New nurses can feel lost and discouraged navigating their first job out of graduate school. Real-world experience and classes can help, but nothing prepares nurses for nursing in the field, where they’ll experience mistakes and feelings of doubt and insecurity.
Luckily, these feelings don’t last forever. Doubt and perfectionism can creep up on all of us, even experienced nurses. Read more to discover ways you can handle these emotions when they arise.
Accept Mistakes as Building Blocks
“I wish that older nurses had told me to relax, take a breath and that the skills will come,” says Tina Bitangcol, RN, BSN, a labor and delivery nurse. “There’s an immense amount of pressure on new nurses to know it all or to be able to do everything right out of the gate, but in reality, that’s so far from what’s actually happening.”
Many nurses want to perform well, but Bitangcol suggests they must form realistic expectations about how much they can get done. Skills that nurses bring out of an academic setting, like a hard work ethic, curiosity, and ambition, are ones they can cultivate while handling real scenarios they’ve prepared for.
Nurses can also expect to make mistakes as part of their nursing experience. Lisa O’Connor, RN, BSN, former chief nursing officer at Boston Medical Center and senior managing director at FTI Consulting, says that learning from mistakes is how nurses grow in the profession.
“There is no perfection. We’re all human beings, and mistakes happen, but not learning from them isn’t how one should go about it professionally,” says O’Conner. “Taking the opportunity to learn from that mistake and integrating it into your practice going forward is how we should think about those events.”
She also mentions that feelings of doubt and insecurity are healthy, not a sign of weakness or an inability for a nurse to perform their job.
“Those feelings of uncertainty in a novice nurse come because they haven’t had experiences reinforcing confidence,” she says.
When faced with a more realistic mindset, uncertainty is helpful for nurses to perform their tasks. O’Connor states that it causes them to stop and think about the next best move for quality patient care.
Ask Questions When You Need To
Experienced nurses can help newer ones by reassuring them that being nervous about their work is okay. Encourage them to ask questions and show that you’re eager to assist when needed. For nurses who have a limited amount of experience, Bitangcol suggests that they can ask questions to a senior nurse with a mentorship style.
“As a new nurse, I always appreciated some structure in my mentor’s style,” she says. “If you look closely, there’s usually a smart, efficient nurse who will be able to take you under their wing and be a resource both clinically and intellectually.”
Asking questions doesn’t have to feel intimidating. It can look like finding opportunities to ask a nurse how they completed a specific task. It can also look like saying, “I’m not confident with this, but I want to become more confident and efficient. Do you have any tips I may not have thought about?”
“Believe it or not, there are a lot of staff in many healthcare settings who want to see new staff succeed,” says Bitangcol.
Accepting constructive feedback is another way novice nurses can feel more confident. Experienced nurses who want to help newer ones succeed will often give honest and encouraging feedback.
Rely on Your Community
All nurses, even the most accomplished ones, have started as new and inexperienced at some point. Recognizing when you’re judging yourself harshly is key to seeing your potential as a nurse in the years ahead. Remember that some nurses want to help you grow in the field just as their mentors did.
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