downtime at work...i wish i had that..

Downtime means someone isn't actively dying and I am monitoring them, not that I can put my feet up and watch Netflix.

oh i get that....just envious that people have what they call down time..

I'm headed to clinicals in about 20 minutes. See you there OP!

Will you get buddy pay?  I think our hospital gives $0.50 an hour when you are precepting or orienting a new person.

Good luck maybe they won't be a know it all.  Nothing like trying to show someone the ropes when they think they can do it better than you or anyone else in the whole hospital.

Nope.

No buddy pay here, either.

As a guy that just got out of 4 different hospitals all I can say is that most nurses are overworked, overwhelmed and
vastly underappreciated.  I had a comminuted fracture of my left scapula (shattered it like a dinner plate ) and after
ER treatment at 2 hospitals finally had reconstructive surgery at Mt. Sinai in NYC.  Post surgical nurses there were a
Godsend.  Was able to speak directly with the Nurse Managers regarding my care and they adequately controlled my
pain (for the most part...)

2 month later I was getting my annual physical from my GP. EKG leads said I was in A-fib - so off to another hospital
for 5 Damn days.  Dr's and Nurses were uncaring, pissy, and generally seemed incompetent.  The hospital had just
switched to a "scanning machine" for every damn thing they did to you from phlebotomy to feeding you.  The machine didnt
work most times as it was "out of range" or couldnt read my wrist barcode.  Nurses at this hospital were horrible.  I was
stuck 17 times in one day for blood.  When the 2nd and 3rd techs came in they said Mary stuck you once and couldnt find
a vein so they called me.  No... Mary wailed on me 4 times each elbow and the backs of my hands.  Occluded IV's took
hours to flush or rectify......  A terrible experience - especially as I was recently in other hospitals where the nurses were given
an environment to excel - which they did.

If you are a good nurse, share the compassion trait that made you want to do this and instill it in new people.  The fact that a nurse
came in my room one night when my shoulder was destroyed and I was feeling sorry for myself, and just spent time with me and
consoled me, and "empathasized" my condition meant the world to me.   Nurses by nature are compassionate people, they have to be.
My sister is a nurse manager and runs the palliative care dept at a hospital and is the most caring person I know.  Please dont be bitter
"they" assigned you a new student.  TEACH that person what it really means to be a nurse.  You just dont clean vents, and give meds.
You are the frontline people that interact with individuals that for the most part are hurt, injured and scared.

Sorry for the rant, but I've recently been through a really rough deal and have seen the best nursing has to offer....and the worst..

You can fill in down time by filling her

I feel your pain.  

The upside to me getting students (usually just for one shift, thank god) is that, working on the Rapid Response team of a large hospital, I often get to shove the into their first dose of performing CPR while we get the LUCAS ready.

so they want you to train someone, and you don't get paid? Fuck that, pay me an extra 2-3 $ per hour and I'll field train, no money..no training

For all I know, the hospital gets paid by the nursing school.  Wouldn't surprise me.  

ICU nurse with a lot of down time? You're  doing it wrong .


I bet your patients IVs, tubing, monitors, etc looks like a plate of medical grade spaghetti.



Edit. Damn you autocorrect

LOL... I swear, male nurses are at least 60% of the bitching and moaning in a hospital

Stop playing with yourself in the downtime and engage in some meaningful conversation.

I couldn't do this, I'm an asshole nurse.

You have down time as an Icu rn? Tell me your secrets.




 

I had terrible preceptors as a nursing student.

I made it a point to never be one of those assholes that hated their job and took it out on the younger generation.

As such, the nursing school attached to the hospital would give me students in their ICU rotation because of the education and guidance I offered them.

Most of the RN's that I have precepted and continue to work with thank me for helping them in the overwhelming environment of the ICU.

I don't particularly like having to talk all day to someone, but if I can help someone in their education, I will do my best.

Just do her...I mean it

I'd be irritated that you are not being given the option.   That's gay.

Other than that, well...All depends on the personality and aptitude of the student.  I've had great ones, and I've had ones I wouldn't trust with a bandaid, even after two semesters of trying to teach them...

I absolutely love having students/precepting new RNs! Not only that, but I love showing the unit around to RNs from some of the other units (MICU/SICU/NICU/CCU) especially when we have the train wreck VAD/BiVAD/Septic/ECMO/Open/Impella/Baloon Pump/Tandem/CVVH/Maxed out on Rocketfuel/Rotoproned pts. For some reason they are all horrified of us CTICU (Cardiac/Transplant) nurses , we're like the fucking Boogie man haha. Just tonight I picked up OT in the Neuro ICU and I talked to a few new faces and said where my home unit was and they gave me a scared/mortified look and Im like "Guys, it really isn't that bad!". All though having a student/precepting a new RN always makes my day more difficult, it is totally worth it since I enjoy teaching so much.

There is just so much content in the ICU setting to talk about and teach that there is rarely a time when Im not talking about disease processes, conditions, meds, pathophysiology, surgical interventions, pharmalogical interventions, and rationales as to why different services do the things the way they they do it. But usually towards the end of my time with student/new RN when there is absolutely nothing to do, I walk them through some of the more difficult codes that I have been in and ask them to make judgment calls and what they would do in said situation and give the rationales as to why those were good or bad calls. Just throwing ideas out there!

Dude, your getting free labor and a second set of eyes, look at it as a good thing.  

   

-Cardiac/Transplant ICU RN

Fixing to start a mentoring program at work.
Funny, no one has volunteered.
I knew I was over it when I hated to see the nursing students coming.

I assume you share you're spelling knowledge.

Everyone is a special snowflake.  

No

Fucking rotoprone.  I've never had a patient in one of those who lived.  Sure, the bed didn't kill them but still.

Doubtful.

The hospital probably gets to claim to be a 'teaching institution' which gets them extra points in their quest for excellence.....so they'll then add 3 more administrators to cover the paperwork load, a department head to supervise them...then realize that because that puts them over budget, so they'll let 2 LPNs with 50 years of combined experience go, get rid of the one maintenance man that really knows how to fix stuff (since he's been there 20+ years), and buy 'utility' grade beef (instead of the 'Standard' grade...just below Select they had been buying..., buy 'bruised and damaged' vegetables from the wholesaler...and put everyone on a soft mechanical diet or pureed diet to cover it up....then pat themselves on the back for 'saving money' and give the administrators a nice bonus (that calculates out to 5x the actual savings...) because of it....

All because YOU HAD TO TAKE A STUDENT NURSE!

Well maybe if you got off your ass you would have.

Ha!

The problem we have is that the doctors here try to ignore ARDS until it's too late, then toss them in a rotoprone to die.

Just fucking with ya.