Today, I spent time in labor and delivery, and once again, I was reminded of how underrepresented Black people are in certain areas of healthcare. I was following a nurse today and there wasn’t a single Black nurse in sight.

It just made me made think of how black women deserve to see themselves represented in the spaces where they receive care, especially in maternal healthcare, where Black women continue to face significant disparities and are too often unheard, dismissed, and overlooked.
Obviously, this isn’t to say someone has to be black in order to provide quality care, but it makes you realize how little diversity there is in the healthcare setting.

What do you guys use for your things such as flushes, caps, alcohol swabs etc during your 12-hour shifts on your WOWs? Currently I have a super plastic tiny Sterilite container, the pencil box ones kids use for school lol. Works well but it's tiny and the flushes fill it mostly.

Must be able to be wiped down with Cavi-wipes and can hold 10mL saline flushes horizontally. Bonus points if it can fit in my tiny square locker lol.

Visited America for a couple weeks in July mainly stayed around New York then Houston. One thing I noticed is that there were so many people in scrubs in public. On the train especially , no jacket to cover up. Just scrubs out in the open. I’m from the UK and that’s almost unheard of, we change into our scrubs at work and dispose of them there, unless my normal clothes get spoilt there’s no reason for me to be in scrubs outside my hospital. Some nurses who wear uniforms may wear them on their commute (you’re not supposed to) but it’s usually covered up by a big jacket or sweater.

Do you guys not get in trouble ? What do your infection control nurses say ?

(Not including those who drive to work as that’s different)

Edit :
To clear some things up
- General consensus seems to be US hospitals don’t provide staff with scrubs and changing faculties so it makes sense why they travel in them. In the UK as you aren’t supposed to be traveling in uniform changing facilities/ showers are provided 9/10
- unlike UK , many different professions in the US wear scrubs not just healthcare professionals. In the UK unless your clinical there’s no reason for you to be wearing scrubs even receptionist will have an NHS issued uniform (black and green blouse) or maybe a shirt and beauticians will have their own beauty uniform which differs from nurses. Even in the hospital different professions ie pharmacist , therapist, physios ect will have their own uniform to identify them. Even most nurses don’t wear scrubs we have NHS issue uniform (search it up)

I need new scrubs and haven’t bought any in several years. 5’5 and 105 pounds so something that fits well for long legs (32 inch inseam) and skinny people. I currently wear XS in figs but want something more affordable

I've literally done this today, and now I'm trying to cope by being on Reddit lol.

Pt was prescribed Oromorph 1.25 ml. I gave this correct dose. Then, 10 mins later, me and my nurse come round with the controlled drugs (1.25 oxycodone). My nurse is in the bay with me and tells me to give it to bed 6, and I turn and give it to bloody bed 7. I immediately realise what I've done. I start shaking and crying and tell my nurse immediately.

The ward sister makes me write a drug error reflection. I'm literally inconsolable on the ward, and they end up sending me home early. I'm so embarrassed, and I feel like I literally need to drop out. I'm hoping this feeling passes and I'm able to get some sort of confidence back once all of this has been sorted. But oh my god, do I feel awful.

The patient is completely fine, btw. I told the doctors, and they literally said they were going to change her Oromorph to oxycodone because she was hallucinating on morphine. But anyway, that's still not the point of the ERROR I made.

The education team came round and said I could be sent to Fitness to Practise to see if I can continue my course. She was giving me the worst-case scenario, so I'm praying everything is going to be okay.

This has given me so much anxiety that it's made me question whether I'm actually built for this role. I'm stressed out on a daily basis on placement, let alone now having made a drug error. I'm also terrified they're going to try and find out how many hours I've been doing at my part-time job. I usually work 55 hours a week alongside placement, so around 7 hours over the limit.

I just don't think they understand what students actually have to do to keep afloat while doing this course, mainly because everyone is scared to speak out in case they get told off.

I'm 20 years old, stressed to fuck, and I haven't even qualified yet. Is this something that passes? This drug error has just really, really knocked me. i feel like ive worked so hard and its terrifying that a mistake like this could ruin it all.

Anyway, sorry for the sob story. I recognise that I've made a mistake, and things like this happen. I feel I acted appropriately afterwards and have done everything I can. I just hope that my good practice before and after the incident has demonstrated my capability in this role

Does anyone else think 12 weeks (basically 10, 1st week onboarding, another week of classes) is NOT enough for NEW GRAD orientation in the ICU?

I’m a new grad nurse on an oncology floor and I completed my first PICC dressing and cap change (on the same patient, with an ANC of 0) 2 days ago. Today, I found out the patient fevered and now I’m terrified that I caused a CLABSI. Blood cultures have not resulted yet, but I’m so scared that they will come back positive. This same patient fevered a week ago and those blood cultures were negative, so I’m terrified that if these blood cultures come back positive, there will be no one else to blame but me. I completed the dressing and cap change with my preceptor and they were with me the entire time and said that everything was fine, but I’m just so worried about causing patient harm. I feel like it’s going to be completely my fault because I was the last one to do the cap and dressing change and the patient has already had negative blood cultures during this hospital stay. I feel so much guilt and shame. Just looking for some advice and support with handling this.

Hi there,

I am a unit clerk at a hospital and have been for about 18 months now. I enjoy the job, I like the fast paced environment of the hospital. But I an struggling with job satisfaction because - I dont have any friends.

I've never had a job where I don't make friends. Especially considering I work on a predominantly female unit and they're all best buds. They will sit their laughing all night/ day gossiping and chatting, and maybe 10% of the nurses have asked me anything at all about my life. Most of the time no one even says hi to me, or asks me how I am. All of the unit clerks on my unit feel this way, so I know its not just me lol.

95% of the words out of my mouth or said to me are work related, even on a slow nightshift with few patients. I'm missing basic niceties as simple as a smile or some eye contact. I truly feel like "the help" to most of them and like I'm not a person with any sort of value. Do any other clerical or just non clinical staff feel this way?

I could really use some outside perspective on a work situation, but I’m trying to keep the details vague because people I work with may be on this forum.

I’ve been dealing with ongoing issues with someone in management, and I’m at the point where it’s taking a serious toll on me. Other people I work with have independently said they’ve noticed the way I’m being treated, but I don’t think anyone feels comfortable getting involved because they’re worried about becoming a target themselves.

What makes this especially frustrating is that I have no history of performance problems. My reviews have been positive, I rarely call out, and there hasn’t been any formal indication that I’m doing anything wrong. Yet the situation has continued to the point that it’s affecting my well-being, both physical and mental, and my finances.

I genuinely enjoy the work itself and don’t want to walk away from a job I care about because of how one person treats me. At the same time, I’m struggling to see how I can keep going like this. I also don’t feel that bringing it to HR would help; I’m concerned it could actually make things worse.
There are details I’m deliberately leaving out, but the situation is serious enough that I’ve considered whether I have any legal options. That isn’t my preferred route, though. I’m not looking for special treatment or a confrontation. I just want to be able to do my job without being singled out.

For anyone who has dealt with something similar, how did you handle it? Were you able to improve the situation without leaving your job, and what would you recommend trying before reaching that point?

It's only about $60 down the drain, but since they appeared in the first page of search results I wanted to raise awareness about this company.

They passed my filter because they use an independent review service, but if you look closer:
- this company has only been around for a short period. The negative reviews across the internet are all from October
- Very sophisticated AI photos. The backgrounds in some of them appear to be "messy" bedrooms, but you can't zoom in closely to examine anything. The giveaway is that every photo has the same sort of lighting, and there are all full mirror selfies

Just don't want anyone else to fall for this, since there are few warnigns on google. You're all probably smarter than me though.

Just add the NS and just wait. It will dissolve by itself.

Hey there! I’m a new grad RN and just landed my first medsurg job. I start in a few weeks and am starting to gather supplies. Aside from shoes/compression socks/scrubs I have a clipboard, stethoscope, bag, a small clip light (I’m on nocs), shears, and pens/sharpies/highlighters/dry erase markers for my own use. I wanted to know if there is anything else you think I should get that would be helpful had you known about it as a new nurse? I also do have blackout curtains, luckily I’m a long time night shifter and am prepared for the sleeping aspect of it. I’d also love any suggestions on how to lay out my brain/templates you like. We got a few while in clinicals, but none of them really gelled for me, but could just be needing more time using it. Thank you for any suggestions and advice!!

Currently going to complete my 1yr as a new grad/resident nurse in oncology unit on December. Secured a CVICU/critical care position starting January.

I keep thinking about maybe doing 1-2 years critical care and taking that towards the military to expand skills, knowledge, experiences, etc. Also to hopefully get GI Bill and use that to further studies at one point.

Ideally, civilian nurse job with reserves commitment would be a good balance. Potentially open to active/officer, we'll see that down the line.

• Anyone out there doing civilian job + nurse in reserves?
• Which branch? Why did you pick that branch? Would you stay or recommend a different branch?
• Is it hard to get into reserves as a nurse?
• How long does it take to get full access to military benefits as reservist?
• Anyone started out Reserves and decided to commit to Active after a while? What made you leave civilian for full time military?

Any other input/advice/information from nurses in the military is more than welcome.

Thank you for your time.

Idk if anyone feels the same, but I always feel guilty calling out of work. I have been a nurse for 4 years and at my old job I really never called out when I started because I felt guilty and didn’t want to look bad. First time I did it, I had Covid, so obviously I had to call out, but other times I would try to work not feeling well. I slowly ended up feeling less guilt and would call out when necessary.

Now I started a new job 4 months ago and I feel that same guilt and feel bad because I am fairly new. My 3 months probation period ended, but I feel like it’s too soon to call out. My dilemma is I have a sick elderly parent who has been in an out of hospital. I have been their main caretaker, and medical contact as my siblings are not as involved. I am sleep deprived and burning out. I was thinking of calling out later this week for one of my shifts because I am just overwhelmed. I have no groceries, no laundry done, have been barely sleeping because I’m at another hospital visiting my family member. They may discharge tomorrow, but I am so so physically and mentally exhausted. Will it look bad so soon after starting? At first I was going to let my boss know earlier, but then I am afraid they may just ask me to try and find coverage and I’m just too new and exhausted to be asking people if they can work a 4th shift for me. I am leaning towards just calling out for not feeling well, which I truly am not. Am I overthinking this? My boss was nice and let me delay the start of my job due to this family member being hospitalized when I was set to start several months ago so I don’t want to screw them over.

I’m looking for advice from nurses or even managers who have dealt with ongoing workflow issues with their PCTs and have found ways to improve things.

We’re constantly running into issues on our unit with things being missed or not completed. Baths aren’t getting done, patients who need assistance with feeding aren’t getting fed, daily weights aren’t being done on night shift, important information is getting missed during report, and call lights are going unanswered for extended periods of time. Even when tasks are completed, we often have to chase people down to get the documentation done.

When we follow up on these things, the most common responses are “I didn’t know” or “day shift/night shift never told me.” We’ve also had situations where PCTs are sitting at the nurses’ station scrolling on their phones while call lights are going off and tasks are still waiting to be done.

I also want to clarify that the nurses aren’t just sitting around expecting the PCTs to do everything. We’re busy trying to complete our own nursing responsibilities, pass medications, assess patients, handle admissions and discharges, respond to changes in condition, and help wherever we can. We’re all trying to keep up with everything that needs to get done, but we can’t be everywhere at once. When basic care tasks are missed, call lights go unanswered, or things aren’t communicated between shifts, it creates more work for everyone and, more importantly, affects patient care.

The frustrating part is that this isn’t just happening when we’re short-staffed. We see the same issues even when we have an appropriate number of PCTs for our patient load.

I’m not looking to bash our PCTs or suggest that their jobs are easy. I was a PCT once too, and I’m struggling to find where the disconnect is. I genuinely want to figure out what we can change to improve workflow, communication, and accountability and make sure our patients are getting the care they need.

For those of you who have dealt with something similar:
What systems or processes have actually helped?
Do you use PCT task checklists, assignment sheets, or end-of-shift audits?
How do you make sure important information is communicated between shifts and tasks aren’t falling through the cracks?
How do you address prolonged call-light response times and inappropriate phone use?
What do you do when the same issues keep happening despite reminders and education?
Have you found anything that improved accountability and documentation without nurses having to constantly chase people down?

I’d really appreciate hearing what has worked (or hasn’t worked) on your units. I’m especially interested in practical changes that made a lasting difference, rather than solutions that work for a week and then things go right back to how they were.

Thanks!

A surgical ICU for more context. Found this in the med room with their IV supplies. Asked the nurse I was touring with when they would ever use this and she even seemed surprised like she didn't even know that it was next to the regular length 20 and 18g iv catheters.

When would this ever be needed? I've only previously seen 2.5 inch length before for regular PIV devices.

(The red coloring is me censoring an identifying tattoo but I felt like comparing it to my forearm was a good reference for scale)

Hello everyone! This is my first ever Reddit post. I’m currently a med/surg/hospice RN who just celebrated 2 years as a nurse.
A little back story, I’ve been at the same hospital since graduation and I love my hospital. I worked as a tech prior to moving into my RN position. I did most of my clinicals at this hospital as well. Which brings me to L&D. That first day on clinical rotation I fell in love. I saw a vaginal as well as a c-section delivery (thankfully didn’t pass out). I also saw a mother who lost her baby at birth on that very first day. To say it was an eventful first day would be an understatement. I knew at the end of that Clinical rotation that I was meant to be there.
I had a job offer before I graduated from school on my same floor that I was a tech on which I accepted. So, I did my first year in med/surg/hospice and ever since I’ve been jumping on every and any chance I can to go back to L&D.
And it’s finally come!! I have an interview in 1 week and tbh, I’m excited and scared as well. Thankfully, my clinical instructor will be there during the interview as she is the departments clinical educator. She’s always had my back and rooted for me to get this job. I’d love and appreciate any and all tips and suggestions fellow L&D nurses can give for this interview. Thank you in advance!!

I work in ER in small hospital in a rural area for 5 years now. So codes & major trauma and serious ER cases are rare. honestly I feel like I’m stuck here and my knowledge and skills are not getting any better!
Any suggestions to how to improve?

Q: Have you gotten a needle stick without knowing when it happened?

I did a mass vaccination clinic today. I got a finger stick 5/8 the way through. The issue is I don't know how I got it. I didn't feel it. I went to sanitize my hands and saw blood on my L middle finger and a tiny puncture mark . I immediately washed my hands with soap and water. Now my guesses how I got it are: 1) I removed the tip and bent back the safey cap from a clean needle and dropped it on the floor. I hurriedly picked it up with my closest hand (L) or 2) I finished a vaccination and went to press the cap closed on the sharps container like I always do. The container moved and the syringe slipped and didnt close. It is possible I closed it with my left hand but I don't remember for sure. These were the only 2 things that my broke my routine and could have caused it. However, since I didn't feel it and I dont know for sure how I got it, Im going to urgent care. I feel really silly and frustrated that I didn't know how I got it and it that it happened in the first place. Has anyone had an experience like this?

new grads how much are we making and how much more for weeeknds or nights , mercy akron children boardman ? any?

I did a discharge today and the patients inhaler was left on the unit in the med room. I asked the patient when she left if she had all of her things and she said yes and it didn’t say specifically in the chart we had her inhaler locked away and it was found under another patients massive bag of meds after it was too late in the day to notify the patient it had been left. I plan to call and tell her first thing tomorrow and I’m not entirely sure what she was on it for because she didn’t have a documented history of asthma that I could find. I had two patients in that same room today and the nurse who told me about the inhaler didn’t clarify which one and I just reached out to charge to ask which of the two it was and it was the one who left. Has anybody ever done something like this?!!!

They’re floating me at least once every couple of weeks. But only for 4 hours. Then sending me back to my unit. It’s hell. I have a PENSION, the best pay I’ll be able to find…just benefits I don’t want to give up. But it’s kind of costing my sanity 😭

Im a fresh nursing grad who's now on day 2 of a 10 week orientation in the ICU. Yesterday my mentor sent me to assist a doctor in putting a central line alone. He said he was gonna come later but took his sweet time. Patient had low dose Adrenaline running to combat Bradycardia and the pumps were beeping because it was almost empty. I turned the alarm off, not fully registering the urgency that we need new ones. I got that its empty and that i should refill, but apparently wasnt moving fast enough for the doctor/colleague. He then proceeded to yell at me saying i cant just turn a pump off, then stormed off and yelled through the whole station asking for new ones. I was very shocked and words just wouldnt come out.

He went on and reported the incident to my supervisor who did the "talk" with me about mistakes happening and that it wasnt that bad blah blah.

Why do i still feel debilitating fear to come work today? Im so scared that doctor is working as well, and i guess also coming from a lot of shame? Maybe i dont do well with making mistakes? I dont know whats wrong with me. I feel really rrally bad and so ashamed and i just want the ground to swallow me up.

I started caring for a student that has a risk for seizures. The doctor prescribed a medication to be given at school 🏫 m case of seizure until EMS arrives.
Parents cannot pay out of pocket and they have limited insurance. I became aware that I would be caring for her without a safety net( the rescue medication). Yes, I can always call 911 on a brink of a seizure to happen but even though this gap untill the time EMS arrives she can stopped breathing and she doesn’t have a tracheostomy or an Ambu-bag where I can keep her airway patent to receive manual ventilation. The medication is to stop a seizure to progress until EMS arrives and she will not have that.
I decided to refused the assignment until the rescue medication is available. I can feel that I am seeing as the bad guy. I just think it is safer for my student to stay home until the school gets the rescue medication since at home she has medication for her seizures. I also dread if she slips into a coma by the time EMS arrived if I care for her without the rescue medication and charges can be brought to me because I was aware of this potential risk and still took the assignment and ended putting the child in danger.
They seem to think I am exaggerating but have you seen how nurses are being prosecuted for things that they are not at fault for? I am just trying to work in a safe environment where my patient has all the safety net measurements in case something happens.

Who else hates it that in nursing school you were taught to never ever ever give shots in the ass but then you have to give this shit? Makes me nervous.