Welcome to Nursing’s New Grads!

Nervous and excited is normal.

It’s late June and by now most new grads are beginning their careers. Based on tradition, most of you will be working in the acute care setting. Some may have found positions, like my niece did when she graduated, in out-of-hospital surgical centers, or perhaps you’ve taken a position in a nursing home or long-term care facility. Wherever you’ve landed, we know you’re likely to be a mix of nervous and excited.

First, don’t worry—everyone, even the nurse manager who scares you, was new once. Over time, you’ll get more comfortable with your skills and gain confidence.

Photo by Ashley Gilbertson / The New York Times / Redux.

The basics.

Be prepared, show up on time, ask questions; be the person you’d like to work with. Offer to help others when you can and you’ll find it easier to ask when you need a hand.

One of our younger editorial board members, Amanda Anderson, has written several articles for our Transition to Practice column, all aimed at recent nursing school graduates. The articles range from preparing for the first day on the job to delegating and how to give report, and other topics. The latest, “

Finding a Job as a Nurse In a Digital Age — and Keeping It

Will at Drawing on Experience manages to post a new comic almost every day. A regular theme is the progress of his career—having finished his accelerated nursing program, he’s now looking for a job. To the left is a thumbnail of a recent drawing he did about one of the more annoying aspects of the process (click the image to visit his blog and see a larger version).

A nurse returns to work at age 68 and finds her biggest challenge is computers.Of course, this isn’t the first downturn we’ve had in the U.S. economy; as AJN clinical editor Christine Moffa wrote back in May, newly minted nurses have struggled to find work before. Once you actually do get a job as a nurse, there’s the small matter of doing it for the first time. Or for the second or third time—but as if it’s the first time, at least in some respects. The October Reflections essay, “Paper Chart Nurse,” gives another perspective on the ways computers have changed the lives of nurses. It’s by an oncology nurse who returned to practice two years ago, at age 66. Her struggles with adapting to using an electronic medical record system were at times profoundly discouraging; she just wasn’t as proficient as the younger nurses at computer use, despite all her skills and experience. Have a look and please, tell us what you think.—JM, senior editor

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