New nurse in need of experinced advice

[1styearsucks]

Greetings all! I am a new RN. Graduated in May passed boards in August. I did not make it out of orientation in my first job. It was a total nightmare!! I got fired October 1st. I have had four months to understand what went wrong and what part I played in the matter. I was really scared and nervous and this affected my job performance quite terribly. Also, I did not want to be perseived as incompetent so I did not ask questions when I should have. I messed up and have learned what to do and what not to do next time. My question to you is:

Would you hire a new nurse whose first job did not work out? I know I am not the first new nurse whose first job did not work out and has gone on to be a success. I do not understand why I am having such a hard time. Could you please offer your expertise to this issue. I appreciate all responses.

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Depends totally on the interview, and on why it didn't work out in the first job. If you could give me clear reasons why things didn't work out, including your responsibility and what you plan to do to avoid such things happening again AND if you seemed switched-on and eager, I might give you another chance. Then again, if I had two people to choose from, I'd probably choose the one who wasn't fired before.

[PediRN]

I agree with the above poster. If you present the termination as a learning experience and you don't badmouth your previous employer, that goes a long way. You can also just say that it didn't work out, it was a poor fit, you realized it wasn't for you, etc. You don't have to come out and say you were fired. Spin, baby, spin.