I hate nursing..

Nurses New Nurse

Published

I graduated in December, and have been working on an inpatient oncology unit since. I DREAD going to work each week. The days I do have off, I'm too tired to enjoy. I'm not overwhelmed or any of the typical things you'd assume. I just don't like it!

Is this normal for new nurses? Does it pass? Were most of you in love with nursing from the get-go? Maybe I need a new are of nursing?

I just don't know what to do, I'm already pondering starting up a new degree program.

Specializes in Float pool for 14 months.

I too have a strong dislike for nursing. I have been a nurse for 15 months and I feel like it will never get any better. I got into nursing for the right reason, or so I thought. My brother is diabetic and epileptic and whenever something happened to him, my parents would freak and something took over in me and I took charge of the situation. I wanted to help kids like him. When I graduated from school two years ago, it was hard to find a job, so I took a job as a float rn in a fairly small hospital with not many units to float to. I floated to m/s, detox, psych, er, and rarely etoh rehab. I found that the floats would generally get the crap team etc.... The only floor that ever appreciated the floats was detox. I have to say, even a bad night up there with tons of admits, ppl fighting with the rns bc we weren't giving them enough to get thru there withdrawals, which we were, I loved it up there. I always hated/dreaded going to m/s bc even in school I hated it. That floor where I worked was always brutal and working at night, we were responsible for addressing labs that were resulted in the am. So if it was a busy night and I didn't look at my labs until say 1am, it was a mess bc I would always seem to find a K+ that was either super low or high and now it has been hrs since the results came in. Argggggh. Anyhow, I finally changed jobs this past month @ another hospital in the ER. All I can say, is that now I really don't like nursing. The ER is always jam packed, sometimes I wanna laugh at why these ppl come in and use it as a drs office. Example, I cut my hand on a can of cat food and I think I need stitches. Ummmm maam it isn't even bleeding anymore I wanted to say to her, but ofcourse I listened etc and she left with a band aid. I kidd u not. It is hard to learn anything down there bc it is always packed and is a level 1 trauma center, so I have to basically fend for myself bc my preceptor assumes bc I've been a nurse, I should know how to do all of these things. She is an assume nurse, don't get me wrong, but it is hard to teach someone when there is all this craziness goin on. I really wanna like it. I wanna do well, learn as much as I can, and hopefully one day get to peds, where is my dream. I'm gonna stick with it bc I know sooner or later I will find my niche. Hey, maybe once I get used to all the mayhem in the ER I won't wanna leave that spot!

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Hmmmmmm.. really interesting post. And hear I feel the same way, ha. I currently am a CNA at a hospital and hate it because I see how nurses are and what they always b---- about. There is a new RN nurse on our floor and other nurses talk about how they think shes annoying and what not. I mean COME ON, she is a fairly new grad, I would feel the same way as her, and I would act the same way as she does. She is still learning....all the other old nurses don't get it, they expect her to know everything. You only learn so much in nursing school. . . ugh just drives me crazy.

I am a lpn student and proud of only going into the lpn program. I do NOT want to work at a hospital setting. Being a cna in a hospital is bad enough. I want to work at a clinic, have no weekends nor holidays....and i think it would be less stressful than a hospital. For that reason, that is why i'm going for my lpn because i know alot of clinics hire them. For the people that hate nursing, I would suggest going into the clinic setting or something along those lines. Clinics just seem so much more relaxed.

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Specializes in ER/Geriatrics.

I beg all of you haters....go find another career........it is easy to figure out who you are and I hate working with you ......for the sake of the career, our patients and their families go do something else.

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Or... maybe mean b---- nurses should get out of nursing because patients don't like it nor need it.

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Its really sad when you worked so hard in nursing school and you are waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel......graduation and find you made a mistake. I hope I don't feel that way once I start working as a nurse. This is a second career for me. My first career was in sales and marketing. I was told recently by one of my peers that most of the peers in my nursing class think I suck up to my instructors. I was very disappointed when I heard that. My personality is out going and I just turned 50. Most of my peers are younger than me. I really like talking to my instructors because they are my age. I had no idea I was percieved as a suck up. I hope when I go to work I do not get the same feedback from my co-workers.

Any advise?

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I agree. Why do people have to be so mean and rude? I thought nursing was a caring profession. Its not fair to the patients and your co-workers if you have lost the reason you got into nusing in the first place......to help people. I would hate to think if I was dying, the last people I saw was miserable nurses. I hope my dad didn't die like that!!

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Specializes in Author/Business Coach.

Just because you don't like your job doesnt mean that nurses who are burnt out will treat their patients badly. The nurses who experience burnout are actually the ones who care the most.

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I graduated from Nursing School in 1981. For the first year, I wondered what the he#L I'd gotten myself into. Then I got floated to ICU, a task that I was completely incompetent to perform (yes I let it happen). I was treated like the village idiot and given no support. I felt I had come to an absolute dead end. I spent the entire shift in the room without leaving my patient - at first out of fear. By the end of the shift - I had decided that no one would get the best of me again. I took on every learning opportunity I could get and every certification I could get - was I stupid or did I just need to find another occupation? DO NOT LET other bitter short-sighted people decide your career for you. About the patients the human beings you care for - You either give a damn or you don't. Once you decide that, you WILL make the right decision.

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boo-ya! If you've given nursing a chance and hate it - it's time to get out. Don't make the decision too quickly; I'm glad I didn't. RN for 29 years.

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I have to think about this sometimes, long and hard.

The doctors I have learned to LOVE and respect. They work so hard, and they also are disrespected by patients and families. Most of them have patience beyond all measure. I have grown to love and revere so many of them.

The techs I love and respect, even though they like to hide on me a lot of the times. They work so hard and make so little money. We should all be grateful that they do what they do. To me, the fun of work is being w/ the techs, teasing them, making them laugh, and joking around. We are all like clowns together who put on this "show" for the patients everyday -- and they love it.

The patients can be demanding and disrespectful, but they are sick. They come to us in good faith that we'll take care of them and make them well. I have learned so much from so many of them, and when I'm having a bad day w/ co-workers, I will just choose to "hang" with my patients and find ways to brighten their day. Families, well, they're a pain, but they're just worried about their loved one.

This leaves two groups: managers and co-workers.

My managers work hard, and I can truly say that they seem to really care about the unit and running it well. They are very dedicated, and I can't blame them for some of the negative things -- they are only hired to carry out orders from above. Many of them have been very good to me and work hard to satisfy my requests. There are a couple of bad apples -- maybe one on our unit. But mostly I can avoid working w/ her if I schedule myself right. I'm not sure I could do their job -- it's tough.

That leaves co-workers. I'd say a good 50% of them are wonderful people, smart, cooperative, fun to work with, good at what they do, etc -- but there are the other 50% of them who act like such WITCHES that it makes my day entirely uncomfortable and at times, almost frightening. I just LOVE the lazy butt night nurse who judges me for not "getting it all done" so that she/he might have to actually get off her behind during the night and run a little to tie up loose ends for the patient. Or the nurse who picks and critcizes me over every little thing. Then there are the gossipers, the clickmeisters, the nasty looks, the lazy, the ones who refuse to help, who love nothing more than to write you up, backstab, and generally behave subversively in every way.

It is YOU, you other 50% -- YOU are the ones who ruin nursing for me. You don't get it, you don't want to get it. You are very unhappy people who hate what you do, yet your'e too lazy to move on. Here's a newsflash: You DON'T impress me!!! As a new grad, I expected nurses to be so much better -- to be kind, to be teachers, to BE SMART, to impart their knowledge -- what I got was a bunch of LOSERS who would rather get it for themselves than bother to make life livable for any new nurse. It seems all I ever hear in my ear is CYA, or you'll get sued. I'm doing this so I won't get sued. Or, don't make me help you -- I'm too burnt out to care or to do any more work than I have to. Seriously -- IF you have any inkling that you may be this kind of nurse -- LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND MAKE SOME CHANGES~!~~!!!!!!!!

So, nursing would be awesome, if it weren't for some of the nurses. That's my .02. :nurse:

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Specializes in CCU/HDU.

i also am unhappy in my job. I have been qualified as a RN for 6 months and work on CCU. i disliked/hated near enough all my training and wanted to quit so many times but i kept going with the support of my family as it can lead me elsewhere...which is has!!

i have been accepted to study biomedical science this september (another 3 years of studying ) and i cannot wait. the thought of learning about the biomedicine of the body without the patient care and contact is what excites me..i know i must sound awful but i really am not the 'hands on nurse' that patients need. I will still have to work part time as RN whilst studying but hey least i know i am heading for a happier career!!!

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Specializes in I/DD.

Well, I haven't started my RN job yet, but I worked as a PCT in the MICU/CCU for 2 years...what an experience. I loved the job itself, the patient population, families, etc. But from my first day I felt like all of my coworkers, techs and nurses, had no respect for me or my work. While other techs took hour long lunches and disappeared on "errands" I was always on the floor, making sure patients were turned, cleaned, etc (my job). It seemed as if there were only 2-3 nurses who would even acknowledge my presence (besides asking me to help them). They were rarely encouraging to me about being in nursing school and some even went as far as to ask me why I was in school after asking a simple question!

Anyways, I could go on but my point is that this was a very difficult situation for me being a pretty layed-back person. However if someone criticizes me I typically set out to prove them wrong, even if it is out of spite (is it possible to be layed back and stubborn??). I managed to keep my sanity for two more years and while I could have become disheartened by nurses in general I eventually learned there was really only a handful of about 5 nasty nurses, 5 good ones, and the rest tried to remain as neutral as possible. While I hope and pray my new floor isn't as toxic as this one, this experience helped me learn how to cope with difficult environments, mainly by learning who to listen to and remembering that I am here for patients, not my coworker's approval.

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