3rd semester...still not sure (of myself)

isharRN, ASN, RN · Feb 8, 2014

I feel the things I should know, I don't. I
have made it now, over half way and every semester I begin with "0" confidence. Is this normal? I think it is, but not sure.....Any advice about postpartum/newborn would help tremendously!

TOTALLY NORMAL! I thought the same exact thing! You may think you don't know anything..but you really do. If you didn't know anything you wouldn't be in third semester right now. I always doubted myself throughout nursing school and during my last semester my instructor put me in the ICU for preceptorship because she said "that's where you belong". When preceptorship ended I didn't doubt myself because I made it and especially made it through the ICU. Believe me, ICU is not easy and I always had to continuously use critical thinking and had so many emergency situations. My preceptor continuously asked me challenging questions and I always answered correctly. So long story short, YOU KNOW A LOT! stop doubting yourself:)

Advice for postpartum/newborn...GET ORGANIZED and manage your time!! that was my biggest challenge for clinicals. You're taking care of mother and baby so each need assessments/care/meds. You will do a lot of teaching. You will have a lot of new mother's who need guidance on how to breastfeed and how to care for their newborn. You'll have mother's who don't ask tons of questions so be aware of that and assess how they breastfeed and correct them if the position and technique is not correct. Not only will you teach about how to care for the newborn but also how the mother can care for herself (depending on how she delivered). Teach her about where her fundus should be felt after x amount of days (goes down on fingerbreadth per day), what the color her discharge should be after x amount of days. If they aren't breastfeeding, teach them how to decrease pain from engorged breasts and how to reduce stimulation in order to decrease milk production. I can go on and on. There is just so much to teaching needed in the postpartum/newborn unit. Good luck and stop doubting yourself. You're smart and you know your stuff:)