Ugghhh, another new nurse...

[Joe V]

We've all run into a "new nurse". What's the most memorable experience you ever had with a new nurse? Maybe it was something they said ??? Or, something they did? Good or bad share your story...

[NurseJennRN]

"...Really,don't bribe me...:)

Or at least bribe me with chocolate

How do you know she wasn't being sincere? I think there is a real problem with how nurses in general treat new nurses. Most of them are scared out of their minds and just looking for someone they can turn to when they feel unsure of themselves. I'm thankful that I am the type of person who will speak up whether it "annoys" another nurse or not. I want to learn and make sure I am providing the best patient care.

[NurseJennRN]

My encounter was with a student in her leadership class. I happened to have graduated from the same school she was attending. We were chatting about school when she abruptly asked me if it was normal to be this scared. I told her absolutely but it would get easier. I also told her the most important thing to remember is never be afraid to speak up and ask questions. No one knows everything. After a little more conversation she thanked me and said she felt much better. I wish the nurses had been nicer to me when I was a student. This whole idea that nurses eat their young is problem in my opinion. We want them to know everything but not take the time to help them learn.

[sheelahk]

I would love to hear some really funny stories :-) I am a new nurse, just turned 50 and also just finished my first full year as an LPN. I work in a Medical Clinic and a funny thing I did once (OK, twice..) was this..... I always use the wall BP cuff for taking BPs as the patient sits on the exam table. This one day the patient had very large arms so I used the xlg cuff that is not attached to a wall. I kept pumping and pumping that thing and wondered why the dial was not moving !!! I noticed the pt had a puzzled look on his face and then it hit me...... I was looking at the dial on the wall, NOT the one on the cuff !! Boy did we have a good laugh :-)

[nekozuki, LPN]

Laughing my butt off at this cartoon. Truer words have never been spoken! I'm only 13 months into my nursing career, and I often joke with my fellow nurses (who have been in this profession for longer than I've been alive) that I haven't had the "vacant glee" beaten out of me yet.

[missymae/rn]

It takes a full year in any area to really feel comfortable and not intimidated by older nurses or doctors. Hone your skills and develop a thicker skin and never forget why you wanted to do this. I don't know why "we eat our young", we were all new at one time and needed help.

[puravidaLV]

I have been a psychiatric nurse now for 2 years and I threaten the older generation. I sit and eat my lunch with the patients. I don't sit at the nurses station. Above all else when someone is going off I don't cringe in the medication room while techs attempt to verbally deescalate the situation.

I have no idea what the providers think of me and as long as I carry out orders that don't look to stupid I don't get into trouble.

I don't bother talking to administration because every time I do I get a "***" face.

[imbatz, BSN, RN]

Chocolate. po prn

My super RN mom has that on a tote bag.

[nurseerin126]

I feel like this is me....but it's totally a front because I'm just completely nervous every time I'm on the floor! I start my 2nd week on the med-surg floor tomorrow night! How did nursing school teach me so much but I feel like I learned nothing?!

[jchongmeeluk]

Haha, I am that new nurse. I hope no one looks at me and think things something like that lol! It's definitely a humbling experiencing because I feel like after 2 years in school, I should know every little thing, but I don't! Aaahhhh! I think rather than a smile, I walk around with an overwhelmed expression lol!

[Julie Reyes, DNP, RN]

A story from a while back: Taking the AC IV out of an older lady who was passed away, my stressed out preceptee said "OMG! She's still bleeding!!! I didn't think you could bleed anymore once you died!"

haha! poor girl. I had to say, (sorry for my warped sense of humor) "OH!!! MAYBE SHE HAS A HEART BEAT AGAIN!!"

The look on her face was priceless, and I said, "haha! just kidding! Don't hate me!!"

Sometimes, you just gotta find the humor...but it did make my tearful nurse smirk!

[DaniV.]

I am still a relatively new nurse (13 months on the floor), and still stay perky. Sometimes overly so, especially after the massive amounts of caffeine kicks in...

Mostly, not only am I happy to actually be working, but I am happy to feel like "I got this" is true. :)

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Back in the day (when we walked to work barefoot in two feet of snow and had to count IV drips by holding our watch next to the drip port...) there was no such thing as a preceptor.

My education was, fortunately, at a nsg. school attached to a hospital where the LPN course was 18 months long. You didn't just learn something in class. AS you were learning it, you were experiencing it. Some said the hospital 'used' the students as a way to keep up the staffing #'s. But it really gave us the opportunity, though, to get our feet wet and lose a little of that green behind our ears

A 'trial-by-fire' teaching/learning method put the knowledge not just in your head, but added a little seasoning in the mix, so you didn't feel quite so scared when you went out on your own. I had always heard from other nurses, when I was an NA (no certification back then, just on-the-job-training.) that 'those girls (from my nsg. sch.) really know what they're doing.' That's why I went there.

Once out in the real world I was surprised to encounter new RN's who had all the theory down pat, an understanding of a number of things, but no practical experience! I felt sorry for them, that they went through all that to arrive at their new jobs quite literally trembling when they had a patient who needed a procedure performed on them. I can't tell you the number of new RN grads I showed how to do even simple things like dressing changes. One girl even cried when she admitted to me that she had never done a foley cath on a 'real person'.

I was not the sort of person to feel and act superior just because I'd already had so many chances to get the experience under my belt while still in school. I was kind; I know what it's like to feel new, and dumb even though actually quite smart., even though for me, it might have been under different circumstances. NOBODY likes to feel that way! So, I'd demonstrate for them by doing it for them, and with the next patient, talk them through it as they did it for themselves.

I never could figure out why RN education didn't include a good, healthy dose of the actual practice. If simply playing the piano requires a lot of lessons and experience, why on earth would a good nursing school with a good reputation not include something so necessary in their curriculum?