Barr

By the way, I did offer to place the NG tube with the onboarding nurse, but she is a difficult personality and rude, so naturally she preferred reporting me, chastising me, and refusing to assist me when I offered to place the tube, stating she will take care of it on her own. I'm sure you know this type. Good grief.

I am so appreciative of each of your supportive comments. The fact that you are on this site providing support to new nurses, or nurses in general, tells me how passionate you are about your profession. Your insight and wisdom helped me regroup. I especially like the comment, "You give them power over you when you start to detach from the group and feel bad about their wrong behavior." I must add, I find those nurses who demonstrate poor behavior so repulsive, I withdraw from associating with them immediately. One I addressed privately where they apologized. They have not worked my shifts or near my assignments since. Another admitted their wrong the following shift, and a third-person I reported as it was twice in front of my patient and abusive. This lack of cooperation among care team members turns into a safety issue on the unit, as a whole, and therefore a reportable offense. Fortunately, my manager agrees the behavior must stop and is addressing it. Moreover, the corporate hospital I work for has a reporting process, as well, for lateral violence. It is so annoying to deal with lateral violence when nursing itself is overwhelming in itself. Again, thank you all for your supportive insights to help guide to more productive nursing care and time management.

I have been a nurse for nearly six months. I still struggle with time management and find a few team members annoyed with me because of it. It is common to find me working one to two hours late to chart and, quite honestly, I am sick of it. A nurse was seriously mad at me, reporting me for not starting an NG tube on my shift that was ordered near the end of it. I was so busy that I ran out of time. She reported me to the charge nurse who wanted me to stop charting at 8PM and go start the NG tube (shifts are 7 to 7). I have never put an NG tube in, except in a stiff mannequin and my shift had ended an hour earlier. I started on day shift knowing it was a challenge for new nurses to manage the intensity of the day shift. I had worked night shift as a PCT for a few years and just had gotten too exhausted from nights that I really wanted to take on the challenge of day shift to avoid working nights. The COVID pandemic has been really hard on new nurses. Our hospital was hit hard and our med surg units were full of COVD-19 patients. We had started with 4 patients and that turned into 6 COVID patients each. Now the endemic has slowed down and our unit is back to med surg with 5-6 patients each. I had two hellish assignments, that included two heparin drips, dressing changes, and gastric tubes, sickle cell needing Q4 meds. IVs were infiltrated, gastric tubes weren't working, medications weren't compatible, an patients were upset. I had two nurses tag off to help me start new IVs, get the port needles replaced, change a dressing that leaked all over the floor and bed. I was so overwhelmed, I wanted to cry but had no time. Similar shift the following day, neither day did I find a minute to take a sip of water, let alone eat. By the end of the second shift, I was so spent I threw out the pain meds with the waste and had to start over. The ss patient was going off in the room throwing things and screaming, nurses were yelling, "Give her her medication!!" but it was in the waste container and I needed help. I broke down and wanting to just walk away from it all. I felt so alone, that I was to blame and not fit for the job. The following day, I texted my manager that I had lost my confidence and was depressed. I had drifted far away from the excitement of being a nurse and on this unit working the day shift. My manager was perfectly supportive. However, this is not the case for several team members. It seems so petty to put down new nurses who are struggling with challenging assignments and it eats at me these nurses and nursing assistants. What I am getting to is, am I far behind in the development of a nurse 5 months in? I work on a busy med surg unit. I think the pace will start to get to me, esp when I see my paycheck comparing responsibility/stress. Some of my so-called teammates snicker and make rude comments about my time-management struggles and I have trouble shaking that. Am I being hard on myself or do I suck at this? I do try different strategies to find my system, but on this unit is it a sink or swim event daily. I am the only one leaving at 9PM and I a tired of it. Of course, when acuity is low I am done charting by 1PM, but when there are things I have never done (peritoneal dialysis or even heparin drips, for example), I get nervous and work much slower as I process what is needed to get started. There are many tasks I haven't tried yet which takes time to get use to and apply a system. I put in one foley months ago, got one IV successfully months ago (ugg) and I have never put in an NG tube. I wish they would give new nurses 5 patient max during first 6-8 months. The silver lining is the last 4 shifts I had were much, much easier. My patients were complete angels. I loved taking care of them and they were so appreciative. One patient even brought me a thank you card and gift. I do get so much reward out of seeing people recover or being there when the news is grim. Any insight or inspiration here would be so appreciated. Thank you all.

Agreed, "The best revenge is a life well lived!" Amen Sister!!

I am so glad you posted this query. I experienced similarly, but just a few weeks into a 6-week preceptorship on a different unit. My confidence is low. What is helping me is having had a prior positive experience working on another unit as a tech. I loved working on that prior unit, never uttering a complaint and so proud to be a part of that team. That prior unit had an amazing staff of nurses, therapist (PT/OT) and techs with exceptional leadership. Unfortunately, the unit leadership just recently changed and I was not offered a position to return. I had to leave the hospital. The good news is the market for RNs is strong right now. Every hospital in my area that I have applied has reached out to me and scheduled an interview. I never have had poor reviews in 30+ years of professional experiences, so having to confront this unfortunate experience is uncomfortable, to say the least. I am a very honest and transparent person. I do agree with a prior post to acknowledge your experience orienting, as you continue to look forward to finding a unit where you are properly supported by qualified preceptors and leadership, taking time to find ways to improve in recognizable weak areas.

I wrote my NCLEX yesterday morning, got the good pop up a few hours later, as well as 24 hours later official "pass" from the board of nursing. I wanted to take time to give back to allnurses stories, because this is where I came for encouragement and support along the way. My university uses ATI and required us to get a "green light" in VATI before graduating. I flew through my first comprehensive VATI not realizing it counted as a grade. We had already completed a ATI Comprehensive that I passed, so the "two" ATI comprehensive requirements were confusing. Needless to say, I missed the VATI comprehensive score by 2 points and was sent to VATI purgatory for weeks. I hated working with the ATI coach, not because they were unprofessional, but because I did not get anything out of someone who is working with hundreds of students to assign me a boatload of assignments and assessments that were not helping me to learn the material I wanted to master, where I knew I was weak. Not many want someone to tell them what to do to learn. I was not pleased at all, but had to hang in there and follow the mandated requirements of the university to graduate. The delay in graduating and getting my Authorization to Test caused me to miss job opportunities I had dreamed of for over a year. I let it go, knowing that things often happen for a reason... In between waiting for VATI assignments from the coach, which took a minimum of 24 hours each day, I used UWorld assessments and Simple Nursing videos. Simple Nursing.com provided a guide to study for NCLEX that was very helpful, to wit: an AM/PM plan 4-5 x week for 5-7 weeks, getting to average scores of 70%. In the AM you dedicate 2 hours to assessment tests. For example, your weakest area being pharmacology, complete 60+ questions on the pharmacology and study the rationales. In the PM, review where you missed. I used SimpleNursing videos on each topic, I.e. Pharamocology, and I took notes. I downloaded the SimpleNursing app on my phone and listened to videos as I walked, drove the car on long trips, or flew on airplanes. I found Simplenursing videos and cheat sheets to help me through nursing school, as well as in preparing for the NCLEX. Find your own sources, but select one test bank and one resource text to follow. Do not have more than these two. Follow this plan and you will have success. In the days leading up to my NCLEX, I skimmed through my ATI Comprehensive NCLEX study guide, paying particular note of lab values and pharm. I wrote lab values out 5 x day for a few days until it sunk in my memory (in nursing school). Love that I can look at labs and know the ranges quickly from using this process. My NCLEX exam was mostly pharmacology (my worse subject), some maternity and some diabetes. I had no dosage questions (my best subject). If I can suggest anything at all, it is to go in calm and confident. NCLEX is mostly about testing your critical thinking skills. You can have all the knowledge, but lack critical thinking skills and fail the NCLEX. Put in the time to become a qualified new graduate nurse, practice questions to develop critical thinking, and affirm your confidence as a new nurse, I.e. I am smart, I am a competent nurse, I am an RN! Prayers always help. You are exactly where you are supposed to be, right now! I hope this helps future NCLEX test takers.