in a place so horribly managed that they can't even take a break to piss and eat within a 12 hr shift.

And I just love the pretty painted bathrooms. As if I get to see them at all during my entire, bloody shift.

The first thing you learn in nursing school is to prioritize your care. Did management skip this class or were they too busy deciding whether to wear a blue or black suit to class that day?

This is yet another reason why I'll be happy to leave this hospital. I'll be glad to work for a place that cares more about their workers than what they look like on the outside.

Sums up my hate of call lights

Oh in a perfect world.... (found on allnurses.com)

A selective call bell system..for example,when the call bell rings, they have an automated choice....

Enter 1 if you are calling to say you have to crap AGAIN.

Enter 2 if you are calling to say you have already s**t (this a totally different problem).

Enter 3 if you are a drug seeking a$hole and are requesting morphine.

Enter 4 if your crazy family is here and they want to speak with me.

Enter 5 if you feel like complaining and think I give a damn.

Enter 6 if you dropped your tissue box again and think I am coming in anytime soon to pick it up.

Enter 7 if you think I am a damn waitress and will get you the meal you actually ordered.

Enter 8 if your IV is beeping again because you just can't seem to remember to keep your ******* arm straight no matter how many times we tell you.

Enter 9 if you think Nurses walk on water, you haven't called since you have come in, you hate to bother me, your family is normal, you ARE having crushing chest pain and think you are going to die....I'll be right there.

Do not hit 9 when you meant to hit 2. You will wish you did die!

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If only we really had this!

So....

Tonight was a good night. No real complaints.

Sometimes I wonder

If nursing is really for me. It's hard to remember the good days when the bad days stand out so prominently in my mind. I know I've grown as a nurse since I started working in August 2011. My confidence in my skills have far surpassed what I thought I could ever accomplish yet, each day I feel like I take one step forward and two steps back. Three steps back on those days where I do something that makes me question my future as a nurse. It's the tiny things that bog me down. Not calling the doctor about things that I probably should have. Not important things like blood sugars, elevated bp, critical labs, but small things that in retrospect I should have known to call about but didn't even think about. I feel incompetent sometimes. I've been doing this nursing thing for 15 months and yet I still feel like a newbie.

Everyone talks about this miracle 'ah ha' moment after your first year and I have to say I haven't had that moment yet. Sure, I know more about what's going on than the new GEMS on the floor. I know procedures, paperwork, who to call about what (sometimes...). I know how to handle family members to a degree. I've had my fair share of unruly patients and I think I've handled them to the best of my ability. Nursing school doesn't teach you about paperwork, mean doctors, the fact that if anything isn't done by another department it's the nurse's fault. They don't show you the 'mean side' of nursing. I wish they would. I very much doubt students would continue the course if they were repeatedly yelled at my doctors during preceptorship, had to deal with alcoholics hitting them spitting and cursing at them, rude family members who think they deserve all of your attention and who treat you like a waitress rather than a professional.

Had the rose colored glasses of nursing school been taken off prior to my senior year I would have changed majors. Yet, here I am. Stuck in a profession that I'm beginning to hate. I've spent more time looking for a job, any job, to take me away from the hospital or nursing in general. If I had more good days than bad I would like my job. I wouldn't mind waking up and going in to take care of patients. I'd actually enjoy my job. Thing is, I've had more bad days and those days have made me regret wasting 5 years of my life studying late into the night to pass an exam to get into nursing school. It has made me regret walking in the freezing cold to catch a bus to go to class to take classes that would ultimately lead me to where I am now.

Had I known what I know now about nursing I wouldn't have gone down this path. I'd be free of this gray cloud that hovers over my head an hour before I have to go to work. I wouldn't cry every day just thinking about how I absolutely hate taking care of people who don't appreciate it.

Nursing really isn't for me and I think I've finally figured that out. I may return to school to pursue something less stressful. The only thing that's keeping me at my current job is the pay and my coworkers. I didn't have any money before I started working and I'm sure I will find nice coworkers elsewhere.

Nursing isn't meant to for everyone. It's definitely not meant for me. I'm happy to finally admit that.

3 days in a row

I can quite honestly say, working 3 days in a row on nights is NOT gonna work. I feel like a zombie. THANK HEAVENS this is the third day. I'll be sure to let who ever makes the schedule know that I hate it. If they put me down for another  3 days in a row I'm seriously going to call out one of those days. 

Night shift. OMFG

I love it. Night shift is by far the shift from heaven. While it can still be very busy at times I didn't feel quite so overwhelmed as I did on day shift. The different sort of busy is in fact true. You don't have all the distractions like on day shift but you rarely have time to sit down and just chat. People don't stop hurting just because it's night time. I gave pain meds ALL NIGHT LONG along with Benadryl for itching q4. Patients wants snacks all night long. I really just wanted to say "go to sleep." Some of them did sleep for a moment but a few did not. I just don't know how you can stay up all night and stay up all day too. You wonder why your body is shot and worn out. You haven't slept in 24 hours. O_O.

There aren't nearly as many meds as on day shift. I had 2200 meds, one 0300 antibiotic and then I was done until 6am. I'm being very serious. I've never had that much down time between meds. I didn't know what to do with myself. Giving prns kept me busy but then those are q4 or 46 so I didn't have to give them quite as often.

The staff worked great together. I learned a lot and at the end of the shift I was really glad that I had chosen to go night shift. I know things will not always be like this, but for once I can say "I had an awesome night at work!!!!"

Go night shift!!

Me

Taking the leap

So a few weeks ago I asked my manager about switching to night shift. She was more than willing to allow me to try it out. I made it very clear that I would do 3 weeks to see if I liked it. If not I'd really prefer to stay on day shift. I have no other option other than to quit. -__-. Day shift is wayyy too hectic for me. Not to say that night shift will be any better, but at least I won't have to deal with all the crap that goes along with day shift. I.e. A gazillion doctors rounding and writing orders, changing orders and writing more orders, interns asking about things they could find out by simply looking in the chart, family members calling to see how a patient's night was (like I have any idea since I wasn't there.) admissions AND discharges, transfers, surgeries and the paper work that go along with it, physical therapy, occupational therapy, case management, managers, that guy who said he was gonna make our floor the best floor in the hospital but who spends all of his time in his office doing absolutely nothing worth talking about. Yeah, so night shift is looking pretty good right now.

All the night shift nurses seem to think that night shift is slower, easier and a different sort of busy. I don't know what they mean by a different sort of busy, but I hope it's not the same sort of busy that I'm used to. Days have sucked the life out of me. I dread going to work. I loathe knowing that in the morning I have to get up at 5 am to drive to work and deal with the same crap I had to deal with the previous day. At least now that I'm on night shift I know that day shift will deal with a large majority of the crap I've been dealing with for the last 9 months. Day shift nurses on a med surg floor have it hard. They deal with a lot of crap.  A LOT. I honestly can't take it anymore. I'm surprised that I handled it for 9 months...I guess I'm stronger than I thought I was.

Here's to hoping that night shift is a bit more tolerable. I really could use a change of pace.

Me