What was your very first Nursing Job?

Specialties School

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It was 1996 and I got hired to work at an inner-city community clinic fresh out of Nursing school. I LOVED that place! Learned so much there and got to do a lot- pediatrics, pre-natal, teen clinic...spent almost 4 years there before going to Grad school to get my NP in pediatrics.

Tele/step down, then they started including all drug and alcohol withdraws and all CVA/TIA/change in mental status patients. While I worked there I watched the place deteriorate each year. They just kept increasing the amount of work that we were expected to do, our patients were far worse off than ever before, our ratios were raised with no account for acuity, it was(and still is) a hot mess. The day that I came into 3 agitated, unmedicated active ETOH withdraw patients, a new CVA, and one with uncontrolled new onset a-fib, and my supervisor saying that most of my patients needed to be in ICU, but "you'll just have to manage" was the day that I decided to check out that school nurse position. So glad that I did!

Med/Surg, 1 year at a small rural community hospital, nights...practically killed me as the sleeping during the day was impossible. Then to dialysis and 12-14 hour days and very acute patients, outclinic. Loved it but it was killing me too. School health, off at 3. Priceless!! And the kids are great too!

Specializes in Family, Pediatrics.

28 bed neuro-surgical ICU. Helped a surgeon place a becker drain my first day of orientation and almost passed out. Lol. Wasn't sure about going back on day 2 but ended up loving it and stayed in the ICU my whole RN career.

Specializes in School Nursing.

Pediatric Home Health Nurse to a former 24 week preemie who was trached and ventilator dependent, had a G tube and was sent home to die because his lungs were so bad they didn't think he'd survive for long. Now that "baby" is almost 10 years old and a speed demon in a power wheelchair. Still trached but no longer needs the vent except at night. :up:

Looking back now I can't believe they hired me with no experience whatsoever! I didn't know that I didn't know anything! But I had a great orientation and a wonderful mentor who happened to be this child's primary nurse and his mom was super knowledgeable and on top of things so it worked out alright.

Specializes in CVICU, SchoolRN, MICU, PCU/IMU, ED.

My very first job fresh out of nursing school was a Tele Step Down which I hated. I left it quickly then when to child/adol psych. LOVED psych! Eventually branched out into ED then back to Step Down/MICU, etc... I absolutely loved working at my old hospital - level 1 trauma in a big city. I miss my homeless drunks, lol.

Specializes in Dialysis, Diabetes Education.

1996- Acute dialysis. That's the job I wanted and bugged them about every 2 weeks for 6 months until I got it. Moved to the chronic unit after a month and stayed there for 12 years. Loved it!

My first nursing job was in the Emergency Dept. at a level one trauma center in NYC

quite the learning experience :facepalm:

still working the ED but at a diff hospital

an RN in a Rehab/LTC.. on DAY SHIFT!! was going nuts on my one-month orientation.. crying... got crazier when I started working by myself... Then my boss turned out to be a monster and bullied me. I became aware of the right way, the hard way... then got into PM shift, float pool after 3-4 months..learned so much stuff.. they started putting me on a floor all by myself and that took me to my limit cuz they're putting me on the psych floor all by myself and I had 911 cases 90% of the time... I did learn a lot but that was traumatic somehow..

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Med Surge, 7p to 7a, on a mostly post-surgical floor. We also had

peds, and overflow from the medical floor.

Specializes in med-surg, IMC, school nursing, NICU.
I worked as a night nurse, med surg. I miss the hospital. I'm still friends with the girls with whom I started.

I mean, yeah.

Night shift. Small-ish teaching hospital. Med-surg. LOVED my coworkers so so dearly. I look back on those nights very fondly.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.
28 bed neuro-surgical ICU. Helped a surgeon place a becker drain my first day of orientation and almost passed out. Lol. Wasn't sure about going back on day 2 but ended up loving it and stayed in the ICU my whole RN career.

I would have been on the floor within 15 seconds of that experience- lol. I do NOT handle that kind of stuff well at all.

IMC/Step-down unit. 15 bed unit. 7a-7p. My 12 hour days were ALWAYS at least 13-14 hours. But it wasn't uncommon for them to be longer on those "rough days". I practically lived at the hospital! We saw everything from respiratory failure, to acute GI bleeds, to ETOH/drug withdrawals, uncontrolled a-fib, r/o TB, goodness, you name it, we probably had it on our floor, even if for just a few hours. Our nurse to patient ratio was 4:1 and we were always maxed out. Most of our patients were morbidly obese so most of our beds were switched out to bari-beds. When I was in orientation and they found out where I was going to be working, EVERYONE just said "Oh wow. Good luck. That's a TERRIBLE unit." You can imagine my anxiety as a brand new nurse out of school! Like everyone has said, my coworkers were AMAZING. Some of the kindest, most knowledgeable nurses I know! I only lasted a little over a year on the unit though. It was hands down the hardest job I've ever had to do; physically, mentally, and emotionally. I always wanted to be a school nurse, even in nursing school, so when the opportunity came up for my school nurse position, I jumped on it soooooooooo fast!!!! I'll forever be thankful for the whirlwind of my career start though. I learned so much on my first unit and would go back if I ABSOLUTELY had to, but hopefully that doesn't need to happen :yes:

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