r/newgradnurse

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.

As a nurse leader, I’ve been thinking about something that seems small but can have a surprisingly big impact.
What if we stopped referring to nurses as “New Grad RNs” and started calling them “Early Career RNs”?
The words we choose shape how people see themselves.
When we say new grad, it can unintentionally emphasize inexperience and create an invisible line between “them” and “the rest of us.” It becomes easy for a nurse to think, “I’m just a new grad,” instead of recognizing that they are already a licensed professional who is beginning their career.
On the other hand, Early Career RN acknowledges exactly where someone is: at the beginning of a professional journey. It recognizes competence while also leaving room for growth.
Every experienced nurse was once in that same place.
The goal of orientation and residency isn’t to turn someone into a “real nurse.” They already earned that title. Our responsibility is to help them develop confidence, clinical judgment, and experience in a supportive environment.
I’ve watched early career nurses accomplish incredible things within their first year; not because someone constantly reminded them they were “new,” but because they were encouraged, coached, challenged, and trusted to grow.
Maybe this sounds like semantics.
Or maybe language matters more than we realize.
What do you think? Would shifting from “New Grad RN” to “Early Career RN” help foster confidence and professional identity, or do you think the traditional term still serves an important purpose?
I’d genuinely love to hear perspectives from nurses at every stage of their careers.

My niece just graduated and accepted a job that starts in two weeks. Shes asking me if she should take it tho bc she's applying for LPN to RN bridge programs, that would potentially start in January. Shes PRN at a nursing home right now. Doesn't like it enough to do more hours. Two things tho: one program is hybrid, one only has one class until Aug 2027, and they (the new job) already asked her if she was planning to go back to school. She withdrew from the school she was supposed to attend this fall. There are only two big hospitals in her area and this job is affiliated with one of them so she's worried about being ineligible for rehire if she has to quit. She has no real income in the meantime tho, and no guarantees that she'll be accepted into any of the programs. Any suggestions bc I'm drawing a blank here. I want to tell her to go ahead and take it but there are definitely concerns.

I recently graduated with my BSN in May and obtained my license early June and have been applying to jobs across various hospitals. I feel like everyday I get a new rejection email and it seems impossible at this rate. Has anyone else had this experience or have an advice to get hired as a new grade nurse in nyc?

PLEASEEEEEE:

i need advice on to where to start. i am working as a newly registered nurse and i want to set myself up so that i am making the best decision for my future. i want to start contributing to my 401k open a roth ira account and begin investing, and i also want to put a down payment for a house or a condo now that i can finally start affording to save for these things.

My employer offers a retirement plan, and I’m trying to understand the best strategy between things like a 401(k) and a Roth IRA.

i just have no idea where to start. ive been looking and doing my research on these things separately but i need it to make sense for me in a bigger picture! i want to make my money work for me and upgrade my lifestyle.

Background:

1. Single
2. no children, or furry children
3. no student loans
4. no credit card debt
5. 30k in savings already

• As someone early in their career, how much should I aim to contribute to retirement?
• Should I prioritize a 401k through work or open a Roth IRA?
• Are there other benefits I should make sure I don’t overlook when starting a job?

I’d appreciate any guidance from people who have navigated this before. I’m trying to build good financial habits early.

ANY ADVICE on where to begin ????

Ive been working as a new grad on the med surg floor since feb, and i have switched from day shift to night shift...

IDK i feel like im losing my mind with this switch like yes day shift was early mornings and kinda busy days but i was getting used to the day shift chaos. now that i am on nights i feel as though i just sleep all day and i dont have any work life balance ! no family no friends no outings... idk i have nothing to look foward to other than sleep. i sgouldnt sound so ungratefulbecause i am where i prayed to be. i just need adivce on how to manage outside of work other than sleep ! please any advice to keep me motivated and not feeling like shit idk

pl

I am doing a career change and was considering ABSN vs pharmD. Both are completely different i know, but those are my current choices. A bit concerned due to the difficulty in getting a job in nursing (SoCal area). I have almost 4 years of some medical experience (MA). Pay for pharmacy is decent but sacrificing a few more years. Thoughts?

Looking back, I think starting off in Nuero Medsurg was not the best idea. There’s so much gray area, things that are gauged by interpretation, as well as TBIs. All nurses on that unit are ::eventually:: put through MOAB (management of aggressive behaviors) class. Powers that be on my unit sent me to that class in my 6th week. As corny as it sounds, I left feeling empowered. Before the MOAB class, during week 3, I had been sent in to administer blood and several push drugs to a young adult with a frontal TBI. He had punched nurses in the ER and had a red light outside of his room. As his nurse, he had already spent the first half of the day yelling at my preceptor and I while being visibly agitated.

Problems began when my nurse manager stated after that ordeal, that “I seemed hesitant to deal with some of our patient population. Do I think I can care for our TBIs moving forward?” This is when I pointed out that I had not yet been trained to deal with situations like that. Yes, I was hesitant. But came up with a plan with my preceptor, poked, administered a transfusion and did the 10 minutes of push drugs myself. Basically, I’m doing my best here. On a whim. In a known dangerous situation. I stated that putting me in that situation was less than responsible on their part. …. It was not taken well. Things went downhill. I became a target to management. Things like “Nurse seems hesitant to perform duties” and even a completely made up entry about me leaving my shift before completion one day ended up in my file. I submitted detailed written responses, with emails and documentation to back it up. But, the damage is done. Those entries are in my employee record. I was asked by HR if I’d like to look for opportunities on other units within the system. I accepted, mostly because I felt targeted and like I would be fired if I continued to work on Nuero.

Here is the problem: I have since applied to 4 different positions on the internal job board. The Day unit, ARU, Rehab, and PACU. Also a few long shots, like hospice and a GI clinic. All of them were rejected within a few days. I feel this may be due to what was submitted by my prior nurse manager. As a new grad (who is in the New Grad Residency program), I did not expect to encounter this level of difficulty finding a new unit. Worst of all, I’ve emailed 3 different internal recruiters, asking for feedback, pointers, and suggestions as far as what to apply for. I have gotten zero response from any of them. I am starting to wonder if I’ve been black balled. At this point , I have no idea how to proceed. Has requesting to shadow a shift on your time off ever gotten anyone somewhere ? Foot in the door ? Advice ?

I’m going to Peds in September after 10 months of adult ICU, any tips? I’m super excited!

I recently graduated and accepted a new grad position on the same unit i worked as a tech on. I passed the NCLEX so everything is official and this is my first week on the floor. I kept my tech position to get extra hours as I cannot pick up hours without my preceptor.
One of my coworkers who is a tech (whom i’ve never worked with, only given tech report a few times) was very awful to me tonight when I picked up a tech shift. She said I was going to be a bad nurse and called me other names and kept making fun of how I looked. But followed all of that with “you know i’m joking right?”
I’m just scared that when i’m off orientation there’s no way she will ever respect me as a nurse and that could cause issues. Because teamwork makes for the best patient care.
I honestly have no idea how to deal with this because i’ve never had a problem with a coworker before.

I graduated with my ADN May of 2025. I stated on a busy step-down where I had multiple preceptors due to scheduling. I ended up leaving at the 3 month mark due to not being able to adjust to nights (they refused days for me), feeling unsupported with the heavy patient load, and management.

I have now been a school nurse for over 6 months and am well into my BSN and hope to graduate in 2-3 semesters. The school nursing job is great but the pay is horrible and I do want to get bedside experience for potential career development in 5-10 years.

How hard is it going to be to find job at the bedside when I leave this school nursing job in a year? I did apply because I thought I was moving out of state. I probably did 15 applications and only 1 interview that did not hire me.

I passed my NCLEX in May and started working in the ED last month. I have an awesome veteran nurse preceptor and she seems to have a lot of faith in me. Maybe it’s me but did everyone else go home after every shift and worry they didn’t chart everything or miss anything? Does this go away with some time?

I recently was released from my new grad residency program in a NICU due to failure to progress during orientation at the speed that was expected by leadership. I would rather not dwell on the specifics of this as I put every ounce of effort I could into improving and ultimately the unit turned out to not be a good fit. I am devastated and unsure what comes next for me. This experience has made me realize that acute care may not be for me, but I’m unsure of what other options there as so many people say new grads must pay their dues and do bedside in order to explore other areas of nursing. I am very passionate about public health and have a prior degree in public health so I would love to pursue public health or community nursing but know that those positions are competitive as well. I would really appreciate any advice or recommendations from people on how I can make a game plan to bounce back from this and what steps I can take career wise. Thanks so much, looking forward to the wisdom people have to share.

Hi all!
I just graduated from a nursing school a month ago in the Bay Area and was wondering how long it took you all or your classmates to find a job post grad in California. I accepted an offer out of state for a very well known peds hospital in Texas, but I am originally from the bay. Ratio is not too bad, 3-4 on a med surg floor so it is quite nice and it is a great teaching hospital too!

I have doubts on if I should not have accepted so early. However, the job market seems so tough with cuts from UCSF, CHOC, and I’m sure numerous other hospitals. I have had a couple interviews, such as providence and stanford health, but did not advance to 2nd round of interviews. There are not many pediatric residencies in CA. It also seems quite hard to break into Kaiser and Sutter having no rotations there.

Graduated in August 2025, can't afford to just sit around hoping to get a residency position and cue the typical "darn I can't get into a residency ANYWHERE" (in the dfw area) and yes, I've applied to all floors and positions.

Presently working as a pediatric home health nurse and to be honest the pay is fine but I want to work bedside on the floor.

My question is: is it possible to use home health as my one year of nursing experience under my license (I work with acute kids, vent/trach/gb/etc) or will they scoff and laugh at my application since it isn't hospital experience aka is my career over before it even began? I ask this because here the hospitals will ask for either one year of residency or other experience before you just go straight to applying for positions outside of the residency spots they have every so often. I fear the gap between when I graduated and me continuing to apply also makes them see me as 'not being fresh on nursing skills' or whatever.

Just honestly losing my last shreds of hope. I do NOT want to do home health all my professional life. No offense to home health nurses you guys are awesome but it just has never been my personal goal.

Please be gentle. I truly am just so defeated. Also sorry for the yapathon.

Hello! I’m set to graduate this Dec from an ADN program and I am struggling to apply to jobs. I am sure I’m just in my head too much but it feels like I need to know where I want to end up, so I can know where to start.. and I am not yet sure where I want to be, so it just feels like I’m going to spray my resume+coverletter into a million different places -because I am SO new to healthcare and don’t really know what these listings mean/ what each area entails

Did anyone else encounter this? What helped you overcome the unknown anxiety? Action before motivation?

Can anyone give examples of pathways to take to certain areas? Say if the goal is ED or case management, do you need X# yrs med/surg bedside? Or acute care? [what does that even mean btw? Is that a step down unit, or does that mean emergency dept? Can I do that as a new grad?]. How do I even know if I’d like ICU?
If you want Peds, OB/Women’s Health, OR, -do you need to go a start somewhere else first?
And why does Psych feel like it is such an outlier? like you gotta take that left turn immediately -& how easily can you return to the medical side of things (assuming the practical skills have atrophied)

Many areas interest me -but I also know my weaknesses too much that I half talk myself out possibilities..

How did you decide where you wanted to apply??
I’ll take any recommendations of where I should look or things to consider!! 🙏

I am strruuuuugggling to figure out what I want. 😅😅
(& kinda already feel like my window is closing to find new grad positions -some listing were posted a month ago -do i still apply to those??)
Are all of my insecurities just screaming? 🤣

I haven’t started nursing school yet, just wanted to see what is out there! I’m in SoCal, as everyone knows is hard to get a job as a new grad. Once i graduate i would consider moving out of state like Washington (preferably near Seattle), Texas, Oregon, Illinois, or even New Jersey. Are the job market in those states as bad as CA too or is it a bit better?

I am graduating soon and is still not 100% confident with my lung auscultation. And I been wondering for a long time, even for experienced nurses, do they really hear what it’s “supposed to be”?
And I am asking this question because I think schools critique students a lot on hearing the wrong sounds, when technically it’s a subjective finding.
Like as a student I think it’s very common to hear floor nurses tell you your lung auscultation is wrong or you heard a crackle and they told you they didn’t hear anything abnormal. And while both can be true, there’s so much factors like body weight, patient position, or simply the time of the day that affect our findings, or the hearing ability of the nurse.
Sometimes I also find that if I know a patient has COPD, I know what their chest xray is like or if they are a heart failure, I tend to justify a lot of the findings like crackles, wheezes, decreased air entry and so and so because it makes sense. I obviously did hear those sounds. But at the same time, if those information weren’t available to me, I may have missed it when they actually don’t have normal lung sounds.
And I think it just bring back to the fact that lung sounds is a subjective finding, it’s purely what you hear. I feel like nursing overall critique young learners of their own findings, it’s commonly assumed that older nurses heard it right. Which makes it very hard to balance between a skill that needs more practice vs being honest about your own assessment findings regardless of what others say. To me, others can chart if they like, but if you didn’t hear something or you heard something you should still chart it even if another nurse said they disagree and then state you reached out to the appropriate person to verify the finding.
I want to hear others opinion on this.

i’m a new grad nurse on a med surg tele unit at a level 1 trauma center. i work nights and i’ll hit two months on the floor next week. when i accepted the job, ratios were supposed to be 1:4 to 5, but they’ve become 1:6 regularly with only 1 to 2 cna’s. when i started, nurses usually had four patients with four cna’s on the floor. now even my coworkers are questioning why staffing has gotten so much worse, especially after management removed the extra incentive pay for picking up overtime.

on top of that, i commute an hour and 15 minutes each way because i live in a rural county. i haven’t decided whether to move closer because i’m honestly not sure if i even want to stay. i’ve been looking into furnished finder and even renting a room from a coworker instead of signing a lease.

i come into work with a pit in my stomach. honestly, the hardest part isn’t even being at work, it’s what happens after. i constantly replay my shifts and ruminate on every negative thought. i think about the mean patients, getting swung at, medications that weren’t given on time because i was trying to juggle everything, me falling behind, and my preceptor telling me i need to be faster and less tasky, i can’t seem to leave work at work.

i’m still taking four patients because my preceptor doesn’t think i’m ready for five yet. both my charge nurse and management have been getting frustrated that i’m still only taking four patients and wanted me to start taking five or six. my preceptor pushed back because she didn’t think i was ready and didn’t want me to get overwhelmed, burned out, and quit. they ended up getting management involved, and i’m really grateful she advocated for me, but it also made me feel like i was falling behind and not meeting expectations. afterwards, she told me she believes that charge nurse purposely gives us the more difficult assignments while giving her favorite coworkers the easier ones so it’s unbalanced (she is charge herself). she also told me the unit isn’t very new grad friendly anymore, doesn’t plan on precepting again after me, and is planning on transferring herself.

my schedule is all over the place, so it feels like i’m always counting down until my next shift. by the time i finally get a full day off, i’m already dreading going back. instead of enjoying my time off, i spend hours looking at other nursing jobs and wondering if i made the wrong career choice. my parents have noticed i barely talk to them anymore, and my boyfriend and i aren’t as close because i’m constantly thinking about work. even when i’m home, mentally i’m still at the hospital. i’ve stopped going to the gym and keeping up with my self care routine, and i’ve lost about 13 pounds since starting. i skip meals at work because my anxiety makes me too nauseous to eat, and by the time i get home i’m so exhausted that i usually just shower, sleep, and wake up to get ready for my next shift.

i originally wanted to go straight into the icu because i loved my clinicals there. the 1:2 ratio gave me time to really understand my patients, dig into their diagnoses, and build my critical thinking skills. i also thought it would open more doors into pacu or outpatient surgery later, but i convinced myself i needed a med surg foundation first.

i planned on staying for a year, but now i’m just trying to make it to six months. the anxiety before work and during my shifts has become overwhelming. i dread the constant running around trying to keep up with med passes, call lights, and caring for bedbound or incontinent patients who need frequent cleanups and repositioning. i don’t mind doing those things at all, but they take so much time that i feel like i’m always racing from one task to the next. i rarely have time to sit down and really understand my patients because there’s always something else that needs to be done. we get the sickest patients that sometimes i even question why they’re on med surg when they should really be on step-down or back in the icu. i had a patient that kept having bloody bowel movements (straight up blood) with her hgb on THIN ICE, she ended up back in the icu after i had her for four days and now is in hospice. :(

i’ve scheduled appointments with both a therapist and psychiatrist because i want to get help regardless. has anyone else felt like this? did it actually get better, or did transferring units end up being the best decision?

tl;dr: almost two months into med surg tele and i dread every shift. i can’t stop thinking about work even on my days off, it’s affecting my relationships, my health, and i’m trying to figure out if this is normal new grad anxiety, if my unit just isn’t the right fit, or if i need a different specialty.

Hiieee so im having alot of issues with finding a job as a new grad, i graduated with my ADN in 2025 of May, and passed my NCLEX the following few months. I dont have any work experience, and when I mean any, I mean literally nothing lol I only have experience through my clinicals. My family pressured me to not work during school so I felt like I couldn't, (not only that but a looottt of impostor syndrome) and I didn't, but lately thats been feeling like the biggest mistake I've made.

After passing my NCLEX I tried applying for a few places but didn't really get much luck, and then I had an emergency trip to go in early august and didn't come back until early september. When I came back I took a break from applying (traumatic events, needed a break) and started applying again in October-ish November maybe? Since then i've only gotten a handful of interviews to shady long-term care facilities and all other applications to almost EVERYTHING else just got filtered or declined and I've been dependent on family (they're happy to help me but also want to see me succeed and I feel terrible being their leech LOL)

I thought that maybe I'm just bad at interviews, I tried practicing interviews but I did mess a few up, maybe more than just a few? Im not sure, I don't really have much confidence in that and I'm always a nervous wreck 😅

I tried applying for a medical assistant thing for the time being but I couldn't even get that cuz I guess im over qualified. The only thing I have for me right now is my useless nursing license that I feel like tearing up sometimes.

Should I just try entry positions like CVS tech or something? Would that even help in getting an RN position? I already feel like I've lost my clinical skills to time, and I am rusty for sure, but I don't know what else to do, I tried researching over and over again but I've been lost hope and feel overwhelmed and stressed all the time cuz of this.

I feel like I've played all the wrong cards 😅 and now im stuck in the loop hole of unemployment.

A little advice maybe? Thank you so much!