First job as a new grad!

Baubo516, RN · Jan 11, 2014

I am not a nurse yet, but just completed LPN school and continuing for my RN. I work as an aide at a hospital. I used to work days, but now work evenings and nights, and I love the night shift!

I cannot give much advice about being a new nurse, but as far as your night time preceptor belittling you... my advice would be, remember all the stuff they taught in nursing school about assertiveness. Start to develop a thicker skin and don't ever be afraid to ask a question if you need to. There is no stupid question. I am a career changer, and when I moved into health care, I experienced culture shock because I couldn't believe how rude some people were at work. I used to be a teacher, and while kids and parents were sometimes rude, coworkers (other teachers and principals) were not. In my first job in LTC, many of the aides were what I would consider rude or mean to me when I was new. I cried in the bathroom a few times because of this! I am not saying it is OK - it will always be one of my goals to help people learn about proper professional behavior - but I guess I am saying that it seems to happen a lot in a health care environment. I was not warned about it, and so it came as a shock to me. Usually when people belittle you or are rude, it is because they get something out of it. My humble opinion is that some folks need to make themselves feel bigger by belittling others. It is sad for them - just demonstrates that they have insecurity or power issues. So far I just handle it by saying, "I am asking this because I want to make sure I do the right thing for the patient." It still stings a little when people look at me like I am crazy for asking a simple question, but I have to ask if I don't know.

I hope this relationship gets better with the preceptor, but until it does, just keep asking. It is not a reflection on you when she is rude - it is a reflection on her poor character or people skills. Everyone is new when they first start, and the only way to learn is to ask! Oddly enough, after a while some of the people who were rude at first to me started to be nicer... it's like they have to act like they don't care at first until they learn they can trust you. It's really weird to me - I'm not sure why that whole "distrustful" thing would be necessary at first - it's not like we are dating! But it seems that some people just don't trust you until they have seen your face around for certain amount of time. Oh, and you have to be hard working to earn their trust as well.

Anyway - now I am rambling! Congrats on your first job. I love the night shift because of the teamwork, and it seems like it would be an ideal situation to learn new skills and gain experience. On our unit (Skilled/Rehab), we sometimes have enough time that 2 nurses could go into a room so that one could teach the other.

I wish you luck and look forward to seeing what other advice you get! Be assertive and don't let anyone intimidate you!

Baubo516, RN · Jan 11, 2014

Just to be clear - I am not encouraging YOU to be rude! Remain respectful and professional and eventually people will start to reflect that back to you. Even if they don't, you will know that you have taken the better path.

bankssarn · Jan 11, 2014

Congrats, but it's telemetry. :) I got my start on tele as well. Great experience. Good luck.

marshmallownurse, ASN, RN · Jan 13, 2014

Hi all! So I'm a new grad and am almost about 10 weeks into my orientation on a medical/telementery unit, my first job ever!! I trained for a a while on days and now I'm on nights. I love it and I'm learning a ton but I am deathly scared for when i be on my own. I feel like I'm not going to be ready to be alone on my own. I still need a lot of guidance and I'm still having a hard time with confidence, nursing judgement and talking to doctors. Also, I know this happens but what if I have a patient with something I've never seen before or worked with? My preceptor at night is very helpful but at the same time somewhat belittles me a little bit. Sometimes she makes me feel stupid when I ask her questions. For other new grads, how long did it take you to actually feel comfortable and have confidence?

Med-Tele is a great unit to start out at as a new grad. It has a good mix of challenge and routine which can really teach you a lot. Congratulations on this new opportunity! Here's my advice:

1. Confidence: this requires a lot of practice and faking. Whatever you're not confident about, find every opportunity to practice that skill. By faking, I don't mean pretending you know things that you obviously don't. That's dangerous. What I mean is fake confidence. Smile. Stand tall. Say, "Oh, I haven't seen this before, can you help me out with it?" You're a nurse now, and you have a team of other nurses and healthcare professionals around you. You got this.

2. Talking to Doctors: This also requires practice. Use the SBAR format. Use it ALWAYS until it's the only method you know of reporting to doctors. Always have labs and the chart handy before dialing that phone, specially during night shift. Someone will get cranky. This can't be helped. While you shouldn't let them disrespect you, try to shrug their hostility off when you can. They, too, have something to teach you if you can sift through the BS to find the little gems of education in the experience of dealing with them.

3. If you have a patient/status that you're unsure of, ASK QUESTIONS. Call on your charge, your fellow nurses, whoever, to come assess that patient with you. Learn from them. Practice! (Seeing a pattern here? lol)

4. When precepting, remember that you are not a student anymore. You need to learn the process of how your unit does things more than you need to master skills right now (because it is impossible to master all nursing skills in the few weeks you will be under your preceptor's wings anyway). Instead learn the process, the protocols, etc. You will need this knowledge. Remember that you can't learn how to be a good nurse in the few short weeks you will be precepting. That comes with time. Months. Years.

5. Get Basic EKG Certification. It's important to have in a Tele unit.

6. Nevermind the few times your preceptor makes you feel stupid. As long as she addresses whatever question you asked, you've got what you came for anyway, right?

The first few months will be difficult, I won't lie. I will even go so far as saying the first year will be a challenge. Nursing is hard work. No one will nurture you like you probably deserve. But you'll come through, I promise. It will get better.

As for your last questions, I started faking confidence three months into being a new graduate. It took me eight months to feel comfortable and to actually have some confidence. Good luck!