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Rookie Wit & Wisdom articles
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

I am a second degree nursing student.  On August 2, 2008, I will be a new nurse. Fifteen months of full-time school with classes and clinicals Monday through Friday (and at times, Saturday) is intimidating. But I was told over and over by friends, family, and faculty that I could do it!  After all, it’s only 15 months—and a person can do just about anything [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

I am drained: mentally, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.

One month at the PICU, I’m so tired. It's been the kind of month that keeps you up all night. If you finally get to sleep, you wake up from a disturbing dream.

You smile and joke the whole day at work, but subconsciously you're bleeding from the gut. And there are no sutures to keep the wound closed. [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

I am an RN studying to be a Physician Assistant. I have been training in the medical model for PA school after my nursing school education. I’ve essentially sat in on the training of both MDs and RNs and can tell you stereotypes are ingrained on both sides.

Doctors are groomed to expect to have nurses “bugging” them for orders, calling them with useless and non-important [...]
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Interacting With Patients

Congratulations! It’s Nurses Day. You’ve made it through another year—or perhaps you’re inching your way through your freshman year. While you’ve experienced the joy of changing patients’ lives, you no doubt have encountered daily struggles and frustrations that most people in other professions would crumble because of.

Enjoy a hearty chuckle at the fun poked at the not-so-glamorous parts of nursing. The list has been around [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

"What are they doing here?" asked Shannon. "They shouldn't be here. It's an emergency room, for goodness’ sake."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, can't they see we're too busy?" I added. At the time I had only been working in the emergency room for six months, and like all good junior staff, I was mimicking my seniors.

You see, the problem was that we were ridiculously busy, [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

It began with a simple hello and went down hill from there.

“Ah. Hi,” I stammered, as my mind frantically went into overdrive trying to figure out where I’d seen this pretty blond woman before. “Can I buy you a drink? It’s the least I can do,” she offered.

Something definitely was amiss because attractive young women didn’t generally offer to buy me drinks. I peered closer [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

About a month ago I took care of a female patient on my unit who was post-op. She was relatively young (in her early 40s) and healthy.

I took care of her for two days in a row. At first she seemed pleasant, and we got along well. We have daughters the same age and live in the same city.

At the end of the [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

When I first started as a new nurse, I had 2-3 patients on my own for the first week. I was given 7 patients after the first week, and then the next day 8!

My preceptor told me to handle all the patients, and if I needed her, to come ask any questions. I handled it the best way I knew how.

But when I asked [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

We’ve heard about them—and maybe even worked with them: the cranky, power-trippy docs. The ones who don’t want to associate with nurses at all, and see them as sub-par professionals.

I work in Labor and Delivery--we do a lot of waiting for people to deliver, and the tendency is for nurses and doctors to segregate in two different areas. This seems to promote the idea that [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

Working the night shift on a Labor & Delivery floor, I often know what’s going on with the laboring mother-to-be better than the doc does. And sometimes, I actually have to tell the doctors what needs to be done.

Of course that’s a challenge. Who am I? I think. They’re the doctor. They know best; they are “above” me. But when you are looking out for [...]
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