No More Bedside Nursing, I Quit!

[cameroondiva]

I just recently graduated with my BSN in '04. i will be completing my 1st year this october working as a Registered Nurse. After 1 year working on the floor i have decided i'm going to quit bedside nursing. I worked for 8months in Boston on an acute medical surgical floor(eve shift). We had extreme staff shortage and not enough nursing assistance on the floor. I'm currently in Georgia in a "prestigious" hospital, facing the same problem in a step-down surgical icu. On this floor they have 30 patients, 2 nursing assistance and 6 patients ( very sick patients) to a nurse. Nurses have to get report do their own vs and even do morning care, pass out meds, prep patients for OR, and each nurse usually gets an average of 3 admissions per day. I spent 4 years in college learning about the art of nursing and i can't practice 1/2 the things i learned. Talk about hypocracy. Hospitals don't care about their nurses well being. I'm extremely burned out and exhausted after each shift and underpaid. I thought the hard part was the nursing school, it seems as if it gets worst after you graduate. My friend was just telling me one time she was running back and forth on the floor, she fainted and she had a heart attack. I'm 23 years old i'm smart enought to realize this is not for me early on. My sister who is 25 w/ 1 year experience agreed with and said she can't do it anymore. She is actually going back to school to do Legal nursing. I love the act of caring in nursing but if i stay on the floor i will eventually hate nursing and i don't want that. So what are my options here, what can i do with a RN, BSN degree if i don't want bed side / hospital nursing. I'm already considering private duty nursing, anything else i can do?

[southpacificRN]

Years after the first post...it still applies.

My mind tells me to "suck it up" and do the job I was trained to do. But my spirit is drained.

Yes, patients are sicker...but I have also witnessed in the last five to ten years a big shift to patients seeming entitled, as if they are on full service vacation, with little to no appreciation or acknowledgement that you helped keep them alive. But that is not the issue I find the most frustration with. It is my fellow nurses. When I first started in the hospital setting, I most enjoyed the collaboration, the "two minds are better than one" aspect. But now more often, it is attack from fellow nurses that erodes at my joy for nursing. Shift to shift bickering, pointing fingers, etc. I have witnessed a unit manager, under questioning from an MD, throw her staff under the bus, literally say, "well it wasn't me". She did not support her staff. I have witnessed a new grad be degraded and threatened to have her license taken away! Besides places like this where we are anonymous and can give each other words of encouragement, we have no support from those around us...sad.

[LVN2RNMom, ASN, BSN, LVN]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Utilization Review Nurse. Insurance Companies have Utilization Management Depts with LVN's & RN's for med nec issues. You are basically doing the foot work for the Dr's on staff. I am an LVN & working for a major insurance company as a Utilization Review Grievance & Appeal Nurse. FYI....experience is not usually required. The down fall is no direct patient contact or care but most of these nurses work from home. So, if sitting on your tail all day to review paperwork, being on production & sitting in a cubicle sounds fun then it may be for you. Personally, I am looking high & low for a nursing job that requires me to be active by providing direct patient care. I like caring for people & it gives me a feeling like no other. I worked in the insurance industry for 12 years, so I am used to it but when I left, I never looked back then here I am again. I had to do what I need for a paycheck. If I could switch with you, I would.

[samirish]

Maybe try case management?