orientation to first job

[juicyfruit06]

I just started getting some orientation on a busy surgical unit with extensive cueing from the nurse. I am only experienced in 40% of the nursing skills that are required to work on that unit. The nurse-patient ratio on nights is 1 nurse to 10 patients. I really feel that I don't have the skills or experience needed to be safely caring for that many patients by myself given that I am a new grad. I am told that it gets quite busy even at night especially with new admissions and the post ops. There is a high turn over rate on the unit and I can see the low morale that a lot of nurses including the senior nurses have for the manager. I am seriously thinking of applying somewhere else if I start feeling unsafe working there. Anyone have any advice for me...? I'd appreciate it a lot.

[llg, PhD, RN]

It's usually better to leave "sooner rather than later." If you wait several weeks, you will have wasted your personal coping resources on a situation that hurts your psyche. You will also have wasted the inner resources of the preceptors who are trying to teach/help you -- a major factor in the "burn out" of experienced nurses. You will also have wasted the financial resources of the hospital who is paying you to complete their orientation program, making those resources unavailable for the nurses who will be working there in the future.

Everybody loses if you linger when you have no intention of staying. If you are not going to stay, start looking for a new job NOW. Then, as soon as you have something lined up, do the honorable thing and resign.

Also, if you start interviewing now, before anything bad has happened and while you are still relative "fresh" and not too stressed out ... you can simply say that can see this first job is not a good fit for you. If you wait until you start having real problems in your current job, it will be harder to "sell yourself" in the job hunting process.

Good luck,

llg

[juicyfruit06]

Thanks llg for the advice. I think that I will give working there a chance for maybe three months to gain some organization and nursing skills. I think if I do decide to go elsewhere it will be what's best for me in the long run and I at least made a fair attempt to work there. I also don't think I will feel guilty about the orientation resources they spent on me since I spent 3 mos working for free during my senior practicum on a neighboring unit on the same floor.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

The nurse-patient ratio on nights is 1 nurse to 10 patients.

Oh my! Leave now with your license intact!