Next week is Thanksgiving. I’ve noticed that many people on my social media feeds have been doing what I’m Thankful for. I’m going to talk a little today about something will happen to you after you finish Nursing School. I know that many of you are probably thinking, yea right, that will never happen. But it will. You will finish school, you will pass the NCLEX and pass your first day.
You will learn more in the first weeks that you’re doing the job than you did in the 2 or 4 years of nursing school. Till now your interaction with your patients have been brief, maybe a day or two at a time. Now you’ll have the privelege to take care of them for days at a time (and depending on the patient maybe weeks).
You will have good days. When you help save the life of someone that you didn’t think would make it. You will have bad days – one day me and an LPN took care of 13 admissions on a peds floor. I was working a B shift that night and I came home from work, sat down in my favorite easy chair and cried like a baby.
You will have patients that you fall in love with and some that you will wish you had never met. You will have families that you will want to send them a gift, and others that talk to your boss about everything that they think you did wrong.
So why am I telling you all of this. You will be a difference maker. I always tried to put myself into the patients shoes. Even for the not so nice ones you can help them feel better about their situation. When you’re having a bad day, remember the good times, but forget about that day as soon as you can. The more you dwell on it, the more it can overwhelm you. Learn from it, then forget about it.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
