I absolutely love working in the peds surgical/ortho floor.

Night shift is awesome, not always, but most of the times we have an LPN that help us RN's pass out meds.

I LOVE LPNS!! and miss them when they are not around!

I go in, get bedside report, check my charts, do my assessments, organize my meds (if i don't have an LPN), and then chill out.

Pediatrics is awesome. I love the kids there, it's really cool to talk to the teens, and to the two year olds that say "no" to everything.... and the parents are not that bad to deal with. we just have to keep them informed at everything that is going on with the plan of care.

THe computerized charting is awesome, I click and click and I am done!
everything that I need is there..... if just the doctor's notes were there that would be the cherry on top of the cake.

night shift is not bad at all. The night actually goes by fast.

I have two preceptors, one for 3 weeks which I finished last week, and the new one that I started with this week.

I liked the first one because she was extremely helpful and patient with me. The other one tells me "why are you writing patient received? where are you receiving the patient?"....... so I am learning to write my note in a whole different way from what I was doing in the past 3 weeks. I can't wait untill the two weeks are over with that woman. I still have a lot to learn, and she talks a lot and it is pointless talking. I like being straight to the point..... and she just goes on and on. Also, i wrote in my assessment on one of my patients that the output was blood tinged, and she said to me "it was not blood tinged, you didnt see it? it was brown, even the day nurse showed us" and I said "well I saw it reddish" and it was like that back and forth untill finally I said to the woman "ok, lets go together to the room to see the drainage from the NGT" and then we went in together, she looked at it and finally she said "it is red, we have to call the doctor".... little things like that **** me off. She doesn't help me out at all, she is behind me like a shadow. I asked her to give a med for me so I can go and do pin care on another nurse's patient so I can have my skills checked off... and of course 30 mins after I finish that... she said "oh here are your meds for the pt"........ and it was report time. I could have killed the woman. Now, I am just gonna have to learn to manage my time better when I am with her. Now that I know the way that she is.

but besides that....

I have been there a month now, and I am really liking it. I am learning a lot. I am following the hospital protocols, asking if I don't know or unsure of things.

I thank God for giving me the chance of getting that position. I couldn't be happier for myself.

Studying day and night for that NCLEX was worth every minute.

People get surprised that I read that blue book that kaplan comes with... and it is a very thick book.. but hey, I passed. it worked for me, and everything is awesome

So my second week of working went great!  I think I got the hang of managing 2 patients so next week I was told I would be taking more! yikes! But I think that I would be able to handle it.

Anyways, so I get a new admission... a 6 year old girl, and I am explaining to the mom, the plan of care, and what the doctor said and ordered....

and without thinking at all about it I say "and they will do blood tests in the morning"  That was the biggest mistake I could have made!!!!!! The little girl started crying! and stating "are they going to pinch me and take my blood?!" all while crying. OMG.   I should have thought about it before I said anything or I could have said, "they will do tests in the am" instead of what I said . Poor little girl was thinking about that all night, so when change of shift came and I gave report to the oncoming nurse, the little girl kept asking me if they were going to take her blood.... and I couldn't tell her "no" so I told her. "not yet"

lol, that is never going to happen to me again.

Another funny story, the IV tubing was really hard, so I took it out of the machine, took the little top off........ and mind you, I was warned the day before not to take the little top of, or else the fluids would squirt everywhere....  and I took the little top off and the fluids squirted everywhere, so I quickly got my medication and put it in, and thank God it stopped and everything was fine (I didn't tell my preceptor about it!....... everything was fine)

on another note,

Smallville was so awesome! I just watched thursday's episode last night.

I'm totally new to being an RN... and finally I have completed my first week ever ever as an RN.

I love working nights, it is definitely not as crazy as dayshift. In dayshift, you have tons of doctors doing rounds, nursing students, managers & directors, JAACHO....... need I mention more?

Night is so laid back, get your orders and scheduled meds from the day. The only thing that i didnt like was the admissions. I got one admission at 6:30am and I had to do all the "paper" work, and it's a lot to fill out. We do computer charting so it makes it a little bit faster.

I think that I made a great choice by working there. Oh yeah, my first paycheck was sweet! it was a little more than double than what I made as a nursing assistant.

Today was just a most boring day. work sucks! computer stuff that I already knew from working at the hospital.

I have a cousin who is in a very delicate state in the trauma center. He works in construction/maintenance. And this past monday a coconut tree fell on him.

I feel horrible because he is so nice. I hope that he recovers and gets back to his old normal self. He is a total vegetative state right now, he only barely moves his eyeballs. His arms, ribs, clavicle, legs are broken.

Unfortunately it is difficult to see him right now, because of this hospital orientation I have,