New RN, already making mistakes

Srobinson11 · Apr 30, 2011

I graduate in exactly a week from the date of this post and I'm very nervous, but it seems like your doing well and it will get better. I really like the responses to your post (great advise for me as well) and they give me hope. Well just hang in there!

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Apr 30, 2011

If that's the worst mistake(s) you can come up in, say, a week, you are doing fine. If you did both those things on the same day I wouldn't even call you a below average nurse, I'd just think you were new and nervous. No worries my friend.

vraienurse · Apr 30, 2011

I am planing on moving to florida, I am a med-surg with tele exp. How is the market for nurses downthere. I heard the pay is horrible but i do not have a job now. And also i now want to stay closer to my family. I was fired from my previous job. My patient came out of surgery with some complication. this particular doctor always have patient with complication post surgery. You call him he could care less . I heard that He does his robotic prostate surgery unassisted. He sometimes attempt to blame the nurses. I said "do not manipulate foley" We know that we did not manipulate foley .More fluid coming out of the jp draing than the foley. bolus after bolus with no urinary output. uncontrollable pain . Blood pressure sky high. cracles lungs, sob.ect. Nurses assistants that you can never find and forget to chart whatever they did. ( lesson learn do not care so much that you get frustrated you might end blowing off steam in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was thinking in my head except that it came out loud. my safety valve were broken, someone over heard me talking to myself. ( and it was not pretty) I worry so much about the guy. all the comfort time and care i gave him and his family did not amount to anything. I love being a nurse but i need to learn to leave my heart at home and come to work with my brain only.It was my first job i learn from my mistake. It is challenge to explain being fired to potential employer.

mama_d, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2011

So...you're brand new, you're making mistakes, AND you're owning them and trying to pinpoint what YOU need to do to improve. IMO, that puts you light-years ahead of some other new grads!

Most of nursing school is teaching the basic building blocks of a nursing career, and how to pass the NCLEX. You still have a lot to learn, just like anyone fresh out of school. Try to find someone you can rely on as a mentor to help guide you and use as a sounding board. Take the time to take a few deep breaths and re-center yourself when things start getting hectic...a few seconds to refocus can save a lot of time and errors.

Try and find yourself a great brain sheet. The more organized you are, the less the chaos affects you.

Make peace with the fact that you are currently on the steepest learning curve you may ever encounter. Feeling overwhelmed is going to be normal for a while. Find ways to relieve the stress during your downtime.

You will get a flow down eventually. It may take some time, but it will happen. Keep building on your successes, learning from things that go not so well, and keep your chin up.

FancypantsRN · Apr 30, 2011

One other side note.... do not worry about the other nurses saying you are slow with meds, they need to cut you some slack with your timing. Perhaps they can give you some tips that help them stay organized with their med routine.

As mentioned above, the checklist system really helps - my preceptor showed it to me very early on and it made a huge difference. It also felt good to check things off as done, it helped me feel organized and like I was being productive. I am glad you have a supportive charge nurse, I would ask him/her for advice as well. Hang in there!

opossum · Apr 30, 2011

I'm a new nurse as well and feel like I am always screwing up. I feel overwhelmed, disorganized and stupid!

In the few weeks I've started this job, I've already made a med error and have been chewed out by a speech pathologist...and the hardest thing is giving yourself a break and remembering that this will take time. It sounds like you really care about your patients and your practice.

Keep up the good work! You can do this!

nurse.sandi · Apr 30, 2011

I'm a new nurse as well and feel like I am always screwing up. I feel overwhelmed, disorganized and stupid!
In the few weeks I've started this job, I've already made a med error and have been chewed out by a speech pathologist...and the hardest thing is giving yourself a break and remembering that this will take time. It sounds like you really care about your patients and your practice.
Keep up the good work! You can do this!

Why were you chewed out by a speech pathologist? Let me guess...something to do with diet, beverage thickner, or HOB elavation? The speech pathologist has no right to chew a nurse out. That person should quietly pull you aside and educate you. If this happens again, you need to go to your nurse manager and write it up. Leave a paper trail. Nurses have to stop letting everyone run all over them. We need to be proactive in getting our coworkers to see it from our point of view. While working we are expected to know everything all the time. It is impossible and we can never know everything.

Good practice: know what diets our patients are on before we adminisiter meds. Take a quick look at the computer, card ex, whatever system your facility has. Good luck.

chevyv, BSN, RN · May 1, 2011

I've been working my first rn job at a psych hospital. I've been there about 9 months and realize that I must be in sync with everything finally because I now realize things I forgot to do while I'm driving home. Before when I thought I was on it, I drove home feeling on top of the world. Now, I realize I just didn't know I was forgetting to do little things.

We all make mistakes, especially our first year. Never met a nurse that didn't have at least one med error under their belt. If they say no, they are either lying or unaware they made one. Relax and remember your still learning. Good luck to you :)

tferdaise · May 1, 2011

FIrst off relax... Take a big deep breath, everybody makes mistakes, we do not learn unless we make mistakes.

What I tell new grads is this, when you start getting that feeling of being overwhelmed, go to the restroom (even if you don't have to go) and sit there for a couple of minutes and regroup yourself. Mistakes are made when we are overwhelmed.. Then come out of the restroom with a plan and move forward!

Do you have a preceptor?

Hello everyone,
I just graduated a BSN program in December 2010 and started my nursing career in April. I currently work on the med-surg floor with about 3 or 4 other LPNs and 2 other RNs (it's a small hospital). I feel overwhelmed and like I know absolutely nothing! I've already made 2 mistakes so far. One was a med error: I was to give xanax along with two other pain medications. I was told to hold one of the pain meds for an hour, take the blood pressure and then administer it if was normal since the patient was hypotensive from the meds during the previous shift. Well, I was taking care of another patient, which was total care patient...in restraints and having to be cleaned frequently and forgot to give it. Too much time had lapsed and an incident report was done. This was my first night taking care of two patients (I know, not that much, but I was nervous this being my first time).
My second mistake was a documentation error regarding an assessment that was suppose to be done by the previous shift so I felt it was my responsibility to do it at the beginning of my shift. Well, at this point I'm taking care of 5 patients and still feeling overwhelmed/nervous. I asked the charge nurse about doing the assessment and charting it in the am and they said it was fine to do that. I'm documenting that I will perform the specific assessment in the am (I work 12 hour shifts), ask a nurse if it's right to do that and was told no that if state got a hold of it that it would look bad so I crossed a line through it and wrote error. As I"m doing this, the nurse tries to give me advice to draw a thick line though it...I panic, draw thick lines though it (it's still legible although now it looks like I tried to cover something up...which I guess in a way I did). I showed the charge nurse this and was told to just not do it again.
I'm worried about how this is making me look since this is my first job. All the nurses tell me I'm slow and I've made errors already. The charge nurse has told me that she thinks I'll be fine, just to work on giving medications on time since that's what really slows me down since I'm trying to be cautious.
Any advice or words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

lillystarrn · May 1, 2011

Thank you everyone for the advice and encouragement. It means a lot. :)

As for me having a preceptor, I do not, although there is the one charge nurse that I go to the most and is the one that has given me the most encouragement. I don't know how typical hospital orientations go, since this is my first job. But for me, my typical shift is that I show up and am asked what I feel comfortable with doing (either working as an RN supervising LPNs on one side of the hall, which consists of doing patient assessments and pushing IV meds for the LPNs--the other is taking care of patients on my own. The ratio is only 1:5, so it's not so bad, it's just passing the medications on time that gets to me since I'm still trying to find my "system" to work by).

I only have two more weeks (which is 6, 12 hour shifts each) left of orientation. Orientation at the hospital that I work at is typically 6-8 weeks and after the two weeks, I will have reached my 6 week mark. I'm hoping I will be ready by then.

I forgot to add that I am "on my own" during my shift, but I am asked often by the charge nurse on how I'm doing and if I do need help.

tferdaise · May 1, 2011

the standard of practice for a New Grad is to have a preceptor for up to 12 weeks. I can see why you are having a hard time. The hospital is setting you up to fail, not too sure where you live, but you might want to find another hospital to start at that has a New Grad Program, this the hospitals have gone back to, which helps new grads like yourself survive and thrive.

Thank you everyone for the advice and encouragement. It means a lot. :)
As for me having a preceptor, I do not, although there is the one charge nurse that I go to the most and is the one that has given me the most encouragement. I don't know how typical hospital orientations go, since this is my first job. But for me, my typical shift is that I show up and am asked what I feel comfortable with doing (either working as an RN supervising LPNs on one side of the hall, which consists of doing patient assessments and pushing IV meds for the LPNs--the other is taking care of patients on my own. The ratio is only 1:5, so it's not so bad, it's just passing the medications on time that gets to me since I'm still trying to find my "system" to work by).
I only have two more weeks (which is 6, 12 hour shifts each) left of orientation. Orientation at the hospital that I work at is typically 6-8 weeks and after the two weeks, I will have reached my 6 week mark. I'm hoping I will be ready by then.
I forgot to add that I am "on my own" during my shift, but I am asked often by the charge nurse on how I'm doing and if I do need help.

Chin up · May 1, 2011

Thank you everyone for the advice and encouragement. It means a lot. :)
As for me having a preceptor, I do not, although there is the one charge nurse that I go to the most and is the one that has given me the most encouragement. I don't know how typical hospital orientations go, since this is my first job. But for me, my typical shift is that I show up and am asked what I feel comfortable with doing (either working as an RN supervising LPNs on one side of the hall, which consists of doing patient assessments and pushing IV meds for the LPNs--the other is taking care of patients on my own. The ratio is only 1:5, so it's not so bad, it's just passing the medications on time that gets to me since I'm still trying to find my "system" to work by).
I only have two more weeks (which is 6, 12 hour shifts each) left of orientation. Orientation at the hospital that I work at is typically 6-8 weeks and after the two weeks, I will have reached my 6 week mark. I'm hoping I will be ready by then.
I forgot to add that I am "on my own" during my shift, but I am asked often by the charge nurse on how I'm doing and if I do need help.

Wy not request another two weeks and just focus on the med pass?