Beth Hawkes - First-Year Nurse: Advice on Working with Doctors, Prioritizing Care, and Time Management

Copyright 2020 by Beth Hawkes

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hawkes, Beth, author.

Title: First-year nurse: advice on calling doctors, prioritizing care, and time management / Beth Hawkes, MSN, RN-BC.

Description: New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020001165 (print) | LCCN 2020001166 (ebook) | ISBN 9781510755130 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781510755147 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: NursingVocational guidance.

Classification: LCC RT82 .H39 2020 (print) | LCC RT82 (ebook) | DDC 610.7306/9dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001165

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001166

Cover design by Mona Lin

Cover images: Getty Images

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-5513-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-5514-7

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

NOTE TO READERS: All names referenced in anecdotes or quotations (with the exception of Zach Taylor) have been changed to protect the privacy of all individuals involved. Names used in hypothetical situations do not refer to any specific individual. All advice on administering medical care should only be used as a reference in consideration with standard medical care practices and the rules and regulations for your particular hospital or facility.

LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR

Dear newly licensed nurse,

First of all, thank you for reading my book. I want every nurse to succeed and to love nursing as much as I do.

Use this book like a toolkit. Refer to it as things arise in your first year, and share it with a friend. Hang in there when things are tough and celebrate your successes as they come. Be the best person and best nurse you can be!

Best wishes!

Love,

Nurse Beth

CHAPTER 1

YOUVE ARRIVED

You made it! You can finally write RN after your name. Youve accomplished your dream of becoming a nurse. Now starts your first year. If nursing school was a ride, your first year of nursing will be an even wilder one without the tedious nursing school care plans. Hang on tight for the ride of your life, your first year of nursing.

INSPIRING

Did you know you are admired?

On your way to this pointbecoming a newly graduated nurseyou inspired others. Your friends and family tell you they are proud of you, of course, but there are also others around you who respect you for your accomplishment. Others who watched you from a distance and may never tell you. You inspired others to reach their goals, because you accomplished yours.

You most likely look at the experienced nurses around you and admire them for their skills, their calm composure, their ability to get it all done. What you dont know is experienced nurses admire you as well.

What do we see in you? Passion and idealism. The passion to provide the best care and become the best nurse possible. A thirst for knowledge, a hunger to grow. We love your positive energy. We look at each other and nod, Oh, shes going to be a good nurse or Were so lucky our unit got him.

Only your fellow nurses truly understand what it took for you to get to this point. Pre-requisites, applications, worry over being accepted. Early morning clinicals and late night studying. Study groups on Saturday mornings. Youre a nurse now, but it came with a cost. You sacrificed time with your family and friends. It was hard and it was exhausting. There were times you questioned your decision. You may have thought about quitting, but youre not a quitter. You dug deep and kept going.

And now nursing school is behind you! Never again will you have to go to the hospital the evening before to create a care plan for the patient youll be taking care of in the morning. Never again will you agonize over the NCLEX. Youll earn a steady paycheck and it will be wonderful and financially freeing after years of living on a students budget.

It was not easy. Everyones path was different, but no matter the path you took, it was uphill. Some of you attended community college and others attended four-year programs. Some of you trained overseas. Some of you are second career nurses. You set your goal and didnt stop until you reached it.

One thing is certainyoure an RN, so you are determined and able to overcome challenges. You have to be smart to be an RN, but being smart alone is not enough. You also have to be determined. No one gets to be an RN unless they really, really want it.

I talked with a newly licensed grad who lived in her car during her last semester and another whose family refused to attend her graduation because they did not approve of her career choice. Regardless, they both were determined to reach their goal. I myself was a single parent with three small children when I attended nursing school.

But now you are here, at the beginning of your new journey and your brand-new career.

Congratulations!

WHAT THEY EXPECT FROM YOU

I was asked this by a newly licensed nurse on Twitter:

I start on a surgical cardiac step down unit as a new grad RN at the end of this month. My nursing program taught us cardiac basics (emphasis on the basics) so I have been teaching myself the cardiac rhythms, meds. etc. You seem to do a lot with new grad questions so I wanted to see if you had any suggestions on important things a new grad should be proficient in before showing up on a cardiac step down floor.

There are expectations of you, but they are not what you think. You arent expected to have anything more than basic knowledge, which you haveyou passed the NCLEX. Its not an expectation for you to be proficient in anything yet because you are a novice. There is no way to become proficient in nursing practice through book study alone. No one expects you to understand the nuances of ABGs and no one will be disappointed or think less of you because you cant read EKGs.

So many new nurses going for an interview ask me the same questionwhat should they study up on to make them a better candidate on a particular unit? As a newly licensed nurse you are no more or less qualified than every other newly licensed nurse.

Those of you with a job were not hired because of your expert knowledge. During interviews you were not quizzed on the Krebs cycle in order to find the best candidate, were you? However, you did stand out among the others and you were chosen. Why? They see the nurse you will become. They have invested in you, and planned for you, because they see the potential in you. You were hired because of that potential, and because they believe youll be a good fit.