First day off orientation

Sun0408, ASN, RN · Dec 14, 2012

You are never alone or totally on your own. You have your co-workers, NM, CNA's, tech, MD's to help you. You will ask a ton of questions and that's a good thing. Not everyone on your unit will be open to you and that's ok, find a few people that will help you on your journey. It will be tough and you will question yourself if you went into the right field....All normal :)

It will get better but it takes time, you will be slower but you will get faster as you develop your skills etc..

The only stupid question is the one not asked !!! Look up common meds on your unit, common DX's, common procedures in your off time, it will help as you move forward.

No amount of orientation is ever enough lol, get a good brain sheet and write down what needs to be done on your shift...meds, dressing changes, IV's etc and mark them off as you complete them.

julie88879 · Dec 15, 2012

I'm new at my job too and very overwhelmed. I'm going on my third week at a clinic that is fast paced and just graduated from lpn school a couple of months ago but the MAs have been helping me a lot. I tell them every day that I appreciate them :) giving back to MAs and cnas I think is the best advice the are the ones who can help a lot :)

LaceyRN12 · Dec 17, 2012

Thank you SO MUCH for your words. I had a very busy first day. I cried on my way to work (good thing I didn't cry AT work). I got behind in the morning already and had to get help from other nurses. They had NO PROBLEM helping me out. I actually felt kinda bad for asking for their help. But I guess it IS team nursing, and we all help each other out. I'm so glad I work in a very friendly and supportive environment. I accomplished everything I could. I asked a lot of questions (still felt like I was in orientation because of that). But I didn't get any annoyed reactions from them. That makes it so much better. I am starting to develop my own routine and am still learning. I have a checklist of everything that needs to be done, and I write down new orders on my paper so I can tell the oncoming nurse. I felt like an idiot a lot of the time, but I'm getting there... and I probably will have more crying spells. I hear a lot of nurses have those when they start out.

katiebug92 · Dec 18, 2012

I'm 70 days into my first nursing job and I am not doing well. I have to call my co workers 3-4 times a night. And I make charting errors and have to come in and fix how i word things. I forget paper work at least once every 2 weeks. I'm getting discouraged. Is this normal or do I need to find an easier job? I'm so discouraged.

LaceyRN12 · Dec 18, 2012

I'm 70 days into my first nursing job and I am not doing well. I have to call my co workers 3-4 times a night. And I make charting errors and have to come in and fix how i word things. I forget paper work at least once every 2 weeks. I'm getting discouraged. Is this normal or do I need to find an easier job? I'm so discouraged.

You're not going to find an easier job... all nursing jobs are practically the same... you do the same things (except if you're comparing a nursing home job in which you're caring for 20 patients to a hospital job in which you're caring for 5-7 patients).

Please don't feel discouraged. You're not alone. 99% of brand new nurses have felt the exact same way you do. And I'm one of them. We come out of nursing school and just get a huge reality shock... because the work environment is SOOO DIFFERENT. I think us new nurses are too hard on ourselves; we expect so much of ourselves. I have come to that realization myself. You can't be perfect. It takes a lot of time to get used to everything. I feel like I'm bipolar sometimes... I'm so happy to have a job and helpful co-workers and then I get so depressed and terrified just thinking about work (you might see another post from me in the future about being miserable and stressed and overwhelmed again). I believe everything happens for a reason, and whenever something happens, we learn from it. I know you have learned so much from when you started 70 days ago. I have a notebook in which I write as many notes to myself as I can... all the little things from how to print out a form to phone numbers for different units. You might want to do the same thing so you can refer to it anytime! Everything will be okay.