[CSNS]

Hi I started my third semester of my ADN program. 3 weeks of OB, 3 weeks of Peds and 8 weeks of Mental Health.
I have been suffering from anxiety every since I started nursing school. I can't sleep or eat before I go to clinicals, I am a nervous wreck. I feel that I did not get a chance to have as much experience as other people (with IVs in particular) who got to work as nurse tech over the summer. I have never been around kids / babies...I am so worried. I feel sick and tired of this anxiety but nothing seems to help. Everyone at school looks at me like "oh you're always nervous pfff" I feel so inadequate. They seem to be doing great and are eating and sleeping unlike me.
I know I need to give it time but so far it has not improved one bit but rather got worse

[BreezieRN]

You will do fine dear!!!
Say a prayer, take a deep breath, and enjoy your time as a student. This is the fun stuff!!!! You may find out what kind of nurse you want to be. Psych was my favorite, that's when I knew that I did the right thing going to nursing school. Yours may be OB... who knows!! God bless!!

[Megsd]

I had never held a baby until my peds rotation, and it wasn't until my last day of OB I was finally not petrified of dropping a baby. But I still freak out if they cry and I can't fix it within about 30 seconds.

But I survived, and you will too. If you are particularly nervous around the little kids, I'd let your instructor or primary RN know your experience with kids has been limited (for me, I'm an only child, no young cousins or nieces/nephews) so they might give you some pointers on what to do.

[WDWpixieRN]

Originally Posted by CSNS

I feel so inadequate. They seem to be doing great and are eating and sleeping unlike me. I know I need to give it time but so far it has not improved one bit but rather got worse

Those of us who "seem to be doing great" are oftentimes stressing as bad as you are. We each handle it a bit differently internally and externally. I'm sure there are a few who have NO stress, but I haven't talked to a soul in my class who doesn't freak pretty regularly.

One thing that has helped me many times through the years with any new challenge is to realize that someone else has done XXX before me (whatever it is I'm contemplating -- decorating a room, sewing something, making a piece of furniture)....and I figure, if another regular human being has been able to do it, then surely I can. I may do parts of it better or worse than someone else did, but I can do it.

You're young still; take some deep breaths and know that you can do this -- you may not be perfect or do it the way you want to do it yet, but you have many years to hone your skills. Just like all the experienced RNs you have and will be working with. They weren't born looking so skilled; ask them, I bet they'll be willing to share how far they've come!!

Good luck!!

[Daytonite]

As I was reading your post I could have sworn I was reading about myself 34 years ago. I went to nursing school having no previous experience working with patients of any kind. I just knew I had to be a nurse. Every day that I walked into my clinical sites I was sick to my stomach with worry that I would accidentally kill a patient. I am happy to report 34 years later that I haven't killed anyone yet. I worried, like you, about OB and peds. I had no idea what to do with a baby, except not to have one unless I was married. All I knew about kids was what I learned from my 4 bratty siblings and what did those punks know? What we didn't get in mental health in my original ADN program I more than made up for during my years of practice. I worked on an alcohol detox unit and every nut job that was admitted to that hospital ended up being transferred to my unit by some strange coincidence.

As for IV's, where should I start (pun intended)? We weren't allowed to start IV's as students. State law. We had to learn it on the job. I was so incredibly bad at it that it was suggested that I take the 30-hour LVN IV certification course out here in California. How embarrassed I was. I was an RN who was supposed to automatically be a master at this skill (I thought). I took the course. I practiced. I blew a lot of IVs. I practiced a lot. I blew a lot more IVs. I kept on practicing. Eventually, I thought I might be good enough to work on an IV team. In fact, I worked on two of them. I also became nationally certified in IV therapy through the Intravenous Nurses Society. I learned to insert PICC lines and repair and de-clot central IV lines. I suppose you could say I am a master at IVs now. But I had to work at it to get there. Now, I've come full circle. I have my own PICC line because I'm going to be having chemotherapy very shortly. It's a different perspective from the patient's side of the bed.

What I want you to know is that most of us were pretty anxious when we were going through nursing school. I didn't talk about my anxieties to anyone until long after I was out and practicing. I now know, however, that it is pretty normal to feel as you do. It is fear of the unknown. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other until to get to the end of your classes. What nursing school does is give you a little experience in a whole lot of nursing areas--a little nibble of each cookie. There isn't much time for anything else. When you graduate you will get a job in some area of nursing, hopefully, one you will be interested in. You will hunker down and seriously master it, just like I learned how to be an IV nurse. Just for the record, I was also a pretty good ICU stepdown and med/surg nurse too!

Some advice. . .don't eat a big breakfast before going to clinicals. Less food in the stomach makes for less barf if you do have to throw up. And, stand close to wastebaskets.

[WDWpixieRN]

Originally Posted by Daytonite

Some advice. . .don't eat a big breakfast before going to clinicals. Less food in the stomach makes for less barf if you do have to throw up. And, stand close to wastebaskets.