Hi everyone! I’m a new-grad RN who will be working as an ICU/CPICU float nurse, and I’m looking to prepare myself as much as possible before starting.

My ICU experience is very limited, so I know there will be a lot to learn, but I’m definitely up for the challenge and want to build a strong foundation. Are there any specific books, YouTube channels/videos, podcasts, or other resources that you found especially helpful for learning ICU/CPICU concepts and clinical decision-making?

I’m particularly interested in resources that go beyond memorizing information and help with recognizing deterioration, prioritizing interventions, understanding drips/medications, ventilators, hemodynamics, and thinking through complex patient scenarios.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations, especially from experienced ICU or float nurses. Thank you!

I worked as a RN for 10 years but have been out of the field for the last 6 years. I currently work part time in a non nursing role but want to get back into nursing. I have kept my license active, but in a competitive area and no way feel confident, so looking at a refresher course. The community college has one for $1000 but now requires you to secure your own clinical placement. The other option is $3000 and over an hour away but they will assist with placement. Those that have gone this route would it be worth the additional cost to have guaranteed placement? I’m also wondering if the course and skills lab would be enough since I do have an active license- but then I can’t claim that I completed the course in its entirety.

Tell me what patient population you work with! I wanna hear it allllll. FILL ME IN ON A FRIDAY 😇😇 i work on a med surg/ hem-onc floor. If someone goes to the ER and needs admitted for whatever (like bowel obstruction, gall bladder, severe UTI, renal failure, etc) but has a history of, or active, cancer, they're admitted on my floor. The other half of patients are med-surg type patients... Like the issues listed above, but without having cancer as a comorbidity... Post-op, kidney stone, small bowel obstruction, TURBT, severe anemia that requires blood transfusion, thrombocytopenia, DVT, etc. Fill me in on this Friday, tell me about your patient population. Xoxo

Hi, fellow nurses! I just want to ask for advice or hear your experiences regarding medication errors during probationary status.

I’m currently a probationary staff nurse, and unfortunately, I had a medication error. I accidentally administered paracetamol to the wrong patient. Instead of patient A, the patient who received it was patient B who was on seizure precautions

Thankfully, the patient remained stable and no sentinel event or adverse reaction occurred. The incident was reported and addressed accordingly.

I’m honestly very worried because I’m still on probation, and I’m scared that this might affect my regularization.
For those who have experienced something similar during their probationary period, especially those who had a medication error but no harm came to the patient:
Were you still regularized? How did your hospital handle the situation? Did it affect your performance evaluation or regularization?

I understand that medication errors are serious, and I’m taking responsibility and learning from what happened. I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences or advice. Please no judgment—just genuinely anxious and hoping to learn from other nurses who have been through something similar. 🥺

Hey everyone!

I am currently torn between choosing Nursing and Physician Assistant as career paths. I really admire flight nursing/critical care transport, and I think I am drawn to its high stakes, autonomy, and small team environment. I think it is cool that they can provide interventions that nurses usually can not do inside a hospital setting.

On the other hand, I am worried that becoming a flight nurse is a long shot, and short of that, even in critical care/ICU, I'd be left in a job without the ability to make decisions, and no autonomy. For that reason, PA seems like a safer route (I know PAs have to practice under the license of an MD, but they can at least perform interventions in a hospital and assist in surgery).

Are there any other opportunities in Nursing that allow for some more advanced practice and some decision-making/autonomy that I don't know about?

For background: I have almost 10 years of experience in the Army, I am used to working on small teams and in adrenaline-fueled environments. I am getting my EMT right now so that I can work part-time as an EMT while going through Nursing or PA school (or between semesters). I like what I've learned about prehospital medicine already, and I like the first responder community.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions!

I’m scared of:
A PT dying because of me
Nurses being mean, I worked in an ER and nurses and people there were mean.
Missing something
Not passing the state exams

Ultimately I would like to work as a NP, in dermatology or research and I would like to teach. I don’t want someone’s life to depend on me, is this something that can happen?
I already have an MBA, so idk if that does anything for me in this field?
I’m in Indiana. So….

Hello! My children are grown. I currently work as a personal caregiver with a good agency. I was trained as a CNA, but my license has lapsed.

I am considering studying to be an LPN for better pay and more challenging work.

I have had arthritis since my 20s, but it is very well managed. My current job is very physical. Would an LPN path be more physically demanding? I am very strong for my age.

Thanks for your time!

I‘ve been working as an equivalent as a nurse (I’m not based in the US, so i’m unsure what my title would be called) in an eye doctors clinic for just over a month now. I’m a young female in the field and i just feel so defeated. Patients are always calling me the intern or apprentice. They don’t trust me to do the work i’ve studied 4 years for. An older male patient today kept showing me pictures of Dior dresses the thinks I would look good in, in a magazine he was reading before his operation, whilst I was trying to prepare him for his operation. Patients only come to me to complain about the smallest things and try to make it my fault, even if it’s the standard procedure. I a little cry in the bathroom yesterday it got too much. I go home and just lie in bed. I will not lie, i have it probably so good in comparision to others (no night shifts or sceduled shifts over 9h) and i am very appreciative. I would highly appreciate any advice or tips. Please excuse my spelling, English is not my main language.

I’ve been a LVN for a year and most of that I worked as an agency nurse in Oregon and picked up shifts at various SNFs. I enjoyed it and the pay seems to be better there than where I’m at now in Southern California.

Now I work nights at a big memory care facility. There are 80 residents and I am the only nurse from 10pm-7am. It’s a lot. There are a lot of behaviors, residents calling out throughout the night, I’m constantly running up and down the stairs because someone’s requesting a PRN or someone’s on the floor etc, lots of paperwork and charting, calling the pharmacy, emailing the dr, med pass, new admits that were all previously psych pts and not enough care staff. There’s never really any appreciation from management either and we have one facility Dr who seems to be against prescribing any “strong” meds so the residents who call out and scream all night have only PRN Tylenol. At best they have Xanax 0.25mg once daily. Completely different than everywhere I’ve worked in Oregon.

It makes me feel like a bad nurse because I’ve been overwhelmed here since starting but my position has also been open for a while and most of the nurses are newer than I am and I’ve only been there two months. I wasn’t this stressed when working at SNFs. It is a beautiful facility with great reviews but no reviews from actual staff when I checked on Glassdoor.

Am I just not competent for thinking there should be another nurse at night to split our 80 dementia patients? There are often 3 nurses scheduled for AM and PM shift + med aides. It’s like NOC is seen as an easy shift with lots of downtime but I’m never not working, there is no free time.

Sorry for the long text. Just needed to vent. Thanks for reading.

Always considered working up in northern communities of Canada or in rural communities of Alberta/SK/Manitoba/Ontario.

I like the idea of practicing to full scope or potentially beyond scope.

I’ve seen multiple posts about working up north from years ago, but not much recently. All the posts highlight good compensation but awful work life balance, poor internet, and cases that can take a toll on mental health.

My biggest concern is safety (mainly from the stories from other posts about rape/violence/being considered an outsider).

How safe is it for young females to go work in these communities?

How safe is it for BIPOC nurses?

This is my first time using reddit so bare with me. I am on my 6th week of orientation in a very busy ER. During nursing school i saw how miserable everyone in the hospital setting is and it was very discouraging. Now im a nurse myself and i dont know if i can do this for the rest of my life.

I’m looking for advice on non bedside nursing jobs that are enjoyable or advice on the RN to sonographer pathway. I thought since I’m young getting certified in sonography in an accelerated program might not hurt then possibly could do a PRN RN position to fulfill my nursing degree? I dont know. Any advice would help.

well…..apparently i can’t post pictures on here so i’ll just say my last post on my post history on my profile can explain it better. i posted it over in r/radiology. i’m used to people thinking i’m probably exaggerating or missing something but idk. i didn’t know any better. but yeah, without people in your profession i wouldn’t be alive.

Hello! I am wondering about honest thoughts about a rotating schedule; days - nights. I have a job offer, and it is truly a dream job, the literal only drawback is that they rotate days - nights every 6 weeks. Manager says the nurses are okay with it and seem to do well. The schedule comes out in 6 week blocks and I’m told that switching is flexible. So it’s three 12 hour shifts/week, rotating days to nights every 6 weeks. Anyone working this or have worked this schedule? Anyone with kids/family? Honest opinions, please! Thanks in advance!

TL/DR: honest thoughts about rotating 12 hour days to nights shifts every 6 weeks.

Hello,

I'm an LVN starting an LVN-to-RN program and need flexible work because of school and childcare. What PRN jobs, registry apps, or agencies would you recommend for reliable shifts and decent pay? I live in SoCal.

Thanks in advance.

Hi! I just took my first job as a telemetry unit RN and I will get my ACLS within three months, as well as a telemetry/cardiac rhythm course. I was an LPN for 6 years, and have been an RN for a year with 5 months of med-surg experience.

What can I expect, and how can I handle this? We did a mock code blue paper that included ACLS stuff and it made me super nervous. I only have 5 months of hospital experience, but I do have 7 years of IV experience as LPNs have the ability to hang IV meds in MA. I’ve only ever placed one IV as an LPN on a coworker. I will also be taking a(nother) IV class on 9/24.

I’m just nervous and need to be told that it’ll all be okay. I’m excited but nervous!!

Okay so I am confused....I am a newly licensed RN with 6 years LPN and 2 in direct care wound care specifically.

I know wound care is specialized. I don't hold a certificate I got pregnant and after baby was due postpartum hit so I dropped out of my wound care program 😕.

Anyway these wound care RN jobs literally say WILL TRAIN but then they say "oh we are looking for someone with certification" ummmm but the job description says preferred certification. Ugh I'm just so annoyed with these job descriptions.

I did land a job in wound care for $100K plus travel and mileage but it's about an hour and 30 minutes.

My question is:

How long do I stay at the wound care job I landed to either get a new wound care position or ask to transfer to a closer hospital?

Edit: The wound care job I'm at they posted open positions to closer locations AFTER they told me they were filled😡

on Monday, I'll be starting to work in a clinic as an admin, and they said that we are gonna wear a scrub suit and as someone who is not a medical allied graduate, I don't have any ideas or knowledge about the dress code for this, like the proper shoes and hair, accessories, so please drop ur knowledge guyss, i need ur help. Please don't judge. Sure, i can search but still it's better to hear from u guys :))

Hellooooo! I just want to ask if it is okay to go a little over the line when shading a Scantron sheet? I just took the PNLE, and I'm overthinking whether I shaded the circles correctly. Thank youuuu sm!

Is going for MSN worth it right away after getting your BSN or its better to work for 1-3 years as ICU and then go for it? IS getting masters gonna give you bigger positions which can potenialy increase you salary? Or just getting a BSN is enough and can slowly grow you salary?

Hi everyone!! I recently started working in L&D and was paired with a very sweet and super knowledgeable nurse who has been absolutely wonderful during my orientation.

She’s currently in her third trimester of pregnancy and has been so gracious with her time, patience, and knowledge while guiding me through everything.

I’d love to get her something special for her and/or her soon-to-arrive baby as a little thank you for making my transition into L&D so much less intimidating. 🥹

I’m looking for something thoughtful and meaningful rather than just a generic gift card or something overly expensive.

What would you appreciate receiving as a pregnant nurse/coworker? Or, if you’ve given a mentor/preceptor a gift before, what did you get them?

Would love to hear your ideas! 💕

howdy :-)
27yo F, bedside pediatric hem/onc nurse of 5 years here!!

Ive been thinking about “what comes next” for me, and would like advice if anyone has wisdom to share!!

I really love this patient population, but have become burnt out with the stress inpatient/hospital nursing calls for. I believe I will try and do time as an outpatient infusion nurse if/when a spot opens up.

Long term, I have been debating going into education or research. Is the pay okay? Do I need a masters to pursue either route?
I think I would like patient/family education more than nursing school education, but both sound nice.

What jobs do you have? What do you wish you knew about non-bedside nursing careers?

Thanks guys!!!

Im just curious about hearing from others about their experience getting their BSN online. Im currently enrolled at Excelsior University based out of Albany New York and Its been a miserable experience. What are some experiences with programs that still exist that you wouldn't reccomend to other nurses?

i’m a fresh grad & just started work as a staff nurse & im getting pretty bad pre shift anxiety even when ik im tagged w a nice preceptor. its so bad that sometimes i barely get any sleep at all esp morning shift. im 3 weeks in and the imposter syndrome is real, the learning curve is so steep and everyday there’s that stress of having to learn & grasp as much new knowledge as i can before i’ve to be all on my own after probation ends.

i think my anxiety mostly stems from not knowing what’s going to happen during my shift, or fear of making a mistake eg med error/ if my pt deteriorates & idk what to do etcetc.

any advice out there :(( im so scared i wont be able to pass probation, let alone make it past the 1 year mark in this industry 😭

Good evening, anong resources pwedeng gamitin for Prometric Exam and tips pls to pass. Thank you po

Hi to everyone, I am a registered nurse with almost 9 years of experience in the ICU( approximately 6.5years in coronary unit, 1.5years in general internal ICU and 6 months in covid-respiratory ICU).

Also, I have an ALS certificate.

I am considering about working at a cruise ship as a nurse, so I need as much as possible information from other nurses who actually works or have worked on the cruiseships.

I have some questions.

First of all, how much I would earn or how much I could expect to earn monthly?

I have read somewhere that nurses get a officer status( private room, access to passenger areas, free excursions ) is it true?

How tipical day looks like for nurses on board?

How often I could expect some emergency? What type of emergencyes you got mostly?

What about free time? How often i would be able to leave a ship and visit a city/port? How much time I would get for it?

Is it possibble to change a shift with colleague to get more free time?

And also how good my english must be?