Finally feeling better about this

Good for you Lady Phantom!

You made it over that hump. Now you can exhale! Aaahhhhhhhhhh...I'm so happy for you! :balloons:

Chloe

I feel the same exact way, and it just hit me right at the 6 month mark. I really thought I would be quitting my job....and now I'm beginning to ENJOY it, not just survive it!

Thank you for writing about "getting over the hump" in your transition from student to competent professional. We read so many posts here from people who quit their jobs when they feel stressed at 3 or 4 months and never stay long enough to work through it, that I am sure many students and new grads think those feelings will never improve.

Sometimes, you just have to "dig in" and give yourself time to learn the job before you give up on a job. Congratulations ... and Happy Holidays!

That is why I wanted to write this. I have done my fair share of posting negative comments on this board about my experience and frustration with being a new nurse. I think it is important to express the good as well so that others who are feeling what I did will know that there is hope.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season!

Thanks for the encouraging words!

Great to hear this, LadyPhantom. This must be the "magic moment" I've heard about, and it gives the rest of us hope.

Great to hear this LadyPhantom. This must be the "magic moment" I've heard about, and it gives the rest of us hope.[/quote']

Can someone have a "faux magic moment"? Cause I think I have. I posted just a few weeks ago how everything was getting better. But now I'm back to feeling ill about going to work. Really, my stomach is in knots and it's the last place in the world I want to be.

Can someone have a "faux magic moment"? Cause I think I have. I posted just a few weeks ago how everything was getting better. But now I'm back to feeling ill about going to work. Really, my stomach is in knots and it's the last place in the world I want to be.

I think it's more that there are more than one magic moments. For me, everyone said the first six month are the worst. They were right, but as that mark approached, I would hear that it takes about a year to start feeling competent. Which is true, but then you hear it takes about five years to start feeling comfortable...well, I'm halfway there, and that's seeming about right, too. Not that you ever stop learning.

Part of what I went through is that when I was very new, I know some of the charge nurses were careful to give me more manageable assignments. Over time, though, they began to trust me with an occassional train wreck. So I was doing pretty well with a team most experienced nurses would have called a piece of cake, but add in one pretty tough patient and it's a whole new ballgame. Nowadays, it isn't rare to have 2-3 fairly complicated ones out of 5 or 6--which is pretty much normal. So I'm doing the work of an average, competent nurse, and it can be challenging.

I had one night, a couple of years ago, when 3 of my 6 were problem children. Not all that unstable, medically, but one was climbing out of bed, one fell out of bed, and one was running the halls, naked. So I was still charting at nine a.m. and overheard the nurse who followed me telling the dayshift charge that it really wasn't fair to give me that assignment, again, but the CN replied, "I know, but I don't have anyone else who can handle it." (The other nurses on the floor were even newer than me.) It was kind of appalling, but also sort of flattering. She did end up giving the naked lady to someone else, though, and the other two no longer had the element of surprise on their side, so the next night was better.

In short--well, that ship sailed a couple of paragraphs ago--it takes about five years to get comfortable, and even then, I suspect, you don't want to get too comfortable.