Do you ever wonder...

allnurses Guide · Oct 22, 2021

NO, I know exactly how I got my nursing license. I worked my butt off for it.

SilverBells, BSN · Oct 23, 2021

I remember all of the hard work for sure. At the same time, sometimes the things I do or say are so unintelligent that I have to wonder how on earth I managed to pass my classes and boards even with all of the hours of work I put into them. Some of the nurses I work with are incredibly insightful and gifted. I don't see the same qualities in myself, so for me, it's astonishing that we hold the same type of license. My work ethic is typically pretty strong, but I lack the natural intelligence my colleagues possess.

allnurses Guide · Oct 23, 2021

14 hours ago, SilverBells said:

I remember all of the hard work for sure. At the same time, sometimes the things I do or say are so unintelligent that I have to wonder how on earth I managed to pass my classes and boards even with all of the hours of work I put into them. Some of the nurses I work with are incredibly insightful and gifted. I don't see the same qualities in myself, so for me, it's astonishing that we hold the same type of license. My work ethic is typically pretty strong, but I lack the natural intelligence my colleagues possess.

I have noticed in some of your posts that you tend to be very task oriented in your work. There's nothing wrong with that except not exercising intuitive skills. Not every situation requires immediate action and it's possible to work really hard but not really smart. Slow down listen to what those gifted and insightful nurses demonstrate to you. Work on honing those skills and soon people will be commenting on your insight as well.

NightNerd, MSN, RN · Oct 23, 2021

On 10/21/2021 at 9:25 PM, SilverBells said:

Do you ever wonder how you managed to get a nursing license? Or how you managed to convince your teachers to let you graduate school in the first place?

Sometimes I feel as if someone else went to school, but I somehow got credit. It's almost as if my license shouldn't be, well, mine.

Anyone else relate?

I did feel this way as a new grad, and when moving into acute care since I didn't start out working in the hospital. I've since gained a lot of experience, learned a lot, and feel I can trust myself to do the right thing. If I feel like I've made a misstep or am not sure what to do in a situation, I'll ask a coworker or supervisor I know to show good judgment. Either I'll find I was on the right track, or I'll have another piece of knowledge in my orificenal.

I don't think this feeling necessarily indicates that you don't know what you're doing. Maybe you just haven't had the opportunity to use what you know and show yourself what you're capable of. I've never been a manager, but I can imagine this feeling would only be exacerbated by the responsibilities of the role.

Davey Do · Oct 23, 2021

On 10/21/2021 at 7:25 PM, SilverBells said:

Do you ever wonder how you managed to get a nursing license?

I've often wondered how I ever managed to get a nursing license without becoming more of a crispy critter than I already was.

Davey Do · Oct 23, 2021

20 hours ago, SilverBells said:

I have to wonder how on earth I managed to pass my classes and boards even with all of the hours of work I put into them.

Classes made sense to me and I graduated with honors, but the mock state board tests made me look like a real dunce.

I purchased three different books that had mock state board tests in them and couldn't score higher than 70% on any of them. I had been an LPN for seven years when I graduated from the RN program and couldn't understand why I couldn't do better!

Then it hit me like a thunderbolt- I wasn't giving the answers they wanted, I was giving answers more based in reality.

Once I started giving the answers I believed they wanted, not necessarily based in reality, I did exceptionally well.

On the same lines, I went through the psych portion of the RN program with an LPN who worked at the state hospital. This LPN had an excellent reputation, was a very good psych nurse, yet failed that portion of the program!

Those who know, do. Those who think they know write test questions.

Lynker, LPN · Oct 23, 2021

I feel this way sometimes. I go to work at the nursing home and go "Okay, now it's all on me?" and it doesn't feel real. Soon I'll feel the same way with my RN....

SilverBells, BSN · Oct 24, 2021

7 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:

I have noticed in some of your posts that you tend to be very task oriented in your work. There's nothing wrong with that except not exercising intuitive skills. Not every situation requires immediate action and it's possible to work really hard but not really smart. Slow down listen to what those gifted and insightful nurses demonstrate to you. Work on honing those skills and soon people will be commenting on your insight as well.

I would have to agree with your comment about me being task-oriented. My supervisor sends me and my colleague a list of to-do things every day. And while I'm great at marking off nearly every item on the list on a day-to-day basis, it still seems as if I am lacking something. My co-manager, on the other hand, takes awhile to get through his list of things to do, but he has other strengths. From my perspective, I think people have more respect for him. He seems to be a stronger nurse clinically, and is one of the nurses I work with whom I would consider to be gifted and insightful. He has a way of entering into nearly any patient situation and simply seems to know what to do. People are able to ask him questions, and he always seems to know the answer. I, on the other hand, am good at finding out the answers to people's questions, but I need more time to process questions being asked and don't always have an automatic reply to everything. He naturally picks up on new skills, whereas I seem to require more practice.

One thing that you mentioned that stands out is the comment, "Not every situation requires immediate action." This makes me think of how many SBARs I write to notify the provider of various things. I write way more SBARs than anyone else, including my co-manager. This is frustrating for providers as it just adds extra work for them. But I am also wondering if the fact that I am always writing them is almost hindering me from being "insightful." I think that sometimes I am too quick to ask the provider to see a patient without really determining if any nursing interventions could be put in place first. It seems as if any and every situation that is even slightly out of the norm is worth a provider notification for me. I think my colleague does a better job of interacting and working with his patients first prior to writing any SBARs. He's probably gaining better experience allowing him to be insightful, and hence, he doesn't have the need to write as many SBARs. I wonder if I need to challenge myself to think through situations first and interact with patients a bit more prior to notifying a provider. Yes, there will be many things as a manager that I need to follow up on, but writing an SBAR or calling the provider isn't always going to be the answer to everything.

I think it's funny that you mention that it's possible to work hard without working smart. I actually had an NP tell me, "Work smarter, not harder." Something to think about.

Emergent, RN · Oct 24, 2021

I enjoy your self-reflective posts.

vintagegal, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Oct 25, 2021

I think a lot of this is due to the job you have. Time for a different one!

If your in management the lack of confidence is starting to erode your employees sense of trust in you. Once that happens all hell will break loose and everyone will do whatever they want and leave you out of any decision.

maybe if you tried switching things up and got a different job you would see a different perspective and learn skills that your not confident in.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Oct 25, 2021

On 10/22/2021 at 8:07 AM, hppygr8ful said:

NO, I know exactly how I got my nursing license. I worked my butt off for it.

My exact answer, too, Hppy!