New here, just had a question...

As a graduate nurse, I applied to a nursing home and was assigned, of all things, to a pediatric vent ward. If I had known then just how much I didn't know I would have run for the hills.

Anyway, the first thing I did was tape extra trachs to the bedside cupboard doors just the way my teacher had taught me. One day a two-year-old coughed out his trach clear across the room and without hesitation I grabbed the new trach out of the package and stuck it right in. Then I had a nervous breakdown! After I recovered myself a bit, I thought, "Maybe I'm not as hopelessly inept as I thought...maybe I CAN be a nurse..."

Believe me, we all know your anxiety :) Soon you'll become a bitter, cynical, hardened old burnout like the rest of us

Ha! Ha! Way to go! I know I went through these jitters with EMS, but nursing has always been my DREAM! I guess more than anything I am afraid of failing. My whole life, this has been the only thing I have REALLY WANTED.

Well then, maybe I should tell you about the day I learned I really WAS a nurse.

I'll make a long story short and say there was a terrible wreck on the interstate involving a semi, a couple cars, and a school bus. Due to the huge mass of traffic I was the only medical person on the scene for almost an hour. Only 2 guys got out of their cars to help me, and it was just about freezing with a slick, icy mist coming out of the sky. We had to drag all the poor people off the bus because it was on fire. Luckily the school bus was carrying a load of bus drivers to a convention, because I have a real thing for kids.

Anyway, I did all that I could do, first-aid wise, such as making a tourniquet out of a bra strap and taping a kotex on a guy's head, but when I really KNEW I was a nurse was when I went down the rows of cars lined up and snatched peoples' coats out of their back seats to cover up the accident victims. A couple guys did try to argue with me and I don't remember what I said but they got back in their cars and left me alone, muahahah. My son will tell you that being a nurse is not about the skills, it's about the 'tude

A long time after graduation. Well over a year.

Until then you need to just ask questions and use the resources around you. Accept that your new and be kind with yourself.

There wasn't a time a light bulb went off because daily I learn something and am humbled. Just yesterday I learned where the "dens" was on the cervical spine. :)

Thank all of you for your replies. I guess trying to start out in a new career just seems a little scary sometimes. Like I said before, I know that I have learned alot this year, but right now I still don't FEEL like I have learned all that much. I guess it will just take time to settle into after wanting it soo long.