brtholomew

I just graduated in May and turned 54 in March. I work on a telemetry and oncology floor and love it. I am almost off orientation (10 weeks). Age has nothing to do with it. I do twelve hour shifts twice a week. They wipe me out. I come home and basically go right to bed. Survival: 1. I listen to what everyone has to say and then I decide how "I" want to do it. You CANNOT be someone else. You have to do what works for you. 2. When in doubt about what someone has told or taught you, defer to your agency's policy and procedures. 3. Make sure you have good shoes. I have Skechers Shape Ups and my feet never hurt. 4. Don't be afraid to ask. How are you going to learn? 5. Sometimes people think because you are "old" you have been a nurse for years. They might need reminding. I was a teacher for 18 years before I quit to do this. 6. Some days will go well and other days you will wonder why they ever hired you. It gets better. I am doing things now that I never thought I would ever get the hang of 2 months ago. Good luck... Sherry

Yes I know that it will only go so far. I truly believe that management tries to make things right but our biggest problem is nurses who call in and leave us short-handed.

I would like to do something on my hospital floor to motivate the nursing staff. I am a new nurse at this hospital and all I hear are complaints all day. I don't think anyone feels appreciated. We have a really ugly bulletin board that is across from the nurse's station that is not being used for anything. I thought I would bring up at our next new grad meeting some way that we could use that bulletin board to appreciate the nurses or motivate them or something. This complaining is making everyone crazy! Anyone have any ideas of bulletin boards they have seen or things that are done in their hospital that they would like to share with me. Thanks in advance. Sherry

If you are going for an associates degree in nursing, then you will need to take other courses besides nursing courses (A&P, microbiology, etc.). If you have not taken those yet, I would suggest you complete all of them first before even starting nursing classes. I know that the people in my nursing 101 who are having to take other classes struggle quite a bit with all of the work.