To update you from what has happened from Christmas to now (one month later), I got interviews at a hospital and received the clinical nurse position on a medical-surgical telemetry floor with a focus on orthopedics. I am super pumped.
Yesterday, I received my schedule for the first two weeks. It looks bad — and good. The first 3 days that I’m working nights is IN A ROW and I heard that was a killer. Early exposure to the worst will make me relieved when I don’t have 3 in a row, right? Or maybe I’ll realize that 3 in a row isn’t as bad as people say. At least I’ll have 6 days off after that. I’ll have to figure out what to do with that time!!
The hospital also provides good preceptor selection and training so I really hope that will help felicitate my learning.
I’ve already finished the first two weeks of orientation and I have one more week left. I can really tell that they have developed great nurse educators, clinical nurse specialists, CWOCN (Certified Wound and Ostomy Care Nurse), and overall people here. I think that it’ll be a really supportive environment but I’ll find out soon enough!
Since this hospital focuses on the heart, we spent a great deal of time learning about different cardiovascular diseases, pre & post procedures, EKG readings, stroke, arrhythmias, emergency situations. We also went through different systems (GI, GU, neuro and Skin!!!! wound/ostomy care, and pressure ulcer prevention ~for 2012 0.81% developed PU throughout the whole hospital compared to 2011 when it was at 1.11%).
Intentional Hourly Rounding is also something that I haven’t heard of, but it makes a lot of sense. Ask about personal needs, pain, positioning, education, etc. Ultimately, this is to help prevent falls.
Epic went live at this hospital in December. Based on what people have said, they really like the program and it has helped a lot with documentation. I completed day 2 of Epic training yesterday, and I feel that it’ll be a great tool and hopefully help accelerate the documentation process. In the ‘doc flowsheets’ it asks a lot of questions that you would normally write down in a note. My question is, do I still have to write a progress note based on some abnormals? I think the answer is, probably, but from there, I can copy and paste, and right click to create a note.
Next week, there are 3 exams. Core exam, EKG exam, and Philips monitor. And there’s technically an Epic exam. I have to pass with a 90% or higher (yup, it was the same for the NLN medication exam that I had to take prior to officially having this position). I think that it adds a little more pressure on the employees to do well, but it also puts higher standards for the hospital. And that in the end, the patients receive better care.
This weekend, I’ll definitely be practicing EKG strips. And studying.