Friday, August 17, 2007
What's up with spell check?
I've written some great posts, but as soon as I do spell check they get locked into drafts...forever...and I cannot post them. Ummmmmmmm need to take time to read how to fix this.
Friday, August 10, 2007
New Grad's BSN Progam
When will the colleges learn...just teaching a person theory and human anatomy and physiology...teaching about disease processes and lab norms and abnormals is not all there is to being a nurse. The new nurses come out so green and wet behind the ear's that they cannot even hook up an IV line to the patient without breaking out in a sweat and having anxiety attacks. A little hands on...hell a lot of hands on....teaching would go a long way to giving these new nurses some confidence!!! Not that I want somebody who thinks they know it all straight out of nursing school....but we all know it just takes a critical patient that you are trying to get off your floor and to the ICU (GOTTA LOVE THE ICU NURSES!!!!)to bring them down a notch! And if you are training somebody and two of the patients are crashing and burning...they learn really quickly that it is not all about knowing the processes and the drugs...it's about quick intervention.
I've been training a new grad...and I think she is gonna be a good one...if she doesn't quit from lack of confidence. She's afraid to do just about anything that involves actually touching the patient. She doesn't trust her own judgement...mainly from lack of CLINICAL PRACTICE. She will come and tell me "Mr. So n so sounds like he may have crackles...can you go listen....maybe I am not hearing right.... You go listen...yup crackles. I think Ms. So n so 's IV is infiltrated...her arm is swelling up a lot. You go look...yup IV is infiltrated...but the IV is still infusing!!! (INTERVENTION GIRL...TURN OFF THE IV, GET A SYRINGE AND SOME NS...CHECK FOR BLOOD RETURN...HOW DOES IT FLUSH..HOW SWOLLEN IS IT?) IV restart...out of the question...at least for now...the new grad turns red, starts sweating and having palpations....:). God , don't we remember those days? At least I was an LVN and could defer anything I didn't know how to do the RN ( who sometimes ranked right up there with God and Jesus at that time). Now that I am an ADN, and I have 7 years experience....I finally feel like a nurse. Of course...when there are two patients crashing and burning simutaneously...I'm like every other nurse...new grad or not....feeling the heat and the feeling that I'm just barely keeping my head above the water.
Sink or swim....all of us have to go through the trail by fire to eventually become a seasoned nurse. I will have to say though, that preceptoring has done a lot for my own self confidence. I realize how far I've come from where I was. I remember being scared to death to make a mistake...I still am...that's why I preach erring on the side of caution. It is better to use your own judgement and intervene for the patient than to just go along and do what ever the doctor's order's say say. Using one's own brain .... and your own assessment skills can save lives .... the doctor is not always there to see the "picture" and most of the time...you call and the doctor backs you up 100%. If not...giving a drug a hour or two late is better than giving something...that you cannot take back if the patient starts crashing and burning!
New grad's...gotta love them...they are tomorrow's preceptor's...and hey, I'm gonna be old someday and need a good seasoned nurse to save my happy butt!
I've been training a new grad...and I think she is gonna be a good one...if she doesn't quit from lack of confidence. She's afraid to do just about anything that involves actually touching the patient. She doesn't trust her own judgement...mainly from lack of CLINICAL PRACTICE. She will come and tell me "Mr. So n so sounds like he may have crackles...can you go listen....maybe I am not hearing right.... You go listen...yup crackles. I think Ms. So n so 's IV is infiltrated...her arm is swelling up a lot. You go look...yup IV is infiltrated...but the IV is still infusing!!! (INTERVENTION GIRL...TURN OFF THE IV, GET A SYRINGE AND SOME NS...CHECK FOR BLOOD RETURN...HOW DOES IT FLUSH..HOW SWOLLEN IS IT?) IV restart...out of the question...at least for now...the new grad turns red, starts sweating and having palpations....:). God , don't we remember those days? At least I was an LVN and could defer anything I didn't know how to do the RN ( who sometimes ranked right up there with God and Jesus at that time). Now that I am an ADN, and I have 7 years experience....I finally feel like a nurse. Of course...when there are two patients crashing and burning simutaneously...I'm like every other nurse...new grad or not....feeling the heat and the feeling that I'm just barely keeping my head above the water.
Sink or swim....all of us have to go through the trail by fire to eventually become a seasoned nurse. I will have to say though, that preceptoring has done a lot for my own self confidence. I realize how far I've come from where I was. I remember being scared to death to make a mistake...I still am...that's why I preach erring on the side of caution. It is better to use your own judgement and intervene for the patient than to just go along and do what ever the doctor's order's say say. Using one's own brain .... and your own assessment skills can save lives .... the doctor is not always there to see the "picture" and most of the time...you call and the doctor backs you up 100%. If not...giving a drug a hour or two late is better than giving something...that you cannot take back if the patient starts crashing and burning!
New grad's...gotta love them...they are tomorrow's preceptor's...and hey, I'm gonna be old someday and need a good seasoned nurse to save my happy butt!
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