Let's introduce ourselves...

Nurses New Nurse

Published

hi everyone! i'm holli. i took boards on june 13th and passed with 75 questions. i am starting work on july 18th at the only hospital i ever wanted to work for. it is a great pediatric facility! i will be on the (post-op) surgical floor, and we also have all of the endocrine kids. also, they just added an epilepsy monitoring unit, for overnight monitoring and for the brain mapping they are doing. i expressed an interest in that, so they will cross-train me in that unit as well. i can't wait to get started!

so, tell me about you...

holli, rn

Hello everyone I'm Teresa RN...I took the test june 20th and passed with 75 questions...I'm working in a substance and alcohol abuse treatment center...we have kids with eatting disorders, gambling problems. detox from drugs and alcohol...tis interesting.............I may work perdium at the hospital after the summer just to keep up my skills.........I've been a LPN for over 10 years. I"ve been in psych nursing for several years..............This room is just awsome...all the support everyone gives oneanother................................................................THRESSA

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cath Lab, OR, CPHN/SN, ER.

Took boards May 19th, passed with 75 questions. I started my orientation June 13th, and have been working in the ED of a level-1 trauma center since then. I LOVE IT! -Andrea

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hey everyone! This forum was a great idea. I graduated May 21st, 2005 and I am taking my boards July 9th and starting orientation on a Med-Surg/Oncology/Hospice floor on July 11th. I don't think I've ever been more nervous about anything in my entire life. Good luck to everyone in taking boards and starting orientation!!

Leah

Up Vote Up Vote ×

HI ALL! I graduated May 6th, took the NCLEX June 21st and passed with 75 questions. I just started general nursing orientation, and will be working in dialysis. I am very excited to get started with my training, and anxious to see how hemodialysis really works.

Good luck to those of you getting ready for the NCLEX. I know you can do it!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
NHnightRN......I love my job, but it sure isnt what I thought I was going to be getting into!

Hi NHnightRN, just wondering if you would mind explaining the last part of your statement above? Why isn't it what you thought you'd be getting into?

I guess I didnt really know what to expect when I graduated, I loved clinicals in nursing school, and all my classmates were so excited about finally becoming nurses. I guess one of the hardest things was the helpless feeling like I had no idea what I was doing. Really nursing isnt anything like nursing school. But dont worry the other nurses you work with are awesome resources, just dont be afraid to ask their opinion, and ask questions. When you first start it seems like thats all you're doing, asking questions. but after awhile it gets easier and you're not asking questions all the time, actually the other nurses will start asking you questions too and you realize that you're part of this big team. Never feel like you're alone, because you're not. There will be good days and bad ones, you'll have time where you ask yourself what you've gotten yourself into, but there are also times when you touch that one patient in a special way, or you get that thank you from a patient who really appreciated what you've done for them, and you know that what you're doing is worth all the hardship you're putting yourself though. Yes we are over worked and under paid, and lots of other nurses will let you know that, there are nurses who dont know why they are nurses because they've lost the good feelings from what they're doing. nurses bicker between one another, doctors sometimes are unprofessional, but you have to look at the big picture of what we are all doing here. And that is helping other people. If you dont lose track of that, and dont lose faith in yourself and all that you've learned and will continue to learn you will be fine. It is a hard transformation to make, but you can do it. I did and I'm so glad that I didnt give up. Once I realized that I was not all alone and that the other nurses I worked with supported me in what we were doing I saw that I could do this... I was a real nurse... and before I knew it I had been nursing for a whole year. Really I think that the first year is the hardest, but in some ways its the most rewarding. :rolleyes:

Not sure if I've made any sense, hopefully what I've said helps.

Lora RN BSN

Up Vote Up Vote ×

NHnightRN sounds like you have surely made a healthy and confident transition from GN to RN! Awesome! Thanks for the wisdom! I will keep your words in mind for the tough days. Continued success in your career!

Bijou-Spice

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surge.

Hey Everybody-

I graduated NS on May 13, 2005, took boards on June 7th (I think) and started on MS floor of a rural hospital on June 13th. I have been really glad that I went to the NS that I did b/c I have felt very prepared so far in the position that I am in on this floor. Have had a great "handpicked by me" preceptor that has truly given her all to me when she was so busy it was ridiculous!! Feel truly blessed to have had her!

Good luck to everyone preparing for NCLEX-just keep saying "YOU WILL PASS"

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi everyone!,

I graduated on May 20th with my ADN. I have a very busy month ahead of me, I take my NCLEX on July 8th, I am moving into the house I bought on July 15th and getting married on July 23rd!!! I also have a bridal hower coming up this Sunday! :uhoh3: I can't wait for the whole month to be over with :) I am working in a LTC facility that I've worked at for four years as a CNA and an LPN and currently as a GN. I plan to apply at a couple hospitals nearby, but I'm waiting until August to do so.

.png

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi!!! I graduated May 6, took boards June 7 and have been actually practicing as a RN since June 9!! I started full time on the Med Surg unit of my hospital this week! What a wonderful feeling to know that a dream has been accomplished!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

My name is Lauren. I graduated this past December and just completed my ICU internship this month. We were precepted for 16 weeks, and were on our own for the last weeks with a preceptor or resource nurse close at hand.

Going into it (way back in January, lol) was exciting and scary and...well mostly just scary. I hated my nursing clinicals in school!! They were so awkward, and I was afraid it was always going to be that way, wondered if nursing was what I really wanted. For those of you who actually enjoyed that torture, you're going to love what's to come. I do.

The facility I work at had a great internship program in my opinion. While it was a scheduled 16 weeks with the preceptor, if you felt you weren't ready to be on your own, they let you continue at your own pace. All 3 of us ICU interns felt ready at 16 weeks, and none of us have had nervous breakdowns or killed / injured / maimed anyone yet. We were warned in the beginning about the days and weeks that we would feel inadequate, afraid to go to work, etc. That period happened for me at about week 19 (the 3rd week on my own) and I started questioning my choice of units to work in. I was convinced that working at a dr's office might be the best place, lol. At least a little less stressful than the ICU. My biggest fear was having my pt code on me and not knowing what to do. We have been taught what to do, many times. But until I've seen it, done it, and done a few more times, I will not be ready. I have yet to have a patient code on me and have only participated in 3 codes of other RN's pts.

Anywho, I'm on an "I feel really good about ICU" kick right now. Even signed up for overtime these past couple of weeks. Check out http://www.icufaqs.org Look at it now, and go back to it after a few months worth of pt experiences. I didn't know about this site until a week ago, but I have spent hours reading through it and relating it to pts I have had and currently have (a 36 y/o woman with seriously advanced TB / sepsis, necrotic bowel, and sick sinus syndrome! Argh!)

Anyway...I just wanted to share some of my feelings about being the newbie - from a newbie with recent newbie experience, although... The new nurse interns just started this week and now I am not the newest nurse anymore. It feels kinda good. Heh.

Remember two things:

1) http://www.icufaqs.org

2) Nothing you do to your pt is going to hurt him/her...except MEDICATIONS. No matter how much you give it or how unscary it seems (ie Pepcid = unscary and heart meds = scary), always double check your dosing/routes/infusion rates/compatibilities/allergies. Seriously, even the nurses who have been there years get this wrong, so I always just use my drug book or CALL the PHARMACIST. And check your MARS!!

Good luck everyone!!

~Lauren

Up Vote Up Vote ×

remember two things:

1) http://www.icufaqs.org

2) nothing you do to your pt is going to hurt him/her...except medications. no matter how much you give it or how unscary it seems (ie pepcid = unscary and heart meds = scary), always double check your dosing/routes/infusion rates/compatibilities/allergies. seriously, even the nurses who have been there years get this wrong, so i always just use my drug book or call the pharmacist. and check your mars!!

good luck everyone!!

~lauren

thanks lauren for sharing these helpful tips/infos. it's a treasure! :) for sure you'll be a successful icu nurse. :p

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hi!

I graduated in December '04 with honors and as the University's only Honors Scholar for the year....I still felt like a bumbling fool when I started on the unit!!! :p

I work in the CVICU (I need to change my screen name) at the Southeast's top cardiac hospital. We have an orientation that is about 6 months long. I am off orientation at the end of next week and feel a lot like the other recent poster: Perhaps I should have chosen a dr's office instead. :chuckle

Kidding aside, my job is amazing. I run codes throughout the hospital at a rate of almost one every two shifts, I admit patients with dx's like disecting aortic aneurisms and see them return off the table and then go on to step-down and then home. My favorite is bringing the pts off the vent and then working them to being ready for transfer. When you get a stable of the vent, they LOVE you! :) I see such incredible things...The man who was vented and near death for weeks to the point of one shift we were praying he could hold out until after shift change (how fast we become experienced nurses in some regards :chuckle ) and the next day he's turning his head and following you around the unit and nodding yes and no appropriately to questions and, get this, when he first entered the unit, he didn't speak English!!!

I could go on and on with stories. But to know that we really do save lives in our jobs, even if it seems like our part is too small to matter (It's not), is such a great feeling. Good luck to everyone and know that you'll feel clueless for a while and then one day wake up and just start doing it. At that point you'll suddenly realize you've got it. And, don't forget, we are all always learning every day --- even the nurse who has been around for 20 years.

-Alyssa, RN, BSN

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment