crn26

I get this all the time. I laugh it off and tell them my real age. I am 28 and people ask if I am 18. I then ask if they would want a teenager being a nurse. The best thing is to not take it personally and feel happy that you look young and not old.

That you are going to feel dumb in the beginning few years. Doctors are going to talk to you and you will not always have the answer. You will go home and go through the day or night, making sure that you did everything correctly and charted everything correctly. You will have to stay late charting because you will be so overwhelmed with everything. There will be some days in which all you will like all you did is give out meds and nothing else. The number one rule is to always smile, even if you feel like you don't know what you are doing. (this does not apply if you are going to do something that may put a patient at risk) But if you are going to start your first IV, go in with a big smile and this will put the patient at ease. If you go in the room with a nervous look on your face, the patient will start to be nervous. A big smile has gotten me through many unsettling times. One last thing is to always ask for help, and never be afraid to ask questions. It is better ask two questions in order to do something right, than have to explain yourself when you did something wrong. Hope this helps any new nurses, and the biggest thing is to just smile!

I have worked both. I worked nights for two and a half years on a med-surge unit. I started out my nursing career on nights. Nights was good for me because it was slower and I could really get learn my nursing skills. Nights was either really busy or it was manageable. I learned how to be a good nurse. Night nurses really have to work with one another because there are not the same amount of people around to help. I learned when I really needed to call the doctor and what was worth really freaking out about. One of the cons was the horrible schedule and wreckage it did to my body. I gained alot of weight on nights and I was always tired. I was tired for two and half years. I have been for working for days for about three months on a neuro/med-surge unit, and it is so much busier. I have to deal with all the tests, doctors, and families. Dealing with the families is one of the biggest differences. The pace of days is so much more intense vs nights. I am constantly going and rarely get to sit down. But I am sleeping much better and that counts for alot. So this is just my opinion on the topic.

I recently received a job on a med-surge neuro floor. If anyone has any ideas on what it may be like, I would love some responses. If anyone has a report sheet geared for neuro patients I would be interested in that too!!