How to Deal with Stresses of Being a New Nurse

wannabenk · Dec 25, 2012

Great suggestions. I graduated from LPN school October 4, 2012, started working as a GPN at a LTC facility, and on November 15 passed my boards. When you start a nursing job especially if you have never been a cna or na you know nothing of how things work. You learn about Anatomy, care plans and other stuff like that then when you begin working they don't take the time to show you small things. By small things I mean like shower sheets, how to reorder meds., so many things. I myself have anxiety and I feel like everything I have learned I have forgotten. I have a great Unit Coordinator in the unit I am now who is great with the questions that I ask no matter how strange like the one day I told her one of the residents was coughing up part of his lung. I have been moved to the rehab unit in January now I have to start over again. I hope I will get some good orientation over there. This is my first LPN nursing job and I sometimes do wonder if I made the right choice.

vanRN12 · Dec 25, 2012

I thought I was going I love nursing, and I'm a very hard worker... However, I got my first job as a new grad in a transitional care facility. I care for 15+ patients 3-11. I was hired with one of my classmates. The DON called me into her office a few weeks after we started orientation and said to me "your friend isn't doing as well as you are!" I was horrified that she told me this. Then she asked if I wanted 32 or 40 hours. With a son at home I asked I if I could first try 40 hours and if fit got to too much I would go down to 32. She said fine. When I asked to go down to 32. She cut my shift by 2 hours, which gave me 30 hours for a five day week. She said it was because of the census and if I chose to go down to 32 I would loose my position. So I started applying o other places, one of them was the se company but a hospital setting. They seemed very interested, and suddenly told me their positions were filled. So I began to wonder of maybe they sabotaged me by giving a bad reference. So I had my husband call pretending he was hr from a local hospital-- I know, crazy-- he ended up getting the secretary and didn't speak to the manager. But the next day I got a phone call from her saying " I'm a bit confused, are you quitting? Because I took you in as a new grad and I don't want to get screwed." I was horrified. How unprofessional, first of all I would obviously give a notice if I were quitting. Second, I have the right to better my situation-- as of now I see my son for max one hour m-f. She is makin me feel so guilty. I feel like I'm stuck there! If a better position comes along, I'm afraid she will deliberately sabotage any opportunity I get. They are very unprofessional there and I feel like I screwed myself by starting my career there. What do I do!?