New grad stress, thinking about moving units?

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Apr 5, 2022

You are overwhelmed due to lack of experience. As you gain experience, you gain a knowledge base. Every new nurse feels overwhelmed at the beginning, but it gets better as time goes on. It takes 12-18 months to feel competent in your role. It sounds like you like your unit and have supportive coworkers, talk to them about your feelings. My guess is that they have all had the same feelings as you currently have as a new nurse.

K. Everly, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2022

First of all, I'm so sorry you are feeling this way and I can definitely relate.

I took a job as an inpatient rehab (IPR) & med-surg tele float when I first started (I'm a new RN too). Basically IPR was supposed to be my home floor the vast majority of my shifts, but if we were overstaffed they would send me to a tele floor. I only got 6 shifts of tele orientation and each time I worked I had 6-8 patients on floors I had either never been to or only been to once. Half of my pt's seemed more suited to intermediate care, and I just knew my license was in danger in that environment with such little training and such crappy ratios. I work at a level 1 trauma hospital so I feel like med-surg/tele can be heavier here than compared to other community hospitals.

Suffice it to say, I told my manager I didn't want to float anymore because I was so beyond terrified and miserable, and I'm so glad I did. I was so worried about losing out on the experience, but I am not an excellent multitasker and I really don't like emergent situations regularly, which kept happening on tele. I went back to IPR exclusively (so no more floating) and I don't regret it at all. If I ever change my mind, that's OK, and I would have more experience with which to move with! As a new RN, even IPR can be stressful. Being a novice at anything is stressful and even on this floor we have ppl transfer off for medical fragility. Just last week my IPR pt ended up on a venti and became unstable enough that they had to be transferred to pulm step-down.

I think you know yourself and you know 1) your motivation for the acute environment your in, 2) your ultimate desires out of your life/career, and 3) your personality.

I'll tell you the sort of self-talk that helped me to decide for myself if I should stay or go. My motivation for the acute environment was the feel smart, capable, gain skills, and open up doors to more acute environments in the future or something that required acute experience. My ultimate desire out of my career is actually to have work/life balance where I enjoy my days off and I work to live, not live to work. I want to find what I do fulfilling and help people, but I am choosing me over my career. I was to be joyful in life. Lastly, My personality really isn't suited to acute environments. I excel at a tender touch, motivating people, educating pt's and families on disease/wellness/medical management. By going through the above, I realized my motivation for wanting to work in the acute environment was not that strong and I don't have a desire to work an environment that is centered around emergent situations. I also want to enjoy my days off and if I'm wound so tightly for working in an environment that is sucking my soul dry, it's by no means worth it.

I absolutely think you should do some soul searching and go ahead and trial run that OR shift. Life is too short and precious to stay anywhere out of a sense of obligation only!