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RealityRN
Posts Tagged ‘Complaints’

Rookie Wit & Wisdom

I am a 4th-year BSN student , and part of our OB clinical experience was to follow an OB/GYN last week.  It was a horrible experience.

First, I was put in a room with 3rd-year med students, which was great because I introduced myself and got to chat with them about their program.

Then I waited over an hour for someone to acknowledge me.  (I was escorted [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

Bad days. Everyone has them. Coming from an emotional female, I would know! I have had MANY nights at work when I just didn't want to be there!

It wasn't until I worked all night with any EXTREMELY agitated RN that I realized how MY bad mood affects everyone I work with.

It was so contagious! I came in to work in the ICU that night in [...]
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Precepting
4 bits of advice before you ditch your preceptor.

Fight or flight. It’s the choice we’re given when faced with a difficult situation. When it comes to a failing precepting relationship, most new nurses choose the latter—and want to scrap their preceptor for a new-and-improved model. Kim Rapper, RN, BSN and a veteran preceptor, says to listen up: Your preceptor won’t be perfect, and you probably will have some conflicts. But that doesn’t mean [...]
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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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Reality Unscripted

Nurses are the most intelligent and compassionate people in the world. Nursing is the most fulfilling and rewarding profession in the world.

Why, then, is there so much bitching going on? We're a bunch of nice people in the world’s greatest profession, yet whining often takes a prominent role in our conversations.

There may be a couple things going on. One is that we, [...]
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Rookie Wit & Wisdom

Sometimes it feels like I’m not given the time—or opportunity—to learn.

As a new surgical nurse, I’ve noticed that the nurses who have been around for a while don’t want to let me do some of the procedures. I’m nudged out of the way. I’ve talked with other nurses, and they say that they’re afraid of getting into trouble if the new nurse blunders, or they [...]
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Nurse Relationships
Fixing a broken relationship.

Doctors and nurses have been trained to be suspicious of each other.

So writes Suzanne Gordon, author of Nursing Against the Odds (Cornell UP, 2006). And while this has historical roots, it is particularly dysfunctional today. In this RealityRN interview, Gordon describes the complicated relationship between nurses and doctors—and gives practical advice for nurses to help remedy the situation.

RealityRN:  Describe the history of nurse/doctor relationships.

Suzanne [...]
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Reality Unscripted

So much of whether you like your job connects back to your relationships with colleagues at work.

A new nurse recently wrote, "I tend to spend a lot of time addressing patients’ emotional needs prior to their operations (calming them, answering questions, or just being with them during the transition). I find other nurses resent me for not spending more time prepping in the operating [...]
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Interacting With Patients
How a new nurse serves cranky patients.

On the day of his surgery, Mr. Grumpafagus, the quintessential grouchy old man, was wickedly crabby. He griped about the cold food, the stiff bed, the spin on television, government conspiracies, and the overpaid doctors.

Most nurses avoided him, busying themselves with pre-op. Even the anesthesiologist warned Mallory, a second year surgical nurse, “Watch out for this one.”

Earlier, Mallory had picked up that he was in [...]
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