New Grad and I’m struggling. Maybe it’s not the right profession for me.
I’m a new grad, 4 months into it. I really love my people on my unit and being a nurse in general. The coworkers and patients are my favorite part of the job. I’m on neuro med surge. But I’m struggling here.
I’ve always struggled with self esteem and anxiety. But nursing has made it x100.
Every single shift I tell myself… that I hate myself. Probably dozens of times. That I’m worthless. That everyone hates me. Etc. Anytime I’m behind on tasks or make mistakes… it’s an automatic negative thought. It comes so fast and strong. It clouds my judgement so bad. A patient asked me about spondylosis and I blanked for a bit. In those few seconds in my mind, I think I said the worst things possible to myself you can think of. If I mess up an IV my mind will automatically say “failure“. Like that’s probably its favorite word at this point.
My coworkers like me and tell me they don’t know why I doubt myself and stress so much. Unfortunately when I’m overwhelmed, I can’t hide it in my face, so everyone knows. And it’s like every shift. It’s bad. I worked 3 shifts in a row. And the nights before them, I slept: 5 hours. 4 hours. 2-3 hours. My mind is in overdrive all the time. On my day off today I fell asleep at 11, woke up at 4, and I haven’t gone back to bed since even tho I have no reason not to.
For the first time ever, I genuinely am scared to show up to work tomorrow.