Hello Jess,
Welcome to the toughest job you'll ever love! The first six months will probably be the hardest for you.
You're going to find out everything that you didn't learn in nursing school, that your new coworkers will have expected you to learn.
Get to know the nurses you work with, find out which ones will give you the time of day/answer questions, and which will not. In general, if you carry your workload, show you are there to do your job, you'll win their respect much quicker.
While you are on orientation, take as many opportunities to start IVs, put in foleys and get experience as you can. Once you are off orientation, you'll be expected to do these on your own. The more practice/experience you get now, the more confident you will be once you are on your own.
Read and learn as much as you can. If you have a patient with MS, schizophrenia, etc (or something you've never seen before), after shift go home and find out more about it, it will fill in the blanks and solidfy your knowledge for the next time you need to deal with it.
Best wishes,
Andrew Lopez, RN
Nursefriendly, Inc. A New Jersey Corporation.
38 Tattersall Drive, Mantua New Jersey 08051
http://www.nursefriendly.com info@nursefriendly.com ICQ #6116137, AOL “nursefriendly”
856-415-9617, (fax) 415-9618
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