OR 4

I’ve been shadowing in the pre and post op unit for the last week. I am still a radiology nurse but I’m up here learning a few things. In MRI we give some of our patients propofol to sedate them so they can tolerate the scan and then we recover them afterwards. My department has me floating in PACU to evaluate how PACU recovers patients to see if there are things we need to bring back to our department. I’ve been enjoying myself so far. Today I am following the sedation nurse. We are in OR 4.

OR 4 is where they are doing all the abortions today.

I wasn’t prepared.

I have no children and have never been pregnant. I have no desire to have kids. Honestly I’m not fond of them. I am pro-choice. I consider myself pretty liberal. I don’t judge women who choose to have an abortion.

I was still not prepared.

I’ve read about abortion. I know people that have had them. However, I have never actually seen an abortion and after today I don’t need to see anymore.

It’s emotional.

One was because of fetal deformity. Most were not. The reason didn’t matter. You could see the anguish in some of the faces of the patients. Some were stone faced and I couldn’t really tell how they were feeling. A 16 year old seemed not to really have a full grasp of what was really happening. One lady cried and expressed her feelings of guilt the whole procedure.

It’s was a lot to deal with.

The procedure itself was different than I expected. Mentally I has to steady my nerves to watch how the fetus was removed. Typically I stayed at the head of the table with the patient for their comfort… And my own. I tried to focus on the patient and not the procedure so I could keep my emotions out of it.

This is definitely something I could not do on a regular basis, if I could ever do it at all. This experience is something I definitely won’t forget.

I still remain pro-choice even after today. Now I understand what women go through not just physically but emotionally when having to make this choice. It’s so much deeper than what I understood.

The complainer

Don’t be the complainer.

You know the one, nothing ever goes right for this nurse. They are the ones that come in and start complaining before they even clock in. They always have the worst assignment. They always have the worst shift. Everything is always wrong.

Two total care patients that only really need repositioning? “OH MY GOD WHY DO I HAVE TWO TOTAL CARE PATIENTS????”

Four walkie talkie patients that are self care? “GREAT THEY ARE GOING TO DISCHARGE SOMEONE AND I’M GOING TO GET AN ADMISSION!”

Float to an easy unit with cool ass staff? “WHY IS IT MY TURN TO FLOAT???”

Go home.

Why are you even here? Why are you even a nurse? What did you expect from the health care field? No, our jobs are not a roses and sunflower fields every shift. Sometimes our jobs suck, horribly. Honestly though, if every shift is your worst shift ever and it’s like that no matter where you work… I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it’s not the job, it’s you.

I mean, you’re the common denominator here. It’s time for you to face the facts: you’re miserable at your job because you’re just miserable as a person. Maybe you should work on that…

Preceptor behavior (how not to be an asshole)

I have been the orientee and I have even done a little precepting. I lucked out so far and had wonderful preceptors (except for one but anyway…) but I have seen some TERRIBLE preceptors.

One thing that I noticed from a few of the preceptors that I would definitely label as “assholes”, is that they take pride in being intimidating to their orientee. I have witnessed this behavior and have had other nurse confide in me about their preceptors after they were out of orientation. Some of the things I heard were appalling.

It is NEVER okay to make your orientee feel “dumb” or “stupid”. You were a new nurse at one time and you didn’t know everything when you started, you had to be taught as well. You know what else is not okay? It’s not okay to just leave your orientee to fend for themselves. You are not on vacation, you are responsible for teaching this new employee the ways of your unit. Get up and check on them, make sure that they are actually alright. STOP USING THE AMBUSH TECHNIQUE!!! For those of you that don’t know what the ambush technique is, let me fill you in on this bs. Basically what happens is the preceptor ambushes the orientee when they aren’t prepared for it and starts hammering them with questions of “things they should already know” in the eyes of the preceptor. Do I know the normal range for a CVP? Yes, I do. Do I know the normal range for a CVP when you show up out of nowhere, while I am catching up on charting on a patient that I just had to start on norepinephrine and give two units of blood? No, absolutely f*****g not! This does not mean I am less intelligent than you, it means I was focused on my charting and not expecting a nursing ambush! The ambush technique neither proves nor disproves someone knowledge, it just makes you look like a douche. While we are at it, stop making your orientee feel like they are bothering you when they ask you questions. They don’t know. You do. Spread the wealth of knowledge. Learn how to give constructive criticism and praise. A lot of preceptors seem to miss that last part. Your orientee is already paranoid and trying to be a close to perfect as possible. Let them know you notice the good things they do along with the things they may need to work on. Your orientee will be much more receptive of your criticism, trust me.

Look, i’m not asking for a lot. I am simply asking you to remember what it was like when you were orienting. Remember how stressed you felt. Remember how confused you were. Remember how intimidating it was. Remember that you aren’t perfect.

n00b

So you’re the newest person on the unit. You may not be new to nursing but you are new to this place. Don’t let that freak you out.

As the newbie I was always really quiet and reserved. What I didn’t realize was how off-putting that was to others. It never failed, once I got to know my coworkers they would all say the same thing “I thought you were so mean when I first met you!” For the longest time I didn’t understand why that seemed to be the case. You know me though, if I don’t know then I’m going to ask. That is when I found out that I sort of appeared unapproachable because of how I tended to distance myself from my new coworkers. I changed that once I started the new position I am currently in. This time I made a conscious effort to get to know my coworkers.

Here are a few steps to transition into your new work environment:

• Introduce yourself to your new coworkers. If you know of a good ice breaker then use it (having the name Shaunelle but being called Fred is one hell of an ice breaker, everyone loves the story of how I got my nickname.)
• If you are an experienced nurse understand this: your experience is much appreciated but you are the new nurse on the unit. Don’t walk around like you already know everything there is to know. You may know cardiac ICU but you don’t know how they run their cardiac ICU. Have a little humility (ran into this with a new coworker, she didn’t last long).
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It is safer to ask than to assume you know what you are doing and then do it wrong. Your new coworkers will remember that screw up, trust me.
• If you are a super proactive person, join one of the committees. You are bound to meet your coworkers that way.
• Become familiar with your physicians and introduce yourself to them. Let them know you are new to the unit, I mean you will be working with them too.
• Know that not everyone is going to warm up to you immediately and that’s okay. They may still be “feeling you out” so to speak. That is not your problem, that is theirs. They’ll either come around or they won’t. It’s not the end of your world. However, DO NOT allow bullying behavior towards you. You may be the newbie but you deserve respect and if they want it from you then they should earn it. Forget that “nurses eat their young crap”!

Those first few weeks, hell even first few months, are a weird time. You’re trying to adjust to a whole new setting. Things may feel off and that is normal. You may feel a little out of place at first, and that’s normal too. Give yourself time to get acclimated to your new surroundings, you are going to do great!