What ended your honeymoon?

MIA-RN1, RN · Jul 7, 2006

Through school I have had the same experience in general. We have probably developed a little thicker skin over time - I know for sure that nursing school would have been an entirely different experience for me personally in my early 20's than it was now. A confidence thing for the most part for me.
Hey, I start my first nursing job the 10th too... LOL... I hope we won't be back crying a different tune in a week!

I tried it in my very early 20's and failed miserable. I was passing my classes, but borderline. I would have never passed the NCLEX back then. I stopped in the middle of my second semester (of four) and just spent a lot of time growing up, getting married, kids etc.

I just graduated in May and it was a whole different ballgame this time around. I fully expect (and have found it to be true) that with maturity there is a slightly different vibe. I have yet to be nervous; yes I am excited and some of the stuff is scary--taking care of the newborns!! But I am not scared of nurses who eat their young (heck I am almost the same age as they are lol) and I am not easily intimidated either, as I was 15 years ago. Totally have that thicker skin. The other side of having been around the block a few more times than others is that I know how to play the game too. When to be extra-super-nice & extra-super-sweet and when I can just be 'regular'. My father raised me to kill 'em with kindness if you can't get along and it works every time. I am glad to say that I haven't had to do that at my new job....yet. There is a scary tech lol. I will deal with it when/if I need to.

Ya know what tho...I am having trouble seeing 19 and 20 year olds as peers! My SON is 18, how can I see someone barely older than him as a peer? That is where I have trouble.

Sorry to jump off topic.

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Jul 8, 2006

My honeymoon ended about 4 months into my first year in NICU, when all hell broke loose in our unit. RN's left in droves, dozens of inexperienced float nurses were unleashed on our unit, and premature babies kept popping out like crazy. I left every morning bone-tired, and returned at night dreading my job. When I had a day off, my phone rang incessantly with calls from work, trying to get me to pick up a shift, as half of the night shift was made up of "floaters" When I was given unsafe or insane assignments, I was brushed off when I questioned the assignment, told "you can handle it." 2 ventilators, an intermediate baby and probably resuscitating 2-3 babies at deliveries is too much for anyone to handle. Finally, we became fully staffed, the census dropped, a new manager started, and things calmed down. I'll never forget those "months from hell" that abruptly ended my honeymoon. I'd never trade the babies I've helped save for anything, though........

Stevern21

RNSacht · Jul 8, 2006

I feel bad because now my story doesnt sound so bad, however, Ill share anyway....:rotfl:

Last week after only 2 months being on my own I was floated to a totally different floor, med surg, Im on tele, Okay I know the patients tend to be kind of the same, however I dont have the convenience of knowing where everything is and all the staff, so of course I get the two c-diff patients that were like 90 years old, the one confused old lady, the post hysterectomy patient, and the 400 pound lady who just wanted to get up into the chair 100 times a day. I find out the same day that I have been exposed for two days to a TB patient (yes the patient tested positive ) that no one knew had TB, now I have to go threw the testing routine. :eek: I feel like the honeymoon is over, but did it really ever begin:chair: ............. so this is really nursing???????:flamesonb

mccmaeve · Jul 14, 2006

Ask him/her how their "day to day" is different from what they expected when they started school.