New grad to med surg unit, all experienced nurses leaving

[hopemedsurg2picu]

Hi everyone :) so I was hired onto this medsurg unit in June and soon after about 5 other new grad nurses were also hired within July and August. Now I'm seeing that every other week another experienced nurse is leaving the unit. It has to do I believe with a new unit director starting before u started whom I find very nice and helpful, but I guess things were different before. I don't know any different and the unit seems great to me. I never have had a problem with staff or anything and everyone is so nice to answer my questions. I'm just concerned that sooner or later, there will be only new grads working every shift and I will have no one to ask questions if there is an issue. It just terrifies me and I know there is pretty much nothing I can do about it. It's not like I can beg the older nurses to stay!! Just looking for advice I guess :)

[roser13, ASN, RN]

The best advice is to not borrow trouble. It's good that you like your unit director and other co-workers. I hope that you all can bond and form a wonderful collaboration. Hopefully your worst fears will not be realized.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Since you are a newer nurse, my advice is to do whatever you can to stick it out for at least a year. Once you have that golden year of experience under your belt, it will do wonders for your nursing career.

If you can hack an understaffed med/surg gig for a year, you can do just about anything else in nursing. Good luck to you!

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

Identify who the resources and long term employees are and try to establish a friendly relationship with those persons. It is also good to have work friends in ICU pharmacy lab respiratory and CT who can point you in the right direction if you are unsure of how to handle a particular problem. Please review the rapid response criteria and never hesitate to call for help if your patient has a change in condition.

[amoLucia]

Identify who the resources and long term employees are and try to establish a friendly relationship with those persons. It is also good to have work friends ... who can point you in the right direction if you are unsure of how to handle a particular problem.

You need to find out who the "IV Queen" is, who has the knack for getting GTs to run, who has the best wound technique, somebody who writes terrific documentation, someone who's cool, calm & collected when a crisis is breaking loose. Staff most freq have one special area in which they seem to excel. Find them out and learn from them. In turn, they may find YOUR special skill too and you'll share your expertise with them when nec.

.