I think I might be a scary nurse

Nurses General Nursing

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I read quite a few posts on here from other new grads (I will admit that they are the ones who actually have jobs; I do not have a nursing job) about the anxiety levels.

I PM'd one of my AN buddies on here about this, but then I thought I would ask the masses, too.

I think there must be something wrong with me. I have a little anxiety, but not anywhere close to what I read on here sometimes about new grads. I guess I feel more like I must have known something to pass nursing school and NCLEX. I know textbook world is totally different than real nursing world. I do feel like my school gave me a decent education. I feel like I have a good base knowledge to get me started in the world of nursing. I definitely feel like I will have to learn stuff and will make mistakes.

Does having confidence (with a small amount of anxiety) mean I will be a scary nurse if I ever find a job? It scares me to actually find that I have some confidence in my abilities when I often hear that a nurse without fear/anxiety is a scary nurse...Where is the line drawn exactly?

Specializes in Emergency Department.

In my opinion the only truly scary nurse is the one that is so overconfident that he was she does not seek out assistance for things. Then nurse does not know what they do not know and is absolutely certain that they know everything you need to know to perform at the level they need to. In short, they believe that nursing school top and everything they need to know to be, for lack of a better word, safe.

That's the kind nurse that does not realize that successfully completing nursing school and attaining an RN license is effectively a license to learn, that they had been setup to be (hopefully) safe learners of all the nursing profession.

The fact that the OP is wondering whether or not she is possibly a scary nurse is to me, evidence that she probably is not one of those scary nurses. I also believe that having a little bit of anxiety is certainly a good thing. Is this little bit of anxiety combined with knowledge that you do not know everything, but you know that there are things that you do not know, that should drive you to learn those things and become as expert as possible as you can be. It's that little bit of anxiety that should be with you always because you were to become a lifelong learner and keep learning. The minute you think that you have learned everything that there is to learn about something, I think that is when the other type of scary nurse shows up, and should retire.

In a previous lifetime, or at least it seems that way, I used to work for a Paramedic who was probably one of the scariest paramedics I have ever worked with. She had her license about one year, had been working for about six months, and was absolutely convinced that she knew everything she needed to know. On top of that, she was absolutely convinced that she was right about everything. Yes, this paramedic knew her protocols inside and out and backwards and forwards. The problem was that she was unable to think outside the box. I can only hope that in the approximately dozen years that have passed between then and now, that she has not repeated in her first year as a paramedic twelve times, rather that hopefully she had an epiphany and has actually started to think.

What's probably scarier is that I was a brand new Paramedic at the time and it was obvious to me just how scary she was. Yes, I made my own rookie mistakes, but mine were operations-related, not medical ones.

What is the take away from all of this? Even though I have not worked as a paramedic in many years, I have kept up my education in that field. Currently, I am just a student nurse, but I completely intend to continue learning as I earn my RN license and move forward in my career. Stagnation is NOT an option! I chose to never be that scary nurse that refuses to learn anything new because I know it all...

I second this. You don't know until you are there all on your own. And everyone is in their room, and it's just you. Then some anxiety kicks in. Anxiety is good, keeps your mind sharp. Full out panic is not.

In my orientation review some of my coworkers said I knew how to keep calm, and I was great newbie. But I also would tell everyone that everyday I felt like I was letting people down because I didn't know everything. I think people respect those who admit they know what they don't know.

Oh, man, I hear you - I walked around convinced that everyone just knew I was some sort of fraud, that I should be growing grass instead of passing dangerous medications, even though you'd never know it to look at me. I looked pretty relaxed, or so I was told.

What I didn't realize was EVERYONE ELSE FELT THE SAME WAY. I figured everyone else had it together! I was wrong, wrong, wrong...but it took me a long time to find out.

There's nothing wrong with being confident. I'm sure patients would prefer that you are confident, and that's probably most important, anyway. Confidence comes in many forms, too, like the confidence to make sure a treatment procedure is right before actually doing it. You can still be confident, yet, not know it all :)

Specializes in I/DD.

It depends on your personality. While I experience anxiety about some things (like anyone), I rarely feel anxious about my job. Not when I was a new grad or when I switched to the ICU. I think the biggest reason for this is because I DO ask questions. Lots of them. I am that annoying coworker who will grab the first person I see to bounce something off of them, even when I am 99% sure I am right. I am confident enough that I know where my resources are and how to use them that I don't see the pint in getting worked up over "what ifs."

I'm also someone where the anxiety didn't really start until I was at the end of orientation and it didn't get obsessively bad until I'd actually been off orientation for two or three weeks. It's hard to realize what you don't know until you've really experienced it. I know a lot of my anxiety was less about policies and procedures and more about multi-tasking realizing trends, and putting the pieces of the big picture together.[/quote']

Ditto that it's hard to realize what you don't know. I can have 2 patients with the same conditions (ex. 2 with trachs and g-tubes) and have some anxiety caring for one, while having no problem with the other. I've found its not my skills I have nervousness over, but, being new, not knowing their documenting procedures, unfamiliarity (thus being SLOW) with the electronic medical record system. Ours is confusing and annoying, while I've loved others. My anxiety/insecurity, in a nutshell, comes from learning the ins and outs of the place, while its 2nd nature to every one who works there.

I have to say, after 15 years of nursing, the nurses that concern me the most are the over confident ones. They think they know something they don't. You cannot understand the true responsibility you have toward your patient if you don't have a concern related to every decision you initiate. Every med passed, foley inserted, NG dropped, Aline inserted, phone call not made, is a potential aid or harm. You must not rely on passing your classes or NCLEX as a determining factor on your skill level. I may be old school, but I would take a nurse who tells me that they don't know something over a nurse who claims to "be comfortable" in their 1st 2 years.

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