The first year

[erifica]

I'm in my first year of nursing. I work med-surg. Most days, I like it. I may be stressed but I still like being a nurse. Yesterday, was NOT one of those days. I am having stress at home and that doesn't help. I was not feeling well and unfortunately, when you work around other nurses, no amount of makeup can cover up you're not well. I've been getting last minute admits; like 20 minutes before I'm supposed to give report to leave. I don't like myself when I'm stressed. I don't like the way I feel or the things I say in head or out loud. I just want to be the person I am/ know myself to be. I'm type a. I try to be meticulous in my work. But yesterday, my patient load was "light" after I did a d/c but I also had one patient that involved a lot of my time. So how do you handle this kind of stress??? I'm just about at my wit's end at home as it is and I am in school for my BSN so I don't get a lot of time to be fine at home. I don't know how much more I can take at home but I do try to be positive esp. at work.

[RNJill]

This is so, so cliche but first and foremost you have to remind yourself that you are only *one* person who cannot possibly control everything that happens over the course of the day, much less events on a med-surg unit like last minute admits and needy patients. I am Type A myself so I understand your struggle! The other thing that I have grown to realize is that one thing that separates those nurses that you think are "supernurses" from the rest is not that they have magically figured out how to make those crazy days so easy but simply that they have learned how to roll with the punches. The calmer you can stay - even if such calm is totally faked (especially initially) - the more positive the outcomes will be amidst the chaos. Along with that, your crazy days will be better when you learn how to effectively and decisively delegate (I know too that that is hard, but worthwhile!). If you are in with one of two last-minute new admits, call your aide to settle in the other...simple but I feel like we are nurses are often really bad about delegating or even just pulling in other coworkers that may not be as busy.

With stress at home and your BSN courses going on, you probably don't have much time for yourself, but sometimes "going back to the basics" (striving to get a reasonable amount of sleep, eating as well as you can, exercising at least a bit - even if you just walk most days!) can make you feel better and give you a sense of control. This will help you tough out bad days at work too. Seriously though, the fact that you say you like it most days even as a relatively new grad is an awesome thing! Every nurse no matter how experienced has awful days so don't beat yourself up. Good luck with everything!