Nursing student worried he'll be a bad nurse

[Redmaile]

I'm currently a 3rd semester nursing student at a community college. Based on my grades and my previous medical experience as a CNA, I came in confident. Now I feel extremely incompetent. I study my butt off and still get C's. I am at the point where I question if I'll ever be a good nurse. A family member, who's an RN tells me that I'm beating myself up too much. If she went to nursing school today she would be in my shoes. Just pass the class and the rest will come with experience. Though, I'd love to believe this I still question myself because the other students are on it but I have to go all out to get C's. Is this normal? Does this mean that I'll be an unsafe nurse?

Just the other day, I was trying to put in a foley catheter on a female. When I wasn't successful because no urine came out, the nurse tried it and wasn't successful either. Finally, they got it in with still no urine output. When patient #2 needed a foley 1 hour later, they didn't want me putting it in. I'm wondering if I did some damage which is why we couldn't get urine back upon insertion or why they didn't want me to do guy number #2. Days like this makes me wonder if I'm really expected to be perfect or near perfect from the get go or does all this come with experience.

You thoughts?

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

As students we all go through some points where we are not comfortable with our performance. It happens and it does not reflect on your ability to be a competent nurse in the field. Listen to what your family member says; we over analyze the situation and get stuck in a vicious circle.

Re-evaluate your study habits, what can you do differently, sit down with professors, get their input.

In terms of your catheter insertion. Females are one of the hardest to catheterize because it is difficult to visualize the urethra and anatomy varies from person to person. Sometimes patients won't have urine immediately on insertion especially if they just urinated, dehydrated (severe) or are in renal failure. Don't beat yourself up, it happens even to the most experienced of nurses. As for the other patients I'm assuming it was a male; males with a known history of BPH may have resistance on insertion which the RN must be sensitive to as they can cause trauma and cause bleeding. This might have been a reason and sometimes the primary nurse just rather do it themselves. Again don't beat yourself up it happens!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

another reason for someone not to have you insert foley might be time crunch or patient refused student or ------

Make the most out of every experience. Your gender has nothing to do with it. I am glad to know you cared enough to try to do it right!