A junior staff nurse today reminded me how hard it was to be new staff nurse. Going home late cause you just learning how to cope with your workload, unable to sleep cause you suddenly have doubts in the middle of the night, heading to work early to check your stuff for the shift. The pressure of coping with your workload and trying to adapt to your new environment, an environment so unforgiving that mistakes meant life or death. I remember when I was junior staff nurse attending to my first ever resus case. I would have broken down had it not been for some of my seniors who swooped in to help, one of them calmly stood by me, guiding me how to prepare the medications. In another hospital, I probably get screamed at for not knowing the dilutions by heart. We took for granted that somethings cannot be taught but rather learnt through experience and it takes time for us to become decent nurses, not just overnight.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 01:01:11 +0000