The Beginning of New Nurses Careers During Covid-19

It’s difficult for new nurses to begin their career. It’s probably the most stressful experience any nurse has to go through besides writing the OIIQ exam. To be independent without a stage teacher or another nurse looking over your shoulder to ensure you’re not making any mistakes is purely and completely stressful. It’s normal to make mistakes, especially as a new nurse although its something nobody wants to do. However, mistakes are how we learn and no beginner nurse is perfect/know it all. Nursing is a career that is learn mostly through hands-on work; I think we learn the basis of nursing in school, although the majority of it is learn through practice (stage or work).

In the context of being a new nurse, I think the pandemic brought us a heavier level of stress. The fact there’s an overload of patients in the hospital with nurses testing positive for the virus or being on burnout, its bringing a higher level of stress to us, especially in terms of school. Most nurses I know are doing university full-time and being asked to work in the hospital full-time which is an impossible thing to due in my opinion. Even with a time-off leave, most hospitals do not care and schedule us full-time because of the lack of nurses in Quebec.

Overall, I think the nursing career is an extremely stressful environment and you need to be build strong to handle it. The nurses I know are the strongest individuals I’ve ever met. They are able to handle stressful situations, working and going to school in the middle of a pandemic.