I'm feeling dumb........

FreshRN05 · Feb 2, 2006

slow down and breath, remember the old saying " rome wasn't built in a day" give yourself time, it quite a different world out on the floor than when in school. almost like culture shock.
there is this great little book called" training wheels for new nurse, what i learned my first 100 days as a new nurse" it give all kinds of hints and advise.
ask your preceptor how she may be able to advise you on time mngt and oragnizational skills. also remember most of the nurse on med/surg floors are well seasoned. don't be afraid to ask for directions and help, that is why you have a preceptor.
remember also it took you months/years fo learning to get this far and each and everyday in nursing is a chance to learn even more
you'll do fine!

hi, nurse hobbit

where can you find this book? can you get it barnes and nobles? i'm just really scared....i just don't want my co-workers to get frustrated at me as well because not only they have to deal with their own stress (and assignment) thay also have to deal with me...i know this is gonna be a long process but i just want to be able to walk in the hospital feeling competent and confident...right now, i feel like my co-workers are talking about me behind my back saying i'm dumb, or questioning where i got my education from...things like that....just being paranoid......yeah, i'd like to buy that book if it's something that will me make feel a lot better and give me hints on how to handle things at work as a newbee...thank you

HelloKittyRN · Feb 4, 2006

About when you were mentioning calling DR's and taking orders.....I remember this was the hardest thing for me. I always talked my preceptor in to calling for me. Then one day, they made me do it. Of course, the doctor was not very nice (depends on who you get, but a lot of them are like this). He started yelling at me, and of course, being a new nurse I started to cry on the phone with him! After I got off the phone, I just lost it! But an experienced nurse gave me some good advice. She said that we shouldn't let the doc's get to us. If you sound like you are meek and not confident of course they're going to make it harder on you! She said to sound confident, know exactly why you are calling, and don't take any crap from them. I was so scared to do this! But she was so right. When I have to call a DR I make sure I have everything I need in front of me. I keep things short, and get right to the point. And now, since I have learned a lot about the DR's we have, I know who is nice and who is not so nice. But I don't let them intimidate me. I always remember that I am calling them because of my patient. Some people are terrified of calling, and just don't do it, but you have to remember, if you don't call, you are not taking care of your patient like you are supposed to. Don't be afraid! It takes a lot of courage, but I know you have it in you. Also, I still consider myself a new nurse, even though I have been one for 14 months. I learn something new every single day and I don't hesitate to ask questions and believe me, they are days that I think I sound really stupid and don't know what I am talking about, but remember.....the patient doesn't know how long you've been a nurse, if you look and act confident, they will have no idea! You'll start to feel better about yourself and then acting confident will come naturally! Hang in there, if I can get through it, anyone can! and yes, floor nursing is tough, but also very rewarding. Look towards your peers, they are the ones who understand and can help you through these tough times! Good luck! Keep us updated on how things are going.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Feb 4, 2006

Almost everybody feels overwhelmed and dumb when they start their first nursing job. School doesn't really prepare you for the real world of nursing. It gives you the foundation, but the real learning curve is only just beginning when you first start working. During your first year as a nurse, you will learn more than you ever thought possible. It's totally different from school.

You will feel better as time goes on. You're in a new place, with new people, and you have a lot of responsibility being thrust at you. Just keep doing what you're doing - working with your preceptor - and ask lots of questions!!!

RNOTODAY, BSN, RN · Feb 4, 2006

Hello, all
I have been on orientation for 2 days now. Most of the time I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and I just follow what my preceptor tells me to do (even what to say to patients). The floor I'm working at is a Med-surg floor and so far everyone on the floor are so nice and very helpful. I do not have any sense of organizations, my common sense is gone.....I'm so caught up with worrying about getting mistakes and being fired and sued by my patients. Patient load is 10:1 with an LPN and CNA.....I don't know how theses nurses handle that......day shift is crazy....so many things going on at once......so many distractions.......

Well, right now, you are "dumb"!!!! You really dont know how to organize yet, and know what to say to pt's all the time, your common sense is temporarily gone...and right now you are supposed to be "just"following your preceptor around!!!

BUT....this is expected!!!!! It will pass!!!!! Believe me, when you get right out of school, not alot is expected of you. Everybody knows this. Just make sure you remember what you are taught, and then do it independently. AFTER you are taught/told...They know you dont know these things. And its ok. Dont do ANYTHING unless your preceptor showed you first, and you did it with her.Thats her job. Just follow basic safety / infection control stuff, (that IS expected of you) and you will do fine.

And, 2 days????!!!! Hardly time yet to even consider worrying about your abilities. I have been a nurse for 4 years now. I felt the exact same way....

I thought we were expected to come out and function like a veteran nurse just because you graduated and have an RN license... it took me a while b4 I stopped beating myself up and realized I was "allowed" to start learning again... so I know how you feel, alot of us do, honest.

Youve got a good thing going if everyone on the floor is nice and helpful... not the case everywhere!!!

And, that ratio is a bit high, so when you can function with that on that floor, be confident, you can handle pretty much anything!!! Hang in there.

All your perceptions of yourself are completely normal. Keep us posted.

pie123 · Feb 25, 2006

Dear FReshRN05
I am also a fresh graduate. I am into the second week of nursing on a surgical ward. I can wholly identify with what you are going through. The interruptions are the worst. I have always prided myself with having brains and I did great at my clinical placements while still at Uni. But now, it is like someone stole my brain and stuffed cotton wool in my skull or something. At times, I feel like I have either chosen the wrong career or the wrong ward. The staff are all helpful but I feel like my three years at uni has come to nought! I cannot think for myself anymore hahaha...I dont trust my judgement and it is just all horrible!! I feel like the patients are going to find out what a phoney I am. People say things will get better.. d'oh???!!
Exactly how I feel....I don't trust my judgement...my biggest scare is patients not finding me competent and them not trusting me...I get tongue tied at work....I can't even explain things...like yesterday when I was giving my discharge instruction to my patient..I had to ask him if he had his influenza and pneumonia vaccine..of course the patient was clueless and threw the question back at me which caught me right off guard...He just had to ask me what is influenza and pneumonia vaccine for??? GOSH! I went blank and could not even find the right words to explain them...SO DUMB! I don't know how to talk to the Doctors...So far I have not gotten on the phone to talk to them and take phone orders or something...this is what I'm scared of too...most of the Doctors at my hospital are Indians with very strong accent..what if I get the orders wrong or what if they yell at me because I don't know how to communicate well....you see, english is not my first language..there are so many american slang words there that ae new to me.......Right at this moment I am questioning myself if nursing really is for me....or bedside nursing is......I'm kind of regreting not accepting the job interview that was offered to me at a dialysis center close to home (teaching center)...maybe being a dialysis nurse is much easier than hospital bedside nurse......Geeessshhh! I'm so frustrated! Even my family is affected.....
I have been on my own for 3 weeks now. At my hospital, the MD's are the same. When I worked nights, I had to call an MD. Obviously he was tired, so he was speaking in a really low tone of voice. He also had a really thick accent. For the life of me I couldn't understand what he was saying. I had to ask him 3 times. On the last time, he practically shouted his order. Well, sorry.
I pretty much feel like you, even with being on my own for 3 weeks. I come home after just about EVERY shift and think of probably 5 things that I didn't do. Then I fixate on them for a while. The max number of pts a nurse gets on our unit is 4. A lot of them are really sick people. They are mostly geriatric, which most of the time = total care. We have one CNA for 20 pts. So, if you get two pts who need to be fed, forget about it. Two nurses have already mentioned to the manager that pts are not getting bathed b/c they are simply too swamped. Nurses get upset with the CNA when she is not doing what they need. They seem to forget that there is only one of her. She not only has 20 patients to handle, but also 5 nurses. One day last week the census dropped to 15 and we lost the CNA and Unit Clerk. The census dropped, but the acuity of the pts did not. On dayshift the nurses are nice enough, but they are busy also. They really don't have much time to help out, unless it's with pulling someone up in bed or something quick. Nights is a really cohesive group, but I hate working nightshift. They are VERY picky when it comes to things they think dayshift should have done. VERY picky. My manager and about 5 other people told me this before I hired on. I see it for myself now.
Pt satisfaction is something that I have heard the nurse manager mention quite a bit. But with fewer resources and more paperwork, how can that be acheived to the level that she would like?

tes85 · Mar 2, 2006

I know the feeling.... I'm still in school, but on my first clinical experience I felt so dumb because I had such a hard time inderstanding the language I was so overwhelmed as I made the whole experience to be such a big deal in my head that I ended up passing out cold right in front of the nurse that I was shadowing, I was so embarressed and felt so dumb. :imbar

wonderbee, BSN, RN · Mar 2, 2006

After doing so well in school, I feel the same as you do. I knew it was going to be hard but... ???!!! I'm in week 2/8. It's so overwhelming. With the best of intentions, I try to stay organized but the interruptions get me side tracked. Mastering the computer charting is taking me for it's own little ride to hell while trying to get at least some competency in basic nursing skills on a busy trauma unit. The result is I'm always behind. The feeling of having a preceptor breathing down my back, no matter how pleasant she is, makes me even more of a bumbling fool because all I can think about is that there is someone watching everything I do. I never got to have just one patient. Immediately I was thrown into the world of a full patient load without developing the confidence that I could take care of one. Of course my preceptor is there to pick up the slack and she is always present to me for questions.

"Rocky" is how I've heard the first year described by those who have traveled this way of new grads in ICUs. That's exactly what it feels like. It also feels exhausting. OP, 10 patients is an awful lot. I have trouble differentiating between only two. God bless you!

heysmalls · Mar 2, 2006

Dear FreshRN05,

I work on the Med/Surg floor also. I have been out of school for 5 yrs. now and still find myself feeling like you are now.... However, it does get better. Give yourself a break and take it day by day. It will start coming to you like it does everyone else. You'll have several days of orientation, so RELAX and everything will be ok. It does take time. There is someone always there to ask questions, so you'll do fine. Good luck to you.

heysmalls

Palamejo · Mar 6, 2006

I know the feeling! I heard someone say, "It's like taking ONE gymnastics class and then going to the Olympics!" That is about the most accurate description I've heard. I'm in an internship program after graduating in December. I usually walk around looking like a deer in headlights. But, I have faith that it WILL get better! Hang in there... we'll make it!

cathy2 · Mar 7, 2006

:lol_hittiDont knock yourself, :nurse:It is stressfull with so much going on but work with the team, and dont be afraid to ask questions and sing in your heart :heartbeatI will survive good luck:balloons:

cygni519 · Mar 13, 2006

Hi, nurse hobbit
where can you find this book? can you get it barnes and nobles? i'm just really scared....i just don't want my co-workers to get frustrated at me as well because not only they have to deal with their own stress (and assignment) thay also have to deal with me...I know this is gonna be a long process but I just want to be able to walk in the hospital feeling competent and confident...Right now, I feel like my co-workers are talking about me behind my back saying I'm dumb, or questioning where I got my education from...things like that....just being PARANOID......yeah, I'd like to buy that book if it's something that will me make feel a lot better and give me hints on how to handle things at work as a newbee...thank you

I TOTALLY SYMPATHIZE because I feel the EXACT same way......last week I had a very tearful drive home for this very reason. I am not confident in my technical skills....my clinicals in school were at rural hospitals totally different from this situation...I am now in orientation at a busy hospital (where those rural hospitals send the patients they cannot treat)....and I feel so lost some days and like more of a burden to my preceptor than anything else. The one saving grace I have is my patients.....I actually had a patient ask to pray for me yesterday and he was literally thanking GOD for sending him an angel to care for him the last 3 days.....and here I am shaking in my clogs because I feel like I don't know enough ....so I keep telling myself that the I CAN learn the skills and try to keep in mind that I cannot control what other people choose to do or not do in my orientation, if they want to talk about me without offering to help me they must have lost some compassion along the way.......they must have forgotten the fear they surely had in the beginning of their practice. Good luck to you and all of us NEWBIES......and THANK YOU for your post, it is comforting to know that others feel the same way.

FreshRN05 · Mar 13, 2006

I TOTALLY SYMPATHIZE because I feel the EXACT same way......last week I had a very tearful drive home for this very reason. I am not confident in my technical skills....my clinicals in school were at rural hospitals totally different from this situation...I am now in orientation at a busy hospital (where those rural hospitals send the patients they cannot treat)....and I feel so lost some days and like more of a burden to my preceptor than anything else. The one saving grace I have is my patients.....I actually had a patient ask to pray for me yesterday and he was literally thanking GOD for sending him an angel to care for him the last 3 days.....and here I am shaking in my clogs because I feel like I don't know enough ....so I keep telling myself that the I CAN learn the skills and try to keep in mind that I cannot control what other people choose to do or not do in my orientation, if they want to talk about me without offering to help me they must have lost some compassion along the way.......they must have forgotten the fear they surely had in the beginning of their practice. Good luck to you and all of us NEWBIES......and THANK YOU for your post, it is comforting to know that others feel the same way.

hi, when posted my post I was only on my day 2 of orientaion...After 12 shifts, I am now on my own and have been for a week now...The unit I am assigned to (home unit) is a new unit in the hospital with 14 beds (it's kinda like an emergency room overflow)...Actually, I was told by my director that I am the only official employee (or the only regular) on that floor...I think they are still in the process of hiring staff for the unit....So, when it first opened last tuesday, we took 3 patients in and I was the only RN in charged of these 3 patients then we had a secretary/monitor tech ( med-surg/tele) and our director acted as the CN...Luckily, we didn't take patients in until around 3 PM....well, the patients weren't that bad...chest pain/abdominal pain/post status lap chole...oh mind you this was also my very first day off orientation and I was scared to death)....We do TPC since the nurse-patient ratio is 1:5 then we have one tech that is shared by all 14 patients....Though I was scared, I decided to jump right in....