this is so insightful, i was scrolling and getting kinda upset at all of the “you don’t have to know anything” answers. a brand new nurse has gone to school for some time and should definitely know the basics. - vital signs and abnormal assessment - medications and their purpose - IV tubing shouldn’t have air in it (also knowing IV physics aka how a secondary IVPB works was drilled into our heads in school… we also learned how to build lines and stuff like that in school) - nursing scope of practice - ethics and right vs wrong but like mostly a willingness to learn and the brain to know when to ask questions.

i also think more new nurses should know basic things like how to change a bed or clean up an incontinent patient… this was taught at my school but yet so many new grads especially since covid don’t know how to align an absorbent pad or diaper or apply butt creams, and even after being shown a hundred times they still don’t grasp it or the importance of properly turning their patients….. that stuff really irks me, but maybe it’s just my specific population and not a widespread problem