Shy nurses

[Tesfanurse]

I am a new graduate nurse I just passed NCLEX-RN a week ago. I am a shy person who is very soft spoken. I am very caring person. However I found that being soft spoken to be a disadvantage. I also suffer from low self esteem as a result of my soft voice. I worked very hard to earn my BSN degree but I feel my shyness will prevent me from being the best nurse. I feel being caring, understanding, empathetic is not enough. I am very nervous that I will soon start working without overcoming my shyness. For this reason I have decided not to seek jobs for two months so I can improve my self esteem and overcome my shyness. Is this enough time? What is the best way to overcome shyness if there is any?

[kaylee.]

You are NOT defective. Learn to manage your personality type. There's a great book out there 'The Highly Sensitive Person'. This an important trait in 15% of the animal kingdom. It's not as highly valued in our brash Western culture, but nevertheless important to society as a whole

OMG crazy that you mentioned this book, because after i posted on here 2 months ago, relating to what the OP was going through, i stumbled upon this book randomly, just intrigued by the title, and i was astonished that someone had described my traits so collectively to a tee. I had nothing more to say about these things being complete flaws after i read this...bc there are so many good aspects.

To those who read this book, you will know pretty quickly if this pertains to you. And things will make a little more sense. (At least they did for me). It was tripping me out that she was describing me word for word at some parts, and to such an accurate and precise degree...

[FutureResearchRN]

I'm a shy nurse too. I've been shy my entire life and it's something that will never change. But you learn to not be shy at work. It is difficult, but just remember to communicate what needs to be communicated, no matter how "stupid" you may sound (esp with doctors and such). Also, being talkative doesn't make you a better nurse. I've been complimented on being a good/caring nurse for things that dont involve conversation, such as focusing on pt comfort, oral cares, etc. you will figure it out in time.

[rn<3cat]

Omg, this post helped me a lot! I've been struggling so much to whether I want to be a nurse because of my shyness. I really love to help people but sometimes I feel like I'm too much of an introvert and I get easily exhausted around people. My advice is maybe is a change of work environment, so far I've been working as a NA in a home health settings and I find this more manageable, especially that I have to deal with only 1 patient at a time. I'm going to retake my NCLEX soon and hopefully survive transition from student nurse to RN.