Inspired by the post "Most common nursing student mistakes," I want to know what current RNs wish they'd learn/known when they were students (like me!)?
I feel I had an excellent nursing education, but now that I’m practicing every day I find precious little consistency when it comes to terminology.
For instance, no two nurses have the same idea of how to describe wounds. Same goes for drainage/discharge. Again, with petichiae for instance, no two people seem to describe the same thing in the same way. And please don’t even get me started on breath sounds.
I find this very distracting when attempting to chart effectively and it also gets in the way when I’m communicating with other nurses or physicians.
The biggest change for me was moving provinces to work in my home town. The culture of a big teaching hospital was very consistent and centered on excellence. My own hospital was semi rural. I spent a lot of energy trying to keep up my standards in the face of bullying and belittling. I wish I had just moved to a better hospital and found my niche. Instead I quit to raise my kids. But I’m back doing my refresher after 10 years, and you’re not going to stop me this time.
When I graduated nursing school, my instructor told us: remember that your license simply says that you are minimally qualified. I found that when I went into the hospital arena, my most supportive mentor was the LPN on the unit. Seh was willing to teach me, take the time with me, and encourage me. I continued that for other new nurses. I hope it helped.
January 24th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
time management!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I feel I had an excellent nursing education, but now that I’m practicing every day I find precious little consistency when it comes to terminology.
For instance, no two nurses have the same idea of how to describe wounds. Same goes for drainage/discharge. Again, with petichiae for instance, no two people seem to describe the same thing in the same way. And please don’t even get me started on breath sounds.
I find this very distracting when attempting to chart effectively and it also gets in the way when I’m communicating with other nurses or physicians.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:51 am
Having just qualified loads and loads of things. In particular, assertiveness skills.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
The biggest change for me was moving provinces to work in my home town. The culture of a big teaching hospital was very consistent and centered on excellence. My own hospital was semi rural. I spent a lot of energy trying to keep up my standards in the face of bullying and belittling. I wish I had just moved to a better hospital and found my niche. Instead I quit to raise my kids. But I’m back doing my refresher after 10 years, and you’re not going to stop me this time.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Although its taken me a while, all that advice about time management and efficiency finally sunk in recently.
Try to think ahead/anticipate. When you can it will allow you to work smarter – not harder!
June 10th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
When I graduated nursing school, my instructor told us: remember that your license simply says that you are minimally qualified. I found that when I went into the hospital arena, my most supportive mentor was the LPN on the unit. Seh was willing to teach me, take the time with me, and encourage me. I continued that for other new nurses. I hope it helped.