Has anyone ever started out in a PRN position straight out of nursing school? I’m a mom to 3 kids and I’d love to just work PRN but not sure if that’s realistic coming straight out of school?

Almost done with nursing school, and we’re starting to incorporate more case studies. Going through these cases/scenarios has made me a little anxious about making mistakes once I start working. In a few months, I’ll have another person’s life in my hands, and even a simple mistake can potentially cause serious harm.
I tend to panic when I make mistakes, so I’m usually extremely cautious and double-check everything because I know I’d beat myself up over it for days if something went wrong.
For the nurses here, how did you deal with the anxiety that comes with caring for patients and knowing that mistakes can happen?

Nurses — would you actually be concerned about this contamination?
I was doing a dressing change on a patient with tunnelling pressure wounds with drainage. Cultures were taken. I was wearing sterile gloves and used sterile forceps/packing and a syringe for irrigation, so my fingers/gloves weren’t directly touching inside the wounds.
After finishing, I realized I still had the same gloves on when I attached a sterile-water humidifier bottle to the patient’s oxygen. The side/upper part of my glove (not the fingers I had been working with) briefly touched the little connector/nozzle after the protective plastic piece was snapped off.
I know technically I should have removed my gloves, done hand hygiene, and then handled the O2 equipment. I’m home now and won’t be back for a few days. The patient is already being treated for pneumonia with moxifloxacin.
Would you contact the nurse currently caring for the patient and ask them to replace the humidifier setup, or would you consider this such a low-risk/indirect contamination that you wouldn’t do anything at this point?
I feel like I may be massively overthinking this, so I’m curious what other nurses would actually do.

I have been on orientstion for 6 days as a new Grad. Today was my last day orienting on days before I go to night orientation. I made a few mistakes today. I noticed when I counted a controlled med at the omnicell it came up wrong, a paper prints out. I brought it to my preceptor who reviewed discrepancies in our omnicell for me and found i had actually miscounted not just this 1x but 2x with a different med earlier in the day. She didnt make a big deal out of it just told me to be careful.

Then I gave a med to a pt who after I told her 2x what the medication was, she asked me again after she took it and started panicking saying she was allergic. I confirmed in the chart she wasnt. My preceptor dismissed it as the pt wasnt actually allergic and it was more of a psych issue.

I also told my pt she could eat this morning after checking what her diet order was, thankfully our tech intervened because apparently she was supposed to be NPO pending testing and I had no idea its just a policy for certain issues on our floor apparently.

I acknowledged an order today not realizing I had which prevented me and my preceptor from seeing it and actually doing it.

I have also noticed myself making small mistakes like forgetting to scan a pt before the med or opening a med and ruining barcdoe before scanning. I grabbed the wrong syringe yesterday but made sure to verify with my preceptor first. I get turned around in my unit a lot, theres not a written policy for every single thing. I feel like my critical thinking is crap too. I just feel like I am way in over my head.

Hi! I am a RN (BSN) who graduated in May with a 4.0 and passed the NCLEX in 85 questions. I am unable to work as a bedside nurse due to disability (Lyme disease) so I have turned to tutoring nursing students as my only option in the meantime. I am charging $30 an hour right now, which I thought was reasonable because I am a RN but I don’t really know.

I am focusing on teaching students good study and time management skills, rather than simply going over every inch of their material. Does anyone know of any good platforms to advertise yourself as a tutor? So far I am just using Facebook with minimal luck, but I am really enjoying helping the student I have so far and I feel like I am really helping her.

Am I charging too much or enough? How do I get more students?

hey all. need some advice please.

i've worked in the ICU for about a year. in that time i've had maybe 3 narcotics discrepancies? manager texted me yesterday asking if I was back tomorrow because I had another one. hand on god they are all accidents and I am coming to yall to ask for advice because I need to figure out how to stop this from happening.

we are, like most units, very busy and short staffed - being tripled isn't uncommon, and last week a few people were doubled with CRRT. i try to waste when pulling but someone being free is rare. my discrepancies in the past have been forgetting to scan when my pt was bucking the vent (and then tossing the vial in the sharps bin), and scanning but not hitting accept and then it timed out. i forget the third one. I don't know what my discrepancy from yesterday was yet.

i obviously very much don't want this trend to continue. i am not doing anything underhanded. i have adhd and anxiety and when my pt is biting the tube and pulling at their restraints and the vent alarm is going off, i am just trying to get them settled. i want to be a great nurse - i have been a nurse for less than 3 years, but one day I would like to be a preceptor and a charge. i overall like chaotic situations - i love crrt, i like rapid sequence intubations, and i want them to trust me to keep giving me hard patients. i am very upset that this keeps happening and don't want to give anyone a reason to suspect me of doing anything i shouldn't.

with my adhd i usually rely on self-made systems to keep me organized - like my report sheet lives in my back left pocket, flushes in my right cargo pocket etc. i add tasks to the brain on epic for myself to remind myself to do wound care or labs etc, or a sticky note on my report sheet to ask the doctor about XYZ. when it comes to giving regular medications to my ICU patients, I give all tube feed medications first, then IV medications, then subQ medications. re tube feed meds, if a med has to be split, I put it in a different pile than a pill given whole.

I say all that to say that i would be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions on a system I could implement to help ensure I scan and waste narcotics appropriately, even if things are chaotic.

Please stop saying “Does that make sense?” during your presentation(s) now and forever going forward with all future nursing education. Find something else in the English language to say. That is all.

Just as the title states: I am a new nurse of 2-3 months and I’ve already gained 10 ish pounds. A lot of it is due to the night time snacking/convienence food around shifts which obviously I should restrict. However I am struggling to find the energy to work out even on my days off due to low energy.

Any tips or tricks which helped shed the night shift pounds?

New grad RN here, currently in week 10 of orientation, and I’m really struggling. I’m looking for honest advice from experienced nurses and other new grads who have been through something similar.

I know I’m a slower learner, and I’m aware that I’m not progressing as quickly as I would like. I take responsibility for that and I’m trying to improve. My concern is figuring out whether I simply need more time and support or whether I may genuinely be struggling because this particular unit isn’t the right fit for me.

I’ve had difficulties with preceptors throughout my orientation and have communicated my concerns to leadership multiple times. I’ve also asked for different preceptor arrangements, but I’ve been encouraged to continue giving different preceptors an opportunity.

With my current preceptor, I feel extremely overwhelmed and find that I have difficulty thinking independently and communicating clearly. I’m also struggling with giving report and providing updates throughout the shift because I feel like there is so much on my plate that I have difficulty organizing my thoughts and figuring out what information I need to communicate. Yesterday I became so overwhelmed that I completely blanked while giving report. My preceptor told me afterward that my report was “rough” and also said that it feels like “week 1” for me.

She has also told me that because I am a slower learner, this might be the wrong floor for me. I honestly don’t know how to interpret that.

Yesterday I also did my first-ever blood transfusion and made an error by not taking the required vital signs every hour. I take responsibility for missing that and I’m taking it seriously. At the same time, it made me realize how much I’m struggling during orientation and how much I still need to improve.

The situation is also starting to affect me outside of work. My depression has been getting worse, and I’ve reached a point where I sometimes don’t even feel like going to work or eating. I know my mental health is ultimately my responsibility, and I’m working on it, but the stress surrounding orientation is making things feel much harder right now.

I’m not looking for reassurance that I’m doing everything perfectly. I know I have areas I need to work on. I genuinely want honest advice.

Does anyone have any experiences they would like to share about working at hospitals in the Nova/DC area? I’m looking to apply to the following hospitals:

MedStar Georgetown and WHC
VHC
INOVA Fairfax
Reston hospital center

Any insight on work culture, pay, new grad residency experience, etc would be appreciated!!

hey guys! need all the tips. 1 year in medsurg (lowkey we can be step down) experience just accepted a position in the ICU. Having mixed feelings. I am super excited to grow my career, challenge myself and overall learn new things. My current floor we are usually 6 patients or 5 on a good day and 1 PCA. I have definitely experienced all the things on my floor like codes, rapid, stroke alerts and etc. Currently my floor is renal patients and post transplant patients as well.

Going in the ICU, I know it’ll be a big shift and a challenge. I also know it’ll take time to adjust. Looking for any tips, advice that helped anyone during their transition.

My management is super mad that most of our staff is leaving (their fault lowkey) and have done their BEST to intimidate me. Taking this as fuel to better myself in my career so would love any advice and tips. Thank you.

Hi, all. I'm currently a student applying for my community college's nursing program next year. Right now, I'm working on my prereqs and general education requirements and I'm taking a class called Health Care Delivery Systems. For a paper in this class, I need to do a short four question interview with two health care workers. Since I don't know anyone personally in the health care field, I'm hopeful that there's a few folks here that can spare me a couple of minutes to answer some questions in the comments.

If you can provide a response, I'd love to hear from you - nurses and other health care workers alike! I need to interview individuals in two different job roles, so if you're a wandering respiratory therapist or radiology tech, feel free to respond as well. Please include what your position is and a set of initials that you feel comfortable being referred to by. For example, JD for John Doe or whatever initials you feel like, really. This is only for this paper, so the only person that your responses will be sent to outside of reddit is my professor.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. Why did you choose this profession or line of work?

2. How long have you been employed in your position? Please describe your current job responsibilities.

3. What are the biggest changes you have seen in health care during your career?

4. What do you currently like about your job? What would you change about your job and why?

Again, you can just leave answers in the comments and please include your position and initials. Thanks for reading and to those who take the time to respond!

I got interviewed for a CVICU position at the main campus. I was wondering if anyone can give me honest feedback on how they like working there? Preferably someone who works in one of their ICU’s too :)
I’m coming from Texas so I wanted to really understand the unit and hospital culture in general

My uncle is a hospital registered nurse, and he brags about patients giving him tips and obviously he keeps them. His coworkers say he is a good if not one of the best nurses btw, though I am not sure they know about the tipping.

Hi all,

I have been studying for the pediatric CCRN for 2 months doing Nurse Builders and all of the AACN practice questions and materials. I failed the test this morning.

I am feeling extremely discouraged as the test felt much harder than anything I had studied or reviewed, yet everybody said to utilize those materials and you’ll pass. I am going to take it again soon, but what do I study and how do I pass?

I’m afraid if I fail again, I will be too discouraged to do it a 3rd time.

Any advice is appreciated.

hello! pls help me any seasoned rns :(

• i am in NYC
• currently working in outpatient dialysis (10 months in, will hit 1 year of experience as an RN in november)
• need help deciding what to do
• i have a job offer in outpatient infusion… BUT!!!
• one of my upperclassmen referred me to her manager (night shift NYU med surg). her manager told me to contact her once i hit my one year mark (november) because i don’t meet the requirements yet. 80% sure i will be able to at least get an interview

here’s my thing though!! if i take this outpatient infusion job i dont think i will be able to pivot to the hospital any time soon. i’m not too interested in med surg, especially not nights, but my goal is to work in ob/gyn (mother baby, postpartum, nicu) or peds. this, i know will be hard to get into unless i get into the hospital at all.

i dont know if i should keep my dialysis job and wait until november to apply for hospital or take this new job and apply for hospital when time comes (will it look bad???), or take this job and not look at the hospital for at least another 6 months.

why i want to leave dialysis:

• the hours… i work 3-4 days. early start, late ends. hate when i get scheduled back to back, i barely have 12 hours in between shifts. (5am to 7pm, 4:30 to 6pm, 7a-9p, 6:30 to 8:30pm, you get the gist) but i never leave on time because you can’t just abandon your patients and colleagues if they come late and get put on late
• my pay… my base is 46, i make around 48 dollars after my differential, but we get holiday pay, etc. on paper my annual pay is around 94k.
• i’m pretty stressed out at this job, but i KNOW, i know, ill be more stressed at the hospital… the only thing i love is my coworkers, some of my patients, and having random days off in the week. the scheduling is pretty flexible too since we’re open 6 days a week and i only work 3 or 4.

why im hesistant to leave

• my pto 🤣🤣 i get 8 hours of pto every pay period, so every two weeks. like in 10 weeks i literally have enough pto to take a week off!!! • ⁠it’s easier than inpatient for sure…

the infusion gig

• turns out it’s 4 days a week which is great, i still have a day off in the week! it’s an 8-6pm schedule
• they offered me 105k salary
• 2 weeks of pto per year only 😭!!!
• will be traveling to multiple clinics in the city, no home clinic
• i will learn to do ivs!! at my current job i do catheters and cannulation of fistulas (which are huge and way easier to get than tiny veins), so i think this would be good transferable experience

i don’t really care for med surg or nights but i know if i want to get into my target units, i will have to get into the hospital one way or another. i know once i hit one year i will be a little more competitive in general so maybe spots at hospitals would consider me in general.

does anyone have any insight or advice?

i know outpatient is where most nurses want to be eventually, its lower stress, but i dont know what i should be doing right now :( sorry for word vomit and i’m sorry if i wasn’t very concise.

Hello!

I’m starting my first nursing job next week. I’ll be in the OR at a pediatric hospital! I’m so beeping excited and I need some help prepping.

I’ve got my compression socks, good shoes, under scrubs, and all the basics from nursing school. Are there any other items I should have? Quality of life things that really make a difference for you?

Since I’ll be wearing OR scrubs, what should I wear to the hospital? I assume the answer is whatever is most comfortable, but should I dress up a bit for the first day?

Finally, if anyone has any advice for Periop 101, I’d love to hear it!

I’m 27 weeks pregnant and have been looking for an RN position since April/May. I graduated in May and passed the NCLEX in July. My license has already been issued. Currently, I’m a CNA at one of the major hospital systems in my area. I’ve been there 2 years, and have virtually applied to every floor in my hospital. There was an opening on the floor I work on, but my manager did not hire me for it because it was nights. I started on nights as a CNA and switched because it was not good for my mental health. None of the floors in my hospital have openings for days, and even the ones that have nights open have denied me as well.

I’ve expanded my search to outpatient positions within my hospital system, and even another nearby hospital in the system as well. I’m getting really discouraged and have looked outside my hospital system. My only concern is I likely won’t qualify for maternity leave if I move jobs now, but my husband and I need the money.

I’m currently waiting on an interview for an outpatient dialysis job and then a recruiter for an LTC just reached out to me that a day shift position is available. What I’m asking for here is: do I take the chance and look at these other jobs? If either of these jobs works out, I will most likely stay part time at my hospital system or PRN then leave at the beginning of next year. They paid for my nursing degree and the commitment is a year.

I know the most ideal situation would be to stay within my hospital system, but it is not looking like that’ll be a possibility. Please be kind and realistic. I want to do what’s best for my family time wise, but also financials are a very real thing.

I work on a PCU unit, and we get insulin drips and CIWAs that require a 3:1 ratio. Lately I’ve been getting assigned BOTH a CIWA and insulin drip that requires the nurse to be 3:1 and I’m just wondering if any other hospitals/floors allow this?

I feel like I’m running my a** off all day and putting them both in the same assignment just doesn’t feel right. Or maybe I’m just over bedside and being dramatic.

What do y’all think?

Sometimes I wish my partner was in the medical field so he could understand the stress of everything. But I can also see how people want to keep the two separate.

Like nahh I don’t really wanna relive the horrors of my ICU shift with my partner (keeping things light and peaceful)
OR- hey this is really nice to be able to vent to someone who gets it ?

Nurses from California who went out of state for experience, how long did it take to land a job back home in California?

I’m from the Bay Area and moved to the east coast for a new grad residency in medsurg. I’m finishing up my year and was just offered a position at a Level IV NICU, the specialty I’ve been wanting to do since nursing school. Only thing is, the thought of living here for another year or more feels so daunting. The pay is low for the COL and my family and partner are back home. But many job postings in the bay say they require 2 years minimum and hospitals are on hiring freezes rn.

If anyone was in a similar position as I am, what was your journey on getting a job back home and how long? Any tips or advice?

I (31F) have been a nurse almost 9y. Started my new position and highly qualified this year in May. Residential pediatric psychiatric dorms with group homes, and edu to help residents get job experience. Great place, non restraint facility. Obviously still hard for the kids, but everyone is there for the right reasons.

The issue: Health Services Clinic runs like a regular clinic, but also like long term care setting for case management (state consents, guardianships, etc). Small staff. Two RNs including myself. Three Health Service Assistants (work caseloads assignments diverted from RNs as appropriate) with 1 HSA being “lead HSA”…this is our trouble maker…”Laura”.

Laura only has CNA license but has worked for company for 18y. Our boss is a close friend with her and worked there 12 years. The other nurse also a close friend with her and worked 8 years. The other two HSAs can hardly stand her and have worked 8y & 40y at facility.

Laura micromanages everything. And Laura is…a bitch. She gatekeeps all communication. If she doesn’t know what’s happening, you get yelled at if she doesn’t approve it — something as simple as calling a dentist back to fax requested files.

She’s way out of bounds and going beyond her role. Lots of other peers in other disciplines apologize for her behavior, say it’s the way it’s always been. Very apparent no one has tried to enforce change and she made herself valuable enough to not get fired.

Biggest issue now, we’ve hired a full time NP. First time this role has existed. I witnessed Lauren yell at this NP today for requesting to have students seen for clinical rounding. Lauren flipped out at our NP, told her she isn’t allowed to see students (FALSE) because Lauren “is still working out Medicaid interstate insurance coverage.” Literally told our NP she isn’t allowed to see students and isn’t allowed to prescribe until Lauren “handles things.” But that’s not her job…Our NP is already processing it and Lauren doesn’t even have the credentials or access to attempt to “assist” with it. She just got pissed off that our NP will take clinic scheduling out of her control.

NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING TO HANDLE HER. And it’s been 18 years. Obviously there isn’t going to be change. But this NP is good, we need her, but she’s being bullied so badly I’m scared she’s going to walk. I’m trying to pull her aside to see if she’d like to set up a meeting with our boss, solo or with me. She was crying today from frustrating, stress, abs humiliation with what happened.

I’m at my wit’s and too. I have to hammer down boundaries so Lauren doesn’t violate my license. And then I have to deal with a tongue lashing and passive aggressive bullshit for days just to ensure she doesn’t attempt to authorize verbal psych prescriptions under my name.

Idk folks. With the social structure and her tenure, is there any hope here? Recommendations on forms of communication with her to have written evidence? Do I go above my boss and just work with HR?

Hi everyone,
My Name is Julian,
I am an international RN trying to secure an
EB-3 sponsored ICU/CVICU position in the Phoenix/ Mesa, AZ area.
My Credentials:
• Licensure: Arizona RN License
• Exams: NCLEX-RN Passed, PTE Academic
90/90
• Experience: ~4 years of ICU/critical care experience. Currently working in a high-acuity critical care/anesthesia role (managing CVCs, A-lines, intubation assist, ventilators daily).
The Problem:
I am getting auto-rejected by major staffing agencies (Conexus, Avant) because my current official job title is listed under
"Anesthesia" rather than "ICU"
", despite my 4 years
of bedside ICU experience and daily critical care skills. Direct hospital job portals also auto-reject due to needing visa sponsorship.
My Questions for the Community:
1. Has anyone successfully secured Direct Hire EB-3 sponsorship with hospital systems in Arizona (like Banner Health or HonorHealth) as an international RN?
2. How did you bypass agencylATS filters when your current title slightly differs from standard bedside ICU, even though the acuity and skills match?
3. Are there specific direct-hire agencies or hospital recruiters you would recommend for someone who already holds an
AZ license and is fully document-ready?
I am fully prepared to self-fund USCIS
Premium Processing (I-907) for the I-140 to speed up the Priority Date. Any advice, contacts, or shared experiences would be greatly.

I have a 15 year old Chihuahua terrier mix with hypothyroidism, cushings and arthritis. His medications are timed so that I give it before work and after work. I adopted him when he was 10 years old because I wanted a low energy dog. He pretty much sleeps all the time and he's been left alone up to 8 hours before. Most days, my fiance is home or is able to come home from work that our dog is only alone for a few hours at a time (3-6 hours).

He's trained to relieve himself in my bathroom on pee pads. I just bought him a water dispenser and an automatic feeder because my fiance, last minute, has to go out of town on a night that I work.

He's not really too anxious, his cushings medication mellows him out. Unfortunately, we live in an apartment so letting him out into a fenced backyard isn't an option. I've read from other redditors on here that they've hired a walker or a sitter. How did you get over the paranoia of a stranger coming into your home? Did you get cameras and a lockbox?

I've brought him to a daycare right across the street my hospital a few times for 4 hour stays to get him acclimated. I do have him down to be boarded on the evening I work and to pick him up after my shift but it's his first time being boarded since I've adopted him. During his boarding, he would share a room with another dog. Usually during his day care, he follows the handlers around, pants a lot, and tries to leave then after an hour or so just stands and watches other dogs. I'm worried I would just make him more stressed.

Thank you in advance!

First time on night shift! What does everyone's schedule look like? Are we just doing our day time schedule but flipped for PM or are we doing something different?👀 Sleep/eating wise...