How long until you felt comfortable????

It took me 4 years to start to feel pretty comfy in ER. Still get the willies sometimes even now after 6 years. It is a heavy responsibility. There is a great book out there called "From Novice to Expert" by Patricia Benner. Her studies show that it takes 5 years in a specialty before one is an expert at the job.

I float to the ER when needed. Now since I took on a new position working in the Central Resource Pool, I am able to float to three different units and one is the ER. Im a little afraid of the ER but you are right about one thing we are not alone and there always be things we will learn. I have been offered a full time position in the ER to start after the summer. I probably going to take because it will a permanent job in the ER instead of just floating there. Just remember you are not by yourself. Continue to learn and willing to learn because I do. Good Luck!!!

It took me about 7 months to feel comfortable in the ED but I had worked med surg and ICU before I went to the ED so I had quite a bit of experience.

I was a float nurse prior to moving to the ED. I floated to med/surg, psych,detox,and the ed. I mean it was only for a bit over a year so I don't have much experience. When I was floated to the ED, I either took psych or med/surg holds so it wasn't ER nursing. Plus the ER @ my old job was small and not even meant for traumas, so I never saw anything there. Now, I see a lot of things, and my knowledge I feel has greatly improved in 7 wks. I'm scared bc my new job has such a high volume. When I was on days the first 6 wks, I was in awe of these nurses and how they worked under the pressure of such a high volume atmosphere. I'm glad I'm starting on nights bc when you walk in @ 7p it is still crazy, but by 1am it thins out. The flip side is since there are fewer attendings and pas on, the wait time to be seen by a doc is way longer. So it has a different flow. In the am, I'd line, lab, and get urine from the pts asap and send it off right away and the lab would run the labs etc on the spot. At night, they won't run the labs right away, so if you draw and send the specimens too quickly it goes to waste and I'd hate to stick a pt again, but my feeling is, is that being the pt is waiting longer to see the doc or pa, atleast if the blood/urine is resulted it could somehow expedite the process somehow. Maybe I'm just being dumb and naieve. Thanks again guys...

It's so nice to see experienced nurses saying that they can still feel uncomfortable in a clinical setting. I'm only in preceptorship now but I'm in an ICU and completely overwhelmed. I can't believe how good these nurses are. You guys amaze me and I just can't imagine a time when I'll be there too!

I've been a nurse for 26 years. I feel comfortable most of the time but there is always a little ?demon? sitting on my shoulder saying this time something is going to go wrong. I kind of like the demon, he keeps me on my toes. I do float a lot so that is part of my getting out of my routine comfort zone. I had a severe IV mental block. Hope your IV mental block is breaking down.

I worked in the ER as a new grad and its going to be my 1 year mark pretty soon. I say it will take about 1yr to feel semi confident and not freak out when a call comes in. I don't get nervous as much when going to work and its more of a routine now.

I realized that if its a "real emergency", help will away be there and you are never alone. Its not all about you and people will always jump in.

about a year but still there are a lot of things that i'm not comfortable with. when you get comfortable, you get dangerous.

My iv mental block seems to be breaking down. I actually put in a 14 gauge in during a trauma which I was proud of. I also put an iv in a severly demented pt who even with tons of ppl holdin her, still moved around quite a bit. I have another month of orientation left, but I'm petrified. Since I've moved to nights I don't feel as inept. I know it will take along time for me to feel comfortable in the sense that I won't totally have an internal breakdown that I don't know what to do. I just started feeling ok at my first job when I left there and I was there for about 13 months. I would just like the feeling of impending doom to go away before I go in to work. That is what gives me the most doubt that I'm a terrible nurse. Self confidence has never been a strong suit of mine. The other night I heard a pt telling his daughter what a good nurse I was, that made me feel good, esp bc she is a nurse. Even though I heard that, I still didn't feel any better about my skills. A pt also told me how gentle and caring I was that night and that too didn't help. I feel like I'm sooooo bad. My confidence or should I say lack there of is what is gonna be the death of me!