Last night was my first ever shift in charge. It was a nightshift and I had a more senior agency nurse on to shadow me and keek me right luckily. The evening was busy but the night over all was settled thankfully. In all honestly I was bricking it, I felt anxious to the point of being nauseous even though everything went fine. At one point I had to tell myself to wise up, that I was doing mostly everything I had been doing for the past two weeks on nightshift anyway, the only different was being officially in charge.
I tried to keep familiar staff in the patients whose behaviour was off baseline and who I thought needed a bit extra support or had more risk. I tried my best to work the breaks to keep everyone happy and even with some issues with staffing at the start of the shift we had just enough.
The other nurse told me in the morning I had done well and had been calm and well organised but I was never more glad to walk out of a shift. I feel better in myself though for knowing I’m capable of doing it.
