The transition from nursing school to the halls of the hospital can be quite difficult for many young nurses. There are stones to be uncovered, discoveries to be made, and tricks to the trade. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was someone to fill you in on some of the secrets before your first day of orientation? One of our nurse friends from Ohio is going to do just that by listing the top 10 things she wishes she knew before she became an RN.

My name is Sarah Jane and I am an RN in Ohio. I went into nursing because I wanted to help people. I am a second generation nurse, as my mom is also an RN. Right before I really decided that I wanted to be a nurse and start nursing school, my grandma was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She was in the hospital for a while before we brought her home with hospice support. My mom and I took care of her, and it was then I knew I wanted to be nurse.

I graduated from a community college in May of 2005. I knew from nursing school that I wanted to be in ER or critical care. Fortunately, my hospital offers an internship, where you can try out three areas in the hospital–I tried out the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU), the intensive care unit (ICU), and neuro. The internship also included some great classes on a variety of topics, such as vents and drips. Sometimes it felt like we were just regurgitating nursing school over again, but many times we learned some really helpful stuff.

I applied to the ICU and CICU, and the CICU gave me my first nursing job. Even though I had done my rotation there during the internship, I still had to start fresh. They had classes to send me to, and I quickly had a huge notebook full of information I had to learn. I went through orientation with an experienced nurse who helped me grow as a nurse. At times she was hard on me, but in the end she made me a better person. She pushed me because she knew I was going to be a great nurse. Through that experience, I learned how to care for open heart patients who were second or third day post op. I also cared for vent septic patients, AMIs, thoracotomies, valve replacements, and kidney transplant patients.

While this was very exciting, I wanted to try something else. So, I took a position in the ICU because I wanted to see what it was like to have trauma patients. This has also been an incredible experience for me. I have taken care of several trauma patients and got to see one of them become an organ donor. Something about that just struck a chord with me, and I want to get more involved with this as I become more experienced and get more settled. I have also had the experience of taking care of patients who were just moments away from coding. When I lost my first young patient, it broke my heart and it hurt even more to be with the family members when they received the news.

But all in all, I’ve really enjoyed my first two years as a nurse. In hopes of helping those of you who are entering the field, here are 10 things I wish I knew before I became a nurse:

1. How much nursing was going to take out of me physically, emotionally, and mentally.
2. How much nurses love to eat and how often they like to have carry-ins.
3. Watch what you say about people, because it will come back to bite you. And most of the time, it will come back as nothing close to what you said.
4. Your coworkers will become your best friends. You will become a family if you are close to any of them. You rejoice together and grieve together.
5. It is funny to see your coworkers outside of work attire and “in a more relaxed environment.”
6. Some doctors look down on nurses and treat us poorly.
7. Some doctors respect nurses, treat us well, and ask us for input on the care of the patient.
8. It never gets easy dealing with the family. They either like you or can’t stand you.
9. A good cup of coffee can go a long way.
10. Night shift has more fun than days.

Editor’s note: To hear more about Sarah’s early nursing adventures, you can email her at janesarah18@hotmail.com.