When do you stop feeling so stupid as a new nurse?

[mzsuccess]

I'm really starting to hate nursing! Everyday that I have to work I get bad anxiety. My assessment skills, critical thinking and just plain on nursing judgement SUCKS!

I'm so tired of crying in the bathrooms. I feel so incompetent until I want to quit.

I don't understand how the passion can be sucked right out of me. The only nursing friends I kept during nursing school I tried seeing if its the same but only one is working right now and she says she's having no issues. My biggest issues are being the ONE who the patients ask all this medical advice and sometimes I don't know what to say, I don't know about all the paperwork and orders and things like that. I don't know when to call the DR vs when to not. When an issue comes up I;m stuck on what to do. I hate consulting with other nurses even though I do it because its people's lives I'm dealing with. But I feel like I'm aggravating them. Like for instance I had a guy with BPH who had a Foley, I noticed hematuria clots in his bag. I knew that it was expected. So i just left a note for the Dr in the communication book being that she left a note saying she would inspect in the next day. During report I told the nurse and I said he needs irrigation, she told me I could go ahead and write myself an order and do it and the Dr would sign it the next day. Things like that really get to me. I can't put all the pieces together. The nursing interventions, serious/not serious -I try to follow my ABC's but still get stuck! I just feel terrible every single day. I'm worried about my license. Any advice??? Can anyone relate???

[Wuzzie]

We ALL can relate because we've all been there. And we all made it through mostly unscathed. Just hang in there. Keep asking questions. Keep educating yourself. If someone asks you a question that you can't answer just say something like " That's a great question. Let me go do a little research so I can give you the best answer". Then follow through and do it. You'll look like a genius. Find yourself a mentor that you feel comfortable going to. Most experienced nurses like to teach. As a nurse with 30+ years of experience I'm more than happy to answer questions from any of my colleagues. Oh, and the bladder irrigation thing. That nurse was wrong, wrong, wrong. He might have needed one but you just can't do something like that without an order. The Joint Commision frowns on verbal orders and if something went wrong while you were doing it without any order at all your butt would be on the line. Pulling a stunt like that could cause you to lose your license. I've never heard of any nurse losing it simply from being a little wet behind the ears. You'll be fine.

But don't date creepy patients.

[mzsuccess]

We ALL can relate because we've all been there. And we all made it through mostly unscathed. Just hang in there. Keep asking questions. Keep educating yourself. If someone asks you a question that you can't answer just say something like " That's a great question. Let me go do a little research so I can give you the best answer". Then follow through and do it. You'll look like a genius. Find yourself a mentor that you feel comfortable going to. Most experienced nurses like to teach. As a nurse with 30+ years of experience I'm more than happy to answer questions from any of my colleagues. Oh, and the bladder irrigation thing. That nurse was wrong, wrong, wrong. He might have needed one but you just can't do something like that without an order. The Joint Commision frowns on verbal orders and if something went wrong while you were doing it without any order at all your butt would be on the line. Pulling a stunt like that could cause you to lose your license. I've never heard of any nurse losing it simply from being a little wet behind the ears. You'll be fine.

But don't date creepy patients.

I don't know. I have no nurse I can go to at my LTC job but the nurse at my other job is great! She likes to help but makes a habit of throwing me under the bus to the patients and they come back and tell me but shes helpful in a thousand ways. The nurses at my LTC job I was getting ready to clock out and heard a group of 3 of them saying that I ask to many questions! and I should know this stuff. I just feel its not coming along and everyday I'm scared that if something happens I won't know what to do. Also I'm the only nurse at my other job on duty so I'm the one they all come to with everything and its so OVERWHELMING!

[Wuzzie]

Try to find the answer yourself first and then clarify with them. Otherwise ignore their chatter. It would be much worse for you not to ask and then have something bad happen. Write things down too. Ask your educator for a good resource book. Read journal articles. Nursing school is just the framework on which you build your education. It's up to you to finish it.