March 30, 2022
Being a nursing school grad is exciting. Your grit and determination to get through nursing school have prepared you with the right skills to be successful. But just because you’re finished with formal nursing school, it doesn’t mean you’re done learning. Your first year of nursing is likely to be equally exhilarating and frustrating, rewarding, and nerve-racking.
7 Questions to Ask in Your First Nursing Job
Here are seven questions that can help you make the most of your first year as you settle into this incredible profession.
1. How Do I Do [Insert new Skill Here]?
While nursing students learn a lot of different things to prepare for patient care, you won’t learn everything in the two to four years you spend earning a degree. There will always be something that comes up that you have never done before.
When that happens, it’s important to ask someone on your team for help. You may worry that asking for help will make it seem like you don’t know what you’re doing. But every decision can have serious consequences. If you don’t ask, it could put a patient’s life in danger or create problems for you or your employer. Your fellow clinicians and administrators will appreciate you asking instead of winging it and getting it wrong.
2. What Tests, Certifications, and Training are Required (and When)?
Both clinical and non-clinical staff who work in healthcare facilities must complete specific training and certifications set forth by insurance payers or state and federal government. Exactly what you need will depend on your job, but most nurses need:
- HIPAA training
- CPR certification
- OSHA training
- CMS Fraud, Waste, and Abuse training
Most employees complete these in the first 90 days after you are hired, then once a year if you are employed (although some CPR certifications are valid for more than a year). If you don’t get specific information about the required trainings, ask about when they need to be done and how to complete them. Your facility might offer them online, or you may have to do them in person, which will require that you coordinate it with your busy work schedule.
3. What Is the Uniform Policy, and Where Do I Get Mine?
Many hospitals and clinical facilities have dress codes for clinical personnel. Some also have specific rules about what color or style of scrubs you can wear. You may have a choice of multiple colors, or one color based on job functions, such as:
- Physicians
- Non-physician clinicians (such as NPs, PTs, or pharmacists)
- Nurses
- CNAs
A single color-coded uniform policy helps patients identify who is who throughout the day, especially in inpatient settings where they have different providers, nurses, and CNAs throughout their stay.
Once you know the uniform requirements, the next question is where to buy your scrubs. Whether you get an annual voucher (uniform allowance) or purchase scrubs on your own, you can shop at Scrubs & Beyond for comfortable and fashionable attire.
4. Any Tips for Dealing With Stress?
As a nursing school grad, you already know nursing is a challenging profession. Nurses provide care to people who are dealing with difficult—even life-altering—health issues. From everyday sickness and injuries to chronic illness and even terminal conditions, people who come for care are not feeling their best. Patients or family members can be emotional and difficult. And unfortunately, some of your patients might not make it.
All these things are tough and taking care of yourself and your mental health are essential for a new nurse. Colleagues are a great resource to learn how to deal with it all. Talk to fellow nurses and nursing supervisors who have been on the job for a while to find out how they deal with stressful situations and learn what self-care steps will work for you.
5. How Do You Balance Your Work and Personal Life as a Nurse?
Nurses must be available when patients need them. Depending on where you work, that might mean working 12+ hour shifts, graveyards, holidays, and weekends. In your first year, you will likely get the more difficult schedules. You also might be working on your residency (depending on your degree program), which means you still must take exams, complete competency checks, and finish classes all with a full-time job.
After you talk to your new coworkers about their self-care tips, ask them about how they maintain a balance between personal and work lives. It’s important to be there for your patients, but you also need to be there for yourself and the people you care about to avoid burnout.
6. How Do You Deal With First-Year Nursing Anxiety?
Nurses have a lot of decisions to make for patient care. Most experiences heighten anxiety, especially during those first few months on the job. You might be worried about:
- Making a mistake that harms a patient
- Calling in a physician or a nursing supervisor for something that is basic
- Forgetting how to properly hook up medical equipment
- Saying or doing something that makes coworkers think you don’t know what you’re doing
Anxiety and fear in your first year are totally normal, especially in a profession where the stakes are high. Over time, you will get comfortable with common procedures, medications, and medical equipment; you will get a sense of when you need a doctor and when you can handle it on your own.
In the meantime, talk to your supervisor or coworkers about how they dealt with the anxiety. They probably felt the same way in their first year and can share what they probably wish someone had told them back when they were new.
7. Where Is the Break Room?
Hopefully, the person in charge of your orientation or training will show you the ins and outs of employee life but be prepared to ask logistical questions in case they miss something. Knowing things like where the nearest bathrooms are, where you can go for your employee breaks, and where to grab a bite to eat on your lunch break are all critical in a new job.
You can also ask coworkers about unspoken “rules” of the clinic, so you don’t violate generally accepted codes of conduct without even knowing it. For example, the administrators might have an “open-door policy” but you learn that it’s best to go through the official chain of supervisor command with concerns or questions before you take it all the way to the top. Some other examples of things you can learn from observing or asking might be the best place to take a “mental health break” when things get stressful, or whether it’s frowned upon to leave campus for lunch.
Discover more tips to succeed in nursing and find all the latest scrubs and accessories at Scrubs & Beyond.