Your First Year as a Nurse: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional

by Donna Wilk Cardillo

Book Overview

Survive and Thrive as a Nurse in Today's New Health-Services Landscape Welcome to the compassionate and caring world of nursing You are entering a profession that offers great rewards and endless opportunities. But you must prepare for the challenges ahead and do everything you can to ensure that you experience the best that nursing has to offer. Get off to the right start in your new profession by learning how to: - Find the job that's perfect for...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307591743
• ISBN13: 9780307591746
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: Crown Business
• Length: 281 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Buy this book as early as your can, even if still in nursing school

Over the weekend I purchased Your First Year As a Nurse: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional because I wanted a new start. Let me just say that 1) it was money well spent and 2) purchasing this book should be made a mandatory requirement to any student who starts a nursing program. So far, I have read half the book. Already I have found some renewed energy, and my enthusiasm about nursing is increasing again. I graduated five months ago and took a job in an ICU where I have been working for four months and half months. Recently, I made the decision to leave the ICU. I am starting in a step down unit tomorrow and I am very excited about starting over. I experienced all of the following prior to making this decision: frustration, fatigue, anxiety, dreading going to work, fear of making mistakes, and many other emotions. Had I read your book prior to starting this position, I could have avoided this painful period in my nursing career. Of course, I have learned many valuable lessons. But I do think nursing would earn a better reputation if newcomers did not have to go through this experience. And I know that I am not the only one who has felt this way. I have read countless numbers of blogs on the internet of new grads who described the same feelings I shared earlier. Thank you Ms. Cardlille for all the wonderful advice that you have shared. I joined the ANA today and contacted my state's Nurse Association regarding future events. I am looking forward to networking because you make it sound so much fun and rewarding. Please continue the work that you are doing. You are very inspiring to new nurses. A grateful new grad.

Just what I needed

This book was a God-send. I was out of school only 4 months and was questionning my career choice. Someone gave me this book as a gift and it turned things around for me. It reminded me why I got into nursing in the first place and that I still had a lot to learn. The stories and comments from other new nures were both comforting and inspiring. It made me belive that if they can do it, I can do it, too, and I will. I refer to the book when I need some encouragement which is often these days! I am more determined than ever to succeed as a nurse. I highly recommend this book.

I Love This Book!

I have been an RN for over 11 years and wanted to change the specialty I worked in. I had seen Donna Cardillo's column in Nursing Spectrum magazine and liked the advice that she would give to nurses with questions about career, etc... When I saw this book, I looked through it, and thought it would be helpful to me as I changed specialties. I love it! It was very motivating and kept me going as I oriented to the new area. I would recommend this to all new nurses as well as more seasoned nurses, who are looking for a change and need some extra motivation. The book is very easy to read and provides invaluable insights.

Good medicine for nurses RETURNING to work, too

And in the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.T.S. Eliot*Your First Year As A Nurse* was exactly what I needed when I needed it, but not for the reason you might expect. I will be 50 years-old this year. I practiced nursing from 1977 to 1991 and am returning to clinical nursing after I complete an RN refresher program. While I may not be "a new grad" I certainly feel new. So much has changed in the last 12 years. I am in need of a big dose of confidence and Ms. Cardillo's book is just the right medicine.The book is well-written, organized and sprinkled with gentle humor. It addresses almost every aspect of feeling inadequate because of inexperience, but it doesn't dwell on negatives. Instead, it focuses on the joy and value of learning and emphasizes strong communication skills. I especially liked it because it is filled with personal stories, and comments from real nurses in the trenches. The most amazing thing about the book, to me, is that it maintains a realistic outlook in a positve manner without sounding like it was written by someone named Pollyanna. Ms. Cardillo makes it all seem possible in the real world because she writes with honesty. She looks at difficult situations head-on and instead of asking "What's the problem?" she asks, "What's the solution?" I left nursing in 1991 in a state of complete burnout. It was a time of change that I could not accept: the dawn of HMOs, DRGs and managed care. Hospital nurses were being laid off in great numbers to save money and replaced with technicians who had two weeks training. Delegation and case loads became the buzz words. Because of a severe shortage of hospital nurses, there is a huge recruiting effort to get nurses who have left back into the workforce. You'll find everything from RN refresher programs to intense hospital-based internships for nurses who have been out of the workforce for more than five years.Our finances have changed and I need to go back to work as an RN. I was very frightened by this possibility even though I have always kept my nursing license active. And then I found Ms. Cardillo's book. I have cried in places while reading it. It is as though I am recapturing the sacredness of nursing that I had lost. It isn't written just for the beginner. It is also wonderful for someone like me who has been out for a long time and wishes to return. No, I don't have a long time left to work as a nurse (maybe a decade, 15 years at most), and some of the chapters on career building make me very sad when I think of what could have been. (I would love to go back and talk to that young woman but I can't.) Still, *Your First Year As A Nurse* gave me another lens through which to look at nursing. The author reminded me of why I became a nurse in the first place so many years ago. 9/11 affected me deeply. Because of this book, I will "dare to care" once again-and maybe, if I'm lucky, know the place for the first time. Than

A Must Read For the New Nurse

This book has given my a great boost of confidence as a new nurse. It made me realize my feelings of anxiousness and just being apprehensive about my new career are totally normal and felt by many others. I feel by reading this book it is going to be a an asset to my carreer. Donna Cardillo is truly a inspiration to the nursing profession. Her words of wisdom have encouraged me tremendously. This is surely a book I will reference many times in the future.