Feeling Overwhelmed!!!!!!!!!!

Lady_Bing · Feb 6, 2008

Hi CareBayer!

Hang in there, darling. I know how you feel. I finished my 8 week orientation two weeks ago and I have been on my own for 2 weeks. It’s a hard transition from being a student to being a nurse in real world. No matter how well you did in school (I graduated with a 4.0 and did excellent in clinicals) , you can’t go from a novice to an expert in a very short time. It takes time to learn how to manage your time and your patient load, how to deal with doctors (who don’t always collaborate and consider you a part of the team), how to deal with patients who don’t respect you as a professional, how to deal with families who are anxious and don’t understand why you have to divide your time between 6 people and not focus on their loved ones (because it is not their job to prioritize getting their mom a cup of coffee or choosing to hang blood on the patient next door, it is yours!). Try to get the most out of your orientation experience – learn from the best and also learn from the worst (learn what not to do J !) Some preceptors prefer to step back and kind of let you figure out things on your own – a good preceptor will still be there to answer questions and make sure you are providing safe care, but they will stand aside, giving you a chance to practice your critical thinking skills and allowing you to become more confident in your abilities. Others believe that teaching you a solid routine will help you succeed. Of course there will always be some nurses who don’t like to teach and feel frustrated by newbies, hopefully they are not functioning as preceptors. Like I said before, don’t despair – ask anybody and they will tell you that it takes time to get the hang of things. I think the fact that we are feeling anxious is a good sign - we are concerned about making mistakes, we are concerned for our patients, we are thrust into an unfamiliar hectic environment and we realize that we have shortcomings that can harm someone – just the fact that we are aware that we don’t know everything and we ask questions and get help when we are in doubt, sets us apart from new nurses who assume they know everything and don’t get help/ask questions, thereby compromising their patient care. I’d like to think that hopefully in a year our brains and our hands will catch up with our heart and we will be able to manage time/problem solve/start IVs just as well we love and care for our patients. Stay strong, take good care of yourself, and find a good support system at work and at home.

p.s. do you have a clinical nurse specialist on your floor who kind of oversees your orientation and meets with you to evaluate your progress? If you do, you should be able to share any concerns about your orientation with that person (as I understand, that’s a part of their job J)

p.p.s. try to find nice senior nurses – you won’t believe how many good nurses there are out there who are wonderful teachers without being put officially into that role. They are endless reservoirs of knowledge and experience. Watch what they do and how they do it!

deeDawntee, RN · Feb 6, 2008

Wow, I can hardly improve on what the first poster said. Excellent advice. I have been a nurse about 10 years now and have just started a new job in the ED. No matter what level of nurse you are, being new is really tough and being precepted is even tougher. Rare is the perfect fit between preceptee and preceptor. There are times when I know I have been taught or shown something, and that is how I will start my question: my brain is in overload right now, can you tell me again how to do abc or where is xyz? People will usually give you a break if you recognize that you have been shown something previously but just need to be certain about it.

I don't know what to tell you, for me, being precepted is something to survive. I think it is one of the hardest parts of being a nurse (IMHO), for all the reasons you described and then some. Hang in there, it will get better. I think being able to precept well is rare.

(on your own dance!)

Lynn07 · Feb 6, 2008

I love this forum! I too an a new nurse. I feel the same way you do, however feel lucky! Due to life events I am just now going to work after graduating in 2005! So it's been alot longer since I was on the floor. I love working now, but am scared to death I may do something wrong. And learning the meds over again is SOOOOO hard. But hang in there, that's all I keep telling myself. It will get better! Someday we will look back and see how far we have come! Good luck!:balloons:

CareBayer · Feb 6, 2008

Thank you for the kind words!!!! I am a perfectionist by nature and am learning to cope with the fact that there is NO WAY that I am going to be perfect while caring for six step-down patients! My priority is patient safety and that will never change.

My frustration stems from the fact that I had an awesome preceptor during my last semester of nursing school. For the last 10 weeks of school, some of us were chosen to precept and it was a great experience for me! From day one, my preceptor and I clicked. She seemed to know when I needed help without my even saying anything. She was a great person (and an excellent nurse) that I continue to rely on today. I knew that it was unlikely that my preceptor for this (my first) job would be as good of a fit as that preceptor was. This preceptor has never precepted before, which is why I think that she is overly cautious with me....which I totally understand.