As the new member of your unit, you may be compelled to volunteer every time there is a new need. This will no doubt help you to gain experience, but it can be very taxing as well. You need to know your own limitations. And you need to be mindful of what work you may be passing on to your coworkers in order to take on a new assignment.

On the other hand, you don't want to pass up experiences or to seem never to be willing to take on additional work.

Sometimes this involves serving on committees within your facility. This will afford you an opportunity to get to know others and to work toward solving issues you and your coworkers have expressed. It may be something that you attend on your time off, or it might take you away from your unit for a scheduled period of time.

Sometimes you may just be adding on a patient or two or other duty on your unit when someone has called in sick and no replacement can be found. Handling the extra patient may make you a helpful team member. However, when taking on this responsibility causes you to have to ask for additional help to accomplish it, perhaps you and your coworkers would be best served if you don't take on the additional assignment. You could just volunteer to help out the person who does accept it.

Another time when you need to say no is when you are being asked to do something you have never done before or are not competent in and you are expected to do the task without a preceptor or other assistance/ supervision.

You will be asked sometimes to work an additional shift. This shift will be either a double shift, or portion thereof, or an additional day in your work-week. You will be compensated at an overtime rate, but you should realize that overtime is taxed at a different rate and you won't be taking home a lot more money. Your primary consideration should be your ability to safely perform your duties under these circumstances and you should be honest about it with your employer before you agree.

These situations unfortunately are a fact of life especially in a hospital setting and everyone will probably have to take a turn. If you can't do it this time, be sure to say that you would be willing to take your turn another time. This willingness to share responsibilities will help to ease any resentment from coworkers. If you can work some portion of the extra assignment, offer that to your supervisor as a possibility and perhaps she can work something out so that no one is overburdened any more than necessary.