Please Help!

[Can't Wait]

I've only been an RN for a few months and I'm new to the med/surg floor. Everyone keeps telling me hang in there, it will get better, but my days seem to get worse. My orientation ends May12th, and I don't think I can handle it on my own. There is so much I still haven't done like starting PCA's, collecting different lab samples, I'm slow at starting IV's and doing admits and discharges. I loved psych when I was in nursing school and considered it, but many told me to get med/surg experience. Should I quit med/surg and try for a job in mental health? Will they hire a new RN. I need advice please!

[RJ---RN]

As a new nurse, you feel like a fish out of water. Stick it out for at least a year. Your confidence will increase with time as well as your skill level. The things you learn will be invaluable in the years ahead. Be like a sponge, soak up all the knowledge you can. We have all been in your shoes, and believe me we have all felt that same way.

Five years from now, you will be telling a new nurse the same thing!

Hang in there...learn...learn...learn.

good luck!

[Can't Wait]

I thought I was the only one that HATED Med-surg!! I would cry almost everyday in the med room... I even purposely failed my NCLEX the first time so I wouldn't have to work there (I know, I know, looking back it was STUPID, but I couldn't see another way out!!). After I passed my NCLEX I went straight to psych...Loved it!! GO FOR IT!!

So the your facility hired you without previous psych experience? That is what I'm concerned about. How will the interview process go if I don't know a lot about psych?

[Can't Wait]

Thank you for the advice everyone. My heart keeps telling me to try psych though. My dad worked several years in mental health, and I always found it interesting when he talked about his work. I just hope they will hire a new grad. Briehy, you were hired with no psych experience? How did the interview go?