How to decrease new grad anxiety

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Hi everyone,

I'm a new grad RN off orientation, working nights on a med-surg/tele floor. I'm having anxiety thinking about things that could go wrong. I'm also anxious because I still have a lot to learn about nursing, protocols, and the new work environment. I would really like some advice and insight on how to decrease this anxiety and also how to stop focusing on everything that could go wrong and focus instead on the things I have control over.

I'm also a bit of a perfectionist. I've been told I'm doing well but still I worry about the unknown and about making mistakes.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Also any advice for new grad nurses on med-surg/tele would be extremely helpful. Thank you

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Knowledge is power and time heals.

You won't get over the nerves until you get the experience. Don't do any intervention unsupervised that you've never done before. Bring an experienced nurse you trust with you to walk you through. Take your time and know what you're doing any time you are preparing to do something invasive or give a major medication. No one has ever died from 500mg of Tylenol so don't stress over small stuff. Take your stuff that can kill some one (electrolytes and insulin for example) very seriously and make sure you always reevaluate. You will be fine. :)

Identify what you don't know, and learn it. You can't learn everything at once, so as long as you're improving and you're not making the same mistakes multiple times, you're doing well.

Recognize unnecessary anxiety and then work to correct your thought patterns.

Thanks everyone for the advice!

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