Just got off orientation, Please help!

NoviceRN10 · Dec 6, 2014

I just want to say that everyone dreads those one or two nurses that drill you during report! Every unit has them, thankfully they are usually in the minority. By the end of a night shift, my brain is turning to mush and I know that my reports are not the greatest. I have found that sometimes nurses can be real critical when they are getting a patient from you, but then when you get patients from them, it is ok to be handed a hot mess. It happens everywhere. Shifts are long, and stuff happens right up to the very end, which can ruin your whole time management plan! You just have to learn what you need to finish up and what can be passed on. And don't let coworkers bully you into thinking that they need to be handed a perfect patient set with everything buttoned up. It can't always be that way, sounds good, though!

iPink, BSN, RN · Dec 6, 2014

Things will get better and YOU have to give yourself time to get better. Time management and prioritization are very important when trying to stay organized. And for new nurses, asking for help when necessary is often never done because we want to handle it ourselves. The charge nurse should be available if you feel you are falling behind. Also ask one or a few of the experienced nurses on your floor on how they successfully balance the workload. They'll probably share with you their tricks and tips to surviving a crazy night.

Your preceptor thought you were doing well to get off orientation early (if I'm reading your post correct). It's impossible to see and do everything while on orientation, the real stuff happens when you are flying solo but you have to know how to tap your resources for help.

Giving report as a new nurse fresh off orientation will be nerve wracking. Just follow your brain-sheet with relevant updated information that occurred throughout your shift. If you don't know the answer to their questions, it's ok to say "I don't know."

Hang in there!

crj96 · Dec 7, 2014

I had a day shift nurse that treated me the exact same way and I found it incredibly intimidating!! She was really good at turning the tables, too, and "getting me". One morning, we were swamped and got an admission 30 minutes before day shift showed up. We had to leave the admission for them or wind up in overtime. They had more staff to cover it, it really wasn't that big of a deal. But you better believe that they left a new admission for us when we came back that night! Sometimes it seems that the politics are more like elementary school than a professional working environment.

Anyway, my advice to you is to relax and give yourself time to get used to this job. It can be SO hard and it's apparently not unusual for us new grads to feel overwhelmed and miserable at times. Give yourself a moment to grieve, cry if you need to, and then remind yourself that you're new and you're learning. You WILL get better, you will get stronger, you will learn. You can remember these days when you're the "old" nurse and you've got a new orientee giving you shift report.

As much as I didn't enjoy the treatment from the difficult nurse, I used it to make me more efficient. I paid attention to what questions she asked and I wrote them down at the beginning of shift, when my brain was fresh. As the night went on, I answered those questions. I made sure I looked over the chart for anything that would be important to day shift and I wrote it all in one place. When day shift came on, I got better and better at report. I considered it a little victory when I could walk away without any criticism from "her".

Hang in there - you WILL get this!!

thinwildmercury · Dec 7, 2014

I swear, there are always those nurses that ask the most obscure questions in report and expect you to know. Umm I actually have tasks to complete and pt care to do too, I don't just sit and read the chart all night long!! And then there are nurses who like to double check me and ask "did you do xyz??" If xyz is my job, then yes, I did it. No need to double check my work. One nurse even double checked that I took a pt's daily weight... I was like, are you serious? Just peek in the chart. If you don't see it, do it yourself. Takes 2 seconds... Of course, I had done it, but if I hadn't I just know I would have seen her eyes roll.

I NEVER make another nurse feel bad in report. If something was not completed I KNOW that it's because the nurse was simply too swamped to complete it. I don't assume that any nurse purposely leaves work behind for the next one. We all work very hard and try to do as much as we can for our shift. But, nursing is a 24 hr job. I just wish the day shift nurses would understand that. LOL It's especially hard being new because you don't know if the nurse is just being unreasonable or if what you did/didn't do is really THAT bad.

The new grad struggle is real! lol

feofeo · Dec 8, 2014

Thank you all so much, I am working tonight and really dreading to go back. I really want this job, I want to stick with it and hang in there, but I just can't believe some people forgot that at one point in their life they was once new too. On our floor we don't have charge nurse or head nurse, just us staff nurses. I want to look at the chart so I can give a good report to the next nurse but sometimes I really don't have time to look at the charts, and I feel like the day shift nurse don't believe that we get busy too at night because I remember her telling me that they also do admissions and discharges all day in day shift. I hope things will get better eventually because the stress of being new and being off from orientation is to the roof, I spent a whole day thinking on what did I do wrong and when is it going to get better and if it will get better?

Mainergal2000 · Dec 9, 2014

I have one more day of train in my and hats tomorrow. I am a nervous wreck because I don't think I had enough training. They know that I am a new nurse too. Ugh. After to km borrow I will be a a nervous wreck!!