When I Was a New Grad . . .

Thank you so much for sharing your journey. I have a year of school left and then, good Lord willing, I'll be turned loose! It definitely helps to know that there's life on the other side of graduation!

Thank you, Ruby, for sharing your experiences in the school of hard knocks. The one thing you had going for you, even at your greenest, was that you knew how much you didn't know and were teachable as a result. I'm so glad you hung in there.

Thanks for sharing your story, Ruby. I remember those days when the BSN nurse was an "oddity". These were still the days when the older nurses were almost all Diploma. An RN who started with me was a recent grad of one of the last classes of Los Angeles County Hospital's (the big hospital seen at start of "General Hospital") diploma program. I woshipped at her feet because of the far superior clinical experience she had in school.Like you, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who taught me everything in the first year at a pediatric hospital. In school I had done virtually nothing with kids. They were very patient, and sometimes they may have confused me at age 20 with some of the patients on the adolescent floor. Thanks again, and I'll join you in a hat tip to our "preceptors" (though we didn't call them that)

Why couldn't you have been MY preceptor??? I don't think that I was a horribly new nurse, there were just so many things that I hadn't actually done on a real person...and could have used guidance. Most of the time when I asked a question about things such as inserting an NG, etc, I was met with a "look" and a couple of sentences of instruction. Hello folks...you can tell someone how to do something all day long, but if you guide them through it while they do it...they will remember and do it correctly. I remember exactly what it was like to be new, the pressure, the feeling that you are never going to get it all organized and be able to get it done. Kudos to you for nurturing the new nurses

Thanks Ruby, wonderful writing as always.

Come on Ruby, you'd have been fine as a newbie if the old nurses weren't eating you because you were prettier than them!

Quote from rn/writerThank you, Ruby, for sharing your experiences in the school of hard knocks. The one thing you had going for you, even at your greenest, was that you knew how much you didn't know and were teachable as a result. I'm so glad you hung in there.

I loved your post. I am sure everyone starts where you started, but unfortunately people forget their past and move on. They don't teach newbie's b/c they think of them as competitors. Now a days its all about competition and money.

Your stories always crack me up! I remember having to get help to d/c a Foley, only to be shown that I hadn't removed the cap from the syringe.oops. Or pulling the spike out of blood after I spiked it..you know what happened there. Heck, the first time I successfully started an IV by myself after I started working I went into the poor pt's room about every thirty minutes all night long to poke her arm and check the IV because I was sure I couldn't possibly have done that right and I was afraid her arm was going to fall off or something lol

I actually have a question to your story.Why in the old days new nurses were allowed to learn during the school or on the job. And in today society they expect you to act as you been in the field for long?

Thank you so much for your post. After I read it I feel a little bit better. I have graduated 5 years ago and due personal reasons never worked as a nurse. I enrolled in a Refresher Course to help me out with my clinical so I would feel more confident. I feel so lost. I look at the experienced nurses and admire them so much. Everytime I go to do something my hands shake and I am horrified and pray to God that I won't harm the patient. I keep making stupid mistakes and even tough my classmates are very supportive I feel like they look at me like Im stupid.

Quote from malenkiybi actually have a question to your story.why in the old days new nurses were allowed to learn during the school or on the job. and in today society they expect you to act as you been in the field for long?