MICUBSNRN

HouTx gave great advice! I, too, am a new grad and there are definitely good days and bad ones. I have a hard time with the barometer of "is it me, or is it just the shift". In this day and age of nursing, we, as new grads, have been exposed to so many posts here on AN as well as stories from other nurses about the growing pains of our profession. We have all heard so much about how difficult it is, how we will feel incompetent, and how it is so stressful that going home in tears is more common than rare. But I think you posed a really great question here. What level of stress, agony, fear, and doubt is normal, and where does that line blur over to the other side of "maybe this job isn't for me". I think one of the hardest parts is that with jobs not as plentiful as they once were, new grads are so grateful for employment that we take any job that we can find. And in terms of gaining experience and earning a paycheck that is a great thing. But, it also creates a level of fear and stress that can be bad. I know that I feel hypervigilant on every shift because I know that at the end of my orientation my employer has 3 choices. They can take me off orientation, extend my orientation, or let me go. Unfortunately, the power of choice has been reduced. While units benefit from less "job hopping" among new grads, the new grad is left at times with a horrible balance sheet of determining if it is the job for them without many options to go elsewhere. This is probably my biggest dissatisfaction with the current state of nursing. I really hope some veteran nurses can chime in with answers to this question. Because it is hard to know if it is just the new grad jitters or if the unit is really not the right fit. I have a fellow orientee that I am taking a new grad ed class with that is in this exact situation right now. She absolutely hates her unit. And she is so depressed and sad because she doesn't know if it is her or the work environment. She worked so hard to be a nurse, and she never imagined that she would hate her first job this much. Hang in there bitz. Just know you are not alone. Sending you a hug!

I am so glad you added your story dudette! You sound a lot like me. Congrats to you for how your hard work paid off. Kudos to you!!! I have so much sympathy for new grads that have not gotten a grad nurse position yet. I know how stressful and frustrating the job hunt was for me, and I cannot imagine what places your mind goes to when you have worked so hard and the reward is slow in coming. But, I can also honestly say that during my clinical experiences, I saw a lot of behaviors from my fellow classmates that were less than becoming. There was a lot of eye-rolling, asking to leave early, not jumping in and helping during "code browns", etc. When I do some deep down honest reflection, these are also the classmates that have not found a job yet. I realize that this in no way applies to all new grads that are still job hunting. I have a few excellent and superior classmates that are still job hunting and I have no clue why some facility hasn't snatched up a great nurse such as themselves. But there are also a lot of my still unemployed classmates that have sat back on their laurels and assumed that a BSN would equate into an instant job without much effort on their part. Others are still stuck in the mentality that "we went to so and so school/have a BSN/etc so everyone will hire us". After talking to a few of my classmates this week, we are down to only having 7 classmates that have not gotten a job yet. Brutal honesty about the 7 that do not have a job: 2 refuse to work anywhere but L/D. 2 others did not pass NCLEX on first try and are not retaking until September. One other has a recent DUI with 1 prior and was not allowed diversion this go-round. The other 2, well....they barely squeaked their way through school, missed a lot of class, consistently had to do make-up clinicals due to absences, did not take school very seriously at all, etc. The nursing profession is changing everyday. Jobs are not as plentiful. Jobs were not plentiful when I started school and I knew the job hunt could be an ugly process. Our professors were very upfront about this every semester. Every one of my classmates knew that it would take a lot of hard work to land a job. I hope that other schools are as honest with their students because it really does help you prepare for the rigors of the job hunt. Taking charge of your own future is the biggest asset you have in this economy. I realize this is not always the case, and there are thousands of new grads that did everything right and are still job hunting. But I truly believe in my heart that they will come out on top and land a job. I have faith!! :heartbeat

We do not average a death per night, and 70% of our codes survive. I was writing more figuratively that every night entails several critical situations. I did not mean to be confusing about that. My unit is a 22 bed unit. I should have clarified that not all of the codes take place on my unit. My unit is part of the code/rapid response team and we alternate carrying pagers to respond to any and all codes in the hospital. When the code happens, and if the patient resumes a HR and breathing, they are automatically transferred to my unit. I hope that helps a little bit! I am humbled by what all of you have written on here! I tried to write and convey what I wished someone had told me a few years ago when I was starting out on the road to a nursing career. I am more than happy to answer questions, help out on the bad days, and applaud the great ones that we all do have. Congrats to all of you that are starting out on this adventure, and to all of you that are in the trenches and job hunting keep your chin up. It will happen!

hey fellow nurses! i finally took the plunge and registered here after perusing this forum for the past 4 years. i have learned a lot from this forum and thought i could contribute a little bit now that i am in the working world. i graduated with my bsn in may, 2011 and took my nclex the following week. i, like many others, submitted around 30-40 job applications. received 2 interviews. it took nearly 3 months following my interview to get the offer for my current new grad position. out of my class of 60 people, roughly 75% had a job secured at graduation. the remaining 25% are still seeking their first job. for people that are still in school or just starting nursing school, definitely try to secure a tech position. i am the only new grad on my unit that did not tech for the unit or do a month long capstone preceptorship on the unit. with that said, if you are a tech on a unit, be responsible with that position. i had 2 classmates that were techs during school but called in a lot and took extensive amounts of time off. they were not offered a new grad position on their units. when you work as a tech, treat that job as your first rn position. if you work hard, they will be more inclined to reward you with a new grad position somewhere in their facility. i applied for nearly 50 tech positions during school. did not even get an interview for a single application. for those of you that find yourself in my situation, you must network!! utilize any option you can to get to know someone already employed at any type of healthcare facility. do happy hours at a bar where hospital employees congregate after their shifts end. talk to your instructors and clinical preceptors. work your hiney off during clinicals and get to know nurses at clinical sites. networking opportunities present themselves every day at clinical. be professional, make contacts, and utilize these people during your job hunt. i know specifically of one recent new grad position that only interviewed people that had an inside connection to the facility. most importantly....apply everywhere!! as new grads, we need to be willing to work anywhere. no, it may not be the dream job you envisioned when you started nursing school, but a job is a job that will earn you a paycheck and the oh so important experience that nurses need to hopefully move on to a specialty unit later on. on top of all this, study hard and get the best grades you possibly can. sadly, networking is the best option, but when you are in the running for a job, grades do matter. my high gpa was complimented during both of my interviews. no, grades are not the end all be all, and beyond your first job they are nearly irrelevant except for grad school admission. with the job market as tight as it is, you have to show the unit manager that you took school seriously. this translates into you taking your new job seriously. it also indicates that you will be receptive and retentive to the information given to you during orientation. i am a huge believer that the better you do during school, the more baseline information you have learned and retained. this will help you tremendously in your first post grad position. med surg class will come back to haunt you if you didn't fully understand patho of disease processes, abg levels, fluid balances......... eek! i am currently halfway through a 12 week orientation at a super busy micu. on my very first night my unit had a patient die, 1 code, 2 rapid responses, and 4 admits from the er and or tele floor. i now understand this is a typical night. when i left that day i was shell shocked, stunned, and felt dumber than a blade of grass. i wondered what the heck i had gotten myself into! i have read so many posts from fellow new grads about feeling stupid, overwhelmed, stressed, nauseated, freaked out, and downright unsure about becoming a nurse. yep, we all feel this way! i have had 3 preceptors that i rotate with. there's some good and some bad with each of them. what i have learned is this: regardless of your preceptor, unit, hospital, day or night shift, weekday or weekend.....your experience will be what you make of it. it is easy to crawl into a hole of fear and disdain when things don't go well. trust me, i could have very easily done that after my first night! but you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and make the choice to take control of your future. if there is something you don't understand, research it. go back through your old textbooks. search it online. ask questions on this website. write things down that you don't understand or know. if your preceptor isn't helpful, seek out other resources. most hospitals have educators you can seek out for assistance. my hospital has classes we can take to enhance our learning if we need to. it is done on your own time outside of your unit shifts, but it is paid time at least! each of us also have our professors to bounce ideas and questions off of. i have utilized 2 of my former instructors already. i realized they are invaluable resources to us because we know them and are comfortable with them. nursing is hard. getting through school is hard! whether you choose adn or bsn, the end result is nclex and clinical experience. you have to work hard to develop critical thinking and the basic skills that are necessary to properly and safely care for any patient population. new grads have individual learning curves and some get it faster, others get it slower. there are no right or wrong ways to this process! give yourself credit where it is due. in a tough economy, a manager saw something in you that they liked. they extended the privilege to you and took a leap of faith that you would do your part to develop into the nurse they see as an asset to their facility. there will be good days and there will be bad ones. as long as you are learning, developing, and making small advances every shift, you are doing exactly what is expected of a new grad. spend some time when you are off work to develop the things you need to work on. it will help make your shift easier when the proverbial light bulb goes off and you realize that the extra time you spent researching something you didn't understand is now something you do understand. sorry this got to be such a long post. just wanted to contribute something helpful to my wonderful peers. i hope this helps someone out. if this helps just one person feel better and gain a little bit of confidence, then it was well worth it! 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