Irrational Fears of a Nursing Student

allthingsbright · Jul 19, 2006

my seven week summer vacation has given me far too much time to obsess about school and my new career. during classes, i was working too hard to think about all this, but now my irrational fears are making me crazy!
what if nobody will hire a 39 year old new grad - who used to be an engineer?
what if i can't find a job and have to work med/surg in the hospital where i had clinicals? (it was not a good experience!)
what if i never get to see a delivery next semester during ob clinicals?
what if i fail clinical next spring, just before graduation, when i'll have the toughest instructor in the whole school?
yes - i know my fears are irrational, but they are keeping me awake at night. instead of enjoying my time off with my husband and two little girls, i'm alternating between depression & anxiety. i'm a good student (gpa 3.9), and have received great reviews from all of my instructors - with the exception of the tough one who i'll have again next spring! i really enjoyed providing patient care, and i thrive on the academics of school. i'm not excited about the terrible patient : nurse ratios i saw during clinical because the patients weren't receiving the care they needed, but i now know which hospitals in my area have better ratios. i'm trying to remind myself that there is a huge demand for nurses in my area, and that i will probably have a few jobs to pick from when i graduate.
anyone else fighting irrational fears about school?

omg, i am sooooo with you! here are mine:

-i have forgotten everything i learned in fundamentals

-i won't have the time/energy to study and make the a's i want

-i will get kicked out of the program for making a mistake in clinical (irrational!)

-i will oversleep the 1st day of clinical orientation (automatic clinical probation for being late)

-i wont fit in my scrubs (trying to lose 10 pounds cuz they are too tight)

-mental health will scare the crap out of me and i will hate ob (want to be ob nurse sooo badly so want a good experience)

-won't get an ob job and will have work med/surg right out of school

yeah, so i have lots rattling through my brain, too! it will be ok! ;)

BoonersmomRN · Jul 19, 2006

YES! Here are mine

* I will screw up something royal in clinical

* I will oversleep ( and I have 3 alarms!)

* I will be late to clinical due to horrible traffic ( not excused)

* I will fail a test

* I will forget about a paper or something else due

* I wil show to school naked ( ok, ok, that's a nightmare)

* I will pull a complete mental blank when my clinical instructor asks me something I KNOW ( this ALMOST happened last semester)

* I won't get hired anywhere I WANT to work

* I will have a patient who hates me

* I will stick myself with a needle

jen42 · Jul 19, 2006

Employers will be happy to hire a 39-year-old new grad- it's not like you're 70. If you had a successful career beforehand, it's evidence that you have basic job skills- somebody just out of college who is 22 may have worked a job successfully, but that's different than handling a career. Plus, you were an engineer, which means you're detail-oriented and can calculate things- another plus.

Don't know the hiring situation in your area, but you should be able to find something in the hospitals around you. If not, there's no reason why the hospital you did clinicals at should hire you over the others! (Sorry, that may not be reassuring.) Suffice to say, there's a nursing shortage. If your grades and recommendations are good, there's no reason you shouldn't get a job.

You may not see a delivery. You probably will. Most instructors try to ensure that you do. If you don't... well, do you want to be an OB nurse? If so, and you don't see a delivery, set up a shadow with an OB nurse later on, and you will. It's not like you do much right at delivery as a nursing student, besides watch.

Unless you accidentally give 10 mLs of insulin, or act in a way that is totally unsafe, or get lazy and purposely don't do your work, nobody is going to fail you. Try your best, and your instructor may not be thrilled with you, but you don't fail out unless there's a really good reason. I went to one of the top BSN programs in the country, and had a girl in my clinical whose motto was "If I hide in the bathroom, nobody can make me do stuff." She passed.

Now, for the rest of the worries. :)

You may have "forgotten" everything you learned in fundamentals... but your mind will access it when it's needed. Besides, if you did, so did everybody else.

Don't kill yourself trying to get As. Unless you want to go to get your Ph.D at some incredibly competitive school, you can get Bs and still get hired and do a good job as a nurse (and even become an NP!)

They don't kick you out of the program for making mistakes in clinicals. First of all, you always check with the RN before delivering medications- they'll catch something. As for the rest of it, if you make a mistake it's one that's been made before. It's hard to kill someone accidentally when you've an instructor and another RN hanging over your shoulder. (The 10 mLs of insulin mentioned above? Went to check it with my instructor before giving, on my first clinical ever. She went so pale...)

Set two alarms the morning before your first clinical. And make a friend in the clinical call you, too.

Buy new scrubs if you have to.

Mental health is actually very calm... they will not put nursing students into a dangerous situation. You may have somebody yell at you, but probably not- the patients tend to love you. Remember... nursing students don't get to work with Hannibal Lecter. It's more the depressed older woman, the demented, sweet old man, and the occasional schizophrenic who is scared of the FBI. Choose your clinical site carefully- if you're nervous about it, don't head for the prison. As for OB, even if you don't like your clinical you should be able to tell if you'd like the type of nursing. If you think, oh, I'd love OB but the nurses are nasty, there's too many interventions, too high of a nurse-patients ratio- well, those problems are all solved by going to a different facility. If you really don't like OB- well, maybe you should do something different. And you don't *have* to work med-surg right out of school... nobody does, anymore. Too much of a shortage! :)

GrummRN · Jul 20, 2006

If it makes you feel any better, I am a new grad (second degree - teacher). I am 53 yo. While in my preceptorship, the hospital I was in, offered me a job and even tried to buy out my scholarship with another hospital. I am in cardiac stepdown at my scholarship hospital and working PRN at the hospital where I preceptored. Age is not relevant at this point in my life. Good luck with your career choice.