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
I would love to have the opportunity to get the information and do the research the night before. My school does not allow this. They want us to show up and assign patients right then and we're expected to just run with it. We usually can't even look at our textbooks before doing the initial assessment and charting it because of the timetable that they want us to follow.
My school was the same way. We were assigned patients the morning of clinicals and had to go over the meds and the chart right then. We did have to do care plans afterward though, so there was still lots of research involved when the day's clinical was over, ex. the patient's meds, rationale for being on those meds, their diagnosis, the pathophysiology of their diagnosis, etc.....
My school was the same way. We were assigned patients the morning of clinicals and had to go over the meds and the chart right then. We did have to do care plans afterward though, so there was still lots of research involved when the day's clinical was over, ex. the patient's meds, rationale for being on those meds, their diagnosis, the pathophysiology of their diagnosis, etc.....
Yes, have have those same care plans for after the fact as well. I think those were actually really helpful assignments too.
wow, kind of a mean comment, but I get your point. I think that people are smarter today in general...book smart, that is.
Think about what "smart" means to you. To me, an intelligent person is one that can adapt quickly. A person that has control of their feelings in the sense that they put the job at hand above what is really going on inside their head. A human that puts doing the right thing above all else, is REALLY smart; to me.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
as others have stated:
1. nursing is like anything else, the more u do it, the better u get
2. patients are sicker, but the technology we work with is better too
newbie nurses in general are smarter than newbie nurses from 10, 20, 30 yrs ago, it doesn't mean they're wiser or have more common sense though (that's were the newbies baffle me at times, b/c nursing is mostly about common sense).
i do think newbs of today have less real world and working experience though. way too many have NEVER had a job before or supported themselves. i think this is were many of the newbie nurse problems really stem from.
First off, of course new grads are going to have a different nursing perspective than older and more experienced nurses looking back on their new grad days. It is going to be a struggle for most nurses to get used to real life nursing and gaining the knowledge of their units and patient population.
And yes, nursing is going to be more complex as new technology and procedures save sicker and sicker patients. But that is going to be true for most professions today. There is always new information and technology changing how we all do things.
My advice for new grads is to try and find a job in a nursing specialty you enjoy. I think it is always going to be more difficult and a struggle in a specialty you aren't passionate about. It is also very important to find a job with consistent and good training and having an experienced nurse preceptor or mentor to help a nurse feel comfortable there. New grads need to keep learning and researching on the job to keep up with all the information out there.
It is difficult to start out new on any job. If you are lucky enough to find your niche, a good unit, and get some experience, it gets a lot easier over time.
It was hard back then ... and it is hard today. Only the details have changed.
Sure, some of the patients are sicker ... but "patients at death's door" were no easier to care for in the past than they are today. Yes, there is more technology today ... but in the old days, nurses did not have the advantages of technology either. Orientations were shorter back then: there were fewer "new grad programs," etc.
I'm not saying it's easier now. I'm just saying it was no cakewalk for previous generations either. To debate the issue rarely accomplishes anything worthwhile.
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 just cleared my one-year mark and this wasn't my experience at all. Several of my classmates also made it through the first year without what you're describing. I therefore challenge your "almost everyone" statement. In fact, having been on this board for 3 years or so, I'd say that it's a small minority of newbie nurses who express those sentiments.
I think most New Grad Nurses find the 1st year a 'challenging' experience, everything is new. Have you talked about the 'Benner's Stages of Clinical Competence' in your nursing classes? The transition from student nurse to professional nurse is a journey that has predictable stages, Stage 1 Novice, Stage 2 Advanced Beginner, Stage 3 Competent, Stage 4 Proficient, Stage 5 Expert. I just hit my year mark from graduation and I started on a Med/Surg floor about 3 weeks after graduating, I had 14 weeks of 1:1 training with a mentor and I am very grateful for that experience. I can honestly say that I can very clearly see my movement through the Stages and I do think that at my year mark I am comfortably at the Competent Stage - I am a whole different nurse today than from when I started. Yes, it is true that my patients are sick, I can not compare them from the patients from the past but I have heard stories from the older nurses where patients used to come to the hospital and spend a couple of days for things such as physicals and colonoscopys. The patients that are hospitilized after surgery are the ones who had pretty intense procedures such as craniotomies and hip replacements (and typically these patients have chronic health conditions and are older in age which can add extra stress and complications to the patients recovery course). I am glad that I have learned how to manage these intense patients from Day 1 of my careeer versus the older nurses whom have had to learn how to manage these intense patients after working with the less intense patients from the past who necessarily didn't have medical problems but were admitted for the yearly physicals. Hospital nursing is a hard profession (it's not just taking a temperature and hanging an IV bag), the patients who are hospitalized are very sick, but the more experience we have in our fields of nursing allows us to become more competent and more prepared to care for the patients that we work with.
I graduated in 1990 and had a preceptor for one week then was on my own as a float. I floated everywhere including the units It was sinck or swim. At the time it was very stressful, but a learning experience. I learned so much more than I ever would employed on just one floor. I even spent time on the dialysis floor.
I am a nurse of 50 years and having worked in every area of nursing and having taught nursing students I can definiately say that the patients today are sicker in the hospital and leave before you feel comfortable that they are going to do well. When I graduated, I had an advantage as a diploma graduate because we did a tremendous amount of clinical before we graduated. At one point, I was a team leader (charge nurse) on nights for 50 patients. This was on two floors so I had to keep going up and down from floor to floor to check on patients. Of course, the patients were not as sick and they did not have as many meds and not every patient had an IV, foley, or drainage tube of sorts. When I graduated, there was no problem in getting a job and my first job was on a post op floor of 25 patients. I was a new RN and I had 2 aides to help me. Did I have anxiety? Of course, and you will too. I definitely feel that graduates today need a preceptor program individualized for that nurse. Then it is up to you to learn to manage your time, continue to learn and take advantage of more experienced nurses. Hopefully, you go to work where there are still lots of "seasoned nurses". Best of everything and remember to never stop learning and be the best nurse you can.
Specializes in ortho, urology, neurosurgery, plastics.
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
hi there. i think that saying that every new grad struggled, be they of today's generation or that of years gone by (pick a number), is not a misperception. i certainly did, as did most of those i graduated with. we were new, on our own, no instructor/preceptor/mentor to hold our hands and comfort us when we felt lost and alone. we were out of the womb and our comfort zone. we stuck to our guns, took our lumps and learned what it was like to nurse. the statements that patients have changed, acuity has increased etc. etc. are all true. that our population is presenting with more chronic illness at a younger age and that the older ones are living longer with more co-morbidities is also true. medicine has a "thing" about keeping people alive at all costs and nursing by and large bears the burden of caring (not necessarily treating) for these patients. so add up all of those and weigh it against what you were taught in school and you will find school comes up short. as it must. if nursing school taught you everything you needed to know to be a nurse in today's dynamic, ever-changing health care system, you would never get to nurse because you would never get out of school! there is too much to learn and there is more to learn every day. as such you will never be fully 'clinically ready' to slide comfortably into practice.
having said that, the problem of clinical unpreparedness largely begins in the academic arena. it is widely known as the 'theory to practice gap" and it has been recognized since as far back as 1937. dr. h. baum, a canadian doctor who was assigned to assess nursing education in canada stated: "it is what is seen on the wards which sticks and it is a great pity the instruction of nurses is not at present based on that fact." in order to begin to influence nursing care, a restructuring of formal nursing curricula is necessary. the difficulty of trying to develop a clinical curriculum based on academic theory that must be successfully combined with clinical skills training and practical know-how is huge with so many mitigating factors.
in many university programs clinical faculty and educators are often distanced from development of curriculum. therefore, they are hard pressed to incorporate relevant material to practice situations. and as has been stated many times, it is the lack of relevant clinical practice that seems to precipitate the real or perceived notion of clinical unreadiness to practice. through a practice driven approach, educators and students can re-evaluate curriculum and can offer opportunities to revise curriculum to meet common goals of systematic change. it is very difficult sometimes to reach out across the span of the abstract to the concrete. as long as power struggles occur in academia as to what philosophical bent should be adopted and, equally important, how it should be taught, nursing will continue to have an appreciable spread between what is and what should be.
so what does this mean? new nurses will struggle. now and for the foreseeable future. through your own fortitude and as joe cocker says "a little help from your friends" you will get by. and someday down the road when a brand new grad comes to you with a look of abject fear and total bewilderment on their face and in their hearts you will be able to reassure, comfort them and tell them it will be alright.
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What makes you say that?
MisterSimba, BSN
296 Posts
My school was the same way. We were assigned patients the morning of clinicals and had to go over the meds and the chart right then. We did have to do care plans afterward though, so there was still lots of research involved when the day's clinical was over, ex. the patient's meds, rationale for being on those meds, their diagnosis, the pathophysiology of their diagnosis, etc.....