New Graduate Nurse Guide: An Introduction
On the verge of graduating nursing school? Here’s an overview of what to expect in the months following your voyage into the nursing profession.
Image Credit: Baim Hanif (@baim) via Unsplash.
Sky blue and coal black confetti sprinkled the open air, fluttering towards the graduates in their neatly pressed, pristine white scrubs.”Congratulations, nurses!” reverberated the dean’s voice to the farthest corners of the venue. The newly minted RNs soaked in the sight of their families and friends rising to a standing ovation. Feeling somewhat overcome, I mused, “the hardest part of my journey is over.”
Freedom
No late nights or early mornings. No forcing your eyes to remain open after glazing over a paragraph. No more quizzes. No more skills assessments. No more group projects.
If you’re one of the select few, then you’ve graduated nursing school with a fairly clean slate. You don’t have children, pets, loans, or a mounting credit card debt.
My cohort comprised largely of second degree students and most of us possessed one, if not all, of those financial and time limitations.
Regardless of your obligations, you’ll have more than enough time to spend it how you see fit. And even squeeze in some studying for the NCLEX here and there.
Summer of Study
There is no right or wrong way to approach your newfound free time and studying for the NCLEX.
Let’s examine the permutations using our favorite type of question: Select all that apply (SATA).
Q: How should a new graduate nurse spend his time after graduating nursing school? (Select all that apply.)
A) Start studying right after graduation. Take your NCLEX as soon as you can schedule it. Play time after.
B) Start studying only once you have scheduled your NCLEX. Play time before. C) Delay taking the NCLEX for an undisclosed amount of time. Play time whenever. D) All of the above.
A: D) All of the above. Rationale: It doesn’t matter when just as long as you do it at all. Otherwise, why else did you spend X amount of money for Y years of school?
The only limiting factor is the ATT, which I’ll explain in a later post about signing up for the NCLEX.
Anticipation
Besides studying, what can challenge your mental wits is waiting. Waiting for your ATT so you can schedule your exam. Waiting for those days up until you take your exam. Waiting those grueling 48 hours to find out you passed (or didn’t pass) the NCLEX.
As a student, at least you knew when exams were coming up, but as a new graduate, You don’t know when you’re gonna get called for an interview. You don’t know if they’re gonna give you an offer after you do your interview. And when you don’t get called back, there’s no closure. You just get straight ghosted. then it’s a bit of a hit to your ego when your friends are passing nclex and getting jobs and you aren’t.
But all it takes is one. You could take the NCLEX 5 times over, but all you need to do is pass once. You could apply to millions of jobs, but only get one offer.
Guidance
Have questions about how to structure your resume? Wondering what interviews are like? Not sure how to network? Been job hunting for a while and feel like you’re losing steam?
I posed these same questions to myself and spent a lot of time perusing networks and online forums to find a consensus. I’m hoping that compiling all of my research here will help woeful individuals get ahead or even to help them get started.
Initially, I created this blog for the sole purpose of discussing the nursing profession. I wanted to make research more accessible to non-healthcare/non-nursing professionals by giving a written analysis of journal articles that could impact the profession.
On a personal level, I also wanted to discuss things that affected my professional life. Developing confidence, communication skills, and healthy coping mechanisms. this particular category of posts will be catered to nursing students/new graduates/novice nurses, but i’ll also discuss current news in healthcare.
I’m hoping to elevate this blog to more than just a hobby. After all, passion and contribution are one of the clearest paths to happiness. Through the research I will do here, I will take steps towards establishing expertise in this field.
“Passion and contribution are one of the clearest paths to happiness,”
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and Founder of LeanIn.Org
The ultimate goal of this website is to help you launch your career forward and dig a little deeper into finding out who you are.
This will serve as a safe space where young professionals congregate and ask for help in places they don’t feel confident to. I make mistakes and put in the work so you don’t have to.
Author’s Note:
Christine Vera Polintan 