Am I too nervous to be a nurse? Any advice please?!!

[claireb]

I am incredibly scared to work as a nurse in a hospital... I worked at the hospital in school and, honestly, never really liked it... I thought I could work outpatient as a nurse and do public health/education/research or something along those lines. Or do psychiatric nursing, that is another goal of mine. All these jobs require acute care in a hospital setting experience...

Well, I got a job in a doctor's office and I liked it (didn't LOVE it) but I felt inadequate as an RN because I didn't have the hospital work experience. I have been there for two years. Now I am working on getting into a new grad program at a hospital for and am absolutely PETRIFIED to be a nurse!

I am scared I will forget to do something or make a medication error and hurt a patient. So scared! It actually keeps me up at night sometimes and I don't know if this is normal and I am just worrying too much or if I should think about another career.

I just would feel like such a failure if I had to give up the degree I worked so hard for! This is all eating me up inside I am torn between just "sucking it up", and realizing these feelings may be telling me something!?

I am smart and thoughtful and hard-working... maybe just too nervous?

Any thoughts would be so greatly appreciated, I am torn!!

[Boston-nurse08]

Hi! I have been working as an RN on a medical intermediate unit for over a year now and it is extremely stressful, even after a year. There are some days I tell myself I can do this and others I just go home wishing I never had to return. I am hoping to get into psych nursing and I have heard from many employers that you do NOT need medical inpatient experience to get into psych nursing. My advice to you would be to do what you like or love. Simply go for that first. Do NOT get into a job just because everyone is telling you that you need to. Inpatient nursing is stressful and if you are already dreading it, I would recommend you doing what you love first. I hope this helps! Im just trying to help someone prevent what I went through! Good Luck!!!

[KYCNM]

First, you really need to take a time out from this stress, because it can and may lead you to making mistakes in other parts of your life.

Not all nurses are "cut out" to work in an acute care setting. However, "working" is not the same as the short bursts of clinical that you were exposed to in your nursing program. Did you have a capstone course at the end of your education where you spent 100 or more hours working with the same preceptor? That makes a great deal of difference in many student's clinical confidence.

It's not too late to set up a similar experience at the hospital where you would like to do the new graduate orientation. Approach the HR person and ask if you can have a "capstone experience". During that time, you won't be paid at the graduate nurse rate, but would be paid at the rate of an extern. That way the hospital gets something back for their investment in the experience. You work with the same person (preceptor) during this time. After a month of that type of experience you should have a better idea about whether you can "be all that you can be" as a nurse in the acute care setting.

[MissIt]

Hi there! I could have written your post. I am exactly the same way! There are things that freak me out (med administration, codes, etc) and things that don't (teaching, wound care, funnily enough blood draws and starting IVs). When I graduated, I wanted to go into the gero psych unit, but the nurse manager told me a year of med-surg was required because so many of their patients had medical issues the nurses had to deal with. I went onto the med.onc. floor and then ended up in radiation oncology because i hated it so much! And never made it back to psych (yet). My advice would be to try for the psych floor and just see what happens. Maybe they'll let you try it. Also, don't do rotating shifts! If you have to do straight nights, do it. It is soooo bad for anxiety to be flip flopping all the time. Tour every unit you're thinking about and ask the nurses there questions-- do they have to float to other floors, how much OT is expected, what is orientation like, when will you be expected to be charge nurse. Go with the place that seems the gentlest. Look at places other than med/surg too, LTC would give you a lot of psych experience if you're interested in gerontology. Public health departments have mental health and addictions clinics, homeless clinics can have a large psych population. If you get some psych experience out of the hospital, it might be easier to get into the psych department without doing med/surg.

[Schmoo1022]

First, you really need to take a time out from this stress, because it can and may lead you to making mistakes in other parts of your life.

Not all nurses are "cut out" to work in an acute care setting. However, "working" is not the same as the short bursts of clinical that you were exposed to in your nursing program. Did you have a capstone course at the end of your education where you spent 100 or more hours working with the same preceptor? That makes a great deal of difference in many student's clinical confidence.

It's not too late to set up a similar experience at the hospital where you would like to do the new graduate orientation. Approach the HR person and ask if you can have a "capstone experience". During that time, you won't be paid at the graduate nurse rate, but would be paid at the rate of an extern. That way the hospital gets something back for their investment in the experience. You work with the same person (preceptor) during this time. After a month of that type of experience you should have a better idea about whether you can "be all that you can be" as a nurse in the acute care setting.

I never heard of the capstone course? I think if I had done something like that, my career would have gone differently. I am happy where I am, don't get me wrong, but I think I may have taken a different path if I had that experience

[MissIt]

I totally agree with the capstone experience helping with feeling more confident!! In school, I had both a full time, 2 month externship with one preceptor and a final nursing rotation on a surgical floor with a preceptor where we gradually took over the full patient load. I loved both of these experiences. Still, when I think about hospital work I get a warm fuzzy feeling because of those good experiences! However, once I got on the floor as a new grad, things were different. That feeling of teamwork, of being able to ask questions when you are uncertain, etc., was gone. Our floor was short staffed and often didn't have a secretary or CNA to help us. They precepted us for a month and then by 6 weeks we were floating and shortly after that we were in charge. One girl floated the day after her orientation ended and had to be charge on that floor. That's why it's so important to make sure you ask the questions before you start!

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

If you are determined to work in the more stressful area of nursing, you may want to see your doc and start an anti-anxiety med. When I was much younger, I considered drugs as crutches. Now I consider Lexapro as my best friend

[MissIt]

claireb-- can I ask you a quick question? Why do you think you need to go work at the hospital?

[sistasoul]

Hi,

To the OP. I coud have written your post. I was scared to death of becoming a hospital nurse because of my anxiety. I never had any plans of working in a hospital because I had a such a bad last semester clinical in my AD program. The nurses at the hospital I was at were very stressed out and could be nasty due to the stress. My clinical instructor was not very supportive and was intimidating. I didn't think I was cut out to work in a hospital due to all of these factors. My confidence was pretty much gone by the time I graduated.

When I graduated I worked 5 months in a LTC facility than I got a job at a hospital on a busy ortho/neuro unit. I have made it one year at the hospital. There have been many, many days where I felt I could not do this and the stress was overwhelming to the point that I would have to go into the supply room and cry. It is much, much better now because I have a lot of supportive nurses around me and a good nurse manager.

I say go for it as you may find you like being a hospital nurse. Especially if you can get into a new grad program.

You may surprise yourself. I was told by one of my charge nurses to give it 2 years before I decided if I hated my job or not.

[ulmaulma]

I could have written that post! You are not alone ! Don´t know what else to say, sorry

[Sunnysidegirl]

I worried about being the nervous type too! I am a new nurse with 8 months under my belt working on a busy Medical floor.What helped me was a good precepter,great supportive co-workers who are always willing to answer questions and help.I was also assigned a mentor which is a new program my floor decided to pilot.I do still feel nervous especially giving IV meds,and lot of narcotics.However I use it to my advantage and turn my nervousness into hypervigilance and attention to detail.

I think you are very NORMAL and NOT ALONE!As someone already said lots of new grads could have written your post.You sound like you really care about what you are doing and that is the making of a great nurse.I would rather have someone like you at my bedside than someone who thought they knew it all,never asked a question, and had no worries!

I hope you find your niche.Just stay true to what you really want and you can't go wrong.And as some others have said,I think it will take awhile for us new grads to aclimate and to gain the experience that builds confidence.

[LouisVRN, RN]

The fact is working in a hospital in direct patient care, sooner or later you will make a mistake. We are not infallible. I can say personally, to the best of my knowledge I have only made one med error in two years, it was not re-initiating a heparin drip immediately post-op, thankfully the patient had no ill effects and i most definitely have been more careful about reviewing my post-op orders as soon as the patient gets to the floor no matter what else is going on. The fear of harming your patients should never go away, most of these patients are putting their lives in our hands and don't even bother questioning us. That being said you should always feel free to ask questions especially when doing something new. I dont think this fear should keep you from doing what you love.