- You will never stop encountering something new. I kept thinking "I can't wait until I hit my one year of nursing" like it was going to be a panacea and suddenly I was going to get rid of the anxiety that creeps up in my stomach when some new disease process or new piece of equipment walks in the door. What I have found is that I have had enough 'firsts' this year that when something strange appears in my patient or patient's room I know enough to take a deep breath and start figuring out what needs to be done next. This is what experienced nurses know to do instinctively - they can synthesize what they know and compare and seek out the differences they need to learn and account for to give patient specific care.
- Teamwork is the solution to all challenges great and small. I am fortunate that I work with fantastic people. They are my sounding board when reasoning through treatment options. They are the arms that help me reposition my patients every 2 hours so prevent skin breakdown. They are the people I look forward to spending 12 hours with at a time even when it's a full moon and Friday the 13th and the ER is shipping us 5 patients all at the same time.
- There will always be a bully lurking somewhere. It might be a fellow nurse. It might be a doctor. It could be anyone really. But the sooner you learn how to deflect these personalities the better. This has been a hard lesson for me as I tend to be a people pleaser and desperately want to make everyone around me happy. I have learned to retool these skills into purposely killing every bully with kindness and becoming more direct in my communication. This technique works for me and I feel that I have become a more skillful communicator overall. My most triumphant moment was asking a team leader who was notorious for mocking people who asked for help by stating, "Are you going to make fun of me for not knowing this or are you going to use your experience to help me become a better nurse by teaching me how to do this right?" Suddenly this particular person became incredibly helpful to me. I wish I had figured this out months earlier as I dreaded working with them.
- Getting involved beyond the floor. A particular rewarding experience for me has been to join the Performance Improvement (PI) Committee. We work with our coworkers to generate the coming year's competencies (education required for our job). This means working with the nurse educator to find out what new piece of equipment is coming down the pipe line. For example, we chose to high light education on the Stabber of Death this year as one of the new neurosurgeons uses that particular piece of equipment regularly in his practice. And yes, it is actually called the Stabber of Death. It's used to place intraventricular drains at the bedside for patients with high intracranial pressures.
- Learning to disconnect appropriately. The first year has been hard for me to disconnect from my work when I'm not there. Thankfully the number of work related dreams has started to decrease. Transitioning from school where there is always homework hovering on the edge of your thoughts to a job that is demanding in physical and emotional ways has taken some time to balance. I have found that seeking out new hobbies - cooking being most prominent recently- has been therapeutic and helpful. I am a better nurse when I don't think about it 24/7. That does not mean I don't take education outside of my work very seriously. It just means I am learning to manipulate the on/off switch much better so that I am 100% present when I'm with my family and friends.
And with that my friends,family, and followers- I'm closing up SageBrushRN. It's been a wonderful place to write and share my thoughts during this first year of nursing. Your comments have definitely been appreciated and should other new nurses stumble across this blog I hope they find it helpful as well. I'll leave the pages up, but don't plan on adding any more at this time.
~Have a dynamite holiday~
