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The start of my nursing career, I was scared and nervous. Completely understandable, we step out of the pressures of academia and into the world of licenses and actual patients in our care. No longer are the patients merely words written in a case study or a care plan to be submitted. Oh no, you have a few weeks of orientation then you are on your own. The patient’s life is in your hands for the next 12-hours. Initially, I had one idea of what my shortcomings would be as a new nurse and realized they were something different.
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#1 Pharmacology
During nursing school pharmacology was tough. Somehow, I felt I cheated the system. I retained enough information during the class to have a passing grade. I found the unique difference between medications and memorized them. At this point we; the students knew how to test and understood the topics that would make an exam. The information would escape my mind as soon as I left the exam, in anticipation to make room for the next exam in two weeks. The NCLEX scared me, I memorized only generic medications found between my review, practice question, and cram sheets. My actual NCLEX exam didn’t have a lot of pharmacology. My other classmates had entirely different NCLEX experiences. Currently out of orientation this no longer scares me. Why you ask. We live in the digital age, the age of information. My hospital has an easy-to-use link on the homepage of every computer, uncertain about medication, I look it up. The more times you administer and must research it, the more likely you are to remember and retain to long-memory.
#2 Time Management
Even before nursing school, I maintained a busy schedule of classes, working, and something of social life. I have always had multiple agendas simultaneously occurring and kept sanity with time management and prioritization. I held a 3.7 GPA, taking prerequisites like Anatomy and Physiology, Physics, Chemistry, and Microbiology. Nursing school, I minimized my working hours to maintain the 8-11 credits worth of classes. Time management as a nurse is something entirely different. What I thought before beginning my career. I was hugely mistaken. Currently, this is one thing that I am still working on as a new nurse. The struggle in finding a balance between being fast and efficient, ability to seek answers to questions and finding items in the supply closet. You think you’re in a patient’s room for five minutes, only to look at your watch and realize it was 20 minutes.
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#3 Nursing Notes
School drilled full assessments and SBARs down my throat. Great. But what I felt I lacked as a nurse was the hand-off reports and nursing notes. What confuses me are what details to go in depth to and what doesn’t matter. The confusion with nursing notes, some say document everything and others say less is more. The vernacular of documentation and how detailed is still something that I struggle with each shift. Although, writing my notes each time I begin to see a pattern and less time and thoughts are being taken to document.
Many of my little struggles I will overcome with time and experience. In the meantime, I search for additional education, ask for help when it’s appropriate, and take advice and criticism professionally. I know I am not going to be the nurse with all the answers right out of school. But it doesn’t mean I can’t strive to be a better nurse.
While your reading post check these out:4 Lessons learned after my first code as an RN & 4 Reasons to mentor and pay it forward