Heart Nursing: Learn, Grow & Succeed in the First Year of Practice

By Amanda West

If I could gift wrap all of the lessons I learned as a nursing student and new graduate and share them with current students, novices and even those considering a career in nursing, I would! My first book, “Heart Nursing” is just that. It’s my gift to those who wonder what the first months as a bedside nurse are truly like. Will it be hard? Did I learn everything I needed to in school? In these pages I put the honest, sincere and simple answers. All that I have learned about teamwork, prioritizing, unexpected situations, losing patients and compassion are here to help you. Nursing is such an incredible journey. I hope this book helps to prepare you as you embark on it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amanda West
• Release date: May 25, 2012

Amanda West

Amanda V. West is a pediatric nurse and author. She is a recent travel nurse and loves encouraging new graduate nurses.

Book preview

Heart Nursing:

Learn, Grow & Succeed In The First Year of Practice

Amanda V. West

Heart Nursing: Learn, Grow & Succeed In The First Year of Practice

Copyright © 2012 by Amanda V. West

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means- electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission

Book cover design by Scarlett Rugers Design 2012

Smashwords Edition May 2012

Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Lessons Learned

1: HEART NURSING 101

How Compassion Looks in Practice

2: ROUTINE ORDERS?!

What You Can Expect To Experience as a New Grad and What To Take From It

3: SCRUBS!

Recognize Your Teammates and Learn to Make the Most of Teamwork

4: THE TIP JAR

Finish Your First Year of Practice Strong

About the Author

Acknowledgments

To the wonderful nurses who have been my teammates, teachers, leaders and friends…I say thank you. You’ve been shining examples to me of what the nursing profession is all about. I’m so grateful to be a part of it. To my family, thank you for your constant love and encouragement.

LESSONS LEARNED

I recall my first year as a nurse. No book had taught me how to call doctors, how to hold ten thoughts in my head at any moment, or how to work a whole shift without going to the bathroom. On some days I thought, How am I possibly going to finish all that I have to do? Am I really supposed to keep smiling when I’m this exhausted? Most of all, I remember thinking that I must not have paid close attention in nursing school! Oh sure, everything made sense in the books, but putting it into practice was something else altogether.

Fast forward a few years into my pediatric nursing career. By then, I could organize my thoughts pretty well and complete multiple tasks in a timely fashion. I could even remember to pee during my shift! I must have picked up some decent nursing skills along the way, huh? Well, almost.

I learned the best lessons about being a great nurse when I practiced nursing from my heart. I will always remember the times when I cried with parents who received bad news about their child’s health, jumped in to help my teammates when they needed me, or delayed my next task to play a game with my patients.

Over the course of the first year in practice as a nurse, you will have your share of classes, skill set checkoffs, orientations, and buddy shifts, designed to help you demonstrate competence and good old-fashioned know-how. To add to that, I hope to share with you some of the best lessons I learned as a student and as a new graduate, during on the job training. Some lessons are simple, of course, but they have set the stage for my nursing career and caused me to learn and grow as a nurse and a person. I’m sure they will do they will do the same for you.

1

Heart Nursing 101:

How Compassion Looks in Practice

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the