How to deal?? STRESSED OUT NEW GRAD!

[hella_RN]

When I passed my boards, I was the happiest person in the world. I could not wait to get into the workforce and start working as a nurse. Unfortunately, where I'm from, there is an over saturation of new grads, so needless to say, to get acute experience I had to move out of state. Away from my family, friends, and life as I knew it. In the beginning, training was great. I loved learning and although there were some challenges, I knew that I made the right decision by following my dreams and working where I've always dreamed of, in critical care. My training was in the AM shift and now that I am officially done with training, I am now working on night shift which is a totally different world. The people I work with are different and the workload is more actually and we are always short staffed. Our pca's don't always help out either, I feel like I have to always beg them to help me out on little things (ex: help a pt. go to the restroom while I admit someone or do vitals on my pt while I take care of a critical pt who really needs me at the moment) Right now I am feeling very overwhelmed to be on my own. I find myself asking a lot of questions from the other nurses and not everyone is happy to answer my questions because I know that they are probably busy too. I get so frustrated because I am so busy that I don't even get to take any breaks and nobody even asks if I need help or if I even ate yet.

Now I find myself being different. I used to be a happy person, now I feel more and more isolative and lonesome. Maybe I'm homesick. Maybe I'm overwhelmed. Maybe it's the new shift. I'm not sure. I'm feeling very down and I just hope someone can tell me about their experience as a new grad, the positives and negatives and how did you deal with these experiences.

Thanks.

[JZ_RN]

I could have written this post just a few months ago. I left my LTC job that was making me a miserable and depressed person, overworked stuck on night-shift, understaffed, no time for anyone, away from my family just to get a job, etc. everything was me to a T. So I left that job and got a new one, I am hoping it will be better for me, I know that's not probably an option for you, but keep trying, it will not always be this hard.

[Gypsy_Nurse]

You sound homesick and a little overwhelmed...actually you sound like me a few years ago when I switched over to travel nursing. I am from Minnesota but moved to Texas for travel nursing, so not exactly a quick way to go home if I get homewick. I felt like I was missing out on everything, wondered why I signed up for travel nursing to move away from my nice home, from my friends, from my family, from my nice soft cushy life. Fast forward three months later when my contract in Texas was up. I cried when I left! I had finally made friends and figured out the little idiosyncracies of the hospital. It just takes time...you will power through. I felt like crying right when I moved there and for the first month, and was super depressed. Now I have fond memories of the place and am thinking about going back as a travel nurse again once they have positions open again. Super annoying about the PCAs you are working with, though! Unfortunately you will find that almost anywhere

[LeilaCarmelaRN]

I feel the same way. I graduated this May with my BSN and got a job at the hospital I worked as a float PCA at for 2 years. I am currently working on a Med-surg floor 12 hour night shifts 3 days a week. We are understaffed alot too as the supervisors are obsessed with canceling people to save money. They staff on number not acuity. Some nights we have 8 patients each with only 2 PCA's for the floor (our max census is only 22). However, the ONLY good thing are the other nurses on my floor both days and nights. They took me right in and are so good to me. I also find myself asking alot of questions especially "what would you do" or "would you call about that" questions and it makes me feel incompetent. I'm really questioning my career choice and I'm not sure if it's because it's not for me, or if it's because I'm just an overwhelmed new grad, or because my hospital is broke and staffs like ****, or all of the above. I keep going back and forth about going back to school but don't know what for (was thinking Pharmacy but I feel like I might be bored with it and don't want to spend all this money on school again without being sure if it's really what I want). I know everyone keeps saying it takes time and all that but I don't know. Just know you're not alone! I hope it gets easier for you!