new RN's in specialty areas

Nurses General Nursing

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I have been noticing many posts of new nurses being overhelmed. Many seem to be entering specialty areas soon after finishing their RN programs. Does anyone else see that perhaps a trend here that going right into the toughest areas before getting comfortable in assesment skills or even just time management is not the wisest choice? I was an LPN for 10 yrs before I got my RN and I was offered a job right out of school in my hospital's SCU. I turned it down ...I felt that I needed to feel more comfortable in getting my skills down before I entered one of the most high stressed areas in the hospital. I worked on the Med-Surg floor and although it wasn't glamorous it made me a better SCU nurse... I learned charge duties and how to call miserable docs in the middle of the night and all sorts of valuable education that I might have felt overwhelmed in a high stress area while learning these other invaluable lessons......

Specializes in LTC, Sub-Acute, Med-Surg.
I apologize grantyRN06 after reading the next few posts I realized that I misunderstood yours. :flowersfo

Thanks Salafinursewannabe..but no apology necessary..few people misunderstood what I was trying to say....maybe it was how I worded my comment. Good Luck to ya anywhere you end up after school:up:

Specializes in Senior homecare.

Having read these posts and being a pre-student nurse myself it makes me wonder if these seasoned nurses are the ones that need an attitude adjustment. Have they forgotten they were once new to a specialty too, just went about it differently. Well times have changed.

Seasoned nurses, specialized or not, should embrace the new students and relish the opportunity to pass on the vast amount of knowledge they have acquired over the years. They should put their energy into that and not so much in fretting over the fact that they have a new rookie on the floor. Tisk, tisk. If they exude this amount of impatience to the newbies, I feel this is probably indicative of the level of the patience they afford their patients!

Do the veteran nurses not stop to think about the anxiety the new floor nurse goes through everyday.

Sounds like they need to be retiring and pave the way for new, energetic blood, with a new invigorating outlook.

To those new nurses that are having to endure the wrath and impatience of the "seasoned" nurses, I hope you will remember the hell they put you through so that when you are in their position one day,you will not make the new wave of nurses lives hell like they did.

Specializes in ER/ICU, CCL, EP.
Seasoned nurses, specialized or not, should embrace the new students and relish the opportunity to pass on the vast amount of knowledge they have acquired over the years. They should put their energy into that and not so much in fretting over the fact that they have a new rookie on the floor. Tisk, tisk. If they exude this amount of impatience to the newbies, I feel this is probably indicative of the level of the patience they afford their patients!

Sounds like they need to be retiring and pave the way for new, energetic blood, with a new invigorating outlook.

First of all, we had better hope that these experienced nurses do not retire en masse. There would be a lot of really DEAD patients lying about.

Seasoned nurses are paid very little to teach graduate nurses essentially everything about their new floor. It can be very stressful, especially when they do not WISH to do it, but are coerced by their manager to teach. Not everyone is cut out to teach other people. The notion that everyone that ever went through nursing school would be interested in teaching is not even remotely possible. Suggesting that because someone does not wish to teach, they are a lousy nurse.....and impatient and jerky with their patients....now that is unbelievable.

I am a new grad. I was very lucky to have two terrific preceptors. They both like to teach, so it worked out. I do not expect that any of the nurses I come in contact with are going to beg to mentor me. I hope that some of them will give me the benefit of their smarts :)

First of all, we had better hope that these experienced nurses do not retire en masse. There would be a lot of really DEAD patients lying about.

Seasoned nurses are paid very little to teach graduate nurses essentially everything about their new floor. It can be very stressful, especially when they do not WISH to do it, but are coerced by their manager to teach. Not everyone is cut out to teach other people. The notion that everyone that ever went through nursing school would be interested in teaching is not even remotely possible. Suggesting that because someone does not wish to teach, they are a lousy nurse.....and impatient and jerky with their patients....now that is unbelievable.

I am a new grad. I was very lucky to have two terrific preceptors. They both like to teach, so it worked out. I do not expect that any of the nurses I come in contact with are going to beg to mentor me. I hope that some of them will give me the benefit of their smarts :)

:yeah:good for you you have found good preceptors...though not all are like that...but in some areas..there really existing people who would like to make newbies life miserable...but what i usually do...i pray hard..and was very careful of my steps...prayers really works...:bow:

Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.
First of all, we had better hope that these experienced nurses do not retire en masse. There would be a lot of really DEAD patients lying about.

Seasoned nurses are paid very little to teach graduate nurses essentially everything about their new floor. It can be very stressful, especially when they do not WISH to do it, but are coerced by their manager to teach. Not everyone is cut out to teach other people. The notion that everyone that ever went through nursing school would be interested in teaching is not even remotely possible. Suggesting that because someone does not wish to teach, they are a lousy nurse.....and impatient and jerky with their patients....now that is unbelievable.

I am a new grad. I was very lucky to have two terrific preceptors. They both like to teach, so it worked out. I do not expect that any of the nurses I come in contact with are going to beg to mentor me. I hope that some of them will give me the benefit of their smarts :)

Well, then perhaps it should be part of the job description and training. Someone taught them, so pay it forward!

Specializes in Senior homecare.
:yeah:good for you you have found good preceptors...though not all are like that...but in some areas..there really existing people who would like to make newbies life miserable...but what i usually do...i pray hard..and was very careful of my steps...prayers really works...:bow:

working for god on earth does not pay much,

but his retirement plan is out of this world.

Specializes in ICU.

I can see some of what is said. But i was a new grad and went in to a 16 bed ICU. The hospital that i was hired at has a new grad program and depending on where you will be work you have a tailored orentation. I myself spent 6 weeks on a Tele unit before coming to the ICU. Ones in the ICU i was with one preceptor for 6 weeks on days then with my night preceptor for 6 weeks before going on my own. On top of all this i was a surgical tech 9 years during that time i did open heart, spinal fusions and most other large surgeries. I new i wanted to go in to ICU ones i was out of school. This is what i loved and this is where i wanted to go.

That all being said i feel that going in to an ICU is not for every new grad. I am the type that always ask questions. Also ways look to learn, i am head strong but will be the first to admit if i am unsure or if i need help to speak up. I am the first to go in to any code to watch help and learn. So i felt that going to a med surg floor was not for me and I would have left wanting more.

Specializes in ER/ICU, CCL, EP.
Well, then perhaps it should be part of the job description and training. Someone taught them, so pay it forward!

I repeat, some people do not have a talent for teaching others and it is very stressful to them. They do not have a moral responsibility to stress themselves out and teach. 'Paying it forward' is a great concept, and I try to do it myself, but teaching is NEVER going to be for everyone.

Specializes in Senior homecare.
I repeat, some people do not have a talent for teaching others and it is very stressful to them. They do not have a moral responsibility to stress themselves out and teach. 'Paying it forward' is a great concept, and I try to do it myself, but teaching is NEVER going to be for everyone.

If senior nurses are expected to teach and don't want to for whatever reason, they should take it up with their supervisors, and not resent the new nurse, who after all never asked to be assigned in the first place, it is jut a requirement. Usually a supervisor will not assign a newcomer to a senior nurse unless they think they can do the job.

So now is it a personal matter? Do these same nurses not remember that they too received training, perhaps from others that also begrudged it but did it anyway? Are they not where they are today in-part due to the skills they acquired from them? They should be proud that they have been selected for this honorable position and make the most of it. I know I would.

I remember, at the age of 16, I was in an excellerated Human Anatomy class, when my professor asked me to teach the class the next day because she was going to be indisposed. What did I know about teaching at this age? But I saw it as an honor. I had been asked to teach a class of students way older than me 18-23 years of age, because I knew the subject material very well. I did a good job even though It was not my place to teach. I was after all the student!

Specializes in Senior homecare.

if senior nurses are expected to teach and don't want to for whatever reason, they should take it up with their supervisors, and not resent the new nurse, who after all never asked to be assigned in the first place, it is jut a requirement. usually a supervisor will not assign a newcomer to a senior nurse unless they think they can do the job.

so now is it a personal matter? do these same nurses not remember that they too received training, perhaps from others that also begrudged it but did it anyway? are they not where they are today in-part due to the skills they acquired from them? they should be proud that they have been selected for this honorable position and make the most of it. i know i would.

i remember, at the age of 16, i was in an excellerated human anatomy class, when my professor asked me to teach the class the next day because she was going to be indisposed. what did i know about teaching at this age? but i saw it as an honor. i had been asked to teach a class of students way older than me 18-23 years of age, because i knew the subject material very well. i did a good job even though it was not my place to teach. i was after all the student!

working for god on earth does not pay much,

but his retirement plan is out of this world.

Specializes in ER/ICU, CCL, EP.
If senior nurses are expected to teach and don't want to for whatever reason, they should take it up with their supervisors, and not resent the new nurse, who after all never asked to be assigned in the first place, it is jut a requirement. Usually a supervisor will not assign a newcomer to a senior nurse unless they think they can do the job.

I have only been a nurse for a few months, and I have already seen senior nurses forced to precept new nurses. They DO take it up with management, and get assigned anyway. I am glad you like to teach and consider it 'an honor'. I rather like to teach as well, but we cannot expect that everyone is cut out for it. And I am done with this thread because I am repeating myself. Whether anyone likes it or not, teaching is NOT FOR EVERYONE. People who do not wish to do it should not be forced to do it. That way lies burnout.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.
I agree with you about facilities trying to fill slots but do you think that a new grad will be fully aware of the downside of these jobs? They sound good but then when you are in that situation of having a code plus other unstable pts and phones ringing and families. Not to mention that just starting out in a new job is stressful in itself. I think that if the new nurse was aware of the not so nice sides of these areas they would be better prepared. Schools do not train nurses for specialty areas you pretty much get the basics and then you are on your own. There are many people who walk away from nursing due to the fact that the real world isn't all rosy and clearcut as in school.

And this could not happen on a Med/surg floor??????

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