COVID adds to challenges of first-year nurse

“I’m an RN. I’ve been in nursing for about a year. And let me tell you, it was a tough year to be a first-time nurse.

“I was working on a medical-surgical floor in a smaller hospital. We got to see a little bit of everything, and it kept you very busy. Our unit was the only one that they kept COVID free. But they would pull some of us to COVID units whenever they needed extra staff.

“That part was really challenging. I had patients who at the beginning of the day were not requiring oxygen. But by the end of the day, they were one step away from intubation. The progression was pretty scary.

“Whatever I may have thought my first year as a nurse was going to be like, it was not that. I’m 23, trying to figure out how to be an adult on my own. And now I’m thrown into taking care of people who are extremely sick. And they go to very sick, very quickly. I had to trust my gut and my education. It was a steep learning curve for sure.

“I also learned to rely on the staff around me. We all stuck together. It really became like a family. My co-workers, the charge nurses, and the managers, everybody was awesome. When you needed help, you could rely on your team members. If I had felt alone and that I couldn’t ask for help, that would have been terrifying. I had a team that I could ask any question, 1,000 questions, all day long. That’s what made it doable.

“As a new nurse, you want to show that you’re competent. But if you’re overconfident, you’re probably going to mess something up. I’d rather ask questions. When you see older, more experienced nurses ask the charge nurse about something, you feel comfortable as a new nurse asking questions. There’s no shame in doing that. You will never know it all. And you see something new every day. That was definitely true for me during my first year as a nurse.”

— Allie Marionneaux