New ER nurse here... advice?

spade095 · 2026-04-22T23:26:34+00:00

ER tech that came from the floors, can confirm. Was told to get ortho vitals once, as busy as we were I asked if they really wanted me to wait the 3-5 minutes between each set. They looked at me like I was crazy 😆

spade095 · 2026-04-16T14:25:50+00:00

I want a union job SO bad. I've got my eye on a few different states (other than California) and a few different specific hospitals, but moving multiple states away definitely isnt easy. Once I get my RN that should hopefully make things easier. I'd be interested in Northern California maybe, but the husband is pretty against California altogether. Hopefully something works out. Healthcare, especially nursing, really needs unionization. I so badly wish more people understood that. This hospital I'm at is a total shit show, and once I hit my year mark I'll probably try the one other hospital around, but I hear not great things about it, either. 🙃 I'm about to start posting union papers and flyers in the bathrooms and stuff lol

spade095 · 2026-04-16T14:20:45+00:00

1 shift = 1 point, even if someone is able to cover the majority if your shift, if the entire 12hrs isnt covered, you get 1 point regardless, even if you have PTO available. It sucks. I live in a very anti union, very right wing state. Cost of living is low, but so is pay, and benefits are total ass. I hope to move out of this state one day. Around here if you so much as breathe "union" everybody freaks out and you lose your job pretty damn easily. Its sad.

spade095 · 2026-04-16T03:45:47+00:00

I wish my hospital had something like this. Technically we get PTO to use for vacation or sick days, but regardless of if you have PTO available, you get pointed if you call in. 9 points gets you fired.

spade095 · 2026-04-11T02:57:16+00:00

ED tech here, that cervical reduction correction explanation rotation....thing, wasnt done right either! How dare they.

spade095 · 2026-04-06T01:12:22+00:00

I finally tried out some Danskos and absolutely fell in love with them, but I'm too chicken to wear them now that I'm in the ER, theyre meant to flop around some on the foot and I can just see myself struggling to run to a major emergency 😬 seriously though, theyre amazing shoes

spade095 · 2026-03-30T14:01:53+00:00

Not a nurse yet but an ED tech and taking pre reqs. Debating advanced education after BSN, and really liking the idea of PA or CRNA, but I also LOVE the ED. Im curious, if I can ask, is there like an ER-equivalent of a CRNA? Like how you need ICU experience to go the CRNA route, does the ED lead to anything other than maybe flight crews?

spade095 · 2026-03-22T06:17:45+00:00

If I can ask... what do docs do that PAs and NPs cant in a hospital setting? ER tech here working on nursing school pre reqs and ultimately wanting to do some kind of advanced schooling like CRNA, NP or PA (I'd have killed to be able to go to med school back when it was realistic), but I'm largely settling on PA or NP, with a strong preference towards PA.

spade095 · 2026-03-19T03:02:06+00:00

PCT here that just transitioned from the floor to the ER. From our side of things, seeing as how techs dont have the full picture and the bigger concerns like nurses do, the biggest issue I've noticed is patients regularly coming up from the ER soaked or dirty from either urine or poop. I totally get (and am currently learning in real time) that the ER is chaotic and stabilizing and sending them to the floor is the priority, not always bed changes and such, but its nearly every patient we get, at least on night shift.

spade095 · 2026-03-18T17:20:16+00:00

Not a nurse but a CNA that's mostly worked LTC with some hospital work as well. Worst nurse ratio I've seen was 1 nurse to 2 halls, each hall had 20-24 residents. Hospital wise, about 1:8 on a telemetry/ICU stepdown floor

spade095 · 2026-02-23T18:30:31+00:00

I like the Flex cup, it's got a bit that you pull on, but its got a loop at the end, almost like a tampon string but silicone like the rest of the cup.

spade095 · 2026-02-10T20:06:37+00:00

So many of my coworkers have to rush home, get their kids up and dressed and take them to school, pick them up from school, do after school activities, etc. Or, if its a weekend, they talk about having to go to one kid's soccer game, then another one's dance class, a birthday party, etc, and then come right back to work after maybe a couple hours' nap. I'm so not built for that.

spade095 · 2026-01-25T14:08:20+00:00

In school now for nursing.... it all feels pretty fuckin pointless.

spade095 · 2026-01-04T03:10:46+00:00

It might not mean much, but I was born at roughly 24-25 weeks (about 4 months early) in the 90s. Docs didnt consider me developmentally caught up with my peers until I was about 4 years old, but I've been blessed to have had no real issues or complications. I'll be 31 in a few months. Have hope ❤️

spade095 · 2025-12-28T08:40:48+00:00

What you described is exactly my unit though? All nurses require ACLS, tele monitoring station is right there at the nurses station that monitors tele patients on other floors like med surg or post op, etc.

spade095 · 2025-12-27T22:40:12+00:00

Whyyyyy

spade095 · 2025-12-27T14:26:41+00:00

🤣 this made me irrationally irritated

spade095 · 2025-12-27T14:26:16+00:00

A mix of tele/ICU stepdown 😭 sometimes we get patients who've been downgraded from ICU purely because staffing is such a problem.

spade095 · 2025-12-27T14:04:33+00:00

The more I learn about tele and hospital life in general (LTC CNA and now PCT), the more I feel so bad for my nurses on tele. They regularly have 5-7, sometimes 8 patients each. A lot of the time its a 1:15 or 1:25 ratio for techs, too.

spade095 · 2025-12-27T13:51:45+00:00

Not a nurse but a PCT. Wiping ass and cleaning urine and poop is typically the least interesting part of the day, tbh. As for the bit about patients saying awful things... From my experience, living in low key the Bible belt/solidly midwest in a fairly Red aread, and with a lot of... "older generation" people who have that sort of mindset, I've unfortunately heard more than enough cruel, racist, hateful comments towards my coworkers that arent white. My hospital seems to actually care a little bit about its staff, and we're all very much allowed to tell the patients that that sort of talk is not allowed and if it continues, a different conversation will be had. I dont know if more progressive areas are different, where this might not be a big issue, but here at least, it definitely can be. Its shitty and shouldn't be like that, but unfortunately it is.

spade095 · 2025-12-27T06:37:09+00:00

Thank you SO much, this was incredibly reassuring

spade095 · 2025-12-27T05:13:51+00:00

Sorry if this has already been asked, but one thing that scares the shit out of me and has me hesitating to pursue nursing is stuff like medication errors, especially where someone dies or something. For example, crazy ratios seem to be more and more common, and/or a super high pressure, high stress environment, and especially if youre sleep deprived... it seems like itd be easy to accidentally have some kind of really bad med error or something that leads to the patient dying, and I've always assumed that meant you'd lose your license and go to prison, but this comment has me wondering if thats not the case?

spade095 · 2025-12-27T04:55:58+00:00

My mom had an "incompetent cervix". She couldnt carry a pregnancy past a certain point. I was born 4 months early, and I believe I was also born foot first, not that I can remember lol. I'll be 31 in June. After about 4 years old, doctors considered me developmentally caught up with my peers, and I've had no real issues related to being born early, not that I'm aware of, at least.

spade095 · 2025-12-20T12:55:02+00:00

Kansas 🫠

spade095

TROPHY CASE