ANA\C The Nursing Voice Summer 2019

14  . The Nursing Voice . Summer 2019 The New-Graduate Residency Experience (Part 2 of 4) I am several months into my New-Graduate RN Residency on the Med/Surg floor at Adventist Health Saint Helena surrounded and supported by an incredible team of nurses. Here are some of my takeaways in my journey through the Advanced Beginner stage. One of the first things I learned on this floor were the charting nuances for care given to each of my patients. Since I was also learning how to use a new electronic health record system, this task loomed large in the early days. My preceptor showed me that keeping a little checklist at the corner of my “nursing” brain with the everyday charting plus a running list of additional ac- tions throughout the day would help me stay organized and my thoughts comprehensive when I have opportunities to sit down and chart. We all know that if it isn’t charted, it didn’t happen! So, it was important to get that skill down quickly. Like many new nurses, I also struggle with time management. The luxury of deep dives into a single chart and detailed care plans in nursing school didn’t quite prepare me for the speed at which each day moves along for a nurse, as well as the volume of information I have to process with a full patient load. I strive to give every patient my full attention and make them feel heard, but that means it can be easy to spend too much time with each patient. Every patient is important, and their safety depends on my ability to effectively manage my time. An aspect of my growth as a new nurse is putting all that good old textbook knowledge into play. Gabriela Smith Tan BSN, RN Setting boundaries is difficult, partic- ularly if you are a caring person who doesn’t want to make anyone feel that their needs, however small are unimportant. I’ve learned to set an hourly timer on my watch to act as an external reminder of how I am using my time. This also keeps me on track with frequent tasks such as Q2 hour patient repositioning. Another aspect of my growth as a new nurse is putting all that good old textbook knowledge into play. I “self-talk” differently now when faced with physiology I can’t quite remember or a new drug that I don’t know. Initially, I showered myself with, “I should know this,” but guilt didn’t get me anywhere and it didn’t help my patients. Now, when I’m faced with something unfamiliar, I tell myself, “I don’t know this, but am going to learn it right away!” Removing shame from my mental space and forgiving myself for “not knowing” allows me to adapt and learn more quickly, ultimately making me a better and happier nurse! New Grad Corner Novice Nurses’ Alarming Statistic: One-Third Leaves Within Two Years By Thao Tran, MSN, FNP-BC, RN-BC, PHN, CHISP Attrition rate among novice nurses provides is an indicator of the RN work force. The attrition rate is costly because resources would be used to recruit and train new nurses to replace the departing nurse. The RN Work Project found 17.5% of novice nurses leave their first job within one year and 33.5% of them leave their first job within two years (Kovner et al., 2014). It is important to have a supportive culture in place for novice registered nurses. The existence of a supportive culture keeps newly registered nurses on the job, or we will continue to lose our nurses. Novice nurses face multiple challenges during their first year on the job. The lack of access to good mentors, unstable schedules, perfor- mance anxiety, and workplace bullying, and hostility could contribute to the novice nurses’ dissatisfaction and whether they would remain in the profession. For a profession that has been voted by the public as the most honest and trusted helping profession, how could we act uncivil towards our fellow nurse colleagues? Have we failed offer ways for our nurse colleagues to provide self-care? If we cannot take care of ourselves, how can we take care of our own sick patients? One-year nurse residencies are costly. In California, one will hardly find a one-year RN residency training. I find that these one-year residency training would better serve the novice nurse in honing their clinical skills, give them confidence in managing a complex caseload of patients, and allow them the opportunity to be better acclimated to the role of a RN as a leader and coordinator of patient-centered care. Camp and Chappy (2017) found comparing outcomes of RN residency programs is difficulty because no two RN residency program share Continued on page 16 ❱ The luxury of deep dives into a single chart and detailed care plans in nursing school didn’t quite prepare me for the speed at which each day moves along for a nurse.