Help! How to I become more assertive?

I think more than assertiveness, you need to work on your confidence. If you project a confident, calm attitude when you approach people they tend to think you are confident and calm, whether inside you're shaking like a leaf or not. If it's not in your nature to be forthright and upright, you have to fake it. Eventually you'll find that you're not faking it as much and then one day you're not faking it at all. With your coworkers, do you approach them timidly and and pose your questions in such a way as to suggest you don't know what you really DO know? Or do you say something like, "Okay, so I have to do this procedure/give this med and I haven't had a lot of practice. This is what I'm planning to do. Is that how you'd do it?" There's a world of difference when it comes to presentation. Try watching the coworkers you respect most and see how they carry themselves, how they phrase things, how they interact with others and then try and emulate them. If it works for them it'll work for you. I work in a unit where there's a LOT of turnover so there is always somebody new-ish Our unit is also high-acuity and rapidly changing so there will always be new things to learn. New staff know that they can ask me just about anything and I won't think they're stupid. I don't mind watching them do something for the first time if it makes them feel more comfortable. I helped a brand-new nurse take down an arterial line dressing the other day. She quite appropriately asked for help with it and was a little surprised when she came over to the bedside with all her fresh dressing supplies and I was already holding the child's arm and hand. "I'm holding... YOU'RE doing." She did great once she got over her shock that I'd trust her with it. See if you can find someone on your unit who will mentor you and you might find that you feel a lot better about yourself.