New Grad Nurse stressing about what ifs

LovingLife123 · Apr 9, 2017

Sometimes it's going to happen. Certain patients will need your immediate attention over others. I often feel bad for my other patient when that happens, but I was busy saving the life of that critical one.

Do you do bedside report? You should see each of your patients at shift change and can see each patient one last time before you leave. That should ease your mind.

AHunt92 · Apr 9, 2017

In our ward we don't do bedside handovers, and only actually do a handover of our patients after a morning shift. I always try to say good bye to my patients when I leave though and let them know who their next nurse would be but that day in the example I had stayed late to help the next nurse for a bit because I knew she would be stuck too and eventually the other nurses were pushing me out the door to go home and then i forgot. The main thing is even though i can rationalise why a mistake i made isnt as bad as what think it is I just can't turn down the stress. I just keep thinking what if, what if what if. What if i forgot some pain relief, what if i missed antibiotic, what if I missed something because I didnt know. Everyone has said that its normal to feel like this and it will pass but honestly it feels awful,

allnurses Guide · Apr 9, 2017

I know it doesn't make it any easier, but please know this is very normal at this phase in your career. You know just enough to realize how much you do not know. This anxiety is common and, frankly, not inappropriate. It is really key that you start building good self-care habits at this point so that you start managing this stress effectively. Eat right, exercise and decompress with friends. If you have nurse friends, even better. This is when the humor develops, the ability to talk out scenarios of things that happened and investigate what could or should have been different, what a more experienced nurse would do, etc. Debriefing is an important part of handling this stress. Remind yourself there will be others on the floor to run things by when you are stymied or your developing sixth sense is going off but you aren't sure why.

Most of all, work hard to gain knowledge and believe in your ability to grow and develop. This anxiety starts to calm down as you gain faith in your nursing practice and your ability to handle situations. It never fully goes away, but shifts do come when it is not there. The more shifts you get under your belt in which you handle things, the more resolution will come for the "what ifs".

If lifestyle management and decompressing with other nurses doesn't do it for you, don't be afraid to seek out a psychologist or medication if needed. This is a crucial time in your career. Set yourself up to succeed and be gentle with yourself. Every nurse you see who seems so very competent was just like you at one point in time.