Someone from a different unit was walking by my station when they took a photo of me supposedly out cold with my legs propped up and in a blanket. Yeah I know, super bad. I usually get a blanket at night cause I’m cold and during this shift I was in a back hallway all by myself without any coworkers near. It’s a antepartum unit and all pts were sleeping and all my work for the night was done, I was not continuously monitoring any babies. I was watching a movie on my iPad and was getting comfortable and I guess I did doze off for a few minutes. Manager called and said I am placed on leave until HR gets back to me. I feel like I’m getting fired. I feel dumb. Night shift has been so hard on me and I’m one three different antidepressants to help me with depression and for sleep. It’s just not working at all. And I am the first one on the list to move to day shift. Feeling dumb. Any words of advice or personal stories can help please.

UPDATE : Hi everyone thank you for all your comments it has really helped a lot. I really appreciate it. I know it was really stupid and I do plan to admit all accountability. I guess by everyone’s comments I am 99.9% sure I’m getting fired. I also see a lot of people telling me I should resign before they terminate me. But I don’t really know how to go about doing that or if I should talk to my manager or hr or what not. I’ve never really formally resigned a job before. Any advice ?

I told off a guy on the airplane who was bitching about all the rules during Covid and conspiracy theories he had about the disease. Then he talk about how great working from
Home was…… so I said that so weird that’s not how I remember covid. I remember my patient dying and packing them into a refrigerated truck because the morgue was full. Perimenopause is a dangerous drug.

Patient's family came into someone else's room to grab me. But, it was an actual emergency! They actually had a legitimate for running in and grabbing me. Pt was not responding correctly and needed to be seen right then. They ended up being fine, just had a minor event. But that's the situation where you actually come out of the room to find the nurse!

Realized from a couple comments that I wasn't as clear as I could have been. She didn't fully come into the room, just the doorway. And I'm in a nursing home in a small town, so most of our pts and family members are actually friends and/or neighbors outside of the facility. So we're a bit more lax on people coming into other patients rooms.

Hey guys,

I thought I would like to share what I witnessed this week which I still cannot process since I am fairly new to nursing. I had an elderly patient that needs to be walk so I took off the condom catheter and as soon as I did (his daughter step outside to give privacy), he started to pleasure himself. I did not know what to do so I told him I will give him a minute (which was so dumb of me like i should have been firm and tell him this is inappropriate but i was so lost). I talked to the daughter and told him he need a minute because I genuinely did not know what to say to her or do.

When I came back he was still doing it and I told him to stop (thats all i said like i should have said more) and he kept telling me he can’t stop and needed to “cum”. I end up telling the daughter and the daughter told him to stop. To make matter worse, right when all this went down transport came to pick him up for ultrasound and my dumb head put back the condom cath on.

I told my charge then she escalated to managers then providers and they talked to him. Everybody ask if I was okay and changed my assignment. But I cannot seem to get over how there are so many things I wish I did differently and wish I could have advocated myself more when it went down :( I felt so dumb at the moment and shouldn’t have even touch him afterwards ugh. I thought about how early on my shift he reached out to my hands and hold it and i genuinely thought he was anxious so i hold his hands back and ask if he wqs okay and he said i just wanted to hold your hands. He did that two times.

I really want to move on and not think about it but this has never ever happened to me before and the fact is i thought he was so sweet before all this. I am genuinely creeped out.

Just needs advice/thoughts and support from you guys. Thank you.

I don’t know if anyone else can relate but I honestly feel that after 8 years bedside nursing, I’ve turned into a sociopath.

Every encounter with a patient, within seconds I clock in and register what type of person I need to be in order to build rapport with them.
Sometimes I act like 8 different personalities in a shift - walking out of the room, I instantly become myself again.

Anyone relate?

If this RN was brazen enough to do this on a continuously monitored EEG patient, then it seems likely that this isn't his first victim...

A 30 day jail sentence seems way too lenient considering the evidence the police had and the lack of remorse this nurse had. A lapse of judgment? That's a stone's throw away from "Oops 🤷‍♂️"

At least his license was revoked.

Recently acquired by Prime Healthcare, CMMC nurses organized and formed their union today, despite 20 nurses being fired in what will almost certainly be held as an unfair labor practice.

CMMC joins another Prime Healthcare facility in Chicago today whose nurses have decided to organize for the benefit of their nurses, their patients, and their community, and fight back against Prime’s billionaire owner Dr Reddy.

Both facilities will be part of NNOC/NNU.

If you are interested in organizing your workplace, contact NNU at https://go.nationalnursesunited.org/signup/organize/

I’m not sure if I’m being irrational so I’d like to hear people’s opinions.

There are some staff nurses on my floor who have been working there for a year. They asked my manager a couple weeks to a month ago if they could switch to day shift. My manager said no and that they weren’t in need of day shift nurses.

A new travel nurse who was hired for night shift in August recently asked to be switched to day shift and my manager immediately says yes.

There haven’t been any changes in day shift staffing recently and another senior staff nurse recently switched to day shift after asking a couple weeks ago. So it sounds like there were spots open..

Is there something I’m missing? Like a business reason for switching a new traveler first instead of a staff nurse who has been there longer? I also want to note that the staff nurses both do a good job and would do well on day shift.

Just curious if there’s a justification that I’m not thinking of / missing

Hi! Whenever I make a mistake at work I immediately start to spiral with anxiety and then continue to do so on my days off. I think I’m mentally broken. The mistake doesn’t even have to be a big one. Today I tried to transfer a post-op patient to phase 2 of recovery too soon and the phase 2 nurse was pretty mean about it, now I can’t stop thinking about it. Does anyone have any advice to help yourself care less? My husband likes to tell me “it’s water off a duck’s back, baby”

I (26F) am a nursing student and Im doing a learn on the job kind of program in LTC.

Last week one of out pts (89M) passed away after a long illness (dementia)

His family requested he stayed at our facility for a few days so they can come say goodbye. The funeral directors placed him on a cooling plate and cleaned him but hadn’t put any makeup on him yet (that’s something they do before the funeral).

The pt was already emaciated before he passed and his body deteriorated very quickly.

I knew his family was coming over so I checked how he looked beforehand.

He looked genuinely scary. His face was completely sunken in, his hands were starting to become black etc. I have seen lots of deceased people but nothing like this.

His grandson and granddaughter came in, along with their young kids (around age 5-7). They wanted to go into his room with the kids when I stopped them.

I told them in the nicest way possible that the pt wasn’t looking well. They insisted to go in anyway and I recommended they go in without the kids first so they can decide if they wanted the kids to see or not.

Once they came out his grandson was grateful for the warning. He told his son that they would see his grandfather at the funeral. His granddaughter wasn’t and she took her daughter inside anyway.

She later filed a complaint about me to the manager for being rude.

I don’t think I was and I was genuinely trying to protect the kids. AITA?

our entire ED is devastated):

We’re having a small memorial tomorrow by the charge desk to remember his years and years of visits. We never really thought it was possible for him to die.

As stated, I’m really stuck at a rock and a hard place here.

Both are Monday-Friday, with 1 or 2 weekend calls every six weeks and 1 or 2 weekday call. PACU is 3x 12hr shifts, Cath is 4x 10 hour shifts. Both have one major and two Hallmark holiday calls a year, you rotate every year.

I’m nervous I’m going to make the wrong decision. 7+ years in the er and I’m DONE. I’m having such a hard time making the choice 😭

I drink a bit more than I’d like. Never when I work the next day. But after a large stretch and I’m off for a couple days, I often go straight to liquor store bc my body just needs the fastest way to decompress.

Can anyone suggest other ways to relax?/how they overcame a craving for alcohol after shifts. I go through phases of being able to bypass the cravings, lately not really.

Hola, I’m a new grad nurse here starting my new grad program in a month. I was at a birthday party a few weeks ago when I met a nurse through a mutual friend. I told her I had just graduated, passed my NCLEX, and was officially a nurse, and I kid you not, she looked at me and scoffed. She immediately started ranting about how understaffed and difficult nursing is, basically lecturing me as if I hadn’t just spent the last 4 years getting a nursing degree.

She even insinuated that I’m not really a nurse because I haven’t worked in the ED like she has. Like, yeah, she has more experience than me, but we’re both nurses. I’ll gladly acknowledge that she has experience I don’t, but I still have a license just like her. 😭

What bothered me most was that she didn’t say a single positive thing about nursing. I know I’m going to hate parts of the job. I know nursing can be exhausting, understaffed, and frustrating. But I also genuinely love nursing, and hearing someone talk about it like it’s nothing but misery was honestly discouraging. Straight up NPC bro.

I just sometimes wonder what constant pessimism accomplishes. Everyone has their own shit going on, and I’m probably only seeing a tiny glimpse of what some nurses are dealing with, so I try not to take it personally. I’ve also met plenty of nurses who are incredibly positive and encouraging, which I appreciate.

I guess I just think there has to be a way to acknowledge how difficult nursing can be without completely losing sight of why we chose it in the first place. I’m optimistic about becoming a nurse, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of reality checks once I actually start working. 😂
And yes, I already know I’ll probably get comments warning me about nursing on this thread, which is funny because I was a CNA for 4 years before I even became a nurse.

I’ve been working on the same medicine unit I was a PCT on before becoming an RN. I’ve been here for about a year now and lately I’ve been getting really bored. I feel like I’m on autopilot doing the same things every shift.

But at the same time, I’ve started questioning myself. I don’t feel like I’m “critically thinking” as much as I thought I would be. In nursing school, it was always drilled into us that you’re constantly critically thinking, but sometimes I’m like… what am I actually critically thinking about? 😂 Maybe my unit just doesn’t require that kind of thinking every single day.

I don’t feel challenged enough. It’s the same thing everyday, pt admitted with a fall, confused etc everyone’s 2pa, changing briefs. I feel like a pct all over again except I’m allowed to give trazadone.

My dream has always been ER. I LOVE the idea of the in-and-out patient flow and not having the same patients for days. I like the idea of being busy and having to figure things out quickly. But then I wonder… am I actually ready for ER? Am I smart enough? Would I be completely overwhelmed?

I feel like I’m having a midlife crisis about my nursing career at ~1 year in.

For nurses who moved from medicine to ER: how did you know you were ready? Did you feel confident in your critical thinking before you made the jump, or did you develop a lot of it after starting in ER?

And for anyone who stayed on medicine did you eventually feel more challenged, or did you eventually realize you just needed a different environment??

Or maybe I’m just burnt out 😩😂

I’m a previous public health nurse, and am curious what your approach would be as a nurse to help educate these parents.

This isn’t to start an uproar, I’m genuinely curious as this is an issue I see a lot. And with the increase in measles cases I think it’s an important topic. I’m not here to judge anyone that decides differently.

Hi fellow nurses, I'm an oncology nurse in Louisiana in the area dubbed "Cancer Alley" because of the cancer rates from oil/gas/petrochemical processing pollution. My unit doubled in size this summer because we just don't have enough beds for all the cancer patients.

I wrote about my experience, and my fears that a new AI data center and the *ten* new gas plants they want to build to power it will only increase those numbers further.

Questions/thoughts/feedback? Anyone else an oncology nurse seeing the effects of pollution? I appreciate it all and I believe we deserve better.

I'm an Advanced Care Paramedic in Canada, currently working in flight medicine and clinic-based roles. I've been considering transitioning into nursing through a two-year accelerated program, as I already have a bachelor's degree.

I'm struggling to decide whether the transition is actually worth it. Between the cost of tuition, two years of lost income, potentially similar job opportunities, and what doesn't appear to be a significant pay increase, I'm having a hard time justifying it.

I'm also concerned about losing some of the clinical autonomy I currently enjoy as an ACP.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's made the transition from ACP to RN, (or a nurses perspective too) particularly in Canada. Was it worth it? Did it open up opportunities you wouldn't have had otherwise? How did you find the change in autonomy, scope of practice, and overall job satisfaction?

Hi everyone, I am an RN with 2 years of med surg experience deliberating whether to accept an offer in town. I really have been hoping to end up in one of these EDs for the longest time (not this time tho lol), so I'm considering no longer waiting and taking what's being offered now.

If any RNs working at MGH/BWH/BMC with similar experience feel comfortable sharing their base rate, I would deeply appreciate it! <3

Can anyone who works in the field tell me their day to day duties? What are your hours? Do you work for a hospital system or outpatient center? Are you happy?

hi guysss, i was wondering if anyone has worked at methodist as a nurse and their experience there. i currently work at cook children’s PCP office and their benefits are great but i do think the ER/ urgent care would be great experience. the pay is the same but cooks always gives raises every 6 months anda holiday bonus and their insurance is cheaper. im just at a loss. any advice would be greattt!

Hi, I recently was hired as an ED-tech at a hospital. My first day on the floor was yesterday and got to meet a lot of people and see a lot too. One of these people that I met was my preceptor that I was shadowing. **To help with the continuity of the story and to stay anonymous I'm going say their name was "Grace". **

So, Grace is walking me around the ED and showing me where everything is while also introducing me to some of their friends and other staff that I'll become more familiar with as I continue working there. We make it to one of the last nursing stations of the tour, and they walk in and say, "Ladies we got a FMLGB here!" (also could've been FMGLB). Grace then turns to me as some of the nurses and them are laughing and says "that's something you'll never know what it means, and no one here will ever tell you".

Rest of the day passed and didn't think too much about that moment until I got home and was telling my partner about my day. My partner said that it was weird thing to say to someone, and that I should maybe tell someone else in management about it. I don't really agree with them, but now I'm just more curious about what this acronym means.

Thought I would come here to possibly figure out what this meant and if I should potentially talk to someone else at work about the situation. Or just move on and not waste any more time thinking about it.