New Nurse feeling overwhelmed!

Nurses General Nursing

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Ok, so I am a new grad nurse and I love my new job on an Oncology floor. The staff has been exceptional and I'm learning alot.

I have about 2 months under my belt, and I have some good days and some awful days. I feel like a complete basket case on some days because I feel like I know nothing!

My preceptors seem to feel that I'm coming along fine, but I wonder to myself who they have been looking at, because they can't be talking about me.

Any help for the newbie?

Any other newbies want to share their experiences?

Everyone says that I won't feel comfortable for about the first year. Who can go a year feeling stupid and dumb in many of their choices??

Yep...can definitely use some warm fuzzies right now! :chair:

I feel your pain. I have about 7 months under my belt. Over the past 6 months I've cried a lot, lost a ton of weight, and felt stupid and grossly inadequate.

Oh my gosh...that sounds like nursing school!!!!!!(except I gained not lost weight I'd LOVE to loose weight!).... I was kind of hoping that stuff was overwith but..... we'll see..still looking for the right job! (well at least the day shift ...... ):rolleyes:

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

I have about 2 months under my belt, and I have some good days and some awful days. I feel like a complete basket case on some days because I feel like I know nothing!

Everyone says that I won't feel comfortable for about the first year. Who can go a year feeling stupid and dumb in many of their choices??

Dani,

I graduated from Nursing school in 1993 and have been in onco/hemo since 1995. I work as a traveler and have worked in onco/hemo units in three of the top 15 hospitals in the nation. Including one consistantly ranked number one in the nation. I have managers from my facilities rate me quite well on evaluations.

I STILL feel like a total dunce at times, and not always comfortable. It is impossible to know everything and keep in line with every MD's preferences. No matter where I go, there will always be new unusual things and different ways of doing things...and new ways to mess up.

On the day you feel completely and totally comfortable as an nurse, well, you may be stagnanting. Nursing is a fluid profession with new knowledge and skills to be learned, and should not stand still. It is rarely black and white like the tests in school but more often shades of grey.

i am feeling much relieved after reading all these posts...I just joined a hospital and its only a month...and I was feeling so low and was wondering when will I be able to manage 6-7 patients successfully...!!!Well..I got the answer now...I have to keep going...and I will make it one day...and its great to know that I am not alone..thanks everyone...

Just go one day at a time and do the best job you possibly can, if your patients are happy you are doing fine. I too hated my first RN job, on a Med-Surg floor, at a facility with lots of infighting and bickering. There were plenty of things I did not know how to do (such as complex drips) and I was made to feel really stupid and clumsy. Now, a year and a half out of school, I am in an emergency room on an Indian Res and have more good days than bad. Every day I learn something new, I work with good Nurses and MD's and I like 99.9 % of my patients. The people you work with will make or break the job. There are too many good nursing experiences out there to stay stuck in a bad one.

Thankfully I've heard this PRIOR to graduation, so now I'll know what to expect. Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Hopefully I'll be able to start knowing that it's 'normal' to feel incompetent.

I have been working in the OB unit for a year on my own. By that I mean I am the only RN with ob experience in the hospital on night shift. We are a very small hospital and I usually work with one LPN. I have felt so overwhelmed at times that i would tell a fellow RN I sometimes want to sit in the hall on the floor and cry. He told me "Always tell yourself "I am the best person at this time in this place to help this patient" And for some reason that has helped my confidence so much. The other night I actually delivered my first baby (while the doctor went to the lounge with instructions to "work with her on her pushing and call him when it was on the perinueum" well he didnt specify which side of the perineum and she didn"t need any help with pushing. HAHAHA so I did what I had vowed to avoid my whole career and delivered a healthy boy! I don't feel invincible, but I know now I can stay upright on a stool and do what I have to do. Experience is the best confidence builder and I am now embracing new ones instead of shrinking back from them.

Dear New Nurse,

You are fine-I am an experienced oncology nurse-and well remember my first year-it really does take a year--first 3 months are actually the worst-it gets easier after that-one day you will look back on it as funny-I celebrated my 30th year this past june--first year of anything new is harder-my cousin just finished her first year teaching at a university as full time faculty-she learned a lot and is wiser-plan yourself a vacation for a year-maybe a min-vacation after 3 months to celebrate what you have accomplished and learned-you deserve it. One day you will hear the same thing from a younger nurse and you will look back on this time and tell them things that helped you. Oncology is tough, for a new grad-you need to be a good med-surg nurse-because oncology affects every system and you see so much-oncology has always interested me intellectually because of the action of tumors and leukemmias-and the great advances that have been made in symptom management-when I was a new grad. the only antiemetics we had were compazine and thorazine-which are weak, to say the least-so nurses learned and invented lots of techniques like distraction, guided imagery etc. to help combat nausea and vomiting. Have you joined oncology nursing society chapter? that will help a lot-also going to ons congress and or institutes of learning will help a lot-ons has a great website-ons.org. where you can find a local chapter-if you join there is a great magazine and newsletter that you get that will help a lot. Seminars in Oncology nursing is also excellent publication. I don't know where you live, but this is a start. If I can help you, let me know. I live in north carolina and am an oncology clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner. Good luck and take care of yourself.

During school I became very good friends with 3 of my fellow classmates.We graduated this May and 3 of us now work at the same hospital and on the same floor, oncology, 1 on days and me and another at night. We have this same conversation EVERY DAY! It really helps having them there, being able to say how i'm really feeling and having them say "I feel the same way." We all have questioned our desire to become nurses and still one of my friends says, 6 more months and then she's done, back to bartending, if things don't get better. We all had good preceptors who were there for us when we had questions and who we still feel comfortable asking questions now that we're on our own. I know all new jobs take time getting used to so i'm not cashing out yet but I definitely understand what you're going through. Just keep imagining yourself 1 year from now, when all the "new" grads are coming on and they see you as the "expert" nurse instead of the novice!

Specializes in Bone Marrow Transplant.

I know how all you newbies feel. I am also new. I started in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in June, so I have about 2 months under my belt. My first day off a 10 week orientation, I cried the whole way home. I ask tons of questions everyday. On my way home today, I was thinking about the fact that every day I learn something new. My unit is pretty tough because what we do is very specific, but I love it. The best thing is to find a good support system. Everyone I work with is really nice and helpful. If you don't have that support system, it makes everything 10 times worse. I know I won't know everything right away, but it does get frustrating at times. The best thing to remember is that everyone had their first job at one time.

Specializes in Neuro, Critical Care.

I feel your pain. I just started on a Neuro ICU floor and it's difficult. I have my good days and I have my bad days. I know it will get better, but it sure is nerve wracking.

I'm glad I came across this thread. I am also on my second month on an oncology floor. I feel info-overloaded and so lost. I don't seem to be putting the whole picture of the patient together, and I think of things that I did wrong or should've done for a patient after the shift is over and while trying to get some sleep before my next shift! My preceptors are excellent though at keeping me on track and, most of the times pointing out what I did wrong. I hate this learning curve!!

Specializes in Oncology, Home Health, Psychiatry.

All of the responses have helped me sooooo much!!!

I went to a new nurse transition meeting for all newbies at my hospital (designed to help us transition from student nurse to nurse) and they give us a safe place to share our feelings about what we are going thru. I sat and listened to my fellow newbies talk about how they felt and I thought "we really do feel the same way"! No matter what department we chose to go to, we all have good days and bad days! :mad:

Then I got the news that I will be ending my precepting the week of the 17th of September. I will be on my own beginning September 24th!!!:uhoh21:

My manager said that everyone has been saying how well I was adapting and that I am ready. WHAT??? :eek: Who came up with that bright idea??:uhoh3:

I need atleast 6 more months!

My preceptorsaid that I will learn my greatest things when I get on my own, mostly due to the mistakes I'll make! :idea: But I don't want to make any mistakes...:bluecry1: Maybe that job as a Wal-mart greeter doesn't look so bad after all. :icon_roll

Ok...I regressing!

Again...everyone's responses to my mini-breakdown :selfbonk: has been helpful! And I'm glad that other newbies are benefitting from it too! :icon_hug:

Newbies Unite!!! :groupwelcome:

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