5 things you wish you knew as a new nurse

champagnesupeRNova · Sep 26, 2012

I wish I had known that I would develop painful varicose veins only 2 months into working! I would've worn compression stockings from day 1 on the floor.

KayRN910 · Sep 26, 2012

I wish I would've realized that even after 3 years, some days I will feel like a terrible nurse, and others I will feel like a great nurse. As I say at work, 'some days you are the bug, some days you are the shoe'. It's so true every time I go to work! I guess I had this delusion that by the time I felt pretty comfortable with my job, I would feel like I was a good nurse most days. I'm just saying, keep your head up! There's good and bad days.

liveyourlife747 · Sep 27, 2012

Sometimes you have to be assertive with the doctors about your pt. Especially when the Mds change and don't know the pt well.

RNperdiem, RN · Sep 27, 2012

1. Calling doctors is a skill in itself. Gather all your information first, then call. If you work days, write down a list of concerns and bring them up when the doctor comes on rounds.

2. Eat lunch every day even if finding the time seems impossible. I rarely ate anything in my first job, and that is part of the reason I didn't survive long there.

3. When you are caught up on your work, see if other nurses need help. This isn't often the case with new nurses, but the day will come when you are expected to help others.

4. I wish I had known how noisy the daytime world was. I would have been better prepared with blackout shades and earplugs. (Darn leafblowers and lawnmowers.)

mclennan, BSN, RN · Sep 27, 2012

1. Not all Nursing Jobs are on floors in hospitals. There are public health, school, case management, research, clinic, flight, utilization review, home health and private duty nurses. Don't keep your perspective narrow. Get your PHN license or Board Certification in other specialties so you'll have a way to bail when you burn out of bedside nursing. Not "if" - WHEN.

2. Don't be a high maintenance team member. Show up on time, do your share, offer to help if needed and keep your mouth shut, oh, for the first 3 to 5 years.

3. If you screw up, tell your charge right away, apologize and own it. Learn from it but don't beat yourself up. And move on.

4. Avoid nurse-on-nurse drama. Just don't get involved with politics and conflict. Keep focused on patients needs.

5. If you don't know how to do something just say so and ask to be taught. Don't try and figure it out yourself. You're new and will be dumb about some stuff; it's not a big deal. What's a big deal is when you try and do it yourself and end up in trouble. Have humility AND humor about being a newbie and you'll be much more respected!

NurseDirtyBird · Sep 27, 2012

I wish someone would have told me that most of your job is learned on the floor during your first year of nursing. Nursing school gives you a base of knowledge, but you have to build on that for quite some time before you are anywhere near competent.

Also, a medication error is not the end of the world. Everybody makes mistakes, and if you have any integrity, you own up to the error and do your best to make it right. And try not to let it happen again.

Columnist · Sep 27, 2012

Moved to First Year After Nursing Licensure.

echoRNC711, BSN · Sep 27, 2012

1 Nursing school is a guide but not reality.

2 You are not really expected to know everything.

3Listen to others experiences but develop your own practice.Every nurse has something valuable to offer including you!

4 Remembering the phrase "Everyone is doing the best that they can in this moment with what they have,

(This will lessen your judgement of other staff,pts and most importantly yourself! )

5 Don't strive for super nurse. You are enough as is (that took me 10yrs!!! )

6 Frustration is normal tomorrows a new day.

7 Choose to be kind.

paradiseboundRN · Sep 27, 2012

Don't try to move patients up in bed without help, even if there is no help available. I have had 3 back surgeries since I did this.

monkeybug · Sep 27, 2012

1. That older nurses are not mean and cynical and uncaring, they are realistic and experienced. I spent a lot of my first six months thinking, "I would never say/think/do that!" and then I became a real nurse. Not uncaring, but not gullible, either.

2. Healthcare is a business. You as the nurse only matter to hospital administration if you are a functioning cog in the wheel. Don't expect your manager or HR to care about you as a person. Some managers do care, but they are the exception. The minute you can't produce or function, you cease to matter. Get sick? Get injured? Die on the unit? They only care about having to fill your slot and clean up the body if you drop dead on the unit.

3. Yes, you learned the "right" way in nursing school, but don't hit the unit like Jean d'Arc and decide you are going to correct all the mistakes they are making. That nurse with 20 years experience may not do it as you were taught, but that doesn't make it incorrect.

4. Take care of your back and legs while you are young. You will regret it if you don't 15 or 20 years down the road.

5. Doctors are not God. They deserve your respect, but you deserve theirs as well. You don't have to put up with abuse. Not to say you should run to HR or management every time you get your feelings hurt, but usually bullies will back down once they realize you have a back bone.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Sep 27, 2012

1. Take care of yourself before other people. You have to eat. You have to stop and take a break. You have to do these things. Even if it puts you behind, DO IT.

2. If you mess up, fess up. Tell the charge nurse and if you have to, the doc and family. Nothing is scarier than someone that messes up and no one knows about it.

3. You dont know ****. You may think you do, but you dont. You have the building blocks to know things, and it is practicing that you will put the pieces together.

4. When others are running around busting their butts, and you are sitting on yours, there is something wrong.