Becoming an excellent nurse

[Nanny Fine]

I am a first year student hoping to be one of the best nurses imaginable. I know nursing was not a hands on job or a job that you could scrape through. You have to tell yourself that you not only want it, you need it. As we begin the basic at school I realize that little things that we over look sometimes are the ones that are most importance, that a mistake can be made because we have over look something. I plan to study hard. I plan on doing my utmost best. I plan to make every second count because the second you probably chose to spear might be the most critical. I want to reach a level that I can be acceptable to me or what I would consider as great accomplishment. So now am asking, what are some pointers to becoming an excellent nurse. Helping people is what I love to do. Seeing them at their weakest link and to know that they can become better is my greatest joy. But what I have realize is that some people or persons in my batch have drop nursing as their major and move into a more suitable field. i love nursing but I get distracted easily and sometimes I forget what the teacher was saying or what they are presently talking about. How can I reduce my level of curiosity on things that least matters.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

dear, i mean this in all kindness, so don't take this wrong. settle down now. none of us are perfect. we all do our best. we all make mistakes. there are whole threads on an devoted to the mistakes we've made, some of them humorous but a lot of them more serious or potentially serious.

if you go into nursing thinking you will never make a mistake, or with a mindset that will destroy you when (not if) you do, then you are setting yourself up for a world of heartache and self-doubt.

go to nursing school and learn what they have to teach you. ask a lot of questions. think more slowly and deliberately than you think you can now-- you say you get distracted and can't focus, and this will be a problem. you might consider getting tested for an attention deficit problem and get professional recommendations to help you focus better. your college health center can help you identify someone-- you will not be the first who asked!

stay in touch and let us know how you're doing!

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

dear, i mean this in all kindness, so don't take this wrong. settle down now.

i would add to the above excellent response to consider this: the people you see in life who are really, really good at something got that way in part by screwing it up the first couple times they tried it.