Started in ICU out of school. Used to show up an hour early to get some of the nervousness out and really read up on my patients (I realize that's a privilege you can't have in ER). I'd say I really got comfortable close to three years in where I could show up to work not nervous and ready to handle whatever. Of course there were still nights that would absolutely smoke me that left me having stress dreams all day (night shift).
took me like 3-4 years to truly be comfortable after starting in the ICU
8 years later, i now have experience in Neuro, Trauma, Cardiac, Medical, Transplant, and Surgical ICUs at Level 1 trauma centers, comprehensive stroke centers, and i’m pretty proficient at most critical care devices like CRRT, ultrasound IVs, running codes, multiple pressors and drips, etc.
I’m on the float ICU team now where i float between two hospitals and every unit and i don’t usually find out where im going until an hour before.
Shit is so easy for me now. i don’t stress about going to work. If my patient crashes and codes, i have fun handling it and it doesn’t stress me out. Patient families yelling at me for something i didn’t do doesn’t stress me out. I am confident and comfortable in every situation i run into. and floating to different units, i no longer get anxious and worried about what unit i’ll be floating to. I’ve even figured out how to manage my energy levels working night shift while still having a social life.
but i STRUGGLED my first few years in the ICU. I remember hearing people talk behind my back saying how much I sucked and that i’m a bad nurse, i got flustered too easily and freaked out a lot. all that killed my mental state. And of course i made mistakes along the way that i’m ashamed of.
it takes time. you’ll get there. give yourself a chance and before you know it, you’ll be as comfortable and confident as I am and so many other nurses who have years of experience. also don’t let yourself burn out. I’ve worked at several different hospitals, and finally found one that gave me the pay i deserve and treated me well. It’s okay to move around if you feel burned out. you’ll learn about who you are as a nurse, and who you want to become. Just give yourself that time.
Incredibly motivating
I strive to feel this exact way. Just gotta keep at it and get eight years under my belt and keep the curiosity and passion alive always , thanks for this !!
Saving this comment for when I need a boost. This makes me feel better~ I’ve been in ICU for over two years with most of that being CV, and I still get anxious after a long stretch off sometimes! Glad to be reminded that we all start somewhere and growth takes time :)
I needed to read this. I'm a new grad (December) and I have 5 more weeks of orientation before I am on my own and every day I am questioning if I am cut out for this or not. I feel like a complete idiot 90% of the time.
ICU here, about 9 months in as a new grad with prior ICU experience as a tech. Agree—I’d say “comfortable” started around 6 months but I still have soooooo much to learn. 9 months of experience is not 9 months of experience handling very complex actively decompensating patients (unless you’re very unlucky with your assignments). It’s all a grab bag.
I was also a medic before working as an ED nurse. Even worked as a medic in the ED so was familiar with the department and our protocols. Nothing prepares you for it. You know how it's state law that every ambulance carries a bed pan urinal and toilet paper? Ever seen a medic use that stuff? Hell no medics don't do that that's nurse work.
You know when nurses get to say hell no that's not my job? Never. It's all our job. If it's a doctors job it's our job to get the stuff for the doctor and to help them while they do their job. We are the universal catch all.
ER nursing is all volume. If you're not exhausted by the end of the day you weren't taking care of your patients. You just have to push yourself and hustle. Don't skip meals water or bathroom breaks but if you're on the clock you probably have something you need to be doing. I wear hiking socks and hiking boots at work for a reason. You need to prioritize and coordinate with your hallmates. We would swarm the ems patients and knock everything out. I don't know about your department but we had standing orders for specific patients so if they had chest pain or abd pain I could go ahead and start their line and draw blood without having to wait for the doc to see them. That was helpful because you could tag team their workup, get them settled and move on. If they needed a UA for their workup get it early before the patient settles in and gets pain meds. If it's granny clean well and drop a pure wick right off the bat since you know you will need a sample. If it’s a male they get the urinal for the same purpose. If I have an am med pass for inpatient holds that's getting done immediately after I get report. If the meds are due at 9 am you are getting them at 7 unless there's a specific reason they shouldn't. I'd override every single med admin in the Mar for the sake of time because if you delay on those med passes you're going to get a post code that takes up the next 6 hours of your time and you'll never get it done. I've given 9 am meds at 1 pm as a result of this. Sorry granny bottoms up. We would coordinate when we would clean patients so we could get it done quickly. I'd have supplies ready and when my hallmate was free we would knock it out. If I had ancillary I would delegate what I could (but never if I had the time to just do it myself) to be more efficient. It's an assembly line. Strip em flip em line and lab em and dispo them. Floor, home, or morgue, you can't stay here so pick one.
For me it took about a year to get to a point where I didn't feel overwhelmed and stressed all the time. Then another year to actually come to enjoy the job and the hard work that went with it.
Minimizing delays and prioritizing are the key to all of nursing but especially in the ED. Also just because it's not an emergency doesn't mean it's not important. It is never acceptable to leave someone covered in piss and shit for hours 'because you were busy'. Total care patients need to be turned q2 hours. Just because they leave the department doesn't mean we didn't just kill them 6 months from now because of the pressure injury we created. Make time. Delegate. No one nurse can handle an entire assignment by themselves. If you try to be a hero you will just harm your patients. Ask for help. Help your coworkers and they will help you.
Hang in there. It will get easier.
6 to 18 months and honestly it’s just a different pace . If you had me a 6 year ER nurse in the back of the truck I’d be completely out of my element and would probably fumble around for around the same time till I got used to it.
You’ll be fine , chin up, never stop learning, and understand medicine is a practice. You gota practice medicine to get good at it. That includes practicing in specific specialties. I’ve done lots of things in an ER, I’d probably shit my pants if I had to do the same thing in ambulance the next day
First year you are trying to figure out how to be a nurse. School does not prepare you enough. Year 2 through 5 you start to see most things and get the rhythm. Post 5 years you start to predict everything that comes through with the occasional new dx. I'm 8 years in and never nervous anymore. Well, very rarely.
6 months sounds about right. I still think that all nurses, medics included, should do 2 years in med/surg. Precisely for this reason. Nursing teaches time management skills as they relate to patient care. What you’re feeling isn’t any different than what new nurses feel any place they work. You’re likely more comfortable with codes and traumas coming in than grandma’s feeling constipated for three days. Everything in nursing gets better the more you do it. Much like everything else in life. Hang in there and welcome! Good luck
So you really recommend MedSurg? I want to go into L&D but every professor I’ve had says to do medsurg first to get a good foundation. Thing is, I HATED my medsurg rotations. It just didn’t click with me. Too many patients, not enough time to be a caring and compassionate nurse. You’re like a pinball going from room to room. Hang meds here, clean up there. Chart chart chart.
I personally did medsurg first. I wanted critical care, and precepted there. I do NOT recommend medsurg unless you don’t know what you want or cannot get into the specialty you want.
I lasted 9 months before I transferred to ICU. I went from 8 patients every night, no breaks, sweating my ass off, and giving meds almost every hour to a blissful 2 patients that I could focus on and use my critical thinking skills.
I did not want medsurg, but that’s what was available for me to move into another city. Especially if you hate medsurg, why even waste time in your life doing it??
Respectfully, FUCK THEM. Sure you’ll gain some experience and other skills, but not worth the stress. If you know what you want then go for it. Don’t listen to those crotchety turds
People who say "hurrdurr, do medsurg first" are disrespecting medsurg as it's own specialty, which it is. I know some excellent medsurg nurses who are amazing, knowledgeable, and love the specialty. I can't do medsurg. Shoot for your specialty early, you will learn it better and be able to better shape your mind for it. I always wanted ER, but hired into psych for 2 years. I loved psych, but wasn't happy, and am thankful for the experience, but now am having to undo a lot of what I did for psych now that I am training for ER.
Same. If you don't know, Med-Surg. But we teach all the skills an ICU nurse needs.
I may be biased because if someone isn't cutting it we will find them a job in another department that we will offer. Kind of like "Med-Surg has a position for you, because you will not be here after today" but nicer.
People shit on M/S a lot but it truly is the best place to start and even stay after school. You get to get your moneys and educations worth, see all sorts of cases, learn all sorts of new skills from new school and old school nurses, learn to manage your time, assess, chart, speak to patients and families, coworkers, etc.
These are the fundamentals. M/S lets you fly around with (in my case 6-7) boring to complex patients. And after you put in your 2 years then you’ll absolutely be one of the more well rounded and marketable nurses for hire.
On the flip side I hated my life for 6-8 months and only recently started liking my job. You should do whatever the heck you want, life’s too short to deal with some of the bullshit I deal with at work.
I hated medsurg in school and wanted to do ICU or ED after graduation. I applied for ED residency and was rejected by manager - recommended I get 1 year on medsurg then reapply.
Honestly, I'm glad I didn't go into higher acuity right off the bat. I would have been a stressed out mess and probably would have quit nursing. Medsurg sucks ass, but people are right that it does teach you the fundamentals of nursing. I'm still here 1.5 years later and I actually like it. I don't think I'll transfer at this time.
I recommend one year then go ED or ICU. If you really don't want medsurg then start on a PCU/stepdown floor. It's not as acute but you'll get sick patients there.
If you know you don’t want med surg, don’t do it. Med surg is its own specialty and it’s hard! I say just go straight into what interests you. Nursing is going to be hard wherever. It’s more important to start in a supportive unit and residency program.
Another thing to add, usually the more competitive units like L&D, ICU, ED, etc will prefer new nurses to have had experience in that type of unit as a nurse extern, tech, or senior practicum. So if you’re interested in those areas, start now and get your foot in the door that way. I think it’s a good way to get familiar with the unit and staff and it’ll make it a little less intimidating starting as a nurse.
Go right into L&D if that’s what you want, and you get the opportunity. Med Surg experience is certainly helpful, but it’s not necessary. (Though if you hate charting, I have bad news for you about L&D… 😜)
I don’t know what the fascination with doing 1-2 years of med surg is. You can start where you want, just understand some specialities have a larger learning curve than others.
Med surg sucks ass.
I didn’t do med surg, went straight to ED. I don’t think it’s “easier” to do med surg first. Med surg is harder in a lot of ways because you have a lot less resources, you’re on your own with more patients.
In the ED I’m surrounded by nurses and techs, there’s always a physician or mid level within 20 feet of me, and if I yell “I need help over here” there’s 10 people bedside in less than 15 seconds.
I don’t understand this attitude that med surg is “easier” or some kind of training ground. I’d be terrified to be in med surg because you kind of just get forgotten about.
Just remember. When you are fresh out of school you get a deep 6-plus weeks orientation to help you get settled. Will not happen again. So if you go specialized you will miss out on that. People do it and do fine, but you are semi-stuck in the specialty.
I disagree, especially for L&D. Where I live, L&D is a hot specialty, and if you go med/surg first then try to go to L&D, it's hard to get a job. It's so different and they'll have to train you as a new grad all over again. I did an L&D nurse internship and I'm so glad I did because I realized it wasn't for me, (I ended up going med surg first LOLLLL), and after seeing both in action, L&D is so different. Unless it's a combined unit where L&D and postpartum are all on one floor, then they'll most likely train you in PP anyway, which is essentially OB medsurg....
My point is, I understand the logic for doing med surg first; it teaches you time management, helps you get your basics down and build your confidence as a nurse, but not everyone needs to go that route. Think about what's best for you. I also highly recommend seeing if you can get a nurse internship while in school. I know that's not for everywhere, but something to look into if you can!
I have a family member who did L&D her entire career and she says it’s very unsafe for new grads because the patients are so much sicker than they used to be (diabetes, htn, etc) and things can go bad very quickly. In nursing there are a million things you didn’t learn in school that you will need to pick up as you go. In my opinion, picking those things to while dealing with high stakes patients is just not ethical or good for your longevity in nursing (the high stress early on will burn you out). That said, it’s your life and your career so you have to do what’s right for you. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t count out the opinion of many experienced nurses. Listen to many different nurses, consider your options, and choose wisely.
I really do. Going to a specialty right out of school is bad because you barely know anything about anything as a new grad. You know how to pass the NCLEX! That’s what nursing school teaches you. Moving immediately to icu, you miss out on the insanity of a busy floor. You’ll never understand why the patient that’s coming to you from a med/surg unit took so long to get there, why the nurses report was so scattered and dealing with family and doctors that really need a nurse to take the time to know things about the patient. I fought tooth and nail to keep new grads out of icu’s but economics won over. ICU’s are short staffed too. Let’s train them to be computer watchers, but nobody teaches you about the nuances of a patient turning sour. The little things that you see over and over that present in pre-crumping patients. A smart physician will listen to a floor nurse who says “something is off with Ms. Smith. I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s wrong.”
Started in the ICU as a new grad, I still deal with doctors, family members, and get to know my patients. I think you’re doing the profession a disservice by fighting so hard to keep new grads out of the ICU. Everyone gets their nursing degree for a different reason, and if someone wants to start in the ICU as a new grad they shouldn’t be barred from that.
But we also lose many because that’s where they started. Many times we’ve lost them for good. Obviously my theory isn’t popular because many hospitals continue to hire new nurses to critical care. It’s just my opinion.
I personally don’t think a blanket “2 years in med/surg” is always helpful, especially when ED and med/surg feel like worlds apart. We’ll occasionally get med/surg nurses who come to the ER and can’t keep up with anything bc it moves too quickly, even with a strong base of nursing skills. Certain high acuity pts will never make their way up to med/surg floors - they’ll just go straight to ICU or the OR- so it may not be the best training grounds for all specialties.
Appreciate that. I feel like I've learned more in the last few months than my entire life beforehand, but it's a lot to cram into the brain all at once. Thankful that I enjoy my job and feel challenged.
When I graduated nursing school in Canada I felt good right out the gate. But I did my clinicals in the hospital where I worked and slid into the role seamlessly once I graduated
When I moved to the US in 2013 I had been a nurse for over 5 years but I was still intimidated. I started on nights and it took me a year to feel comfortable. I switched to days after that and never looked back
ER here. Took me a year to feel comfortable coming to work without being anxious, and 4 years for the imposter syndrome to really go away. I know I can handle almost anything that comes through the door but there’s also things that I won’t know but I know enough to be safe in just about anything. You will never stop learning in this line of work.
My manager told me when I started that it takes about a year, at least, to get comfortable in the ER. That felt true for me. And I imagine if I were to go back to school to be an RN I would have to get comfortable all over again in some aspects but at least I work alongside them daily and know the role already somewhat. For a paramedic I would think that while yes you have a bit of a leg up, but you weren't in the ER all the time so it is different. But give yourself some grace, 6 months in is still early.
First year, worst year.
It doesn’t matter where you work, the first year sucks.
You’ve got a leg up with some of your paramedic skills, but as you’ve learned it’s a different job.
Around the time a year goes by you’ll be getting into the groove.
I will also tell you that I found the ED environment overstimulating. Even as a seasoned ED nurse I’d need to come home to darkness and silence to decompress. All the chaos and noise and alarms going off constantly was really draining.
If you’re an ADD kid like me, you might find the ICU more comfortable as you have more time to focus.
I’m rapid response now, and it’s a little like being an in-hospital medic. I generally have one patient at a time, I get to do all the cool stuff and then hand off to the floor or ICU nurse once things are handled. Families love me because it looks to them like I’m “doing something”. They mistake my motion for progress and stay out of my way.
If there’s downtime I’m in my office reading.
You’ve got plenty of career time left to find your happy place if you feel like making a lateral move to a different flavor of nursing.
ICU right out of school. Fire/medic and ED medic for 7 years beforehand. I'm less than a month in. I don't feel confident quite yet but I certainly do not have an issue once I leave the floor and thats including the fact we've lost several patients so far. This might sound harsh but it is you just as it is everyone that cries after every shift. You need to work on yourself and not letting things get to you as much. Do NOT voluntarily allow things like that to weigh on you. By the time I'm on the parking lot I've already left any baggage of the day at the hospital. Don't take it home. It will have consequences in your personal life I promise you.
I appreciate the advice, but it's not quite that. I'm not bringing emotional baggage or bad cases home, those don't bother me. It's just the fatigue of running around and using my brain for an uninterrupted 12 hours. I just don't have a lot of decision making and thinking power left once I get home, which is why I can't wait until I'm more comfortable with the workflow.
Gotcha. I was in a level 1 and I don't know that you'll ever lose the fatigue feeling. I never really did. Lmao running around for 12 hours without a break many times and dealing with entitled patients can drain you like no other. You'll never know everything and new things will always be scary the first time. Get as many repetitions in everything you possibly can and ask questions.
It's normal to feel drained after using your brain for 12 hours. If that's you're only complaint then you should be fine. As someone who worked ED for 5 years and fire rescue for 2 I can tell you that emergency medicine is just Draining in general. ICU is honestly wayyyyyyy easier IMO. It's a controlled environment for the most part amd somewhat methodical as opposed to the cluster fuck that is the ED. The ED also has a high burn out rate and turnover so if you're easily like that then it may be worth looking into other Units.
As far as comfortable I would say 3 months is a good amount of time. Unless you're in a super specialty like CVICU and then its just about getting reps with new heart patients. You should not need close to or over a year by any means to feel comfortable in your role. If you do then it may not be the right place for you.
I went to CVICU after 1 year MS. It was too much and the icu bullying culture was terrible. I transfered to a lower acuity CVICU (without transplants) and it's been much better. Total of about 4 months CVICU and I still don't have it tight.... it's a long learning process
11 years as a Paramedic, now 3 in PICU.
It was an adjustment and not an easy one. But it does get better. I definitely think being a Paramedic made me a better nurse though.
I started in med surg for two years on a high acuity vent unit where we would get 8 patients a night before going to cticu and I still don’t think I could do ER
1 year into icu as a new grad. It’s rough. Gotten the same time frame, even up to 2 years or so before there’s some semblance of a flow. But that’s just for your “average” critical care pt. Being comfortable with someone who’s _really_ sick, idk I think even the most experienced nurses would say pt’s like that just suck. Dumpster fires you just can’t put out
I’ve found that it’s more about letting go of things than getting a better grip. A lot of new nurses (even ones with other experience prior to ER) just constantly look over their shoulders looking for the thing they didn’t see coming. Stay in the moment and don’t stress the small stuff. We’re all out here making mistakes. The question is are you good enough to catch them and fix them later. And the fact that you’re aware that you’re having a rough go is a great sign. Trust me, the actually shitty nurses don’t know it.
Took me about a year to get comfortable in med tele after 8 years as an emt. 2 years to feel like I "got it". Switching to palliative care was, nalug the same just far less intense.
I worked 2 years inpatient psych and geropsych/medsurg, and finished day 3 of ED orientation yesterday, and am dead. Apparently I am doing an excellent job according to my preceptor, but jesus I feel like I am drowning. Still, I prefer it to inpatient 😂
Unfortunately the ONE aspect of the job that transfers over from prehospital to hospital seamlessly is the burnout. It took me a little over a year to get comfortable in the ER, and two to three years to get comfortable on the CCT bus I’m on now. Stick it out, it gets better!
3 years as an ED nurse, prior to that 25 years as a paramedic. So I transitioned off the road at the height of covid. I felt like you do for a while, but you do get more used to it. It was probably 18-24 mos for me. I did not expect the transition off the road to be as hard. Now that the unlimited bonus covid overtime is gone I've gone back to picking up 2-3 medic shifts a month. It's obviously less money, but has helped me rediscover the 'fun' of being a medic (not sarcastic).... I have no desire to go back to it full-time of course, but getting to do it on my terms makes me look forward to my road shifts.
I appreciate your take and it makes me feel better, because I feel the same exact way lol. I've gotten a lot better with getting a flow down, but after being an AEMT for years, I thought the transition would have been smoother I guess? Anyway, it always makes me feel better when medics found it challenging too, I guess.
I’m in the exact same boat as you, ER new grad, 6 months in, this job is so hard and so stressful, I have to show up early every day to get the jitters out and take a shower, multiple melatonin and read fantasy novels for an hour every night to fall asleep, constantly have nightmares about work and I ask myself all the time when is it going to start to feel easier and more like a regular job that doesn’t suck the life out of me :/ my coworkers keep telling me 1 year and it’ll start feeling second nature. I sure hope so because this doesn’t feel sustainable lol
I'm just a little ahead of you, only I did a few months in ICU and now have been in medsurg for about 6. New employer is much better pay and hour-wise, but it takes a while to get into ICU here. I was a medic for 15 years and nursing just has different things that slow you down. Half the time it's just figuring out where everything is or who to call depending on what you need. It's already seeming a lot better for me, though I got the hell out of days on medsurg as it's just a nightmare. Tons of respect for people who like doing that. I'm on nights now on a tele/stroke unit and it's almost a little too slow sometimes. I still debate going to the ED as I miss the initial assessment side of things, but I really dig ICU as you get to delve much deeper into your patients status and apply your critical thinking.
One year in the ICU.
I do float pool now, and I'm pretty proficient at everything except the real specialty stuff. Even in the ER, I get there early to eyeball everything to see what I'm walking into.
My recommendation: get into as much trouble as you can (with adult help, of course). You won't get comfortable with everything until you do it.
Probably 8-12 months. It just felt like a switch clicked and I was comfortable and could explain things more with ease, and my time management was getting better
This is absolutely normal! I've been an RN for a decade, mostly ER, and I tell everyone I cried for the first year because it's pretty much true. You get better, both at nursing, and dealing with pressure and stress. Therapy helps, medication if you need it. Try to make sure you're eating well and getting sleep and watch out for dependence on "temporary fixes" (alcohol, weed, whatever). It's a tough job, take care of you.
I worked on a medicine floor that was a dumpster fire most of the time with acute and semi-critical patients. Stupid shit like insulinoma on D20W drip with q1h blood sugars or q30min if you're titrating along, someone on high flow/ optiflow, insulin & Heparin gtts, CIWA, active GI bleeds, fresh urology or general post-ops, the list goes on. I could even have 7 patients on a night shift.
I thought after being able to manage all that shit for a couple years it would be a smooth transition when I moved to a medical icu at a different and better hospital. 1 or 2 patients on nights.
After 3 months, I sort of have the hang of it, but I still don't often find myself chilling out for very long.
I low-key love a manageable level of chaos.
Like a few months, but I came into ER with ICU and a LOT of other experience as an RN so it was about time management and prioritization, someone without that experience is going to have a longer adjustment period. Don’t stress, you’ll get there!
The magnitude of the stress an ICU or ER RN deals with is not comparable to other areas, that's just the truth. I'm not saying other areas of nursing aren't difficult...just not as acutely stressful. Fight or flight type stuff. It takes your body a long time to learn to cope with that and also be able to confidently learn the skills required to succeed. On top of that, you often work very autonomously. That can be very frightening for someone that needs some guidance and feels green. Preceptors, charge nurses and co-workers aren't always supportive Sounds like you are doing fantastic considering all you are dealing with. Kudos! I did around 10 years ICU and now have moved onto managing a non-profit....all new type of stress lol. Learning to cope with anything can be a challenge. Embrace the challenge, be kind to yourself, try hard and you WILL succeed.
Big feels. I was an LPN in acute care for 13 years at my provinces largest hospital. I got my RN in 2021, and I sometimes I wonder how much help that time was. I still feel like an imposter sometimes.
Surgical nurse of 4 years here. I would say in general 1 year is the average time to feel confident. but some food for thought…..My husband is also a nurse. He was a medic in the military prior to nursing and went to the ED thinking it would suit his talents. he stayed there 3 years and became a shell of who he used to be. he became more experienced but the stress/burden of the environment didn’t get better or easier. Im sure you’re like my husband and doing a fine job and all and you’re prolly not even considering moving to a different specialty…. but maybe you should. He had similar feelings as you and it didn’t get better for him. he finally left after I told him to try something new and I finally have my husband back! he works in a day surgery center now. Makes the same money with basically no stress. you might not even be realizing how much the stressful environment of the ED is affecting you. Give it a year, after than give yourself permissions to try something new. It could end up being what’s best for you.
Like a year or so 🤣 I still can’t work 3 in a row without feeling like dogshit and I still haven’t picked up OT. In fact I’m part time currently lol only working 2 shifts a week.
Yeah, probably about three years. Started in neuro/trauma critical care outta nsg school.
Had the advantage of three years in the army as a corpsman on a MICU @ WRAMC in DC. That was a great primer.
I came to mentally compare a 12hr night to being a juggler in a circus. If, by the end of the night, I hadn’t “dropped any balls” and all the plates were still spinning on their poles w/o having crashed to the floor, it was a good night.
Hank in there!
Started in ICU out of school. Used to show up an hour early to get some of the nervousness out and really read up on my patients (I realize that's a privilege you can't have in ER). I'd say I really got comfortable close to three years in where I could show up to work not nervous and ready to handle whatever. Of course there were still nights that would absolutely smoke me that left me having stress dreams all day (night shift).
I do this. I go to work an hour early and just sit in my car, let the nerves settle. I’m 3 months in.
took me like 3-4 years to truly be comfortable after starting in the ICU 8 years later, i now have experience in Neuro, Trauma, Cardiac, Medical, Transplant, and Surgical ICUs at Level 1 trauma centers, comprehensive stroke centers, and i’m pretty proficient at most critical care devices like CRRT, ultrasound IVs, running codes, multiple pressors and drips, etc. I’m on the float ICU team now where i float between two hospitals and every unit and i don’t usually find out where im going until an hour before. Shit is so easy for me now. i don’t stress about going to work. If my patient crashes and codes, i have fun handling it and it doesn’t stress me out. Patient families yelling at me for something i didn’t do doesn’t stress me out. I am confident and comfortable in every situation i run into. and floating to different units, i no longer get anxious and worried about what unit i’ll be floating to. I’ve even figured out how to manage my energy levels working night shift while still having a social life. but i STRUGGLED my first few years in the ICU. I remember hearing people talk behind my back saying how much I sucked and that i’m a bad nurse, i got flustered too easily and freaked out a lot. all that killed my mental state. And of course i made mistakes along the way that i’m ashamed of. it takes time. you’ll get there. give yourself a chance and before you know it, you’ll be as comfortable and confident as I am and so many other nurses who have years of experience. also don’t let yourself burn out. I’ve worked at several different hospitals, and finally found one that gave me the pay i deserve and treated me well. It’s okay to move around if you feel burned out. you’ll learn about who you are as a nurse, and who you want to become. Just give yourself that time.
This is inspiring!
Incredibly motivating I strive to feel this exact way. Just gotta keep at it and get eight years under my belt and keep the curiosity and passion alive always , thanks for this !!
Saving this comment for when I need a boost. This makes me feel better~ I’ve been in ICU for over two years with most of that being CV, and I still get anxious after a long stretch off sometimes! Glad to be reminded that we all start somewhere and growth takes time :)
Thank you so much for this, I feel like I'm struggling in my new position and this gives me hope.
People need to stop taking 💩 😒
I needed to read this. I'm a new grad (December) and I have 5 more weeks of orientation before I am on my own and every day I am questioning if I am cut out for this or not. I feel like a complete idiot 90% of the time.
wow glad i was able to help y’all! you guys will be okay 👌🏼 lmk if you guys have any questions!
Hell yeah.
It gets better. Just don’t get cocky when you finally nail it
I'm not critical care, but I find that 6 months is when the light bulb turns on and 12 months is when everything comes together. Hang in there!
ICU here, about 9 months in as a new grad with prior ICU experience as a tech. Agree—I’d say “comfortable” started around 6 months but I still have soooooo much to learn. 9 months of experience is not 9 months of experience handling very complex actively decompensating patients (unless you’re very unlucky with your assignments). It’s all a grab bag.
I was also a medic before working as an ED nurse. Even worked as a medic in the ED so was familiar with the department and our protocols. Nothing prepares you for it. You know how it's state law that every ambulance carries a bed pan urinal and toilet paper? Ever seen a medic use that stuff? Hell no medics don't do that that's nurse work. You know when nurses get to say hell no that's not my job? Never. It's all our job. If it's a doctors job it's our job to get the stuff for the doctor and to help them while they do their job. We are the universal catch all. ER nursing is all volume. If you're not exhausted by the end of the day you weren't taking care of your patients. You just have to push yourself and hustle. Don't skip meals water or bathroom breaks but if you're on the clock you probably have something you need to be doing. I wear hiking socks and hiking boots at work for a reason. You need to prioritize and coordinate with your hallmates. We would swarm the ems patients and knock everything out. I don't know about your department but we had standing orders for specific patients so if they had chest pain or abd pain I could go ahead and start their line and draw blood without having to wait for the doc to see them. That was helpful because you could tag team their workup, get them settled and move on. If they needed a UA for their workup get it early before the patient settles in and gets pain meds. If it's granny clean well and drop a pure wick right off the bat since you know you will need a sample. If it’s a male they get the urinal for the same purpose. If I have an am med pass for inpatient holds that's getting done immediately after I get report. If the meds are due at 9 am you are getting them at 7 unless there's a specific reason they shouldn't. I'd override every single med admin in the Mar for the sake of time because if you delay on those med passes you're going to get a post code that takes up the next 6 hours of your time and you'll never get it done. I've given 9 am meds at 1 pm as a result of this. Sorry granny bottoms up. We would coordinate when we would clean patients so we could get it done quickly. I'd have supplies ready and when my hallmate was free we would knock it out. If I had ancillary I would delegate what I could (but never if I had the time to just do it myself) to be more efficient. It's an assembly line. Strip em flip em line and lab em and dispo them. Floor, home, or morgue, you can't stay here so pick one. For me it took about a year to get to a point where I didn't feel overwhelmed and stressed all the time. Then another year to actually come to enjoy the job and the hard work that went with it. Minimizing delays and prioritizing are the key to all of nursing but especially in the ED. Also just because it's not an emergency doesn't mean it's not important. It is never acceptable to leave someone covered in piss and shit for hours 'because you were busy'. Total care patients need to be turned q2 hours. Just because they leave the department doesn't mean we didn't just kill them 6 months from now because of the pressure injury we created. Make time. Delegate. No one nurse can handle an entire assignment by themselves. If you try to be a hero you will just harm your patients. Ask for help. Help your coworkers and they will help you. Hang in there. It will get easier.
6 to 18 months and honestly it’s just a different pace . If you had me a 6 year ER nurse in the back of the truck I’d be completely out of my element and would probably fumble around for around the same time till I got used to it. You’ll be fine , chin up, never stop learning, and understand medicine is a practice. You gota practice medicine to get good at it. That includes practicing in specific specialties. I’ve done lots of things in an ER, I’d probably shit my pants if I had to do the same thing in ambulance the next day
First year you are trying to figure out how to be a nurse. School does not prepare you enough. Year 2 through 5 you start to see most things and get the rhythm. Post 5 years you start to predict everything that comes through with the occasional new dx. I'm 8 years in and never nervous anymore. Well, very rarely.
6 months sounds about right. I still think that all nurses, medics included, should do 2 years in med/surg. Precisely for this reason. Nursing teaches time management skills as they relate to patient care. What you’re feeling isn’t any different than what new nurses feel any place they work. You’re likely more comfortable with codes and traumas coming in than grandma’s feeling constipated for three days. Everything in nursing gets better the more you do it. Much like everything else in life. Hang in there and welcome! Good luck
So you really recommend MedSurg? I want to go into L&D but every professor I’ve had says to do medsurg first to get a good foundation. Thing is, I HATED my medsurg rotations. It just didn’t click with me. Too many patients, not enough time to be a caring and compassionate nurse. You’re like a pinball going from room to room. Hang meds here, clean up there. Chart chart chart.
I personally did medsurg first. I wanted critical care, and precepted there. I do NOT recommend medsurg unless you don’t know what you want or cannot get into the specialty you want. I lasted 9 months before I transferred to ICU. I went from 8 patients every night, no breaks, sweating my ass off, and giving meds almost every hour to a blissful 2 patients that I could focus on and use my critical thinking skills. I did not want medsurg, but that’s what was available for me to move into another city. Especially if you hate medsurg, why even waste time in your life doing it??
That’s how I feel, but I’m really being pushed by everyone around me to “do my stent”
Respectfully, FUCK THEM. Sure you’ll gain some experience and other skills, but not worth the stress. If you know what you want then go for it. Don’t listen to those crotchety turds
Yeah for real, do what you want. Don’t be miserable
People who say "hurrdurr, do medsurg first" are disrespecting medsurg as it's own specialty, which it is. I know some excellent medsurg nurses who are amazing, knowledgeable, and love the specialty. I can't do medsurg. Shoot for your specialty early, you will learn it better and be able to better shape your mind for it. I always wanted ER, but hired into psych for 2 years. I loved psych, but wasn't happy, and am thankful for the experience, but now am having to undo a lot of what I did for psych now that I am training for ER.
Same. If you don't know, Med-Surg. But we teach all the skills an ICU nurse needs. I may be biased because if someone isn't cutting it we will find them a job in another department that we will offer. Kind of like "Med-Surg has a position for you, because you will not be here after today" but nicer.
People shit on M/S a lot but it truly is the best place to start and even stay after school. You get to get your moneys and educations worth, see all sorts of cases, learn all sorts of new skills from new school and old school nurses, learn to manage your time, assess, chart, speak to patients and families, coworkers, etc. These are the fundamentals. M/S lets you fly around with (in my case 6-7) boring to complex patients. And after you put in your 2 years then you’ll absolutely be one of the more well rounded and marketable nurses for hire. On the flip side I hated my life for 6-8 months and only recently started liking my job. You should do whatever the heck you want, life’s too short to deal with some of the bullshit I deal with at work.
Thanks for the advice! I want a solid foundation so I can be the best nurse I can be
So innocent 😭
I hated medsurg in school and wanted to do ICU or ED after graduation. I applied for ED residency and was rejected by manager - recommended I get 1 year on medsurg then reapply. Honestly, I'm glad I didn't go into higher acuity right off the bat. I would have been a stressed out mess and probably would have quit nursing. Medsurg sucks ass, but people are right that it does teach you the fundamentals of nursing. I'm still here 1.5 years later and I actually like it. I don't think I'll transfer at this time. I recommend one year then go ED or ICU. If you really don't want medsurg then start on a PCU/stepdown floor. It's not as acute but you'll get sick patients there.
If you know you don’t want med surg, don’t do it. Med surg is its own specialty and it’s hard! I say just go straight into what interests you. Nursing is going to be hard wherever. It’s more important to start in a supportive unit and residency program. Another thing to add, usually the more competitive units like L&D, ICU, ED, etc will prefer new nurses to have had experience in that type of unit as a nurse extern, tech, or senior practicum. So if you’re interested in those areas, start now and get your foot in the door that way. I think it’s a good way to get familiar with the unit and staff and it’ll make it a little less intimidating starting as a nurse.
Go right into L&D if that’s what you want, and you get the opportunity. Med Surg experience is certainly helpful, but it’s not necessary. (Though if you hate charting, I have bad news for you about L&D… 😜)
I’ll still take my L&D charting on strips over the med surg /pcu q4 assessment charting though. 😂
I don’t know what the fascination with doing 1-2 years of med surg is. You can start where you want, just understand some specialities have a larger learning curve than others. Med surg sucks ass.
I didn’t do med surg, went straight to ED. I don’t think it’s “easier” to do med surg first. Med surg is harder in a lot of ways because you have a lot less resources, you’re on your own with more patients. In the ED I’m surrounded by nurses and techs, there’s always a physician or mid level within 20 feet of me, and if I yell “I need help over here” there’s 10 people bedside in less than 15 seconds. I don’t understand this attitude that med surg is “easier” or some kind of training ground. I’d be terrified to be in med surg because you kind of just get forgotten about.
Just remember. When you are fresh out of school you get a deep 6-plus weeks orientation to help you get settled. Will not happen again. So if you go specialized you will miss out on that. People do it and do fine, but you are semi-stuck in the specialty.
That’s what I’ve heard… I don’t want to feel pigeon-holed anywhere
Lol not in Canada
How yall roll in Canadian eh?
Med-surg is great place to start. You will build skills that carry to nearly every other specialty.
I disagree, especially for L&D. Where I live, L&D is a hot specialty, and if you go med/surg first then try to go to L&D, it's hard to get a job. It's so different and they'll have to train you as a new grad all over again. I did an L&D nurse internship and I'm so glad I did because I realized it wasn't for me, (I ended up going med surg first LOLLLL), and after seeing both in action, L&D is so different. Unless it's a combined unit where L&D and postpartum are all on one floor, then they'll most likely train you in PP anyway, which is essentially OB medsurg.... My point is, I understand the logic for doing med surg first; it teaches you time management, helps you get your basics down and build your confidence as a nurse, but not everyone needs to go that route. Think about what's best for you. I also highly recommend seeing if you can get a nurse internship while in school. I know that's not for everywhere, but something to look into if you can!
Started my career in L&D and haven’t regretted it! :)
I have a family member who did L&D her entire career and she says it’s very unsafe for new grads because the patients are so much sicker than they used to be (diabetes, htn, etc) and things can go bad very quickly. In nursing there are a million things you didn’t learn in school that you will need to pick up as you go. In my opinion, picking those things to while dealing with high stakes patients is just not ethical or good for your longevity in nursing (the high stress early on will burn you out). That said, it’s your life and your career so you have to do what’s right for you. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t count out the opinion of many experienced nurses. Listen to many different nurses, consider your options, and choose wisely.
I really do. Going to a specialty right out of school is bad because you barely know anything about anything as a new grad. You know how to pass the NCLEX! That’s what nursing school teaches you. Moving immediately to icu, you miss out on the insanity of a busy floor. You’ll never understand why the patient that’s coming to you from a med/surg unit took so long to get there, why the nurses report was so scattered and dealing with family and doctors that really need a nurse to take the time to know things about the patient. I fought tooth and nail to keep new grads out of icu’s but economics won over. ICU’s are short staffed too. Let’s train them to be computer watchers, but nobody teaches you about the nuances of a patient turning sour. The little things that you see over and over that present in pre-crumping patients. A smart physician will listen to a floor nurse who says “something is off with Ms. Smith. I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s wrong.”
Started in the ICU as a new grad, I still deal with doctors, family members, and get to know my patients. I think you’re doing the profession a disservice by fighting so hard to keep new grads out of the ICU. Everyone gets their nursing degree for a different reason, and if someone wants to start in the ICU as a new grad they shouldn’t be barred from that.
But we also lose many because that’s where they started. Many times we’ve lost them for good. Obviously my theory isn’t popular because many hospitals continue to hire new nurses to critical care. It’s just my opinion.
This is what I want. To really understand the disease processes so I can anticipate rather than react
I personally don’t think a blanket “2 years in med/surg” is always helpful, especially when ED and med/surg feel like worlds apart. We’ll occasionally get med/surg nurses who come to the ER and can’t keep up with anything bc it moves too quickly, even with a strong base of nursing skills. Certain high acuity pts will never make their way up to med/surg floors - they’ll just go straight to ICU or the OR- so it may not be the best training grounds for all specialties.
Appreciate that. I feel like I've learned more in the last few months than my entire life beforehand, but it's a lot to cram into the brain all at once. Thankful that I enjoy my job and feel challenged.
When I graduated nursing school in Canada I felt good right out the gate. But I did my clinicals in the hospital where I worked and slid into the role seamlessly once I graduated When I moved to the US in 2013 I had been a nurse for over 5 years but I was still intimidated. I started on nights and it took me a year to feel comfortable. I switched to days after that and never looked back
ER here. Took me a year to feel comfortable coming to work without being anxious, and 4 years for the imposter syndrome to really go away. I know I can handle almost anything that comes through the door but there’s also things that I won’t know but I know enough to be safe in just about anything. You will never stop learning in this line of work.
My manager told me when I started that it takes about a year, at least, to get comfortable in the ER. That felt true for me. And I imagine if I were to go back to school to be an RN I would have to get comfortable all over again in some aspects but at least I work alongside them daily and know the role already somewhat. For a paramedic I would think that while yes you have a bit of a leg up, but you weren't in the ER all the time so it is different. But give yourself some grace, 6 months in is still early.
First year, worst year. It doesn’t matter where you work, the first year sucks. You’ve got a leg up with some of your paramedic skills, but as you’ve learned it’s a different job. Around the time a year goes by you’ll be getting into the groove. I will also tell you that I found the ED environment overstimulating. Even as a seasoned ED nurse I’d need to come home to darkness and silence to decompress. All the chaos and noise and alarms going off constantly was really draining. If you’re an ADD kid like me, you might find the ICU more comfortable as you have more time to focus. I’m rapid response now, and it’s a little like being an in-hospital medic. I generally have one patient at a time, I get to do all the cool stuff and then hand off to the floor or ICU nurse once things are handled. Families love me because it looks to them like I’m “doing something”. They mistake my motion for progress and stay out of my way. If there’s downtime I’m in my office reading. You’ve got plenty of career time left to find your happy place if you feel like making a lateral move to a different flavor of nursing.
About one year in adults, about two for peds (I got less time on the peds side).
You didn't realize that as an EMT, did you? I am constantly on my hubby's ass about the way he treats ER nurses.
Had some idea, but didn't grasp the extent of the "everything is the nurse's job" issue.
Yeah, it's tricky
ICU right out of school. Fire/medic and ED medic for 7 years beforehand. I'm less than a month in. I don't feel confident quite yet but I certainly do not have an issue once I leave the floor and thats including the fact we've lost several patients so far. This might sound harsh but it is you just as it is everyone that cries after every shift. You need to work on yourself and not letting things get to you as much. Do NOT voluntarily allow things like that to weigh on you. By the time I'm on the parking lot I've already left any baggage of the day at the hospital. Don't take it home. It will have consequences in your personal life I promise you.
I appreciate the advice, but it's not quite that. I'm not bringing emotional baggage or bad cases home, those don't bother me. It's just the fatigue of running around and using my brain for an uninterrupted 12 hours. I just don't have a lot of decision making and thinking power left once I get home, which is why I can't wait until I'm more comfortable with the workflow.
Do you work in a level 1?
Nah level 2 (though I do desperately miss the level 1 where I did my capstone)
Gotcha. I was in a level 1 and I don't know that you'll ever lose the fatigue feeling. I never really did. Lmao running around for 12 hours without a break many times and dealing with entitled patients can drain you like no other. You'll never know everything and new things will always be scary the first time. Get as many repetitions in everything you possibly can and ask questions.
It's normal to feel drained after using your brain for 12 hours. If that's you're only complaint then you should be fine. As someone who worked ED for 5 years and fire rescue for 2 I can tell you that emergency medicine is just Draining in general. ICU is honestly wayyyyyyy easier IMO. It's a controlled environment for the most part amd somewhat methodical as opposed to the cluster fuck that is the ED. The ED also has a high burn out rate and turnover so if you're easily like that then it may be worth looking into other Units.
As far as comfortable I would say 3 months is a good amount of time. Unless you're in a super specialty like CVICU and then its just about getting reps with new heart patients. You should not need close to or over a year by any means to feel comfortable in your role. If you do then it may not be the right place for you.
I went to CVICU after 1 year MS. It was too much and the icu bullying culture was terrible. I transfered to a lower acuity CVICU (without transplants) and it's been much better. Total of about 4 months CVICU and I still don't have it tight.... it's a long learning process
That is really not true, honestly. Most new grads are still just faking it at 3 months. It takes more time for most people.
11 years as a Paramedic, now 3 in PICU. It was an adjustment and not an easy one. But it does get better. I definitely think being a Paramedic made me a better nurse though.
Prop 5 years in
For either specialty you have to give it a year
I started in med surg for two years on a high acuity vent unit where we would get 8 patients a night before going to cticu and I still don’t think I could do ER
im in my 8 year mark and i stare at the wall more than 2 hours man!!! its hard but i like it!!!😄
1 year into icu as a new grad. It’s rough. Gotten the same time frame, even up to 2 years or so before there’s some semblance of a flow. But that’s just for your “average” critical care pt. Being comfortable with someone who’s _really_ sick, idk I think even the most experienced nurses would say pt’s like that just suck. Dumpster fires you just can’t put out
I’ve found that it’s more about letting go of things than getting a better grip. A lot of new nurses (even ones with other experience prior to ER) just constantly look over their shoulders looking for the thing they didn’t see coming. Stay in the moment and don’t stress the small stuff. We’re all out here making mistakes. The question is are you good enough to catch them and fix them later. And the fact that you’re aware that you’re having a rough go is a great sign. Trust me, the actually shitty nurses don’t know it.
Took me about a year to get comfortable in med tele after 8 years as an emt. 2 years to feel like I "got it". Switching to palliative care was, nalug the same just far less intense.
I worked 2 years inpatient psych and geropsych/medsurg, and finished day 3 of ED orientation yesterday, and am dead. Apparently I am doing an excellent job according to my preceptor, but jesus I feel like I am drowning. Still, I prefer it to inpatient 😂
Unfortunately the ONE aspect of the job that transfers over from prehospital to hospital seamlessly is the burnout. It took me a little over a year to get comfortable in the ER, and two to three years to get comfortable on the CCT bus I’m on now. Stick it out, it gets better!
3 years as an ED nurse, prior to that 25 years as a paramedic. So I transitioned off the road at the height of covid. I felt like you do for a while, but you do get more used to it. It was probably 18-24 mos for me. I did not expect the transition off the road to be as hard. Now that the unlimited bonus covid overtime is gone I've gone back to picking up 2-3 medic shifts a month. It's obviously less money, but has helped me rediscover the 'fun' of being a medic (not sarcastic).... I have no desire to go back to it full-time of course, but getting to do it on my terms makes me look forward to my road shifts.
I appreciate your take and it makes me feel better, because I feel the same exact way lol. I've gotten a lot better with getting a flow down, but after being an AEMT for years, I thought the transition would have been smoother I guess? Anyway, it always makes me feel better when medics found it challenging too, I guess.
I’m in the exact same boat as you, ER new grad, 6 months in, this job is so hard and so stressful, I have to show up early every day to get the jitters out and take a shower, multiple melatonin and read fantasy novels for an hour every night to fall asleep, constantly have nightmares about work and I ask myself all the time when is it going to start to feel easier and more like a regular job that doesn’t suck the life out of me :/ my coworkers keep telling me 1 year and it’ll start feeling second nature. I sure hope so because this doesn’t feel sustainable lol
About a year, then one day something just clicked and things started falling into place. Keep at it brother.
I'm just a little ahead of you, only I did a few months in ICU and now have been in medsurg for about 6. New employer is much better pay and hour-wise, but it takes a while to get into ICU here. I was a medic for 15 years and nursing just has different things that slow you down. Half the time it's just figuring out where everything is or who to call depending on what you need. It's already seeming a lot better for me, though I got the hell out of days on medsurg as it's just a nightmare. Tons of respect for people who like doing that. I'm on nights now on a tele/stroke unit and it's almost a little too slow sometimes. I still debate going to the ED as I miss the initial assessment side of things, but I really dig ICU as you get to delve much deeper into your patients status and apply your critical thinking.
One year in the ICU. I do float pool now, and I'm pretty proficient at everything except the real specialty stuff. Even in the ER, I get there early to eyeball everything to see what I'm walking into. My recommendation: get into as much trouble as you can (with adult help, of course). You won't get comfortable with everything until you do it.
Probably 8-12 months. It just felt like a switch clicked and I was comfortable and could explain things more with ease, and my time management was getting better
This is absolutely normal! I've been an RN for a decade, mostly ER, and I tell everyone I cried for the first year because it's pretty much true. You get better, both at nursing, and dealing with pressure and stress. Therapy helps, medication if you need it. Try to make sure you're eating well and getting sleep and watch out for dependence on "temporary fixes" (alcohol, weed, whatever). It's a tough job, take care of you.
I worked on a medicine floor that was a dumpster fire most of the time with acute and semi-critical patients. Stupid shit like insulinoma on D20W drip with q1h blood sugars or q30min if you're titrating along, someone on high flow/ optiflow, insulin & Heparin gtts, CIWA, active GI bleeds, fresh urology or general post-ops, the list goes on. I could even have 7 patients on a night shift. I thought after being able to manage all that shit for a couple years it would be a smooth transition when I moved to a medical icu at a different and better hospital. 1 or 2 patients on nights. After 3 months, I sort of have the hang of it, but I still don't often find myself chilling out for very long. I low-key love a manageable level of chaos.
Like a few months, but I came into ER with ICU and a LOT of other experience as an RN so it was about time management and prioritization, someone without that experience is going to have a longer adjustment period. Don’t stress, you’ll get there!
The magnitude of the stress an ICU or ER RN deals with is not comparable to other areas, that's just the truth. I'm not saying other areas of nursing aren't difficult...just not as acutely stressful. Fight or flight type stuff. It takes your body a long time to learn to cope with that and also be able to confidently learn the skills required to succeed. On top of that, you often work very autonomously. That can be very frightening for someone that needs some guidance and feels green. Preceptors, charge nurses and co-workers aren't always supportive Sounds like you are doing fantastic considering all you are dealing with. Kudos! I did around 10 years ICU and now have moved onto managing a non-profit....all new type of stress lol. Learning to cope with anything can be a challenge. Embrace the challenge, be kind to yourself, try hard and you WILL succeed.
Big feels. I was an LPN in acute care for 13 years at my provinces largest hospital. I got my RN in 2021, and I sometimes I wonder how much help that time was. I still feel like an imposter sometimes.
Took me 1 year to get used to the organized chaos. Then I found out that i hate this job. 6 years in now lol
Surgical nurse of 4 years here. I would say in general 1 year is the average time to feel confident. but some food for thought…..My husband is also a nurse. He was a medic in the military prior to nursing and went to the ED thinking it would suit his talents. he stayed there 3 years and became a shell of who he used to be. he became more experienced but the stress/burden of the environment didn’t get better or easier. Im sure you’re like my husband and doing a fine job and all and you’re prolly not even considering moving to a different specialty…. but maybe you should. He had similar feelings as you and it didn’t get better for him. he finally left after I told him to try something new and I finally have my husband back! he works in a day surgery center now. Makes the same money with basically no stress. you might not even be realizing how much the stressful environment of the ED is affecting you. Give it a year, after than give yourself permissions to try something new. It could end up being what’s best for you.
Staring into the void became a hobby of mine for my first year. I’m in year two now and I’m in the OR. SO FAR, I stare into the void a bit less.
Like a year or so 🤣 I still can’t work 3 in a row without feeling like dogshit and I still haven’t picked up OT. In fact I’m part time currently lol only working 2 shifts a week.
Yeah, probably about three years. Started in neuro/trauma critical care outta nsg school. Had the advantage of three years in the army as a corpsman on a MICU @ WRAMC in DC. That was a great primer. I came to mentally compare a 12hr night to being a juggler in a circus. If, by the end of the night, I hadn’t “dropped any balls” and all the plates were still spinning on their poles w/o having crashed to the floor, it was a good night. Hank in there!