Nursing beyond the bedside-for new grads? Help!

Nurses New Nurse

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I am a new grad currently working in the hospital. But I really, really do not like it. I'll admit I'm not as excited to be a nurse as I'd hoped. I'd really like something non-bedside but it seems those jobs are rare for new nurses. I don't have enough hospital experience yet to move on to something better, but I also do not have the mental and physical stamina to be at the bedside for a year or two. I'm not young, I have a family, I'm a career changer, and I was naive in thinking I could get an 8 hr/day job. I'd really appreciate any advice or recommendations anyone has on finding something outside of the hospital. I'm not opposed to a desk job or something behind the scenes. Maybe it's a fairy tale, but I'm hoping for less stress, less standing, less lifting, more potty breaks, more opportunities to eat like a normal person, less patient contact, etc. I'd love to find my niche, I just don't want to wait 2-3 years. Maybe if I was younger...

if you find something pls. let me know. I despise the bedside/patients and would love to find a non-clinical job in nursing with only 8 hours a day

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
if you find something pls. let me know. I despise the bedside/patients Wow. Did you pick the wrong career...

I just didn't know what i was getting myself into. TV tends to overhype things. However, i need the cash so this will work for now until something better comes along. If i could make the same amount of money doing something completely unrelated to patient care w/o having to go back to school i'd take it in a heart beat.

Its ok to feel this way! I personally LOVE nursing but I know its not for everyone. Half of the people I know are on to their second degrees. You will find your calling in life - nursing or not nursing. Good luck! Maybe you can try working for an insurance company. I know a few RNs who do that and work a M-F 9-5 type of job and love it!

I know my comment is coming in late, but how about the research sector? I am sort of a new grad and live in a super saturated area for nurses (CA), so no luck getting "normal" nursing positions. However, I got a job as a research nurse where I help to conduct subject testing trials to gather data for a medical device company. I work up to 40 hours/week, no weekends, no holidays. I really like it, the work, the people and the hours (I am a mom of 3). You could try medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies and universities that have a school of medicine (they pay less, but will train you). Trust me, people love to hire nurses, the nursing profession has the reputation of trust. loyalty and compassion.

Specializes in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

This thread caught my eye. I am a new grad myself, currently 3 weeks on my own on the telemetry floor on nights. Prior to this, I was working a lift tech for 3 years in the same hospital. That nor nursing school did not really prepare what floor nurse actually does and how taxing it is. My brother has been an ICU nurse for 7 years and is someone I always looked up to, asked for help, and followed in his footsteps. Regardless, nothing really prepared me for floor/bedside nursing until I actually started. I too have the compassion and love for taking care of patients and their family, but the process to do so on the floor/bedside is very taxing and stressful. I am satisfied with my job, my pay, and have a wonderful staff; however, I too don't think I can stay as a bedside nurse forever.

Some places that I intend to look into in the future is nursing informatics/data analysts, research (I have a friend that works in a pulse oximetry research facility where RNs draw labs and monitor volunteers while they do their testing)., and outpatient clinics. Maybe these are some options that others can look into that not necessarily bedside? Also, I have been tossing around the idea of doing nursing abroad, but through a ministry through my church or another organization, but that's just a thought for me right now :)

Just a quick story. A few weeks ago, a few of us new grads saw each other in the parking lot after shift and talked about our days and feelings. One of my friends basically said she was seriously quitting and going back to school for teaching. She mentioned something similar to what I said that nursing school did not prepare us for what we actually do on the floor. She seemed extremely upset. It's sad to say, but nursing isn't for some people and I guess for some people including her, they didn't find out nursing actually WASNT their passion until they actually started. I hope she finds her way.

My advice is, gut out eight or ten months of the dreaded 'new grad year,' and start applying for jobs that interest you. Home health, public health, school nursing, research nursing, case management, whatever. You might not get any responses for a while, but keep applying until you do. If you see jobs in your city that you might like but can't get now, start improving your resume...volunteer in something related, ask to float to related floors, take a class. It will take energy that you probably don't think you have, but it will be the start of your escape.

I was a midlife career changer, I quickly realized the bedside was not for me (I liked taking care of people and actually found pleasure in the physical work and the unglamorous hands-on stuff....I liked looking up pathophys and assessing people's needs...I did not like being treated like a machine in a factory, expected to have no physical needs of my own and to speed up unendingly. I had worked in the hospital for 10+ years in other roles before nursing, and it was the same no matter which job).

I performed OK even though I felt awful - I got good reviews, I gave decent care. But I looked at what it was doing to my life and my outlook, and it was not good.

I was lucky to get a job in public health as soon as I finished a year in the hospital. The pay is less, but the benefits are good, I work 9-5, and my coworkers are amazing. I will soon finish a year in public health, and not once have I:

*Gone without eating or peeing

*Cried at work, or on the way to work, or on the way home because of work

*Been called a b*tch or a c*nt

*Been threatened

*Woken up panicked from a work-related dream

*Hid in a closet for a few seconds to get my head straight, because I was assigned a dangerous level of work

*Canceled a social engagement because I was late at work, or too tired from work

*Drank too much after work so I could just go to sleep

*Missed a holiday with family because of work

Some people on here will always say things like, "duh, what were you expecting?" But I don't think the things I listed are reasonable occupational expectations. Most people, most jobs, do not demand that employees put up with this stuff (well, apart from covering holidays - someone has to do that).

Bedside nursing would not be such a nightmare if hospitals decided to staff at levels that allow us to do what we're trained to do. There is no in inherent reason for nursing to require working at your absolute mental and physical maximum, all the time. There's no reason for us to be running around, feeling bad about not being able to do the right things for patients. There is no good reason why a drunk guy gets arrested if he hits a store clerk, but not if he hits a nurse. As long as hospitals are laser-focused on making money and "customer service", and as long as nursing care is not billable/profitable, they will throw us under the bus.

Anyway that's my spiel about the bedside. I really did like the work itself - at probably 70% of the workload I actually had, it would've been a cool job and I would've stayed longer. But the difference between being 45 and 25 is that I'm not willing to tolerate those conditions unless I really have no other choice.

Good luck - don't give up yet, you might find something better.

Specializes in NCSN.

I was in a similar situation. I was hired into a larger hospital with a horrible new grad orientation (3 days and then they let us loose on night shift because they were severely short staffed). I loved the patient care aspect of nursing, but there was no time for that. Between my nightly med pass and all of the politics, repetitive charting and nightly tasks, I barely got to be the nurse I wanted to be.

But as a new grad we are all told to get into a hospital, so I stayed for 6 months.

I took an interview for a community nursing position serving a campus of people with intellectual and physical disabilities. I worked 10 hour days and rotated one weekend day bi weekly and it paid as much as the hospital I was at. It was the BEST decision I ever made. I got to be a nurse, touching people, doing wound care, responding to emergencies, teaching, visibly changing people's lives.

Since then I moved out of state but was lucky enough to find a similar agency and now I'm their visiting nurse and one of the lead trainers for our med techs. I do all of my charting at home.

Do what is best for YOU. I would've considered leaving nursing as a whole if I gave into the peer pressure of new grads "needing" to stay in the hospital. There is so much out there and no path makes you any less a nurse. :)

LillyFish, I could've written your post verbatim. This is my first semester of nursing school, and I'm weighing whether to drop out now or to go through with my license and then "hope" something great opens up. It's a career change for me, too. I left the corporate world to do something more meaningful. I chose nursing for all the right reasons, but am discovering that no amount of research beforehand prepares you for the REALITY of bedside nursing.

Anyone who says "Well what did you THINK it would be like" is not helpful. At all.

Can I ask where you are now in life? Did you stay in nursing? Leave? Regret it? Would love to know what transpired in the past couple of years!

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