Two Nurses, Two Perspectives
Steph has spent more than 20 years in nursing: critical care, emergency, and flight nursing, then leadership, research, and education. Maddie is a new graduate ER nurse, living right now what it feels like to leave nursing school, put on the badge, and realize: I'm the nurse now.
InsiderRN started with conversations between the two of us.
Steph knows things that only come with years of experience. How hospitals really work. What good leadership looks like, and what it doesn't. Which questions to ask in an interview, what a strong orientation should include, and when something just doesn't feel right.
But why should it take 10, 15, or 20 years to learn that? Why do we keep telling new nurses “You'll figure it out” when we could simply teach them what we already know?
Maddie keeps us grounded in what starting out feels like today. The workplace, the technology, and the expectations are all different from what they were even a few years ago.
InsiderRN isn't experienced nurses telling new nurses how things used to be. It's experience and a new graduate's perspective at the same table.
The Gap We Saw
Nursing school has an important job: giving you the clinical foundation to become a nurse. But there is another kind of knowledge you need once you enter the workforce.
- How do you choose the right first job?
- How do you recognize a healthy unit culture?
- What should orientation actually look like?
- How do you get the most out of your preceptor?
- How do you advocate for yourself when you're brand new?
- How do you build a career, not just land a first job?
Between graduating and practicing with confidence, there is a gap. InsiderRN was created to fill it.
Your Orientation Is Yours
Between us, we've been through orientation more than once, in different units, with different charting systems and different leadership. One lesson we want every new nurse to hear from day one:
Your orientation belongs to you.
Ask questions. Know which competencies you need to achieve. Learn how you learn best. Build a real relationship with your preceptor. Pay attention to what you haven't experienced yet.
Don't just count down the weeks until orientation ends. Use them. Orientation isn't something that happens to you. It's your chance to build the foundation for the nurse you're becoming.
Nurses Deserve to Know More
Nurses should understand the healthcare environment they're entering: how decisions are made, how they reach the bedside, and how changes in technology, staffing, and health systems can shape a career.
Most workplaces want their nurses to succeed. Knowing what to look for simply helps you find the right one, and spot a red flag sooner.
There will always be lessons that only come with experience. That's part of becoming a great nurse. But struggling unnecessarily shouldn't be a rite of passage. If we know something that could help you ask a better question, advocate for yourself, or walk into your career with more confidence, we're going to tell you.
More Than Information
Nursing is a rewarding career, but it can feel isolating. There will be moments when you question yourself, your unit, your next move, or even what you want from nursing.
We want InsiderRN to be a place you can come back to: when you're nervous before your first shift, when orientation is hard, when you're ready for something different, or when you're considering leadership, education, research, advanced practice, or a path you haven't discovered yet.
Your career will change, and so will what you want from it. That's okay. Our goal is to grow InsiderRN into a community where nurses ask questions, learn from one another, and feel supported as they work out what nursing looks like for them.
That's Our Why
One of us looks back and thinks, I wish someone had told me that. The other stands at the beginning and thinks, Why didn't anyone tell me this?
InsiderRN brings those two perspectives together. We take the lessons that usually take years to learn and share them earlier, while staying current with healthcare as it is today, not as it was 20 years ago.
We're here to teach you, support you, and challenge you to think bigger about your career. And we're here to remind you that there is no single “right” way to be a nurse.
Nursing school prepares you to become a nurse. InsiderRN helps you navigate everything that comes next.
Be Bold. Be You.
— Steph & Maddie
Founder & CEO / Co-founder & COO, InsiderRN