Introduction

I was clueless when I graduated from nursing school.

One would assume that after thousands of dollars, many sleepless nights, exam after exam over hundreds of pages worth of material, and one big scary board exam, I would be an awesome nurse.

I think we all assume that people who go to nursing school suddenly know how to be a good nurse when they graduate. Prospective nurses assume that; so do employers. And most importantly, so do patients.

However, this could not be farther from the truth. New graduate nurses walk on the unit their first day terrified, ill-prepared, and overwhelmed.

If you had handed me an angiocath (what we use to start IV’s) the first day on the job, I would have looked at you like a dog does when you give it a command it doesn’t know. Head tilt, eyebrow furrow and all.

The problem is, there is a big gap between being handed a license and actually doing the work of a nurse. It is so large, 50 bariatric hospital beds stretched end-to-end could fit there.

After going to school for four years, one would assume that I would know what I was doing when I started the job for which I specifically went to school. I was terrified that I would hurt a patient out of my ignorance and felt so alone. Somehow, I convinced myself that everyone knew what they were doing except for me. All through nursing school and during my first year as a nurse, I scoured the Internet for help. And I said a few prayers.

Dear Lord, please tell me someone is going through this too? Please tell me someone is going home crying once every few weeks… please tell me someone is terrified every time they have to talk to a doctor… please tell me someone has no clue how to delegate to these nursing assistants that have been on the unit for 10 years, and I just got here last week…

Alas, I couldn’t find much online. Yes, there are your textbooks and a few other books with many stories from the bedside, but none that were both entertaining and informative. I couldn’t find anyone with whom I could identify to give me real, practical advice and guidance without fluff.

I just wanted someone that was still practicing at the bedside, that hadn’t graduated too long ago, to just tell me like it is. I wanted to know what it’s really like to be a nurse. I wanted to know the little details they don’t tell you about in school.

Sadly enough, I could not find a book to adequately suit my needs. I trudged along anyway, hoping I’d be able to figure it out as I went.

I graduated with my bachelors of science in nursing (BSN) in 2010 from a small Midwestern nursing school. After graduation, I landed a job on a cardiovascular and thoracic surgical step-down unit and worked there for two years. I then started working in a critical care unit and have worked full time on that unit since. I truly have found my nursing niche: geriatrics, brains, and intensive care. Glory be to God.

It took one graceful preceptor—an entire unit of fantastic coworkers, a new graduate residency program, and an entire year of working at the bedside to feel confident and competent in my nursing care.

How crazy is that?

So after I got to a point where I felt like I knew what I was doing, I decided that I wanted to provide that information to those of you going through the same struggle.

In 2013, I started an anonymous nursing blog Nurse Eye Roll. I started tweeting (@NurseEyeRoll) and blogging (nurseeyeroll.com) about just that: things you need to know to do your job effectively and efficiently, all while maintaining your sanity.

Why Nurse Eye Roll, you ask? When I was thinking of a name for my blog, this was the first name that came to mind and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. If you’ve been a nurse for 10 minutes, you’ve done a “nurse eye roll.”

You know, when you’ve spent 20 minutes meticulously changing a dressing and the doctor comes by, pulls it off to look at the wound, and leaves. Or when you have to hang three different drips, none of which are compatible, and your IV pump dies. Or when you and your trusty CNA just gave your patient the best bed bath ever and as you walk out of the room, you smell that you have to start all over again.

As nurses on the frontlines, we deal with so many crazy and ridiculous things that sometimes, all you can do is smile, shake your head, and roll your eyes.

(Now, on to the next nursey task—you’re already behind!)

After posting and tweeting advice, the response from the online nursing community was more profound than I ever expected… so many people felt what I felt, this hopeless lost feeling during school, for about a year, and sporadically thereafter. After coming out with posts about dealing with school, calling doctors, time management, and encouragement, I started to receive notes, messages, and emails across all of my various social media platforms about how helpful my information was to them.

That is the purpose of this book. It’s a collection of a few of my posts that I dusted off and enhanced greatly, new stories, and new advice to those of you walking through this nursey world. I hope that if it was dark and scary before, this book will be your flashlight. Hopefully this book will be the practical advice and encouragement you need to help you become the best nurses you can be.

Let’s do this.