You have landed your dream position as a nurse. This is an exciting time. Yet it’s also one that comes with plenty of trepidation. Not only is the work demanding and challenging, but the healthcare system is only just starting to recover after the extreme demands placed on it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s also plenty you need to learn and understand that isn’t taught in nursing school.
Yes, you will have gained the knowledge required to perform tasks as a nurse. To succeed, however, the position requires you to learn just as much while working on the job. When starting your nursing career, remember the following advice to avoid any significant – and potentially costly – mistakes.
Being Scared To Ask Questions
Nursing is not something you can learn all in one day or out of a book. It requires a lot of real-world experience. Instead of believing you know it all right off the bat, you must continually ask questions. As a new nurse, the more questions you ask peers and physicians, the more answers you will receive – and the more clarity you will gain about certain situations you’ll encounter in your career.
Not Continuing Your Education
As a registered nurse, you might feel these qualifications alone provide the necessary job security and financial remuneration. However, this might not be the case, particularly regarding remaining employed. The Institute of Medicine pushed for 80% of registered nurses to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) by 2020. While that figure wasn’t achieved, it shows the push for nurses to be better educated in the future.
It also highlights the importance for nurses to continue with their education. Aside from job security, it also supplies a viable route toward more rewarding nursing roles. One way of working while learning is with an online course. For instance, an RN to BSN online degree program is flexible so that you can build your current schedule alongside it. There’s no need to decide on one or the other.
Failing To Make Patients The Priority
Nurses have a lot of tasks they have to complete on a day-to-day basis. Aside from delivering care, you are responsible for documentation and communicating everything among your team. This can all result in losing focus of the main priority: your patients. Their comfort levels have to come before anything else, and it’s vital you keep this in mind as you tick off your daily tasks.
Ignoring Symptoms Of Stress And Fatigue
Naturally, nurses are associated with operating in high-demand, stressful environments. Even though you are expected to deal with difficult situations and periods – especially when factoring in long shifts and sporadic work patterns – it is vital to avoid ignoring symptoms of stress and fatigue. A tired, stressed worker is not an effective worker. It can result in making mistakes, which is imperative to avoid as a nurse. If you start to feel stressed from your job, talk to your supervisor and boss about taking some time off to reset and recover. You may find talking to a therapist or counselor may work to cope with the long-term effects of the job.
