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What is the day by day experience?
I want to know the day by day experience, the details on how to deal with difficult #healthcare #medical #nurse patients or make the patient feel more comfortable.
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Raquel’s Answer
As Michael previously mentioned what your day-to-day experience as a nurse is going to vary a lot based on where you work. The responsibilities of a NICU nurse is going to be very different from a surgical nurse, which will be very different from an ICU nurse. And that's just three examples in the hospital setting. Part of what makes nursing so amazing is that there's so much variability for who/what you work with. As long as you have a nursing degree you can switch between specialities as much as you want which can help prevent burnout.
But anyway, a very generalized day for most fields of nursing starts by getting report on your patients. The off-going nurse will tell you the pertinent information on each patient that you're taking care of that day. This information will help you through to know your patients when you walk in the room. After getting report you'll want to sit down and review patient charts to get a bit more detail than in your report. Part of this review will involve looking at what medications you'll be giving and what other tasks you need to complete for each patient. This review and planning at the beginning of your shift will help to keep you organized throughout your shift. You'll then need to do a physical assessment and administer medications to all of your patients and then chart that information. In the afternoon you will usually have more medications and another assessment due. And at the end of your shift you need to update your report with anything that happened that day to pass on to the new on-coming nurse. Obviously this is very generalized and there's a lot of time in between, what fills that time will vary based on what your specialty.
As far as helping patients feel more comfortable, there's a lot that you can do. Again it's a really broad question to answer because patients can have a lot of problems causing them to be uncomfortable. Theres a variety of medications that can be used to help with problems patients may be experiencing. Sometimes all people need is a listening ear and someone to comfort them in an often very scary time. Positioning can often help with pain problems as can getting up and moving. The best thing you can do is build a relationship with your patient so you can work with them to find what will best help them. Being a nurse is a great career and you can make a big difference in peoples lives.
Best of luck!
But anyway, a very generalized day for most fields of nursing starts by getting report on your patients. The off-going nurse will tell you the pertinent information on each patient that you're taking care of that day. This information will help you through to know your patients when you walk in the room. After getting report you'll want to sit down and review patient charts to get a bit more detail than in your report. Part of this review will involve looking at what medications you'll be giving and what other tasks you need to complete for each patient. This review and planning at the beginning of your shift will help to keep you organized throughout your shift. You'll then need to do a physical assessment and administer medications to all of your patients and then chart that information. In the afternoon you will usually have more medications and another assessment due. And at the end of your shift you need to update your report with anything that happened that day to pass on to the new on-coming nurse. Obviously this is very generalized and there's a lot of time in between, what fills that time will vary based on what your specialty.
As far as helping patients feel more comfortable, there's a lot that you can do. Again it's a really broad question to answer because patients can have a lot of problems causing them to be uncomfortable. Theres a variety of medications that can be used to help with problems patients may be experiencing. Sometimes all people need is a listening ear and someone to comfort them in an often very scary time. Positioning can often help with pain problems as can getting up and moving. The best thing you can do is build a relationship with your patient so you can work with them to find what will best help them. Being a nurse is a great career and you can make a big difference in peoples lives.
Best of luck!
Updated
Heather’s Answer
How can a nurse help a person feel more comfortable? I think the most important thing the nurse can do is listen to the person and reassure the person that they care. I also think it's important for the nurse to remember that when a patient is in crisis or really upset, they are usually not trying to be difficult on purpose. Maybe the patient just got bad news or is is in a lot of pain and this is causing the patient to behave in an unfriendly way...If the patient is in pain, offer something for pain. If the patient is scared about a diagnosis, provide education and empathy...These simple acts can be used on a daily basis as a nurse to help people feel better. A quote I have seen attributed to Theodore Roosevelt says this:
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"
"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"