Help!!! I Need A Reality Check

[sereneintexas]

"Seems like your nursing license could be in harm's way under certain conditions."

Good Morning SoldierNurse, I have thought the same thing in the past. I guess a nurse who thinks she/he has all the answers and spouts out anything to someone over the phone it could be very risky. However, with what little I have learned so far, I can see that it is not any more of a risk than being on a hospital floor with one pt on an insulin drip, one with a k+ of 8, one that is very demanding (and is already threatening to sue the hospital) and 3 other pts who you only hope are not going to crash. Nor is it any more risky than having an adolescent psychiatric patient commit suicide, attempt suicide, attempt to kill another patient, or become pregnant, on your shift while the MHA sleeps, watches TV, or talks on his/her cell phone. I'm told that we rarely have a symptom call but are trained to question them extremely thoroughly. We are furnished with the most recent, proven references available. Of course we do give them a disclaimer since we are not able to visualize them and tell them to talk to their physicians about the info we give them. All our calls are recorded for training purposes and quality assurance.
Most of our calls I am told are health questions which require teaching. The ultimate goal is to educate them so that they will have a better understanding of what is going on with their health. Therefore, become a more active participant in their own health care. It's been a while but as nursing students isn't this part of what we were taught to do, instruct our pts? And, yes, we are trained on emergency calls as well. Yes, it's only been a week, but so far I feel very at ease with this position.

[SoldierNurse]

"Seems like your nursing license could be in harm's way under certain conditions."

Good Morning SoldierNurse, I have thought the same thing in the past. I guess a nurse who thinks she/he has all the answers and spouts out anything to someone over the phone it could be very risky. However, with what little I have learned so far, I can see that it is not any more of a risk than being on a hospital floor with one pt on an insulin drip, one with a k+ of 8, one that is very demanding (and is already threatening to sue the hospital) and 3 other pts who you only hope are not going to crash. Nor is it any more risky than having an adolescent psychiatric patient commit suicide, attempt suicide, attempt to kill another patient, or become pregnant, on your shift while the MHA sleeps, watches TV, or talks on his/her cell phone. I'm told that we rarely have a symptom call but are trained to question them extremely thoroughly. We are furnished with the most recent, proven references available. Of course we do give them a disclaimer since we are not able to visualize them and tell them to talk to their physicians about the info we give them. All our calls are recorded for training purposes and quality assurance.
Most of our calls I am told are health questions which require teaching. The ultimate goal is to educate them so that they will have a better understanding of what is going on with their health. Therefore, become a more active participant in their own health care. It's been a while but as nursing students isn't this part of what we were taught to do, instruct our pts? And, yes, we are trained on emergency calls as well. Yes, it's only been a week, but so far I feel very at ease with this position.

I do appreciate your explanation. Honestly, this all sounds very doable. I can appreciate what your saying about one of our important roles as nurses is patient teaching and to empower our patients. Please, keep us posted regards to your new path in nursing.

[sereneintexas]

Yes, Soldiernurse, I will keep you updated. We still have at least 4 more weeks of orientation, and was told that we could have more if we felt like we needed it. How many jobs give 5 weeks for orientation? Not any I've ever had! There are at least 4 nurses there that I have worked with in the past who have been there several years. I was talking to one yesturday who has been there almost 4 years and he stated that he was enjoying it as much as when he first started. He said that he actually looked forward to coming to work everyday.
To tell you the truth SoldierNurse, if somebody was telling me about this company, and I had not expeirenced it myself, I'd think they were extremely naive, and say, "Yeah, right." while rolling my eyes. But... time will tell. Have a super day!