New Grads Today v. New Grads From Years Ago

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Specializes in Oncology.

I am currently a Junior nursing student (I will graduating next year). I read posts in the New Grad section of this website & always come across people saying how difficult nursing is when you start out. I read their frustrations and I get worried because almost everyone states how they have panic attacks, dread going in to work, and feel like they have no support from the other employees on the floor.

I wanted to pose a question for new grads and the more experienced nurses out there. My professors bring up in class about how the 'patient' has changed over the years, and in class today, one prof. made a good point that "Only the sickest of the sick are in the hospital, and everyone else is at home". People today are experiencing more chronic diseases at a younger age.

Do you more experienced nurses (nurse for 10, 20, maybe 30 years) feel like you've struggled as a new graduate? Do you feel as though the conditions that patients suffer with have increased with difficulty over the years? And finally, if you didn't particularly 'struggle' working as a new grad, do you think that the increasing complexity of patient issues are overwhelming new grads today?

New grads, what are the factors at work that make you feel as though you are sinking, so to speak? What can you do to improve upon those problems, if they are under your control?

Is there any particular area (oncology, med-surg, ED, ICU, etc) that you feel specifically challenging and difficult?

Just curious. I would like to have an idea on the thoughts of seasoned nurses and new grads. Thank you in advance.:redbeathe

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New Grad of less than a yeat. I work on a post op medical surgical floor. I knew it would be busy coming in but I was desperate to get a job in this area versus communiting 1/5 hrs each way to work.

I would have sunk by week 2 if not for my ability to multitask and my 12 years as a medic. My nursing school just taught me a little bit more about certain topics and health issues, the rest I learned through real life experience as a medic. Sad to say, the phrase, "Nurses eat their young." Still holds true. I have found valuable resources in other newer Rn to the floor who remember how it was to be thrown to the wolves and overloaded with acutely ill patients and expected to master everything at once with no backup. I go to them with questions daily.

I keep a running log of little tidbit note that apply to my floor to help keep everything straight. That list is up to 7 pages now.

I have rooted out those on the floor who are willing to work as a "team" and not work as "this is a competition and I'm going to win not you." We are here to take care of the patients not see who can get their assignments done so they can surf facebook. If I have a lighter patient load I will offer to help other staff members so they can get finished and sit down too. I am a firm beleiver in good karma and treating everyone with respect, your co-workers, the complaining patient, everyone. Remeber people in the hospital even for long term are not at their personal best and are bound to feel cranky and be grouchy. We can go home after a 8,10 or 12 hour shift, they must stay there till discharged.

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

So you go to school, take a test and get a license. Works for nursing, works for driving! Think about how well you drove when you first got your license, and how you drive now. Same with nursing. There's a certain amount of validity in comparing the two. The license proves you've met a certain minimum competency.

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I am a new nurse off of orientation for a little over a month and I am struggling. I am usually late getting off of work 1-2 hours trying to get everything done. I feel like I run all night long with no lunch or breaks and still can't get out on time. My staff I work with are all very supportive and helpful to me but they can only do so much ,the rest is up to you to figure out. I was a top student in nursing school but feel like I know nothing now . They all say this is common to feel this way and it is a big learning curve starting out. I work on a very busy ortho-medsurg floor with patients coming and going so fast it makes your head spin. I figure if I can make it here ,I can make it anywhere (as the song goes). Be prepared for a bit of a shock until you get some time under your belt and pray you get to work with a supprtive staff like I do and you will be fine. Best of luck to you.

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Spoiler alert! I'm gonna use another auto example! Think about your first time behind the wheel. You take your foot off the brake, maybe even tap the gas pedal a bit. Holy mother of everything holy this is all going so fast! And the speedometer maybe showing as much as 3 or 4 MPH! But you practice, and next thing you know you're so comfortable you're getting your first high speed driving award (aka ticket). Nursing is infinitely more complex. Stick with the job you've got and you'll start seeing patterns, knowing when you can sneak in a procedure or chem strip or two. Theres a learning curve in nursing and it's very steep at first. By now there are some things you must have mastered. Give yourself credit for them. In my experience, those who take longest to learn, learn the best and rather quickly change from newbie to the "go to" person.

I hope this all makes sense to you, because I've been there, done that, got that T shirt. I'm on your side, wishing I could tell you how worth it all it is, and hoping this helped. Or my kids will be using my diatribe as evidence to have me locked up that much sooner. Good luck, best wishes for a long enjoyable career.:)

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Specializes in Adult Stem Cell/Oncology.

The funny thing is, I didn't think nursing school was all that difficult, and I did an accelerated 15-month second degree program. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA, and passed the NCLEX a month later: 75 questions in a little over an hour. That was last August....

I've applied to dozens of new grad jobs in CA as well as a few other states, and still don't have the coveted new grad job. I feel like I have PTSD because every time I see that I have a new e-mail, it freaks me out because I think it's yet another rejection letter! Although, don't get me wrong...I appreciate the fact that most hospitals at least send you a rejection letter....because some don't even do that. They have you fill out a huge application complete with essay questions, and then never get back to you at all.

I have two emotions right now: depression and anger...and I don't even have a nursing job yet!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Cardiac.

I've only been a nurse 2 1/2 years so can't talk to years ago. I know the first year I had lots of trouble sleeping etc. When I mentioned that to my unit director she started laughing and said that she was exactly the same way when she started years ago.

It is getting better, though I still can't sleep after some particularly bad days.

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Specializes in CVICU, anesthesia.

I'm still a fairly new grad and I wouldn't consider myself to have struggled but there are definitely difficult moments. I would say that the root of any tough days I have had is poor management and/or poor teamwork and support from your peers. This is generally a strong point in my unit but we all have bad days. I really feel for those who work places where they rarely have peer support and encouragement with tough assignments!

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

Yes the patients have got sicker. I was working with a nurse who has just returned to nursing after 15 years out and she is horrified at what we are nursing on the ward. She was saying how these patients would of gone to ICU post op for 2 days and now we just collect them from recovery and carry on with them! I have to agree in my few years experience patients are getting sicker on the wards and going home earlier when they are still not fully recovered because there is always someone else in need of the bed.

I didn't particularly struggle as a new grad but I studied in Ireland and out of our 4 year program we spent 2 years on the ward in total including the whole of 3rd year as a "rostered student" (we got paid). We learned all about time management and the hospital routine and got to build relationships with allied health staff as well as the nurses on the wards. By the end of 3rd year I was replacing a staff nurse on night duty, I had 9 pts and 2 of those were on BiPap.

I did have a great team that I worked with and if I had any issues or thought I had issues they would help me critically think them through as well as getting stuck in and helping me.

I will never forget the day of the air mattress for a paraplegic pt with a bowel obstruction. He was admitted to the ward and it took us a few hours to find a air mattress for him. We finally got one and inflated it, hoisted him in the air, whipped the standard mattress off the bed and WHAM! huge bowel motion that just kept goign and going and going in every nook and crany of the bed frame! I was the closest to the door and ran to the sluice and grabbed the first thing I could see which was a huge clean rubbish bag and just held it in position while the rest of my colleagues were scrubbing the bed I was getting splashed with faces that wasn't going into the bag! All we could do was laugh, clean and then go and shower. We had to ring the bed manager to explain why 6 of us needed to use the operating dept showers and get scrubs off them. We all went to the pub after work to have a drink.

I feel so much of how you get on is about the team you work with.

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ITA with the others about teamwork. Your co-workers can either break you or make you.

I'm a fairly new nurse (1.5 years) in ER and the team work is GREAT! Had it not been for my co-workers, I would have quit along time ago. We all work together, and most of the time, we're too busy to sit and "gossip" about others.

Also, having the support of upper management is a good motivation to stay put on a particular unit. In the ER, we have a great working relationship with the docs, because they are RIGHT THERE! We are on first name basis with them and they are AWESOME!

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It is the most fun, stressful, tiring both physically and mentally, feeling like a retard, learning something new EVERYDAY, messing up, cleaning up, doing and re-doing, AWESOME time in your life!

I'm in at just under 8 months as an RN. I totally understand why they don't want to hire new grads...unfortunately. It's just hard. Period.

I don't know how much more acutely ill patients are at this time compared to 10 years ago, I do know that I see people with so many conditions/diseases and they are managing just fine. I am absolutely amazed on a daily basis at the medical "miracles" that keep people alive, and I look forward to the new technologies and innovations to come. I LOVE NURSING!

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Been a nurse for 42 years. We used to get patients admitted to the hospital for xrays (barium enemas, ivps, gallbladder) who were essentially healthy but had "insurance" that paid for them being in the hospital for that. No such thing anymore!! Patients are definitely sicker, older, have more comorbities, never expected to die, and we have a lot more things we do to try to keep them from dying nursing is definitely harder. There is so much more we need to know and I do not think schools adequately expose students to real world nursing so work is bound to be hard at first especially if the new nurse has no hospital experience except school. Nursing is a learning experience every day of your nursing life so just hang in there. After awhile some of it just becomes second nature.

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