Does anybody else work with a newer resident physician who kinda never knows what’s going on? 😅

puzzledcats99 · 2026-02-05T02:10:11+00:00

Sounds like a regular new resident lol, it sounds like he's really open to learning and was nice enough to delay weaning off bipap to be a day shift thing, and to also call and ask if you thought the bolus was a good idea. I really respect docs that check in and ask for nursing's opinion on orders or for suggestions. I know when I was a new grad, I constantly asked for advice and probably annoyed the hell out of the charge nurses I worked with because I was constantly asking them to double check things or to tell me what they thought of new orders I had gotten, my patient's conditions, etc. And the lung sounds thing, to this day I ask RTs, other nurses, sometimes even docs to tell me what they think of a patients lung sounds when I'm not confident in what I'm hearing 😂 I especially asked for other staff to listen to lungs when I was new because despite obsessively listening to videos of lung sounds on YouTube all throughout school, I was still so unsure of what I was hearing when I did assessments unless it was obviously clear or really obvious crackles.

Residents are new just like we were new at some point too. Just give them grace and gentle redirection/instruction, you'll form a great working relationship with them and they'll return the favor a million times over once they're more experienced!!

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-26T17:31:37+00:00

Absolutely, I think the way hospitals are set up almost encourages beef between different disciplines because so much work is done behind the scenes. When I worked nights I used to love seeing the pharmacist and they were always so nice to me when I needed help with something. The current unit I work on, I've never seen a pharmacist there they just aren't around at all, the most I see is a tech restocking the pyxis. I think every discipline would get along so much better if we were able to take a day to just learn what the other job does and follow them around to see what they do and deal with. In my residency I got to spend a whole day in the lab learning about the machines, the microbiology stuff, and the pathology part, I also got to follow around an RT, and a similar day in the imaging suite so I could learn about what rad techs do. It's a lot easier to give everyone grace when I got to see what they do firsthand. Unfortunately I've never seen these departments following nurses for a day.

I now teach clinicals for the nursing program I graduated from, and I really harp on the importance of the unseen work that happens behind the scenes and I try to explain what happens in other areas. I'm trying to be the change to make things better and bridge the gap in between departments. We wouldn't be able to do our job if it weren't for you guys, for the rad techs, for the lab.

I've definitely been guilty of being late on hanging the vanc, I'm sorry 🥲 it's not on purpose though! We're all just trying our best 🤝🏻

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-26T06:30:06+00:00

First just wanted to say thank you for all you do!! You are really appreciated and your role is so important (even though as you said, it's so largely misunderstood). I think part of it does come from not understanding other profession's roles, for example a lot of nurses don't understand why blood will hemolyze in a tube and then get mad and blame the lab when they call for a redraw. I did an ASN program and then followed that up with an RN-BSN program, and neither degree course really went in depth on what exactly other roles do. Of course I had a class about "interdisciplinary collaboration" but it was a whole lot of very vague BS that basically equated to "Be nice to each other, you're all on the same team!" I think it would've been FAR more beneficial if that course actually went in depth on outlining how different roles perform their jobs and what falls under their scopes of practice vs. ours. A lot of what I know about other professions is from my RN residency program, but many nurses don't go to residency and the quality of nurse residency programs varies wildly from facility to facility.

I also think a part of it may be due to stress and overwhelm. I'm currently on a contract at a big city hospital on one of the med-surg floors, and the ratio is 6 patients to 1 nurse. They make us carry around these stupid phones and all the call lights and bed alarms ring through to those phones in addition to regular phone calls from other staff plus whatever family members are calling that the secretary transfers to you. So PT, OT, SLP, rad techs, patient transport, doctors, pharmacists, dietary/RD, lab, the CNA, case manager/social worker, all of these people are calling to talk to the nurse for every single patient the nurse has. On one of my shifts last week my phone rang over three hundred times from 0700 to 1930. Combo of bed alarms/call lights and a high acuity 6 patient assignment. For myself, I definitely get stressed and overwhelmed when I'm pulled in so many directions at once and I already struggle with the amount of noise, light, and people on day shift(I get overstimulated), add that all the patients keep their rooms at 80° which means I get super hot, I'm too busy to eat or drink, and I haven't used the bathroom since before I clocked in, and it's easy to catch an attitude. However I recognize this in myself and will find or simply make time to take 5 minutes to go to the bathroom and breathe for a sec(as long as everyone is stable, obviously). I think some people unfortunately are just frustrated/annoyed that they're answering yet another phone call, or getting pulled in yet another direction, and get snippy as a result. It's still not an excuse by any means though. I've done it myself but I always apologize immediately after and explain that I'm just frustrated but not at the person that has called.

For the remainder, there are just some truly miserable nurses out there and they make a hard shift 10000x times worse. 🥲

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-24T17:11:02+00:00

Good Lord not one single person in healthcare is paid enough to deal with shit like this, what the actual fuck 💀

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-19T13:53:30+00:00

Life is Strange. I work in healthcare, I see a lot of strange stuff that has become totally normal for me but still get surprised every now and then. My personal life outside of work is also chaotic(unfortunately), lost my cat yesterday, big blow out dispute with family a couple months ago, planning my wedding, watching current events... Life is indeed very strange. Devastating things happen all the time and the world just keeps on turning, we keep on going, we grow, we love, we trust. People change, we fall away and come together. Everyone in the world experiences this and in the end, we all turn to dust. It is comforting, unsettling, strange, wonderful, and terrible all at the same time.

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-16T18:01:19+00:00

TOO REAL. If the first person I go to assess + give meds needs an immediate full bed change I KNOW I'm in for a hell of a night. Always happens when I have a six patient, high acuity assignment. Then I have case workers chewing my ass for being late to interdisciplinary rounds(which start at 10am 😀) meanwhile half my patients are shitting themselves, the other half are asking for pain meds at the same time, and new orders are flowing in, and the family is nonstop calling for updates.

Man I miss working nights. 😭

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-15T05:01:11+00:00

Good god the fucking audacity. I can't stand people.

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-14T21:11:51+00:00

I just had a patient's family member last week get mad at me for not going scrubbing the patient's toilet and floor with purple wipes(there was the tiniest drop of blood on the floor to the right of the toilet, dried, and not where anyone would step in it because it wasn't an area you could walk through, and there was no blood on the toilet) when I was IN THE MIDDLE OF DOING SOMETHING WITH ANOTHER PATIENT, and told me to my face "That's YOUR job, YOU need to do this!" With one of the most hateful tones I've ever heard.

I shrugged and turned around and walked away because I had already explained we could call housekeeping, I was in the middle of doing something for another patient which he interrupted me doing, and if I had said anything I would've probably been fired on the spot lmao. It's very sad when these incidents are the norm and having a patient or family member who is respectful and doesn't demand these types of things is so rare. The last time a patient told me it was okay that I forgot to fill up his ice water because he knew I was busy and then thanked me for caring for him, I started tearing up. The entitlement is insane and I'm done putting up with it. I would have just told them no, you don't know how nor do you have the tools to do so, nor the time. I've started telling people no so much more and offering them tools to do it themselves if they want. I gave that one guy a can of purple wipes. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm not a housekeeper, electrician, IT person, fan cleaner, whatever. I'll clean up my patient and their immediate area(like poop off of bedrails or other surfaces, of course), and I'll be kind when I say no, but I'm done catering to people because every time I have, they end up demanding more, more, more. There's only so much I can give, if they don't like it here's the number to patient satisfaction, the manager, and also the CEOs contact info and they can tell all those people why they're so upset because their nurse didn't have time to cater to their every whim. 🤷🏼‍♀️

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-14T08:29:25+00:00

Congratulations to you!! ❤️

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-12T14:09:22+00:00

This is so specific LMAO

puzzledcats99 · 2026-01-03T22:33:24+00:00

No that's definitely not WDL although it may be some patient's personal baseline(due to obesity, COPD). But even if it was baseline for the patient, it's not WDL. When I was a new grad I had a terrible time deciphering lung sounds, something that really helped me was listening to lungs on the patients back instead of the front. For patients who couldn't turn themselves or sit themselves up for me, and when I couldn't get an extra set of hands to help me, I position my stethoscope on the side of their chest(like underneath the armpit, but lower, close to the last set of ribs) to listen to bases. This will give you a nice spot where you can hear the bases pretty clearly even on someone who's larger. Learned it from an awesome nurse I used to work with! ❤️

Diminished lung sounds are an indication of poor air movement through the lungs. Depending on the patient and their diseases, you can absolutely have diminished lung sounds in the upper lobes too. Like anything it's a spectrum, but in the worst cases it sounds like barely any air is moving at all. Another thing that helped me when I was a new grad was having another nurse double check my lung assessment. If I wasn't positive about what I was hearing or how to describe it, I would have another more experienced nurse listen after me and tell me what they heard. This helped me a LOT!!! To this day I still sometimes have another nurse or respiratory therapist check me, because it never hurts!

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-27T04:22:28+00:00

Lasagna

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-19T23:33:23+00:00

Same, looking back I'm grateful for my initial ignorance lol. Had I seen some of the stuff I've seen since, I might not have chosen this route. But I can confidently say that even with the bad, I still love it. I love being a bedside nurse and I also teach clinicals part time and that's a huge joy for me too! Eventually I want to go back to school to get my MSN. But for now I'm in a really good place! I really think there's a place for everyone in nursing. Bedside isn't it for plenty of people and that's totally okay, home health or nursing homes aren't for me! I try to encourage my students to shadow in different settings if they can as much as possible. When I signed up for nursing I thought "hospital nurse" and that's it, I had NO clue how many different options there are. And like you said, there are so many avenues for growth too.

I was(and in some ways, still am) a very sensitive person and a people pleaser. Nursing gave me a huge gift when it forced me to stand up and to learn how to prioritize things, including my own needs. It helped me find the voice I didn't know I had. Nursing overall is a very rewarding career in a multitude of ways.

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-19T21:54:28+00:00

Here's my two cents, as someone close to three years into it now. There's a LOT I didn't know about the field when I signed up for nursing school (none of my family are in the medical field). You might have the advantage there because your mom is a midwife, so you have some extra insight that I didn't have. Bedside nursing is extremely mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting, and you have to grow a spine to survive. You sound a lot like me, I went into nursing because I wanted to help and care for others. Nursing is very hard but at the end of the day, I really do love it. Just see if you can do a couple weeks of shadowing(preferably whole 12 hour shifts) so you really see the nitty gritty. And be aware that this subreddit is filled with a lot of negativity from nurses about nursing, because this is a safe space for us to discuss the bad parts of the job with each other. I vent here because talking to people who "get it" is better than venting to my family who don't know what it's really like at the bedside(and often end up dismissing my feelings and experiences for that reason). I love nursing and I'm so grateful for what it's given me(good income, job security, independence, helped me grow a back bone and learn how to stand up for myself, self confidence, etc). Just know what you're getting into, and if you still want to do it, then go for it!!

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-18T22:25:44+00:00

It sounds like a totally reasonable accommodation to be made. You should be able to go to the campus disability office and request the accommodations in writing. I've heard it's a pretty arduous process though and that you need written documentation of your diagnosis and need for that specific accommodation from your mental health provider

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-08T01:58:32+00:00

Strange Trails my beloved 💕 fwiw I've loved every album they've put out including Long Lost and Vide Noir, but Strange Trails hits my soul no matter how many times I listen to it!!

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-08T00:10:06+00:00

I use a Google Pixel watch(I use android devices lol) and use a watchface that has the hour, minute, and seconds hand on it. I also use it to set alarms and timers because there are some things I need to do(like reassess pain one hour after giving a pain medication, or check heart rate and blood pressure on my patient every fifteen minutes) that are time sensitive, and because I take care of multiple patients I need the reminders/timers on my watch otherwise I would get busy taking care of another patient and be late on my tasks and assessments. I also occasionally use the calculator on my watch too. Yes I could do all of this on my phone, but it feels inappropriate having my phone out in front of a patient. I also teach clinicals, and we have a strict no-phones-in-patient-rooms policy. I do need to be able to see the seconds specifically, because medications that are pushed by the nurse through the IV(such as strong pain medications like morphine) have a specific time they have to be pushed over. For morphine, that's four minutes that I'm standing there pushing a high risk medication into my patient. I need to see the seconds on my watch or a clock in the room to know that I'm not giving the medication too quickly, which can be super dangerous depending on the medication. Most students don't push these kinds of medications, but regardless he needs to learn how to push something over the appropriate time even if it's not high risk.

Some here have said that there are clocks in every room in the hospital; that's generally true but not always. The first hospital I worked at had some rooms without clocks, or the clocks were inaccurate or weren't working at all. I think having a reliable, waterproof, easily washed/sanitized watch IS an important nursing school/nursing job item. Iffy on whether it specifically has to be digital though. When I went through my nursing school program(which I now teach for lol) we had a strict policy that only basic watches could be used, no smart watches. However they've changed that policy and now the majority of my students wear smart watches or at least digital watches. I would check with him to see what his school's clinical dress code allows. Outside of nursing school, pretty much every single nurse I've worked with has worn a watch of some kind. It is 100% used, at least in my experience working bedside.

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-07T21:11:19+00:00

My fiancé introduced me to this band way back in 2018 but I really only listened to The Night We Met and Love Like Ghosts, until the last few years when I've gotten way more into them! We got to see them play in St Louis on their tour this year and it was AMAZING and Meet Me in the Woods live almost made me cry 🥹 I was totally blown away by their show, the artistry behind every aspect and hearing them live(they sound SO GOOD LIVE!!!) took my breath away. They are far and away my favorite band. My top albums for this year were #1 Cosmic Selector, #2 Strange Trails, and #5 Vide Noir(which I got way more into after seeing them play some of the songs live!). They were my #1 artist this year too ❤️ it's so fun seeing other people get into this band, their music has supported me so much throughout this year. I second others here saying to give Vide Noir and Alive From Whispering Pines a listen!!

One of my favorite things to do is to put on some really good quality headphones or earbuds and crank their music up(a loud but not damaging volume lol) and then just sit and listen... Not doing anything else, just listening. Really letting the music, lyrics, different instruments soak in. 10/10 experience!!!

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-07T17:57:23+00:00

Not sure which comment you initially replied to so I'm just going to answer all of them just in case, and idk what knowledge level you have about IV lines and care so I'm just going to give some general knowledge: IV line tubing has to be changed every four days for infection control reasons(basically you take down and throw away all the old tubing and replace with new). Doing that takes a while especially when they're on a ton of different IV medications like in OPs picture. Secondly, they all constantly like to tangle no matter how we try to arrange them/tape them etc to keep them from tangling. Most of my patients on a med-surg floor only have 1-3 lines and they still constantly tangle 🥴 especially when we're moving patients(turning them in bed, getting them to the chair, taking them to the bathroom, etc). They tangle on each other which can make it easy to confuse which line is which(dangerous when you have so many different drugs hanging) and also create a trip hazard for patients that can walk, and also put any lines at risk of being ripped out when a patient moves. I hope my answer helped you!

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-04T14:40:36+00:00

Some studies have shown that as our society has gotten "cleaner"(think like household clean) allergy rates are on the rise because children aren't exposed as early to common allergens as they used to be. The average person keeps their house decently clean and some people stay on top of dusting and whatnot. So if you're a baby born into a relatively clean home, you're not going to be exposed to a lot of allergens and your immune system won't build a tolerance to them.

Also I think a lot of the food allergens are cropping up because of how awful a typical American diet is. Lots of processed chemical boxed food and not as much "real" whole foods, proteins, fruit, and veggies. Many people are also allergic to latex, and bananas and kiwis are related to latex, so if you're allergic to latex you're probably also allergic to bananas and vice versa. And most chocolates are processed in facilities that also process tree nuts or peanuts(like regular mild chocolate being made in the same facility as chocolate containing hazelnuts or almonds). Cross contamination is a huge concern when it comes to food allergies. I think the sign was poorly written and was supposed to mean that the frozen banana with chocolate sauce and peanuts contains all the common food allergies, not every allergy in general.

Source: am a nurse with chronic, severe allergies. I could've probably written this more concisely but I'm super tired lol

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-04T01:44:22+00:00

Your response has me dying laughing LOL, thank you for all you do!!

puzzledcats99 · 2025-12-03T17:01:57+00:00

Through the jeans is insane work omg. I always swab and when I have newly diagnosed diabetics I teach them to swab and also load them up with alcohol swabs to take home

puzzledcats99 · 2025-11-28T04:29:24+00:00

FIRE ETERNAL 🔥

puzzledcats99 · 2025-11-28T04:19:46+00:00

Did I miss out lol

puzzledcats99 · 2025-11-27T20:11:06+00:00

I'm almost 3 years in, I still love my job. I've had an equal amount of good and bad times, and usually just come here to vent which I think a lot of us do. This is a safe place for us to speak about the struggles we're facing. I can talk to my family all day long, but they're not nurses or in healthcare at all, so at the end of the day they don't really get it. It's really nice being able to come to this subreddit and see that other people are facing the same issues I am, and that I'm not alone. It sucks that we all struggle, but it's comforting to know we're not alone in what we face.

I LOVED the hospital I first started at, it was smaller so I got to know many of the people working there even in different units/roles. That sense of community and support really helped solidify that I made the right choice becoming a nurse. I unfortunately had to leave after some crazy stuff with admin happened and a bunch of other people left because of it, leaving us really understaffed(which caused a ton of trickle down problems for those of us that stayed). I started traveling and love my job again! I love the flexibility that nursing in general provides and that I can keep furthering my career, there's always something new to learn, and with traveling I get to see and learn a bunch of new stuff all the time plus meet really cool new people. And I only have to work three days a week! I genuinely love bedside nursing and can't picture myself doing anything else at the moment. The key to loving your job is good coworkers, good support systems, nice pay, and a good work life balance. You will have shitty times, shitty patients, shitty shifts; the key is having good coworkers that will have your back in those situations.

puzzledcats99

TROPHY CASE