Does it get better?

I graduated December 2025 and passed my NCLEX in January. I just finished my 4th week of orientation and I feel so defeated and scared. I’ve found that when something unexpected happens and i don’t know what to do next I start to freeze and just leave the situation to find someone who can help me.

Yesterday I had 2 unexpected events, one of which was a patient who had been jn afib all day complaining of brief chest pain and sob that i assessed fully in the moment and had all normal vital signs and no othr abnormal fundings except rapid respirations. I didnt know my preceptor’s extension so I left the room to find someone to double check my assessment. my preceptor became upset I left an unstable pt alone but we finished the interaction and things were fine.

After everything I asked my preceptor what she felt I could take away from the whole thing snd what i wouldve done if i were alone and she just said that you have to use ur clinical judgment without much elaboration. I just feel so defeated because I’m still unsure of what that fullt means and I find myself so scared to be wrong and hurt someone ir worse. I feel like i have no clinical judgement at all right now and that when im turned loose im gonna fail horribly. I feel so incompetent and dumb after every shift bc of this kind of thing. Does this feeling every go away? Im scared I’ll be like this forever