im currently a new grad on my second week of orientation. & I think I'm not cut out for this. I am on a busy Tele floor on night shift. 3 out of my 5 shifts I spent on the PCU. Now I had trouble getting started in the beginning. So around my 3rd and 4th shift my preceptor finally felt comfortable with giving me 1 pt to handle independently. After taking everyone's advice I made improvements. But then today on my 5th shift it was my first time holding my own 1 pt load on the med-surge/Tele unit. My preceptor was around when I needed her, but was charge nurse with 7 pts, technically 8 if you count the one I was handling. So down to where things to the wayside...
i was basically no help at all. The one pt I had, I basically took the whole shift to chart on. & then I had to stay an extra hour to make sure I charted everything. This pt never went to sleep. She was constantly crying out the entire shift & I literally mean crying out. Some of it was because of pain & Given her condition I could understand that she was in pain, so I did what I could when it seem like the meds weren't working.
Anyways whole shift, she needed something. Then she started complaining about pressure and tingling under her arm cast, said it was a new symptom. So I paged the ortho doctor. He came & when he was asking me questions about the pt I had no answer to a lot of the questions. I felt silly because how am I the nurse & not know these answers. I hadn't had time to thoroughly review the reports & history & the shift report wasn't that great.
Throughout the night I made various mistakes. I sent an EKG chart of a pt who was having chest pain to the wrong place.( it was already determined it wasn't an MI or PE by then thankfully), I called the wrong doctor when I need a decrease on vancomycin. He got mad of course but still went in to see my pt. Apparently I kept paging him but I only paged him once or thought I did. I was so flustered I'm not even sure.
The nurses were irritated because they had this extra person on board and of no help. One nurse expressed her disbelief that I was still charting one pt throughout the night & I quote "well did she just start orientation"
I also like to run things by my preceptor, maybe too many things. Even if it's just PRN meds. I have this fear that I'll administer a drug & make a med error because I missed some important lab or some other contraindication to giving the med. I think this also exasperates her as well since I shouldn't need to run every little thing by her.
Anyways should I just sit down & see if I can transfer to another unit or should I just look for another job elsewhere, maybe outside the hospital setting all together? Everyone keeps saying this is normal but I think you know when your really not doing good. & I could understand everyone's exasperation. I would be too if I had this other person of no help. So any advice is welcome really. Were there any other new grads in this position? What did you do?
If you keep running away from opportunities to learn how to do your job, you will never be able to overcome your lack of experience or knowledge. That next job, especially for someone just starting out, is not guaranteed. This may be the only chance you have for quite some time. Make the most of it before throwing in the towel.
THIS x 100,000,000! The hard days are the ones in which you learn the most. Run away from them and you'll never overcome the obstacles.
Specializes in Hemodialysis, Mental Health, Addictions.
In September I'll have been working as a nurse for 1 year (hemodialysis and inpatient adolescent psych). From experience, in the beginning, most days will be hard and you will feel stupid and like a burden. HOWEVER, the only way to be a better nurse and move out of the "new" phase is to embrace every obstacle as the previous posters have said. I still spend time outside of work reading textbooks and articles related to what I see at work.
It's important to take care of your physical and mental health as well. It's true that you can't take care of others unless you take care of yourself first. Schedule your study time and schedule specific activities to nourish your mind, body, and soul. I highly recommend seeing a counsellor because this is one of the most stressful transitions you will ever make. But if you embrace the hard and learn to swim through it, you WILL make it!
Stick it out!!! You can do this. The preceptor with 7 patients plus charge is completely ridiculous. If you can survive orientation on a floor like that you can survive anywhere. I know i survived orientation on a cardiac tele stepdown hell floor. Make your skin as thick as you can before you walk in every day and soak up whatever you can. Chart the minimum focus on the abnormals when you are charting and chart throughout the day as you can. If theres a code, run to it. Good luck new nurse you got this
Thank you to everyone for your advice, encouraging words, and time! I really do appreciate this especially because it seems that in this profession it can be hard to express feelings of doubt or worries. And especially hard to express these worries to the right person. i think I was also shocked at how different this is from what we were allowed and handled in nursing school. So thank y'all again for your words of advice to this anxious new grad! & I have decided to stick it out.. at least a little bit longer because honestly it really wouldn't be any different anywhere else. & with almost any job you will have bad days.
meanmaryjean, DNP, RN
7,899 Posts
THIS x 100,000,000! The hard days are the ones in which you learn the most. Run away from them and you'll never overcome the obstacles.