I want to quit 4 months in

[Nonetheless]

Hi AN,

I am getting burned out of my job and I am only 4 months in. I work 11pm - 7:30am night shift 5 nights a week and I don't think I can take it anymore. I actually like my job and I like my coworkers, but staying up all night so often is hurting my well-being. I get 6-8 hours of sleep per day but I am still tired all the time. I never have time to cook or clean and I constantly feel nauseous and fed up. I want to quit now.

I know that quitting with 4 months of experience looks really really bad. But I can't take working nights anymore. Every day before I go to work, I want to quit because I never have time, never have energy, and am tired. I don't think I can manage a year. I know no one wants to hire someone who quit after 4 months, so I may just leave nursing entirely.

EDIT: I can't exactly job hunt now, as my schedule is too messy to allow for me to go to a job interview

[RainMom]

I feel for you! I started out with 8s on nights & by the 4th night in a row, I would be a mess. Thank God I finally got my 12s. It can still be tough, but soooo much better!! Hang in there!

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I went in to healthcare because I was miserable in my corporate job. Yes, it was cushy as far as pay and having an office and a nice holiday bonus, but I was so unhappy - very long hours, high-pressure deadlines, lots of extra time spent at work, horrible DC-area commute. I took a huge pay cut and went to work as an ER Tech (I had been a paramedic for two years by that time). I can't fault anyone who follows their bliss. We're not all cut of the same cloth, right?

If it makes you feel any better about your schedule, I worked 284 days in a row from June 2013 through March 2014 while deployed to Afghanistan. That was kind of ridiculous. :) I don't want to repeat it! I recently worked three on, one off, three on (12-hour night shifts), and after my deployment, I was like... eh, that's not so bad. If I had done that without the context of what could be worse, I would have been totally wiped out. So whatever new schedule you find, it'll probably seem awesome! Good luck.

[amoLucia]

For about one full year I worked 7 days straight - NO DAYS OFF. For M-F, I was an instructor 8a to 1p in a little business school. Every weekend I was 7-3 RN supervisor at my NH/LTC. If my school job had a federal holiday off, I was sub-supervisor at the NH.

Had no choice about my jobs & needing to work what I could find. No time off - NONE, NADA, Nothing!! I 'floated' as the medical instructor at the school's 3 campuses but sometimes the schedules didn't always align exactly continuously so I would be unemployed for that time. I was lucky once when I had the gap and a regular RN supervisor wanted some unexpected quick time off, so I was her sub for 10 days.

I have been tired. Want to know a kicker??? I'm retired now and CANNOT for the life of me, get acclimated to 'day-time people' schedule. I had worked so many years FT 11-7 just past jobs, that I can't switch gears. (Notice what time I'm posting now.) And I sleep days. I did what I needed to do.

Not telling you to 'suck it up'. You have to do what you have to do, also. I've worked with nurses who worked 2 FT jobs. TWO!!! I couldn't face 80 hours in one week. When I asked Brenda, all she said was 'you do what you gotta do' .

Good luck if you look elsewhere; you know what the job market is out there. At least, you'll have a better grasp of what NOT to consider for a future position.

[MrsICURN14]

This job is hard!!

I am now dealing with day-after-work migraines that keep me down on my day off, when I am supposed to be enjoying life. I've been medically cleared and prescribed Imitrex but you know sometimes it works, sometimes not. And because I have small children I can't just darken my room and crawl into bed (can you imagine???aaaaaah). LOL. This floor nurse job spins off so many other uncomfortable symptoms for me it just isn't funny. I miss being at home and NOT thinking about work and what will the next crazy shift be like. I just can't take the unpredictability which kinda tells me hospital nursing probably is not my thing. I agree nurses have the suck-it-up attitude. I mean, how else can you feel when the job is so crappy? LOL .I wonder every day how so many nurses have done this for so many years. What must their quality of life be like? Maybe they simply are not anxiety or depression prone, I don't know. But, for now, I am dropping hours on the floor so I can not have headaches on my days off, take care of my body, and most importantly, enjoy my young children while they are still young!

The secret is: as little hours as possible at the hospital, a cake side job, and then pursue what you'd really enjoy. Me, I think I'll train to become a personal trainer!!! What I should have done a LONG time ago, LOL

Get out of my head!!!