New Job- I am so nervous!

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi all. I am so anxious and nervous about my new job and need to vent! I start a new job next week at a LTACH on day shift(7a-7pm). I am really excited that i found a new job but I am so nervous. I have been in office nursing for the past year and I feel like i forgot all my clinical skills. I had only a year of night shift tele nursing before that. I am fearful that they expect me to catch on quickly because of my "two years nursing experience". But i feel like I really only have 1 year of "real clinical nursing" and it was over a year ago! This place also has paper charting (which I have never used!) and has very critical patients (1:5 ratio though). I feel like i'm a new grad all over again. I am researching everything under the sun to calm my anxiety and prepare, but I still feel like i'm not ready.

Any advice to calm my nerves or any advice from those going back to clinical nursing after a break?

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How can the patients be "very critical" if they are in an LTACH?

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Long term ACUTE care hospital... Not LTC. There are a lot of drips, vents, and wounds in these facilities. The patients are still critical but are those who have "run out of days" in a hospital.

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Long term ACUTE care hospital... Not LTC. There are a lot of drips, vents, and wounds in these facilities. The patients are still critical but are those who have "run out of days" in a hospital.

LTAC is a setting for medically complex patients, but they are stable.

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Hi all. I am so anxious and nervous about my new job and need to vent! I start a new job next week at a LTACH on day shift(7a-7pm). I am really excited that i found a new job but I am so nervous. I have been in office nursing for the past year and I feel like i forgot all my clinical skills. I had only a year of night shift tele nursing before that. I am fearful that they expect me to catch on quickly because of my "two years nursing experience". But i feel like I really only have 1 year of "real clinical nursing" and it was over a year ago! This place also has paper charting (which I have never used!) and has very critical patients (1:5 ratio though). I feel like i'm a new grad all over again. I am researching everything under the sun to calm my anxiety and prepare, but I still feel like i'm not ready.

Any advice to calm my nerves or any advice from those going back to clinical nursing after a break?

I just started at an LTACH as well, I requested the new grad orientation because I have 5 months telemetry and a year and a half LTC experience. They said no...I have 4 weeks orientation then I'm on the floor. A lot is coming back to me but I'm nervous too. I've never had a new grad orientation and was really hoping for one. They said if I needed more orientation I could ask when the time comes, but the structure of the new grad program seems better to me. What area of the country are you in? What LTACH are you starting at?

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Oh my goodness--someone who understands! I think i'm just still confused about what kind of patients are in these facilities. I was under the impression that they were like "ICU patients" and critical,but according to a previous poster maybe they are just complex. The nurse manager told me she "expected that i would catch on pretty quickly", so i'm hoping i will still get a proper orientation. Im in the north east, starting at a Kindred. How about you RJprn? where are you and how do you like it so far?

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