Healthy Fear

[littleneoRN]

I am wondering how you teach a healthy amount of fear to new nurses. I work in a stepdown unit, and sometimes I precept new staff. In precepting and daily interactions, I hear some comments that make me nervous. Such as... "If I can take care of 4-5 adult med/surg patients, I can certainly handle 3 babies." This coming from a nurse with ever so brief adult experience after nursing school. Granted many of our babies are stable, but we all know how things can turn or how something small can be big. I don't want people to come to work terrified, but I think a certain amount of healthy fear and realization that you don't always know what you don't know is a good thing. I get nervous when a new nurse out of orientation has no questions during a shift. (I haven't seemed to run out yet. :) So, how do you teach that to new nurses. Ideas?

[Jolie, BSN]

You can't teach "healthy fear". It is akin to common sense. Someone either has it innately, develops it with time and experience or just never gets it.

[RNin2007]

As a new nurse, hearing "stories" about babies that were "former 23 weekers, or healthy 36 weekers" that suddenly crump. Real stories of patients that were in our unit. That was enough to put fear in me that I should never take for granted that I have easy or stable patients and to always be on the lookout. I spent several hours in lecture with our neos as a new grad and the stories they told me I still remember.