I hate nursing..

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that things are so rough right now. I just graduated so I can't speak from experience in nursing but I will say try to give it a year before you decide to make a career change. It maybe the area as you said and not just nursing in general. Good luck.

How is it different from what you were expecting? What aspects of nursing appealed to you in the first place? How did you envision your job when you decided to work there and in that specialty? How is that vision different from reality? What was unrealistic about your expectations?

Perhaps if you analyze the situation in terms of the questions I posed above, it will help you better understand why you feel so bad now ... and help you make a good decision about what to do next.

I think the greatest thing about nursing is you can move around untill you find your niche. Obviously, it's tougher today with this ecomomy, but try different things, you will end up finding something you love. I am kind of in the same boat, i am a new grad, working in LTC. I hate it, this is not what i envisioned when i was in shool. I will stay & get my experience , with the hopes that another door will open. good luck

OP: You probably hate your floor.. a lot of us hate our floors/specialties. I started off on one floor, cross trained on another (both I liked) and am now on a floor I hate so much I cannot think straight!!! I want to be an ER/Trauma Nurse. I could not land the ER out of school (they were not hiring) so I took a job that would give me similar experience... My organization re-organized and I was moved to a floor I HATE.

I HATE the nurses (most of them are poisonous angry bitter women-young and old) and I HATE most of the patient population (GI, endocrine) because the related disease processes are so freak'n boring to me! Sometimes I get Neuros and Renal and once in a blue moon I get a true cardiac problem.... However, this is not enough to sustain me.... I HATE HATE THIS FLOOR!

I miss Tele/Step-down even though it was very stressful and hard work because I was constantly learning new information that was cardiac related. The nurses were team players and most did not try to eat the others (young or old). Now I feel like I am in nursing school doing my shifts (clinicals) one day at a time without enjoying a single second! Similar to nursing school, I am trying to keep my head down so it does not get chopped off!

As a side note, I just want to say that those of you who are like me, counting down your days until you are no longer a New Grad, do so with caution. I know a handful of New Grads that hit their year mark and had a nervous breakdown (one in particular had to leave work during her shift). Why? They are still trapped on their floors! More experienced nurses are being hired for the floors to which they had hoped to transfer after a year. I know of one nurse who literally picked up and moved away after finally realizing that transferring into the ED or ICU was not going to happen here (This is my plan as well, if the Army does not work out...).

On a brighter note, I agree with the optimistic ones who say to see the opportunity on the floors you hate as a learning experience... Like I said before, I have nothing new to learn in the area of my interest, but I can learn other skills and improve in other areas... This still does not change the fact that I hate this floor.... but it gets my mind off of the really bad shifts and bad days, which are many (like last night).

I hated it when I started, too. It took a facility change to make me happy. Stick it out a while then maybe try a different specialty.

I will admit it here; I hate nursing too. And it takes a lot to admit it. I had such high expectations in nursing school. I was so inspired and excited. I worked really hard and graduated at the top of my class. Now, here I am almost 3 years later and I am demoralized and question my decision often.
I have only worked on one floor and I can honestly say I had never run into such mean-spirited people in my life. No, not all. There are some nice people I work with but enough to make life miserable. Nursing is a second career for me and in my first one I never had interpersonal problems with co-workers but here. . . so it makes me think it is not me, but them. I hate giving report to mean people. For example, I worked yesterday, had 5 patients and discharged 3 of them! One of them the order was written at 5;00 and I got them out by 6pm. So I had a full admission at 6;30pm and another one coming. Had 3 diabetics to give insulin and six oclock meds and finishing up. But the nurse I gave report to was mean and ugly because I didn't get enough done to satisfy her on the admission. The money is OK and I should appreciate I am employed but I can't believe this is what I was so excited about initially.

For the first 6 months I was terribly exhausted, I used to think to myself, "Is this what cancer feels like?" I even went to the doctor, but he just told me to lose weight. My feet hurt and I was pis**ed off most of the time. Then the 7 month came and I don't know what happened. I felt better. I even have energy now to go to the gym after work. The best part is that my old director who was a bitty was transferred to another floor. It will get better.

I think one has to weigh the good and the bad. What do you hate about nursing? What do you love?

For me, nursing has always been bittersweet. I started as a CNA when I was 16 and worked my way up through the ranks to LPN and finally RN. There are good days and there are bad. I am always tired. But the benefits outweigh the negatives. Just find the positive side and figure out what makes it worthwhile for you -- try clinic work, or home health, or just a different floor in the hospital, or you could do admin -- if you try all those things and st ill hate nursing then it may not be for you.

I totally get what you mean. Sometimes I have to receive report from someone who did not do anything (eg, didn't give some of the meds, didn't fax the MD orders to the pharmacy...etc). Anyhow, everywhere I go, there're bound to be someone who has poor work ethics. I just need to be conscientious about working with people like that.

I usually have very busy day (just like what you described). However, at the end of the day when I'm done with all my work and the patient's nice and clean,I feel extremely satisfied. I was impressed that I was able to overcome the challenges during a very busy day. Before I go to bed, I usually reflect on what I've done during the day and said to myself : "Phew... I've helped someone today !" This is what reinforces my decision to become a nurse in the first place