I see these posts where people complain of anxiety. Crying before work, crying during work, dreading going into the hospital.
I'm just thankful that I'm not the patient. I split my weeks into what I want to accomplish. One week, it was to ensure that I checked the orders every half an hour. The next week, it was that I's and O's were okay. Focusing on one item at a time allowed me some mastery over it. Granted, it was during my orientation, but I've built on that, and I don't look at work as something to be dreaded, but rather as an experience to get it all right. I'm at that point.
Nursing is overwhelming. Focus on what you can change at this time, and those tasks that have an immediate effect on your patient. Look at your weakness, and improve it. Work is a challenge, but it's one I'm prepared for. I finished nursing school, I passed the NCLEX. I'm not going to know everything, but I will get better as I go. Much like the dreaded care plans, have a plan for yourself.
Know the areas you need to focus on. Make a list. Get good at the things you occasionally miss. The most important things. When you have that down, go to the next item.
No one expects you to know it all. It's okay that you don't. Don't cry after every shift, because really, what is that accomplishing? Nothing. Have a plan. Become the nurse you want to be in small steps. That's okay.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I think where clinicals fall short is not whether you've performed one particular procedure or not, because sometimes that is a matter of having your Clinical Instructor or RN who's patient you're assigned to be willing and able to observe or check you off on it. Every job you have seems to come with it's own set of common procedures. I may have placed an NG tube in clinicals, but I still needed to learn how to feed an infant with a gavage tube, for example.
More importantly, the anxiety occurs when you are hit with a lot of things at once and you need to sort through them. That concept did not come naturally to me, but I managed to learn ways to cope with it.
There really isn't a "one size fits all" solution because we expect people to be nervous starting a new thing, but some people need extra help. This is highly specific to the person and the environment they are working in. A potentially great nurse might struggle in a "sink or swim" first job, but thrive in one that wants their new nurses to succeed. I would like to think the latter was the norm, but I know it isn't.
I'm not sure if this post is a humblebrag or meant to be some kind of sermon to we infidels, but I would redirect the OP to the part of nursing school (psych/behavioral) where we were taught that everyone has distinctly different personalities and experiences the stressors of life in their own unique way. I would also offer the opinion that somebody who carries themselves, week after month after year, to something that causes them such crippling anxiety as to cry before their shift or physically be sick is infinitely more courageous than somebody to whom it all comes natural. I must also say though: such a judgmental, inconsiderate opinion doesn't come as a surprise to me given some of the prevailing attitudes I've encountered among nurses in my time.
I would humbly suggest you read the posts and replies of a thread before adding your "judgmental, inconsiderate opinion".
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Wait - you take an anxiety med but you can't understand why other nurses are so anxious? Here's the thing about nursing and anxiety: while you're busy getting good at I & Os one week and taking off orders the next week, someone could be dying on you. You are expected to not only keep people alive, but help them get well. There are not always enough of you and too many of them. Add a demanding and unrealistic management and a poorly-informed public.
If someone has a bad outcome while you are trying to keep all the plates in the air, it'll be ALL YOUR FAULT AND YOU WILL BE THE WORST NURSE IN THE WHOLE WORLD. Yes, of course that is unrealistic, but we are hammered with that message constantly in all sorts of insidious ways.
One thing that really jumps out at me on this forum is how many nurses start looking for the exits (grad school, etc) as soon as they've made their entrance. Nurses don't eat their young, nursing does. If you can pop a pill and sail through with a smile on your face, more power to you.
I know many nurses who are going back to grad school to be an NP or a nurse educator because of the stress of the bedside. I know of two nurses with less than a year's experience back in school. One too be a family nurse practitioner and the other to be a gerontology NP. One of them said to me that they liked nursing while they were in school but found they could not stand the demands of nursing. Yes- I have seen many nurses take the exit routes.
I don't understand it either. I guess it is a way to get away from the bedside. I knew a NP and she said she would not have worked 2 years on the floor if she knew she could just go straight to NP school. I have no desire to become a NP at all.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
They are in for a RUDE awakening if they think being an NP is low stress. A very rude awakening. But then, if they have not even been nurses a year, how would they know?
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I know many nurses who are going back to grad school to be an NP or a nurse educator because of the stress of the bedside. I know of two nurses with less than a year's experience back in school. One too be a family nurse practitioner and the other to be a gerontology NP. One of them said to me that they liked nursing while they were in school but found they could not stand the demands of nursing. Yes- I have seen many nurses take the exit routes.
This is where the understanding of theory, particularly the Brenner "novice to expert" can be highly practical and relatable. If you think you're going to have that hanging on by fingernails or lost in the wilderness feeling forever who wouldn't bail out? If you think "this too shall pass" then you have a chance to get a glimmer of the real job. Some of the "I hate bedside nursing" people may have found their niche once the initial fog clears, it just takes time.
They are in for a RUDE awakening if they think being an NP is low stress. A very rude awakening. But then, if they have not even been nurses a year, how would they know?
I'm convinced I have a degree of PTSD from my NP school clinicals.
I agree with you about the first year or two of nursing. I actually liked nursing better the first couple of years but after several years of bedside nursing I needed to get away due to the demands. I became a nurse in 2008 and most of the nurses who started with me in 09 at the hospital have either left the bedside, in grad school or have graduated from Grad school and are now educators or NPs. I am choosing to get out of the profession all together or work as a nurse one day a week and work in another field 40 hours.
That was a weird post. & I admit, a little concerning.
My nursing related anxiety didn't start until about 1.5 years after I graduated. I look back now, to some of the situations I was in as a new grad in a busy ICU and I cringe. At the time, I wasn't fazed because I had excellent support from my coworkers and was very aware I was a new grad in a critical care area (& that I didn't know it all. Haha, or anything!? Kidding ... sort of) so I talked through things with my more experienced coworkers but, ****, really? I managed, I learned, I'm so greatful for that experience ... but now I look back and think, wow.
My point is, & I find it difficult to even articulate properly ... I think the more you learn, the more you discover what you didn't/don't know. & the more you realize what you still don't know. If that makes any sense.
I think it's nice that you don't feel anxious. But your post concerns me, as it does a few other posters. My anxiety was pretty unit/situation specific and with a few moves, I have been able to find a bedside job that I don't dread going to, but I do still always have in the back of my mind, "what if I do something wrong? What if I miss something? What if...?", and I firmly believe that if you don't have those questions in your head sometimes, you should be very, very careful.
Nursing is stressful & I hope that those that have major problems with anxiety don't take this post to heart.
nursel56
7,122 Posts
I think where clinicals fall short is not whether you've performed one particular procedure or not, because sometimes that is a matter of having your Clinical Instructor or RN who's patient you're assigned to be willing and able to observe or check you off on it. Every job you have seems to come with it's own set of common procedures. I may have placed an NG tube in clinicals, but I still needed to learn how to feed an infant with a gavage tube, for example.
More importantly, the anxiety occurs when you are hit with a lot of things at once and you need to sort through them. That concept did not come naturally to me, but I managed to learn ways to cope with it.
There really isn't a "one size fits all" solution because we expect people to be nervous starting a new thing, but some people need extra help. This is highly specific to the person and the environment they are working in. A potentially great nurse might struggle in a "sink or swim" first job, but thrive in one that wants their new nurses to succeed. I would like to think the latter was the norm, but I know it isn't.