How long did it take....

HeySis, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2016

How long have you been graduated/working as a nurse?

I don't remember how long it took, but I do remember feeling like I would always be behind and be questioning myself.... slowly that stopped as I became more confident. I think about this whenever I am learning something new... that I will get it.

These things don't come all at once, which is probably why I can't remember a specific date (or how long) it took.

Whenever I have switched areas it takes me about 6 months to feel comfortable. And this is with carrying my previous (assessment, IV start, cath, the management) skills and such forward. But each speciality has new skills/medications/policies to learn.

If you are a person that enjoys keeping a journal, I would write down a weekly goal of improvement and then each day something you did to work towards that goal..... or just a note each day on a couple of things you did well that day (and don't forget doing the caring part). This way you can look back when you get discouraged and see how far you've come.

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · Jul 5, 2016

I've heard two years to feel OK and seven years to feel pretty competent. That seems to be true for me, so far.

NewMurse1014 · Jul 5, 2016

How long have you been working? Was there orientation or a preceptor? It also depends on the unit you're working on. I've been 8 months in the new grad position on tele unit. My orientation was about 3 months with a preceptor. It took me about 6 months to start getting comfortable on the floor. It's when I know the routine, know who to ask or where to find the answers (I still ask a lot of questions but my coworkers are willing to help out), and can handle emergency with confidence. I had an RRT yesterday and I received compliments from my coworkers afterwards. It was really a confidence booster. Generally I would say it takes about 6-12 months but of course depends on the individual. Hopefully you will be confident and "click" soon!

nutella, MSN, RN · Jul 5, 2016

Generally speaking, it has been my observation that new nurses are very stressed out in every way for this first year with increased crying, overwhelm and upset the first 6 months - though the crying seems to continue for around one year.

So I would say it takes probably one year to get out of the new nurse crisis state and another year until you are more comfortable. I think 2 years is the time when most nurses feel somewhat proficient (if they survive that long). By that time a good amount of them are already back in school to become NPs or such as they find out during the first year that nursing is not what they thought...

It gets better with time!

Mhays · Jul 5, 2016

Thank you for your discussion forum post. I greatly appreciate it. It took me awhile to get everything that I needed to master as a nurse. It also took me awhile in order to become more comfortable and get use to the floor. Once I got use to the floor and the duties, I felt really good and I could do anything that I needed to do as a nurse. Thank you for discussing this aspect and I wish you the best. It does get better overtime; you just have to be patient.

missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2016

It takes a year on your floor with your patient population. You know your doctors, their limits for ordering intervention, what your patient population can handle, and how comfortable you are. You are aware of some upcoming issues, but still may be surprised.

At a year, you'll be able to prevent a death. You may research a topic because you can't get a service to order what is needed. You'll start to advocate for treatments that you realize are effective.

Give it time.

elkpark · Jul 5, 2016

Conventional wisdom is that it takes about a year. People tend to start feeling more comfortable after ~6 months, but it takes longer to get to the point of feeling like you are actually functioning. Even as an experienced RN, you'll find it takes ~6 months to start feeling comfortable and competent at a new job. Best wishes for your journey!

dudette10, MSN, RN · Jul 5, 2016

How long did it take for it to "click?" As a new nurse, I feel like things haven't really clicked yet. I still feel so slow and not quite sure what to do some days.
How long did it take you to have the confidence in yourself everyday that you did your job?

About 15 months. But there are still days when I'm assigned a patient that has a "low volume, high risk" procedure ordered (such as peritoneal dialysis) where I get twitchy. :)

Now, I'm five years in, and I'm starting to get bored and fed up in my area (adult floor floating), so I've changed jobs completely.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2016

When I was a new grad, 9 years ago, we were told in our new grad program that it takes about 18 months to be fully confident in your skills/abilities. I remember the night, 17 months into my career, when it clicked for me. It was Friday the 13th. My patient was a baby with hydrocephalus. I was one of her primary nurses, I knew her well. There were many questionable decisions made by the Neurosurgery team throughout her long admission. Decisions that probably wouldn't have been made had her parents not been teenagers and known to question them. I still believe that the only reason there wasn't a lawsuit in this case is because her parents were teenagers and didn't know better. Anyway, she'd been inpatient for a long time, with repeated trips to the OR and for some reason, despite her congenital hydrocephalus and multiple failed attempts to wean her external ventricular drain, the team wasn't convinced that she needed a permanent shunt. They pulled her drain one day. I took care of her that night. (The last time they'd pulled her drain without shunting her, she'd ended up bleeding and had several emergent trips to the OR.) On the train on my way in, I had a pit in my stomach. Something told me that I'd end up emergently in the OR with her by the end of the night. I was right. The signs were subtle at first. She was only a few months old, had been asleep when I started my shift at 7pm and hadn't woken to feed by 11pm. Her respiratory rate started to dip to the teens. Her O2 sat started to fall to the low 90s. Her fontanelle became fuller. Her pupils became sluggish. When we took her down for a stat head CT, she didn't stir when we pushed her crib over a bump getting off the elevator. Her CT showed worsening hydrocephalus. The Resident said to make her NPO, he was making arrangements for an OR time. It took an unreasonable amount of time for the OR to call for her, so I called them. They knew nothing about her, said the Resident hadn't called them and their on-call team was in a case. The Resident told me "don't worry about it." There was a lot to be worried about with this baby and my charge nurse and I told him so. She did end up emergently in the OR by morning and remains shunt dependent to this day. Another time, another emergent trip to the OR with this baby, began with her heart rate dipping to 83. The Resident told me it was "fine" because she was sleeping. She was 2 months old. It wasn't fine. We ended up pushing her crib directly into the OR, bypassing pre-op in the process, within an hour of him saying that.

Mia415 · Jul 10, 2016

Speaking from experience I would say 2 years till you feel like you have days that you feel like really confident in yourself and finally tell yourself "you did so great today! You are in the zone!" Until about 18 months it's constant "omg there's still so much I don't know" í ½í¸± But you learn a little more and more each day. Then your boss asks you to precept a new nurse! And you finally feel truly competent. It's nice to have a supportive boss!

Mhays · Aug 1, 2016

It took me a long time for anatomy and physiology to click into my brain. That was the second science course that I had to take in college and it was hard for me to understand all of the concepts. I really had a hard time with the fetal pig test and dissections. It amazed me that I and three other students scored the highest in the class on that particular test. In fact, the teacher announced our names in front of the class. So, I think that repeating a lot of the information that was said in class helped me a lot. I also think that whenever someone in the class asks for notes from the previous class, then that helps to retain the information more and more into the brain. Good luck to you.