I cried for the first time while on my shift today.

RebeccaJeanRN · Mar 1, 2006

Wow, that ER experience must have been something. Reading all these posts about precepting is helping to prepare me for what to expect (very soon!). I guess its a little like boot camp, rather than the real world. It looks to me that as a new nurse with a preceptor, they don't see you as someone who has earned the right yet to ask for help- you first have to prove that you can do it all on your own (kind of ironic,no?). I just hope that all of these experiences help to make all of us the type of nurse who offers help to another nurse without being asked, and is especially kind to every brand new nurse!

nitenurse02 · Jan 25, 2008

What a bad day. I have been an LPN for over five years (oh my has it really been that long?) I remember hitting that five year mark and thinking "Wow, I can't blame anything on being a novice anymore. I have some time under my belt now." But you know what? I still cry. We just all have those days (or nights) and just have to remember that we did the best we could and leave it at that. Always ask for help, sometimes the nurse working the other hall just doesn't know what is going on with your patients. Ask her and maybe she will have time. Sometimes we have to leave things and ask for help. I have seen seasoned nurses walk out with tears on their faces, but hopefully your good days will ALWAYS outnumber the bad ones.

Good luck to ya

labrador4122, RN · Jan 28, 2008

I am new nurse working on a surgical floor. I'm in my 5th week of orientation and I have one more week of orientation. It's been times when I wanted to cry, because I've felt like a complete idiot. However, I would pull myself together and tell myself this is something that I always wanted and I can do this. Well today started pretty bad. First off, I had patient going to the or, I had a new admit, and a patient that was being d/c and had to get chemo by 9:00 and he we being very impatient. My preceptor was riding my back also. I tried to maintain my composure. I knew that the pt going to the or was precedent over the other two, so I tried to make sure everything was done that needed to be done. In the middle of doing that here comes my admission from ed, and my preceptor informing me that my admit was here. I'm trying get things in order, I have charts everywhere, doctors in my space, and I'm unable to get to my computer to print off papers that I need, and I still have 8 and 9 meds to pass. I felt the tears coming, and I told myselt to relax, and take deep breaths. My preceptor ask me one thing and I just started cry like a baby. She pulled me to the side and told me to calm down, that I was doing great job, and to don't let the nursing students who were also there see me cry. I guess I'm getting a little scared because I have one more week of orientation. After the cry, I felt really better. My preceptor told me I didn good waiting for the last week to cry, she said that she's trained nurses that have cried everyday. That really made me feel better. I've learned a really important lesson while on orientation, nursing takes a special kind of person , and if a person can make it as a nurse, they can make it at anything . Thank for letting me vent today.

That is the reason why I chose to work night shift.

No nursing students, no doctor rounds, no or pts... except to get the one that will go to surgery the next morning, and occacional ER admitts.

I am going on my 2nd week of training next week.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jan 28, 2008

I've got twenty years in and there are still some nights that go all to hell, and I'm ready to cry or quit. But usually now I can hang in there longer than my coworkers, so it's less embarassing.

nursemike, ASN, RN · Jan 28, 2008

When I oriented, all those almost three years ago, I was given the opportunity to chose my own mentor. Since I had worked my unit in an unlicensed position, the choice was almost a no-brainer. I'm lucky to work with some very good nurses, but my role-model since before I decided to go to nursing school was a woman with 30 years experience who is very sharp, very conscientious, and utterly unflappable. I used to say if I was a patient, I wanted her for my nurse, except that I didn't want to be one of the patients she typically gets, who need the absolute best nursing care to survive the night. (I'd be okay with being one of the not-too-bad patients she gets to allow time to deal with the train wrecks.)

My mentor truly is an inspiration, but working alongside her, I've come to realize that she is as human as any of us. Some mornings we both leave an hour after the end of the shift, and while a part of me realizes she might have had a pretty easy night with my assignment, or would have given my patients a higher standard of care than I could, we're leaving late for the same reason: pt care first, other crap later. And while I'd be stunned to ever see her with the deer-in-the-headlights look I know I've had from time to time, I've also learned that she gets as frustrated, anxious, irritated, or alarmed as any of us. She's real good at keeping it together and soldiering on, but not long ago another nurse was describing how bad the previous night had been (I'd been off) by stating that even my mentor had been in tears. That's saying a lot! But it makes me think that every time a new nurse nearly loses it, but hangs in there, they get stronger, and that if you don't have times you don't feel close to losing it, it could mean you're incredibly lucky, or it could mean you aren't paying attention. Nurses with mad skills get overwhelmed for exactly the same reason nurses who are developing their skills do: they care enough to give their best, and sometimes their best isn't quite good enough.

RiverNurse · Jan 29, 2008

I cried on the floor one evening. My preceptor jumped my case ONE MORE TIME... b/c I'd forgotten something she'd said or I wasn't "thinking clearly".

When I finally became "leaky" in front of her, I simply said, "I'll be right back." I went into the bathroom, told myself I could do this, cleaned myself up and went back out there. She was baffled and asked me what she'd done to upset me. I told her that I was alright, that I just needed a moment and that I wanted to focus on my patient's, not myself. She backed off. I got my work done.

However... she is someone for whom I have the highest regard - someone that has "sharpened" and "shaped" me in certan respects - diamond in the rough, I suppose. In those moments of embarrassment and chastisement, I know, even while it's going on that I will learn from it. From the beginning she made it very clear that her goal was to make me the best nurse possible. I hope I can live up to that standard. Sigh... you'll have to forgive the sentimentality here, yesterday was my last day of orientation with her - now I am "on my own" - and we are now peers.

Shawna