hettink

Oh my gosh. I have worked my first ever shift as a nurse on my own. I had 5 days of training but 4 of them were night shift and I am working day shift now. I feel like I don't know anything about anything! It is so overwhelming. I know this is a normal feeling but how do I survive this stage in my career?

Blackcat99, holy crap. It's been a crazy couple of first weeks as a nurse. I actually got moved to day shift before I even had to work one night shift on my own! Dodged that bullet! I probably would have told the DON that I couldn't to it though. I just worked my first day shift on my own with 24 residents and felt SO overwhelmed. There were three other nurses but on different halls. So I had someone there to ask questions. I am sure I could do it in a few months or so, but right now I am just too new.

Hello, I am a new nurse. I passed my NCLEX a couple weeks ago and will be starting a job in the next few days. I was told that I will get 2 weeks training before I will be on a night shift with 48 patients! I have no idea what to expect. Is that even reaonable? The LTC where I had clinicals had 16-20 patients each nurse and it seemed so hectic to me. But that was also during the day when it is busier and there are more procedures to be done.