Support Stickie for New nurses who are not coping

Thank goodness I came across this thread!!!! I was beginning to feel I was the only new grad that felt like a complete idiot, a failure, like I didn't know anything. I love the floor I'm on and get along with my co-workers but sometimes my preceptor makes me feel like nothing I do is right. Most of her complaints have to do with multitasking, organization and time management. I know I'm not as quick and efficient as she is but she's been doing this for many years! I have good and bad days, come home crying once in a while.

BeachyRNn08 summed it up very well, "I want to just skip this new unexperienced nurse part and fast forward to the experienced nurse part!"

I feel better knowing I'm not alone!!

Thank you for this thread
Dixie

I totally agree with the med/surg experience advice. I am a new nurse that graduated in May. I did not have alot of experience, only my clinicals which was very limited. I heard many people say this and really wish I would have listened. I took the first job offered to me. It is on a transplant ICU unit, which they are starting from scratch by splitting it off from the SICU which is where some of my training was. It is EXTREMEMLY difficult working with patients with such high acuity who are so sick, and I am actually going to transfer because I don't feel it is the right fit for me at this time. We were promised we would have a resource nurse there to answer any questions we had who wouldn't take patients and of course because of staffing that has not happened. I get anxiety sometimes going into work wondering what to expect, and I just don't feel comfortable taking care of these patients. Like the previous writer who worked in SICU, most of the time I leave work crying and it has made me question becoming a nurse and if I am even a good nurse; which I know I am. That piece of advice is priceless and I just really wish I would have listened to it-but I didn't know, hindsight is 20/20. Thanks for this thread!

I am glad I found this thread as well. I am a seasoned LPN who graduated a bridge program in June. Took boards in Sept. I have been working on a specialty med surg floor since July, and it is quite an eye opener! I have had to go through the whole new nurse thing all over again and let me tell you, this time seems worse. I feel there is an expectation that I should be better than I am because of my previous experience, but this environment is like nothing I have ever worked in before. I am learning, and it is getting better. I don't dread my work days now like I did. Before I seriously made myself physically ill the night before my shifts.

I will be checking this thread frequently....heads up peeps...we can do this!

This is a GREAT thread! I totally belong here.

I'm a May 08 new grad and went straight into the ICU at a teaching hospital level 1 trauma center. I even worked in this unit as a tech for a year and I'm still way overwhelmed and want to quit a lot of days.

I'm doing ok and learning everyday but most of the time I feel that I'm in over my head. Somehow I am still able to give good care and have made no big mistakes (knock on wood; I also dbl check everything and ask lots of questions) and my patients like me as far as I know....so maybe I am being too hard on myself?

What I hate is I can't sleep before my shift and am sick to my stomach and get diahrea--so I go into work already worn out from being up alllllll night. I can't even really relax and enjoy my days off! I've gone on Buspar for my anxiety which I'm not sure if its helping or not. I usually have a drink or two to relax and that has helped me get to sleep.

I'm almost at my 6 month mark (december) and I keep telling myself to stick it out for a year (which would be June) and then reevaluate but there are times when I leave work crying that I can't imagine being able to make it to the year mark. I'm just taking it day by day, week by week.

this thread is wonderful! i am feeling the exact same way. i work on a med-surg floor. i am 3 months in and just survived my first week alone. the nurses on my unit are very nice but sometimes i think they make fun of me behind my back because i'm so slow! sometimes i think they forget that i am a NEW nurse. grrr. also, i am the only new grad on the floor so there isn't anyone else to understand what i'm going through. i have a really good friend who graduated with me to turn to but she isn't always available to talk to since i work nights and she is on days. i can't wait until the day i'm more "comfortable."

As a student in my first semester of a second degree program, I am already scared ******** of this happening to me.

Did anyone have looming thoughts waay before graduation?

ditto to BeachyRN--Except I started in March with another new RN who work circles around me (she is also 1/2 my age) Im at the 8 month mark now and I have learned a lot, but I still dont have the organizational skills. I leave late almost q day. I cant help but compare myself to this other RN that started with me. She never leaves late. Ive had terrible days where I cried my eyes out in front of my manager. I really regret my crying and Im sorry it happened because Ive noticed that Im treated differently by my once warm manager. I tried approaching the other new rn for advice and she wasnt much help. She is quite immature and feels she is competing with me. Which btw, if it were a competition she would be ahead for sure.

Im just paranoid that I will miss something in the chart that should have been handled. Forget a simple policy or procedure for discharge, forget to chart something, forget to follow up on something, the list goes on and on.

It's funny that patient care isnt what I feel Im lacking confidence in so much. My preceptor was transferred to another floor, and I think that I might have gotten ripped off during my orientation, due to the fact that she left and I got another preceptor that didnt really do a great job. But, by the time I realized this I was on my own. Ive gotten some help from other nurses but they dont realize how lost I really can be sometimes. and it seems the more time that goes by the more Im feeling worse because now Im past the "6 month" mark. any ideas?

I'm in the same boat, second career R.N.
I'm older and tend not to be nearly as "submissive" as I see young new nurses be in the shadow of their preceptors and charge nurses.

Not enough good preceptors to go around, preceptors using the opportunity to "orient" a new nurse to sit on their butts and surf the net or shoot the bull.

Because I reported problems with my preceptors, they turned nasty as expected, and, yet, they were still allowed to have input into my evaluations after I asked for a new one.
Der.
I have a real problem with someone evaluating my "prioritization abilities" and "skills" who doesn't have their own priorities in order.

All of my former classmates are experiencing the same problems as are listed here.
I agonized the 24 hrs prior to going in for my shift, and often get physically ill at the thought of trying to handle as many as 7 patients.
Think the preceptor would actually be of assistance,,,not a chance!

When I went to a nurse supervisor who is in charge of the entire unit, and described to her what was happening, she said,,"they really do eat their young, it's tragic".

Although my supervisor tried to play off the problems that I reported about my preceptors, I learned that these are exactly the same problems they've had with preceptors in the past.

I'm sure being a good preceptor has it's challenges, but being a bad preceptor who abuses the privilege seems to be a pretty sweet deal.
In fact, I heard one preceptor say that.

The problem as I see it is nurseatient ratios.
The nurses cannot possibly safely care for patients under the circumstances, often having to do CNA and unit secretary tasks.

Here is a possible solution.
Go to this website and read the proposed legislation.
If you have questions, contact them, as I don't have the answers.
But, PLEASE,,,take the poll on this website!
The A.N.A. really needs this information to establish the root of the problem so they can lobby to legislate effective changes;
http://www.safestaffingsaveslives.or...rinciples.aspx

If someone else has a similar or better idea,,,PLEASE let me know!

I, too, am thankful for this post. I graudated in late June and started on a med-surg floor in September. I've been off orientation for two weeks and its been kinda dreadful. I had a few really good nights right at first, then everything has been awful. Thankfully, I great co-workers, and great managers, and a wonderful assigned mentor. Without their support, I don't know what I'd do. Usually I get through the shift ok, or at lease without crying. Then when I give report to the day shift I discover three or four major things I either forgot to do or didn't know that I needed to do at all. That's when I lose it. I run myself ragged all shift just trying to survive only to discover at the end of the shift that I failed.

After a particualriy bad night this last week, a senior staff nurse said, "Hey, you're not crying." Of course, I started crying. Then she started crying. She was wonderful. She said that all the patients were still breathing so it had been a good night. She also said that we do what we can and what we can't get done will get picked up by the next shift, just like we sometimes have to pick up for them. Other people had told me that before but this time it sunk in. The next night I also ran myelf ragged but at the end of the shift, I gave report and left, appologizing for anything I might not have gotten done.

I hope it gets better. It gets better, right? Tell me it gets better.