Tips for nurses in their first year of nursing

Nurses New Nurse

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Please share any tips you might have for our new nurses. Hopefully, this will become a great resource of nursing tips from all of our experienced nurses from around the globe.

Dont worry i just qualified and im still no expert. If you dont ask thats when mistakes can happen. Nursing can be one of those jobs where everyone is on their high horse thinking they are an angel. Dont worry and good luck

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This is my first year in nursing school. I completed my college credits and so I'm doing basic nursing clinicals and skills. Some days it is so hard to remember every thing. I started keeping little notecards of all the important handouts. i shrink them down on my computer and keep them in my pockets where ever I go. And I do mean where every I go!!!!!! Shopping for groceries I study. At the doctors office I study!!!! At my son's football game at half-time I study. I find that I open my mouth now and the answer comes out and I amm suprised at the fact that i know that answer. clfewtrn

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Okay, as a nurse with over 30 years experience (LPN and RN), I am going to give you guys a bit of advice here.

ASK---if you don't know, don't fake it. The old-timers absolutely do NOT expect you to know everything. They know you are scared poopless. Contrary to popular belief, older nurses do NOT eat their young. Too many bones ;-D. We know that you are the future of nursing, and most likely (hopefully, even) will be the ones taking care of us when we inevitably succumb to life's physical insults.

PITCH IN---yeah, we know that you have no clue how to transdermally pace a patient in an emergency. Just hang around, offer to be a gopher, and LEARN by OBSERVING. We'll totally respect you for that. Most of us will grab your hand and guide you as you input the settings into the pacer. That is, if we sense you're interested. Hide, and you have written your epitaph.

DO NOT (under any circumstances) UTTER THE PHRASE "Well, this is how we did it in school"----SLAP!! Real life is NOT school. Book learning is a foundation, not a house. You live in a house, not on a foundation.

I think I am done for now.

Yours truly,

WindwardOahuRn, aka ICU maniac

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- always carry a penlight esp if you're working at nights!

- i carry a pad with me to jock down any things i need to remember.

- print out a list of your patient names with id number if possible to carry in your pocket. so you don't look like a fool if you're talking to the pharamist asking for the mr number.

- have water nearby your cart

- try to make some time for the restroom.

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Hi,

My name is trina. I am a 1st year nursing student. I am truly excited about being in the nursing program, but I am so dissappointed in myself after my 1st test grade. I got a C, but I did everything that I was suppose to do, at least I thought.

Can anyone give me tips on how to take a nursing test, Please!!!!!!

Thanks

Trina

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Trina... have you checked out the nursing student section of the forum? It is a great place. :) I bet you will get a lot of good answers there, as well. Nursing tests are different from otehr kinds of tests, and maybe now that you have an idea what to expect you will know better how to prepare next time? Good luck!

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Thanks for all the great info.

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hey who ever says dont talk about well in college we were told to do it differently. Im a qualified nurse and its important to bring about up to date evidence based practice. People who talk about not saying what you have previously learned are most obviously old school and holding the nursing profession back. unless you read journals every day its usefull to have new faces to explain new ideas. If there not practicle then we will just say and give explanation. too many qualified nurses make short cuts which is where mistakes lye

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Specializes in Critical Care.
hey who ever says dont talk about well in college we were told to do it differently. Im a qualified nurse and its important to bring about up to date evidence based practice. People who talk about not saying what you have previously learned are most obviously old school and holding the nursing profession back. unless you read journals every day its usefull to have new faces to explain new ideas. If there not practicle then we will just say and give explanation. too many qualified nurses make short cuts which is where mistakes lye

Oh. Thanks for the clarification...(??)

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You made it this far!

There is no giving up and beleive in what you are saying.

Care, Care, Care about what it is you are doing.

Stop to take a deep breath

Remain calm as best you can.

Educate, educate educate; educate your patients and yourselves.

I hate to hear a nurse say "I dont know" and give you the blind stare.

Dont turn into cattle and just show up at work.

I must say that just last week in clinical we were all in on a bronch and the patient not only had an MI and a Stroke but there was cancer found in her r ight lobe. We had a debriefing afterwards and I will never forget what my classmate said. She said " You know this doesn't change my mind about being a nurse, it makes me want to be better, Out of all those people in that room from R.T to the X-ray Tech you just knew who the nurse was, she was the one holding the patients hand and rubbing her head while everyone else just stared at her." I honestly feel that people just forget why we became nurses in the first place. I was an LVN for 3 years and decided to further my career and I am so grateful everyday that I made this decision. I love being a nurse!

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Specializes in PACU.

Thanks for all the advise and setting my nerves at ease. I am graduating in 3 weeks and will take my boards in Feb to be a RN -- I am so excited as this has been a life long dream that got away from me for awhile. As an experienced professional in another field, I know I have the ability to organize etc. and i have some intelligence but I have been sooooo nervous about remembering everything and feeling stupid when I dont understand something. This has helped me a lot knowing it is not just me who feels this way. I work in a hospital and will be staying on my unit when I graduate and join the graduate program in January. A nurse (who has been a nurse 20 or 30 years) asked me yesterday how my preceptorship was going and if I liked it. I said yes, but sometimes just felt stupid bec there is so much to remember. She said to me --- remember, we have all been there. There is no reason to feel stupid. The more you do it, the more natural it will become and it will become natural. But dont let any nurse tell you they have not been there . . . we all have.

So thanks for the advice --- it makes me even more excited to graduate.

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Specializes in Psychiatric NP.

Does anyone have any tips about negotiating salary? I don't really know how much to be expecting as a BSN and how to get the most out of it. And what kind of benefits are considered "good"? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

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