When do you start feeling like a RN

Nurses New Nurse

Published

I have been working for a month and my preceptors tells me I am doing well but I still feel like a student. When do you start to call yourself a nurse and not feel like you are lying?

Rachel RN

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Rachel, I can relate ... for a while I felt like an impostor signing my name w/RN after it. Or when someone would call out, "Nurse" ... I'd be like "you talkin' to me?" :roll

I started to feel that way less after about 3 months. Now, at the 7-month mark, I'm comfortable saying and believing that I'm the nurse. (most of the time ... )

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Oh do I feel your pain :uhoh3: I have been on my own for two months and pretty much every shift I sit in my car before I go in for a pep talk and a prayer. Everyone tells me it's totally normal to feel overwhelmed and unsure and that it takes about a year to REALLY feel like a nurse.

the best thing about being new is that you can ask TONS of questions and it's expected ! I try to remind myself how i felt the first weeks of nursing school....and at least i'm more comfortable than that :nurse:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hey Rachel,

I been praticing 6.5 months now, and I still feel like a student at times. I started feeling like an RN when I came off of orientation. I stopped feeling like a student after a few weeks when I stopped looking for the instructor to check my meds.

In away, you will always feel like a student as an RN. And that is a good thing, because in nursing, you are always learning, and will always be a student as well as an RN.

I'm glad to hear things are going well for you. Keep up the good work!!

Take Care,

Adam, RN

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ACNP-BC.

I've been an RN for 7 months now & I think I can say that I now feel like I'm really a nurse, but every time I see/do something for the first time, I feel like a student all over again. I think that is the norm.

-Christine

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

I graduated last May, started working in June, and have been an RN since the end of July. I have been officially off orientation since December (my NICU has a long orientation process, split up so that we can get used to working with low-mod risk babies before returning to orientation for high risk). I had the occasional day before December before when I said "Hi, I'm Sarah, I'm your baby's nurse tonight" and actually believed it. But it's not until the last month or so that I have started to actually feel as though I really am the nurse. I helped discharge a baby this week that had been in the unit a couple of weeks, and that I had taken care of several times, and the mom gave me a big hug and said how helpful I had been when I took care of her son. One night she told me she'd missed me the previous 2 nights because another nurse had been there, and hadn't had quite the same bedside manner as me. Hearing that, along with suddenly finding myself more confident recently for some reason has made me really start to believe that I really am the RN. I still feel like a student a lot, especially when I am giving a med I have never given before (I had to give IVIG last week for the first time, which pharmacy then screwed up, and it totally threw me off), or doing something else that's new. But I think that's normal...and I'd be worried if we all went out there as brand new nurses feeling super-confident about what we're doing!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I've been at it a long time, and I still go to classes, still have my clinical nurse educator take me aside to teach and inservice.

I started feeling like an RN when I got my license.

But I understand how you're feeling, there's so much to learn while on preceptorship it does feel like an extension of school.

Just be careful what you wish for. Being an RN on your own is an awesome and stressful responsibility.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Progressive Care.

I pretty much feel like a nurse when I am giving patient care. However, when visitors and family come in the room, my tongue ties and I get clumsy all of a sudden. I also always feel like an idiot when the docs are asking me something. I told one of the other nurses on the floor about my pobia of calling the docs, and she said, "Oh, don't worry, they are just about your age and dont know very much more than you, so you should feel like an equal." (We are at a teaching hospital). Good advise, but I still have to give myself a pep talk before calling the doc. I always feel like I don't know enough. But I did feel better the other day because we had students on the floor and they had never seen a mini-bag antibiotic mixed or a piggyback hung. Then I remembered that not too loong ago I was in their shoes and I was amazed at some of the things that are now routine for me but were so foriegn back then. It will come in time, this thing they call "RN." LOL.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surge.

I've been a nurse for almost 9 months now and there are times when I still feel like a student and still ask tons of questions, but there are times where I am making all the decisions with out having to ask too. I will say that every day that passes though I am feeling more comfortable in my nursing skin and can introduce myself as the nurse with out hesitation. This must be a natural process for all of us "newbies'.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

I have been a nurse for a total of about 5 years now. I am an RN since May 2003 and an LPN since May 2001 and I still don't feel like a nurse all of the time! BTW, I still don't like to call the docs! Im still afraid that I will sound stupid!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'll let you know when I get there! Most days I leave work and think about what I should have done, and will do next time if...I can say I always do my best. I've been a nurse a little over a year. Some misguided knucklehead nominated me for a "nurse excellence" award; I just found out last week. I work with some truly gifted nurses, I'm still not sure why they nominated me! To answer your question, I think all truly wonderful nurses know there is always something new to learn, or an area of knowledge to develop. There is ALWAYS more to learn. It's still suprising to me when I talk to family members and think, "Whoa, I knew the answer... where'd that come from?" You know much more than you think you do, I'm sure of it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D.

I actually started feeling like an RN when I received my license. I love, love, love being a nurse and have from the very begining. I see it in my patients' eyes that they are happy to have me as their nurse, I hear it in their voice the second and third night in a row that I have them when they say they are happy to see me and happy that I am their nurse again. I love being an RN!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment