"Experienced" Nurse... still feel like an idiot

[acuriousnurse]

So I'll keep it short... I did about 2.5 years on a Med/onc floor, then 1.5 years in home hospice and got burnt out. I decided to move to another city and figured I would just take a hospital job to keep my skills up and perhaps as a less emotionally taxing job than hospice.

So long story short I'm now doing ortho and feel like a complete idiot. I talked about my past patients with my new coworkers and felt very confident going into the job. Now I feel liked I've talked myself up too much. I'm afraid that everyone is wondering why I'm having such a hard time transitioning and get anxious when things go wrong.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? I feel like I should be able to hold it together with the amount of experience I have by now.

[I.C.UNurse]

Going into a different job and field is a hard transition. Words of advice, keep your head down, work hard and ask questions. Do not be afraid to ask for help. I have to orient nurses to my critical care with 10+ years in different fields and I tell them "You will feel like you do not know what is going on, so please ask questions". Starting over is hard, like your a new nurses almost like that feeling. I am going through a similar experience by going back to school this upcoming fall for CRNA and have started reading textbooks already and feel like the biggest idiot because I know about 5% of what that book is saying, but that is good because I realize my own limitations and I know that I should not know this stuff yet, but want to introduce myself to it regardless. Stop talking yourself up, keep a low profile and you will do fine.