![]() ![]() Read over ALL the orders on the patient’s chart. Really look at your IV & central line dressings & make sure they are dated appropriately. ![]() Don’t just assume that if the last nurse gave them together it must be ok. If you’re giving multiple IV medications at once, double-check that they’re all compatible. For example, if you’re giving blood, double-check that the patient has signed a consent form. Remember that if you’re ever involved in a court case, saying “Well, the day shift nurse told me such & such in report” is not going to cover you. ALWAYS take the time to verify orders in the computer (or God forbid the old-fashioned & horribly antiquated paper chart), research your patients’ lab values & test results, & read the doctor’s notes as much as possible. I know how easy it is to miss a lab value or to get one patient confused with the next. I’m by no means implying that you shouldn’t trust your coworkers, but I just know how hard this job is. Don’t rely too much on information you receive in report.(Additionally, penlights are awesome for night shift nurses because they make it easier to sneak into dark rooms without waking your patients OR tripping over equipment in the room.) Depending on where you work, of course, your needs may vary, but at a minimum you should always have alcohol swabs because nothing is more annoying than having to make extra trips up & down the hall just to obtain an alcohol swab that you could have easily had in your pocket. In my case, I always carry a roll of tape, scissors, a penlight, IV tubing dead-enders (“blue caps”), 10 mL saline flushes, alcohol swabs, a pen, a highlighter, & a miniature Sharpie. ![]() Before you start your shift (either before or after report), stock your pockets with the most commonly needed items on your unit. I don’t care if they are the cutest scrubs in the world, if they don’t have lots of pockets (2-4 on the top & at least one cargo pocket on the pants), they are a waste of money. These things are genius because you can use them to store hospital policies, blank copies of your report sheet, & other such things that you want to have handy at all times but that you couldn’t possibly fold up & store in your pocket every shift. You can get them at Wal-Mart for about $8. To extrapolate on that topic, invest in a good clipboard, the kind that you can store papers in.You can see my report sheet by clicking the link at the end of this paragraph, but of course your needs will vary depending on the type of unit/area in which you’re working. You just have to find something that works for you. Then I can check them off (by highlighting them) as I go. I write meds & other scheduled procedures/tasks on the back of each sheet. I now write all of my information for each patient on a different piece of paper (as in one paper for each patient). As long as you have a clipboard, there is no need to fit everything for all of your patients on just one sheet of paper. Furthermore I realized that trying to cram all my information for 4-5 patients on one sheet of paper was just ludicrous. When I moved to NC a year later & got a new job I eventually created a new report sheet because I realized I needed something different. I created my own just a week or two into my first job & it made such a HUGE difference in how prepared & organized I was during those first few months as a nurse. Please don’t think I’m identifying myself as some nursing expert or genius, but I do think I’ve gained a certain amount of wisdom over the past three years that’s worth sharing. For one reason or another I have never gotten around to it, but tonight I feel motivated to give it a shot. I’d never have believed it if you’d told me I’d be a charge nurse or a preceptor starting at age 24! There are several new grad nurses on my unit at work right now, & I also have several friends who are currently in nursing school, so I’ve been meaning to write a post like this for quite some time. What’s even more amazing is how much I have learned & grown as a nurse in what is really a very short amount of time. It’s hard to believe that it’s been three whole years since I was a new grad nurse.
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