New Nurse Blues.....

[RN2530]

Hi! I am a new nurse I graduated in Dec 2014. Started working in April 2015. I recently finished orientation and now I'm on my second week by myself! Things have been pretty tough, in my first week I was assigned 2 hospice pts, one who passed which was kind of difficult because I had never cared for a dying pt. Also I had to hang 8 units of blood and 2 units of plt throughout my 3 nights lol. My other hospice pt passed away 6 hours after the first one and about 3 hours after I had left. I don't know if I could have handled 2 in one night, oh and I was also dealing with AMS pt who were trying to get out bed lol so I think it ok to say I'm getting broken in fast lol but I'm writing because I had rough night last night. When I came on I got report from one of the older charge nurse on one of pts. Pt was to go down to surgery, pt needed to shower per order of md, iv changed, consent, pre-op checklist and ect. Surgery was scheduled 1800 the next day! I tried very hard to complete all of those things but I fell short bc I was so busy, started with 5 pt, 2 AMS and got an admission at 0200 (homeless & ETOH) . Anyways during report in the AM the charge nurse was asking if I had completed all of those thing. I said no and she rolled her eyes and made some noises in front of my peers. It made me feel pretty bad, pretty much ruined my night. Not to mention this was the only pt assigned to her today. It was like I worked so hard and then someone makes you feel like you did nothing and you aren't competent. Should i feel bad? Bc i do. Do or did most new nurse run into this kind of stuff? I'm constantly replaying things over in my head, did I do that right or did I forget something? When does that stop? I guess I'm looking for reassurance idk. Hopefully I'm not the only one. I have tough skin but last night really got to me. How do or did you deal? I just want to know how to do everything lol but I have to say as tough as it been I love my job!! My patients make my day or night should I say!

[mirandaaa]

You're still new. You shouldn't be expected to be the best nurse ever when you've only been working as one for a couple short months.

As long as nothing awful happened, brush it off and move on. You'll be fine.

[Lorixlee]

I'm like that too. I've been a nurse for almost a year and I still replay the day afterwards and ask myself if I've forgotten anything. I like to make sure every T is crossed, every I dotted. But it's not a bad thing. its good to be cautious and aware... to take pride in your work. It shows you really care about what your doing. Sometimes what I do if I already left work and remember something, I write it down so I can follow up on it the next day.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Typically, new nurses have a hard time learning to prioritize. They tend to give everything the same level of 'urgency'. The essence of time management is learning what things can be delayed until later... or even passed on to the next shift ... without causing any major problems.

Scheduled interventions such as surgery or other invasive treatments such as cath lab or bronchoscopies have "hard stops". Any delays will cause major problems, not just for that patient, but all the other ones that may be scheduled to follow. Delays in treatment are NOT reimbursed... and this may actually wipe out any 'profit' that the organization would have made on the procedure. So you can see how important they are. So obviously, scheduled treatments/surgery should always be HIGH priority. Put those tasks first on your list.

Relax - all of us had the same type of problems and worries when we were new grads. This time next year, you'll be the one helping the newbies.