My Biggest Fear Working as a Registered Nurse RN in a Hospital or Medical Office

I am almost caught up on questions, but I had another great question regarding working as a registered nurse:

Hey Sarah,

What is your biggest fear working as a Registered Nurse RN? Is there anything you constantly worry about while working? Just curious.

Deb

Thanks so much for your question Deb. I think all people working in the medical profession have fears on a variety of topics. I find that many nursing students wonder what it will be like working as a registered nurse. I will cover my greatest fear below, and also some popular fears people in the medical field face.

My Biggest Fear Working as a Registered Nurse (RN) in the Medical Field

My biggest fear by far is this: Making a mistake that could cause a patient pain (or even their life). When you work as a nurse, you are very involved with the patients (much more so than the doctors), and you are usually directly responsible for their well-being. I think it would be very difficult if a patient ever died or had a major problem as a result of a medical mistake. So I am always constantly double-checking myself and try my best to ensure I do everything right.

So making a mistake that could harm a patient is definitely the thing I worry most about working in the medical field.

Some other popular fears that people experience working in the medical field are below:

1. Dealing With Codes. I do have to deal with this from time to time, and I always have a little fear about dealing with it. Because when someone is going into a code, it is often life or death. That can put an enormous amount of pressure on you, so I tend to have some fear in those situations. Fear can sometimes be a good thing, though. As the fear makes me really focus in those situations.
2. Getting Sued. People file a lawsuit if you sneeze these days. And the medical field is constantly having to deal with legal issues. So that is another thing people fear and worry about.
3. Losing Your License. After working so hard to get a nursing degree, I certainly would NEVER want to lose my nursing license. You can lose your license for things as small as forgetting to renew it, to making  a major mistake. But in any event, any medical person would have losing their license.
4. Getting Involved in Family Drama–Needless to say, sometimes family members can be very emotional. Sometimes they can take out their emotions on the medical staff. So this is something I always fear (probably dread is a better word…). =)
5. Forgetting a Medical Procedure. There are constantly new medical procedures that we must learn and perfect. I always have a fear that “Oh no, what if I forget how to do something.” So I always try to continue my studies and take educational classes (provided by my job) as soon as possible to make sure I know my job as best as I can.

 All of those things can cause fear in the minds of a medical worker or registered nurse. For me, my very biggest fear is simply making a mistake that could harm a patient. It is a risk we all face, but hopefully we will never have to experience it.

Thanks again for the question!