I just graduated as a practical nurse in June and have been working at a nursing home since September. In school, academically, I excelled, but my practical skills were below average to say the least. My problems mainly were the fact that I am a bit on the slow side, have anxiety which can inhibit me at times, and that I don't have the world's greatest time management skills. This is still somewhat of an issue, but not as badly as it was in school (or so I feel).
At my work we only work 7 hours and we are given work that I COULD do in 8 hours, but because of the limited time I am constantly busy and therefore tend to finish a half an hour late and I typically do not take breaks. We have a smaller home and therefore not as many meds/treatment, so the fact that I finish as late as I do with the size of our home makes me hesitant to apply to different homes.
This is my first job period and I am twenty years old. I don't know if this is a truly a contributing factor, but it might be something worth mentioning.
I have just been doubting myself so much lately. I question if nursing is truly for me on a daily basis, and wonder if I am good enough for it. Am I too slow? Too dumb? Too much of a perfectionist? I randomly went to go see a paychic with a friend and he strongly advised that the best course of action was to stay with nursing until the end of 2018 and then decide whether or not to switch fields which was kind of comforting, but at the same time I just feel like I am WAAAAY too slow.
I do ask my co-workers for feedback and the experienced ones all collectively say that they were the same way and that it does get better. They also say that it's hard to establish a routine when I work every other weekend. I just feel like I haven't improved at all so I'm worried. My managers or other nurses haven't said anything about it aside from what I said above, but still I just feel very insecure to the point where I had a very vivid nightmare last night about how I didn't complete my med pass and that a co-worker called me up to confront me. This is not the first time I've had a nightmare of this nature.
This post is all over the place, but I hope someone could kind of give me their perception of my situation. Should I be faster by now? Should I get out now? Am I doing fine? Is bedside nursing really for someone as slow as myself?
(It is important to note, I think, that I work at a clinic where I tend to keep up with the pace so maybe it could be that nursing homes are not for me? I for sure as heck am staying away from hospitals if that's the case lol.)
