Reflections on your completing your First Year as a nurse

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Specializes in Med/Surge.

hello everyone-

wow. it's hard to believe, but, alot of us on this bb have nearly completed our first year. it seems like the time has flown by when we were first posting where we were going to start our careers at. i just think reflection can be a good thing every now and again and was wanting anyone that wanted to participate in this with me by just answering a few questions. share anything else you would like as well.

#1. what has been the number 1 change in your life since you began your nursing career? mine has been that i no longer keep my mouth shut if i disagree or think something is being handled wrong. not only has this benefitted me in my career but with everyday life in general.

#2. are you still at the facility that you originally went to work?i will be starting at a new hospital on the 31st of may

#3. what is 1 thing that you will never forget from this first year? for me, it will be the color of cyanosis. i had an elderly stroke patient that was dying and the family decided to take her off the ngt that she had been receiving her nutrition through. the moment the ngt was out she turned a shade of blue that i cannot describe and was definately not expecting (another nurse was in the room to help me reposition and clean her bottom). all we could do was to cover her back up and get the family b/c they wanted to be there when she passed.

#4. on a scale of 1-10 (you know the rest of the saying), where would you put your confidence level now? i will give myself a 4 in general but a 5 on more of the common disease processes, meds, and procedures.

#5. what has been the silliest/dumbest thing that you have said or done this first year? we had an er nurse call down to the unit looking for a "tampon", i yelled out, "i've got one in my bag down here, you want me to take it to them?". my charge nurse was rofl with tears streaming down her face, and when she finally got composed told me that they were looking for a nasal tampon!!! that one had yet to be lived down!!

thanks to everyone for letting me share this first year with you b/c it has helped reading everyone's posts in knowing that we are not alone.

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Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

Hm.

1. The number one change in my life has been..... my entire life has changed. I'm stressed, I'm the breadwinner now, I sleep at the weirdest times, lost ten pounds and either eat too much or barely eat, and plan things around whether I'm working or not working. Work ate my life and I'm still trying to figure out how to handle it.

2. Yes, I'm still at the first facility that hired me as a nurse.

3. The number one thing I will never forget from this year... is probably my first post mortem patient. I wasn't prepared for how completely different a person looks once they have passed; I would not have recognized her if not for the fact that she was in the correct room and had an ID band on.

4. On a scale of 0-10, my confidence level would be about a five. I always think some dire emergency could come barrelling around the corner on quiet nights, that I've never heard of and don't know what to do with.

5. The silliest thing I've said. I had a guy with sleep apnea who wasn't doing well, too much cyanosis and too many pvc's, bursts of v-tach during the apneic episodes. So I told my charge nurse, and it came out as "I don't mean to scare you, but that guy's not breathing." I meant to say "not breathing well" but it came out sounding a lot worse than it actually was.

The dumbest thing I've done is write a "volume left in bag" down on my brain as the infusion rate from an IV pump and then report off the next morning that amiodarone was going at some godawful high rate. I was about to write myself up for running it at that rate until I realized what the error was, and that it had been running correctly, but I needed to learn how to read.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

grinnurse, thanks so much for posting this - these reflections are really meaningful. best of luck to you in your new position! :caduceus:

#1. what has been the number 1 change in your life since you began your nursing career?

as another poster stated, work & my work schedule have taken over my life and my family's life, to some extent. i have a limited amount of control over my schedule (we have self-scheduling) and i'm still trying to find what works best. i feel guilty a lot, though my family frequently say that they're proud of me and they are my biggest cheerleaders.

according to some, i'm a bit more "hard-nosed" these days. if i'm asked to participate in some extended family decision, i want to know who-what-where-how long-"what makes it better or worse" :chuckle and i want a fairly quick resolution. i've lost a good deal of my tolerance for waffling. the jury's still out on whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

#2. are you still at the facility that you originally went to work?

yes, still there.

#3. what is 1 thing that you will never forget from this first year?

a few things:

a patient from my first week: homeless man, a john doe, picked up off the street by medics after an apparent seizure & fall. deplorable overall condition, evidence of long-term ivda, torso covered with lesions that the docs argued were either old kaposi's sarcoma or something contagious, significant head bleed, gcs of 6 while he was my patient in the er. my first experience with emergent intubation. he became conscious after 2 days in the icu, was extubated, told them his name, asked for help in finding a friend who was known to be in & out of various shelters ... and died.

what significant gi bleeding looks & smells like.

the skin color of someone having an mi.

having a patient ask me, "am i going to die?" and replying very firmly "no." and meaning it.

having a patient's family ask me, "is she going to die?" and feeling my own tears well up as i told them, "she's very sick but we're doing everything that can be done."

#4. on a scale of 1-10 (you know the rest of the saying), where would you put your confidence level now?

5 - 6. maybe 6 and a half on a good day. :D

#5. what has been the silliest/dumbest thing that you have said or done this first year?

so many things ... :imbar injecting too much air into a tubex of morphine, blowing out the other end of the stopper & spraying my patient & his family with morphine is up there ...

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#1. what has been the number 1 change in your life since you began your nursing career?

i plan my life a month at a time due to scheduling.....having my pda everywhere i go...

#2. are you still at the facility that you originally went to work?

yes

#3. what is 1 thing that you will never forget from this first year?

when giving narcan to an overdose patient....to move out of the way.:chair:..i almost got punched in the face....i am only 5 ft tall.

#4. on a scale of 1-10 (you know the rest of the saying), where would you put your confidence level now?

6 on good day.........3 on bad day!!!

#5. what has been the silliest/dumbest thing that you have said or done this first year?

to many to name...but here is one...grabbing the wrong equipment, (grabbing a 20fr instead of a 14 fr for a foley cath in a male. the face on his face was classic)

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So many things ... :imbar Injecting too much air into a tubex of morphine, blowing out the other end of the stopper & spraying my patient & his family with morphine is up there ...

Yup, I've done it too--except it was in the med room thankfully!!!! We have these darn carpuject things that you can't put ANY air in without it blowing--learned that the first time.

I'm only three months into my first year, so I won't be answering these yet!!

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

Wow, this year has gone by so fast!

#1. What has been the number 1 change in your life since you began your nursing career?

- I now have to plan my life around my work. When I'm not working I am in classes or meetings, I have to get together with my friends and compare schedules to figure out when we can do stuff together.

#2. Are you still at the facility that you originally went to work?

Yes, for another year....then off to NYC for my masters!

#3. What is 1 thing that you will never forget from this first year?

-taking a preemie off the vent, bundling him up and placing him in his mother's arms to pass away.

#4. On a scale of 1-10 (you know the rest of the saying), where would you put your confidence level now?

- about a 7 in the unit, and it could be any number when I'm called to do a resuscitation after a stat delivery/c-section...you just never know what you're going to get.

#5. What has been the silliest/dumbest thing that you have said or done this first year?

-Probably when I freaked out that my 2fr PICC line kept "occluding" on a hard-to-stick preemie, only to find out that this dumb*** had squashed the tubing in the door of the isolette.

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Specializes in Med/Surge.
Grinnurse, thanks so much for posting this - these reflections are really meaningful. Best of luck to you in your new position! :caduceus:

QUOTE]

Thanks. I start nursing orientation today at my new hospital so I am really excited but a little nervous as well. It has been really great to read the responses so far some of them I am laughing out loud b/c I have done the morphine thing to but it wasn't on a patient and some of them kind of sad.

I just look at how far we have come in a year and it amazes me. Who'd of thought it last year that we would have survived this somewhat sanely???

Come on--I know we have more that started and we all could use the humor!!

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Howdy all !

I will try to answer tonight, as I'm off for a 12 hr shift:uhoh21: .

I, too, can't believe it's been a year!

Andrea

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Specializes in Hem/Onc, ER.

I can't believe it's been a year! Some days I still feel so new and other days I feel like I've been there much longer than a year!!!

#1 The biggest change this year has been trying to fit in everything and still continue to work. With my kids and husband it can be a juggling act!

#2 I'm still at the same hospital and want to stay at the same place but I think that I might try OR.

#3 1 thing I'll never forget from this year is to give a bedside commode to a patient that I just gave Kaoxylate to!!!:uhoh21:

#4 The silliest/dumbest thing that I did was call a Dr with NORMAL lab values. Thank God he had a sense of humor and it was during the day!!! :lol2:

Ann

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Specializes in Med/Surge.

#4 The silliest/dumbest thing that I did was call a Dr with NORMAL lab values. Thank God he had a sense of humor and it was during the day!!! :lol2:

Ann

:eek: :roll :roll :roll

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Specializes in LTC/Behavioral/ Hospice.

I love it! Keep 'em coming nurses!

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#1. what has been the number 1 change in your life since you began your nursing career? i was essentially a sahm prior to finishing my nursing degree--worked per diem at the hospital, nights and weekends, but very limited hours. so for me the biggest change has been working almost full time for the first time since my kids were born!

#3. what is 1 thing that you will never forget from this first year? for me, it has been discovering how much i enjoy taking care of palliative patients. i don't get tons of them, but i consider it such a privilege. the few that have passed on my time have left a lasting impression on me.

#4. on a scale of 1-10 (you know the rest of the saying), where would you put your confidence level now? most days, i guess a 5-6. i am for whatever reason also finding it easier to say, "gee i dunno the answer to that question, let me find out for you", and not feeling like a schmuck when i do it. i've learned that rn does not = person with the answer to everything!!! .

#5. what has been the silliest/dumbest thing that you have said or done this first year? oh gosh, just one? :uhoh21: maybe the time i was intimidated so much by a passing remark by our most prominent cardiologist, that i called one of his colleagues about a heart rate in the 30s....which, um, lasted probably a tenth of a second. long story, but i ate crow that day!

i've learned soooooooooooooooo much this last year, and learn more every day! to all those about to start their first year: never stop asking those questions! sometimes you'll be surprised to find you're not the only one who doesn't know!

andrea

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