frustrated

babynurselsa, RN · Dec 9, 2005

Hang in there. Take some time to read some of the other new nurses posts and you will see that you are not alone in feeling this.

Nursing school prepares you only with the most BASIC level of competency. The rest comes over time with additional training and experience. You cannot expect to know it all after 8 weeks of orientation.

Just a suggestion, ASK your preceptor at the end of the day for some feedback. Ask their perception of how the shift went, what they feel you did well and what they feel you need to work on. Read up on things that you don't completely understand. Nursing knowledge is a static thing. You should never reach the point that you won't learn new things.

Your preceptors did not know it all 8 weeks into their job so why would you expect that you would? Hang in their, take a deep breath. It WILL start to click for you.

jenrninmi, MSN, RN · Dec 10, 2005

I'm not sure where to start but I've been orienting in L&D for 2 months and have 1 month left. So far I still feel very incompetent and frustrated. whenever i get a new preceptor a few that I go 2 steps backward.
I feel so frustrated that I'm getting nightmares of worse case scenerios and in my dreams i just freeze up or if I go get some help there's no one to help me.
I really not getting much feed back and I will get my evaluation at the end of my oriention but in all honesty I'm suprise someone hasn't told me that L&D isn't for me.
I know I tend to be hard on myself but I fee I should be feeling better about nursing by now.
I became a nurse because I really wanted to go into this specialty but now I'm having second thoughts I'm even considering quitting.
sometimes I wish they would just tell me that this field isn't for me.

Please don't quit! You have the job I always wanted. I think you should voice your concerns at work. To your preceptor, your manager, and ask them how they feel you're doing. No one expects you to know everything after only 8 weeks! Please give it some time! :nurse:

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Dec 11, 2005

You should not have to wait for 3 months to get feedback and an evaluation. You are going to have to be assertive and ask for the feedback. Ask, "how do you think I handled that?", "is there some way I could have done it differently?", "is there something I should be doing that I'm not?", "what do you do in a situation like that?". The fact of the matter is that most nurses who end up being "preceptors" do it because it is required of their job. They are not trained instructors like you had at nursing school, so many times they are not always going to be sensitive to your needs as a new grad. So, the burden is on you to seek their advice. Therefore, ask, ask, ask. "How did I do?" And, if you can take the criticism, because some people can be incredibly blunt, ask for it, but be prepared in case it's not going to be what you want to hear. Ask, "what should I have done instead?" You are going to find that each nurse does things, and feels about things, a little differently than another. This is where the nursing theory you learned in school helps you to decide and sort out advice that is worth taking or not.

It is not that the field isn't for you, it's just that you are feeling kind of lost in the shuffle right now and feeling a bit depressed about it. It takes many, many months before you begin to feel really confident in what you are doing. That will be anywhere from 6 months to a year. Everytime you have a patient who experiences some particular complication of labor or delivery focus on reading up on that when you get home. Pick one subject at a time so you don't overwhelm yourself. Make your experiences an extension of what you were doing before in your clinicals at nursing school. You only touched the surface of L&D in nursing school. Now, you are fine tuning that along with having to learn how to be an employee as well. It's a big task. The difference is that you have to do this analysis and learning on your own now. So, hang in there. It's not over until you are told it's over. You stick with it until someone tells you it's time to leave. And, then, ask that they allow you to resign rather than be fired, or be assigned to another unit. Don't make any decision to leave this job or you will forever wonder how you would have faired at it if you hadn't quit. Chances are that you are doing what is expected of a new grad, but since you've never been in this situation before you really don't have the experience to evaluate yourself in this.

carriern38866 · Dec 11, 2005

I too am upset the way nursing is turning out. I just graduiated in may and have alread quit two different hospitals. The first was in a nursery i loved the work but my preseptor was one of those nurses who has been a nurse for a long time and seem to hate her job and wanted to take it out on me. I didn't feel the situation was safe and was so discouraged every day i went to work. I would find myself hoping i wouldn't have to go in to work that day. My boss was always busy and hard to get ahold of so rather than risk my license for unsafe practice because if felt i was not learning enough to take care of new babies and was ill at the whole situation i quit. i look back now and i think i quit that person more than i quit that job. So i tried to put it behind me and try to find some where i could learn to be a good nurse and use the skills i learned in school. So i went to a different hospital. I got hired in on a step down intensivecare neuro floor(may not have been the best choice for a new nurse who had no idea how to be a nurse yet). I liked the job and i thought i was doing well. i tried to do good and improve on places i was lacking (i hate charting and was not very good at it, i am a bad speller, but i got better). I thought i was doing well and that some things would come in time that i was not good at yet or would learn how to do things as they presented there selves. But next thing i know my boss says there were a few things i should be comfortable with that it seems i wasn't and that maybe acute care was not my thing. I was upset and felt discouraged all over again. She said the best course of action would be a transfer to a different floor like a rehab or subacute floor. well i have a small child and just baught a car and my husband goes to college and being close to christmas i didn't want to lose my job so i said fine i'll try it. but we found out a transfer would not be possiable due to i have only worked there for 4 and 1/2 months instead of six month time limit for transfer. She said if i quit and reapply i could get back to work quicker than if i got through an appeals process for transfer. Sounded fishy but i trusted her judement. so now i am a new nurse unemployed for the second time in just a few months. how does that make me look to a new perseptive employier. I know i am a good nurse so why is so hard to make it as a nurse? I have done as she said and reapplied at the same hospital but with just quitting the same place days eairlier it doesn't look good.