The Night Before Nerves

I'm a new grad, working since January. I have the same problem. It's getting a little better as time goes by, but I still feel a lot of anxiety prior to my shifts. I've found that listening to audio books in the car on the way to work helps me focus on something other than my anxiety. (I drive almost an hour one-way.) I get caught up in the story rather than thinking about what kind of crazy situation I'm going to be thrown into that night!

Yep, I have the same thing.....Actually, I work tomorrow (days) and I have already found myself getting nervous....I have found that I have to have everything prepared the night before (lunch, uniform, report sheets organized) so that I am not running around that morning. What I have started doing as I go to sleep is praying. Then I pray as I drive and I pray right before I start. It has been the only thing that has kept me going on some days....

I've been working since March, and I still get like that the night before a shift.

I feel like I'm calm before I go to bed but usually an hour or two later I'm wide awake. It does seem like the situation is improving, but I would still love to get a full night's sleep before I work.

I wish I could tell you I've found a solution that works for me, but the only thing I can say is that it might get better the more experience we get.

It does get better ... I love the ED where I work, but sometimes I would just feel this oppressive DREAD while driving to work ... "OMG, what would come in that day?? Would I get the assignment that I don't like?! ARRGHHH!!" But you know what? It got better with time and experience. Am I 100% confident all the time? Nope, not even close ... I now know just part of what I don't know. But I know my coworkers and our team, and we all work together for the collective good of our patients, and when one of us needs help, we make it work.

One thing that I learned, not as a new nurse but as a new paramedic, was that if I'm freaking out, I can't help anyone. That thought alone helps me remain calm when I'm dealing with a patient who is trying to go into the light, or when I get one of those really bad patients in via EMS, or when I'm just worrying about what might come through those doors (or might collapse within 250 feet of our ED! ).

Hang in there!

I just graduated in December and started working in January 2009. ER has always been my dream job and I thought that this is the road that I should be taking. Now...I'm not so sure. I have major anxiety the night before my shift and dread going to work wondering what am I going to get today. The 12 hour shifts are killing me and now I'm thinking...I need to do something else. I'm not so sure I like it there.