First Day Anxiety!

[Kittyfeet]

So, tomorrow morning I get up at 5am and go to my very first day on the floor with my preceptor.

All of a sudden I have all this anxiety, when I've been fine all week! And of course I keep reading all the horror stories of first days where the new grad is left to hang blood alone and all this stuff we were never allowed to do in school and that the doctors made them cry, etc...

Somebody please tell me the first day is not that bad! I have a very good feeling that it isn't going to be like that and even talked about it with my manager in regards to what I'm going to be expected to do at first (follow the nurse, figure out where everything is on the floor, practice documenting), but for some reason I'm really, really nervous that I'm just going to forget everything I know, and if the nurse asks me to do something or asks me a question I'm just going to stand there frozen! Or that it's just going to be assumed that I know how to do stuff that I read all about but never got to practice enough only going to clinical one day a week for 3 months at a time. ;____; I'm seriously tempted to bust out my skills book and read it front to back in case I forgot something between now and 2 years ago.

On top of that I'm taking the NCLEX this friday. The only plus is maybe since I have zero appetite I'll lose some of the weight I gained in nursing school

[tuttle13]

Good luck to you, and be happy that you have a JOB! Remember that you are a new nurse and don't hesitate to remind your new co-workers that you are, and that there are lots of skills you don't have experience doing yet. Your preceptor knows this and as long as you don't put any patients in danger you should be fine. If you don't know how to do something, just say so and ask for help, look it up in the policy and procedure manual and try to watch other nurses when they are doing a skill you are trying to learn. No one is going to expect you to walk in on day one a be an expert. That takes many years of practice and you (and the rest of us) will get there. You are on your way!