edsh2001

It's way to soon not to be terrified. It will get better, but real life nursing is a lot different from nursing school, and it can take quite a while (months to a year to begin to feel comfortable.) Hang in there.

You are really being thrown in at the deep end. No new nurse in our PICU would have a patient with all those lines and drips without much better backup. Who is the person in charge of your orientation? I think you should speak to this person about structuring an orientation that moves in a planned manner to cover the topics you need to learn. It doesn't sound like this preceptor is doing much to help you learn: she may be an excellent nurse but just not suited to orientation because she isn't cut out for teaching. (Like me-that's why I don't orient new nurses.) You should try to get paired with someone who is not quite so experienced. They often are better at orienting because they are closer to the experience and have a better sense of what you need to learn. Those of us who have been doing this forever do so much without consciously thinking about the details and the reasons that it can be hard for us to communicate with people who are just beginning. You can certainly read and study, but you absdolutely should not bear the responsibility of doing it all yourself. I really think that the problem is in the situation you find yourself in, not in you. Please talk to someone about the situation before you go under. Denise, 30 year PICU RN