Kiddie Time!

Nurses New Nurse

Published

Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

I had an interesting night, last night. There was some snow in our area, so there may have been several call offs, or it may just have been through my Nurse Manager's sometimes whimsical sense of scheduling, but except for our Charge Nurse (floated from a sister unit--i.e. same management, but different unit) and an LPN from our unit, on 11-7, we had one nurse with over 1 year experience (about 1.5 yr.) The rest of us were first-year nurses--three in stepdown and two on the floor.

All in all, it went pretty well. Census was down, so we all had fairly easy patient loads. One of my patients was a pretty busy one, but the other three were no problem. We had one patient early on who had to be moved to the ICU because the stepdown was full, but it wasn't for lack of nursing care (he had the experienced LPN). It blows my mind a little, though, to think what a debaucle this same staffing pattern could have been, a couple of months ago. Stuff got done, we worked together when we needed to, and nobody died. Woohoo! I wonder if the CN realized her team was almost all rookies...I'll have to point it out, next time I see her.

Anyway, it was kinda cool, being treated like real-life, grown up nurses, but I do hope we won't be running like this a lot.

Oh, now that I think of it, the other floor nurse has been with us less than a year, but was a nurse somewhere else for several months, so she wasn't a first-year, either. Still...

Specializes in Tele, Home Health, MICU, CTICU, LTC.

My floor is like this almost every night. Other than supervisors, the nurse who has been on nights the longest has only been there a little longer than a year. Night floor supervisors have only a few more years experience than that. I do charge about once per week and I have only been a nurse since March, graduated in January.

Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

I suppose a lot of nurses with seniority prefer days. I hadn't noticed so much because I work weekends plus one weekday, and on weekends there are several experienced nurses who simply prefer nights. My third day is usually Fri or Mon, but lately I've been getting the occassion mid-week day, instead.

Anyway, it was nice to see how far we had all come, even if it was a fairly easy night.

Hey Nursemike,

You are a grown up experienced nurse! Maybe less than a year, but you do have experience now to back you up. So give yourself some credit, because I am!

Adam D., RN

Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).
Hey Nursemike,

You are a grown up experienced nurse! Maybe less than a year, but you do have experience now to back you up. So give yourself some credit, because I am!

Adam D., RN

In point of fact, you're quite right. I've been a grown man for several years, now, and I freely undertook the duties and responsibilities of a Registered Nurse when I applied for my license and took my job, as did each of my peers. Even so, it's still a bit amazing to think we may actually be growing more able to fulfill those duties and responsibilty.

It's kind of an odd feeling, at this stage in my life. The nurses I work with who are close to my age are old hands, while the nurses I have most in common with as to experience are half my age, or less. So, in some ways, I feel very much the new kid.

+ Add a Comment