Before I officialy commit myself to the pre-nursing program I have a question

fUsi0n86 · Jun 22, 2008

Supposedly it is the fastest growing career field but when you live in an area that graduates 3000 MAs every four months finding work can be really tough. Anyway... that's really not what this post is about...

I am not a RN, but the hospital I work at currently has 25 openings for RN's. They are needed everywhere. The rest I can't answer.

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Jun 22, 2008

It's the people that don't worry that concern me the most. Having said that, obsessing isn't healthy either.

jessi1106, BSN, RN · Jun 22, 2008

I have been an RN for almost 1 year.

The first few months were very stressful.

I constantly feared I may have 'missed something'. I even called work a few times after I got home to check if I had charted a med etc.

Now I don't stress nearly as much. I also dream about work far less. For me, at least, the stress issue is improving with time.

Yes, nursing and medication administration is a huge responsibility. There is no way a nurse can do everything right 100% of the time. We are human. Consistently following the 5 rights will prevent errors from occuring.

If you are thorough and good with pts then you will most likely do very well as a nurse.

Good luck to you. :heartbeat

mom and nurse · Jun 22, 2008

There was a policy at the facility I worked at as a new nurse which required everyone to check the name and medical record number on an individual's wrist band with each medication. I know that some facilities in our area have an electronic scanner which assists in doing this. I think this is standard to check 2 identifiers in healthcare facilities.

I remember worrying because I called a patient by the wrong name that I might have given her the wrong meds. Then I remembered. Being the paranoid nurse I was I ALWAYS checked the wrist band of my patients for their name and the medical record number.

Because I knew how thorough I was, I knew I gave the right patient the right medication.

I see nothing wrong with double checking... of course still stressing over it, to the point it keeps you awake at night, a year after becoming a nurse, might be a problem. :specs:

penguin2 · Jun 22, 2008

The first couple years are the hardest. It gets much easier as your confidence & skill levels increase. However!! I still have an occasional night where I wake up at 3 a.m. thinking "I wonder if I should have _____" or how a particular patient is doing. Every nurse I know does this at some time or other. It gets easier to leave work at work. Good luck!

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Jun 22, 2008

I would literally wake up in the middle of the night terrified that I had given someone the wrong medication or the wrong dosage. I've always been the kind of person who is a real stickler about the rules. I would triple check everything, but I still had that fear that I would miss something or do something wrong. Before I went to bed I would walk through the whole day in my head just to be sure that I didn't mess up, and still I would wake up worried that I had made a mistake.
I'm concerned that with the responsibility of being an RN I might literally worry myself to death:eek:. Do you guys feel this way? How do you deal with the stress? Does it interrupt your sleep? Is someone who worries too much not cut out for this?

I honestly feel like this will be way less of a problem for you as an RN, as it was for me. I was a med tech at one time. I had the same fears. After I was an RN, I realized how much the certification course did NOT teach me, and I was angry. It seemed like throwing too much responsibility at a person without the education to back it up.

When you get your RN, yes, you will have worries and stresses and fears -- if you look in the First Year Nursing forum, you'll get an idea -- but because you have the education and because you are enabled to think critically, you will gain confidence rapidly and this will become less of an issue over time.

Because you do tend to triple-check everything, I think that's good. Those are good qualities for an RN, IMO. Eventually, you'll learn to leave work at work, as we all must, to save our sanity.

:twocents:

ann945n, RN · Jun 23, 2008

I have this problem still. I sometimes get very worried about details and if I did things right. Its something I am trying to master so it doesnt interfer with my life at home. Id hate to say dont go into nursing but it is a problem for me I wish I would have considered before I went into nursing. I am actually looking into teaching positions because my anxiety has gotten really bad. You know yourself better than anyone, I would say my problems got worse the more responsibility I got. Sometimes I wish I had a nice office job where the worse mistake I could make is send a 1000 wonder bras to the wrong retailor. What a nice job that would be!

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jun 24, 2008

The people who don't check and re-check, the ones who don't worry, are the ones that worry ME.

Yes, a consciencious (sp??) RN is frequently stressed. OTOH, it does get better as times goes by; when I was in school, in clinicals, I frequently had dreams (nightmares!) about missing meds, missing patients, forgetting so many things.

As a new nurse, I always heard IV pumps going off in my head on my drive home, AT home, you name it. I don't anymore (the imaginary ones, that is!).

I wouldn't let the fears you've voiced stop you. They are normal, and expected. And no, they won't kill you :)