I dont want to do this anymore!!!

[RNOTODAY]

I dont know where to begin. I just do not want to be a nurse anymore. I really never did, since 2nd year of nsg school, but I didn't want to quit such a big commitment,I graduated. I have no desire to be a med surg nurse, in fact I would probably stink at it. I cant imagine being a med surge nurse. Thats why I went into ER right out of school, left that, did pedi home health for a while, now I am in the OR. I liked that for the first few weeks, now I hate that too. I dont know if its nursing, me, or I just cant hack it. The problem is I need this job I have for the benefits, and my salary. Plus my husband will *flip out* if I quit another job again. But I truely believe I shouldnt be in such a profession as nursing if my heart isn't in it..but.what else can I do? Is there anything you guys can suggest career/husband wise????? I have been telling him I love this new job, everythings going great, and actually it is, except that I am a nervous wreck inside, and I am counting the hours til lunch, break, and quitting time. I actually think he might divorce me if I quit!!! (or at the least be very very bitter towards me) I dont know whats bothering me more: the fact that I dont want to be a nurse, or the fact that I will dissapoint my family. Help......any advice will be appreciated.........

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

gdean1 said:

Good heavens, be a little creative. I'm not a nurse yet and even I know there are far more options that different units in a hospital. How about case manager for health insurance companies? How about state surveyor? How about pharmaceutical or medical equipment rep? How about legal consultant? You may also want to talk to a career coach. Not a recruiter or placement agency but someone who can work with you to understand why it is you don't like doing what you are doing. It sounds like it may not be nursing you don't like but working. If that's the case, if your husband doesn't divorce you after this career change he will after the next. School nurse? Instructor? Think outside the box.

What a rude post. And coming from some one who has never gone a mile in those white shoes.:trout:

[roadrunner25]

Thank you to everyone who wrote about your feelings towards nursing in this posting! I feel so much better knowing that others feel the same way that I do about nursing. My husband says he understand how I feel about nursing (which I really appreciate), but I don't think anyone can truly understand it until you've worked as a nurse. I just started working prn ....40 hrs/month because I couldn't take working at full time at my job anymore, but couldn't afford to quit all together until I found something else. I've worked step-down for about a year and a half and i've worked tele/med/surg for a year. I moved to another state in between jobs is why the i had the job change. Both jobs have been utterly tiring, exhausting, stressful, anxiety producing, etc. etc. Even now working part time, I will get off work say a saturday morning (i work night shift....and don't even get me started on what a zombie nightshift has made me!) and I will already start dreading the fact that I will have to go to work in another 6 days...seriously 6 days. That is pretty sad. It is definitely not because I am bothered by working. I sometimes think back to jobs I had in college very fondly in comparison to nursing. I have been seriously researching going back to school for either radiology technologist, ultrasonagrapher, dental hygienist, or speech therapist. But I dread the idea of having to go back to school and the expenses it would entail. I have a BSN and also a BA in Psychology. I have been searching religiously on the internet for something to do in nursing aside from working in the hospital. Yet I only seem to be finding hospital based jobs or home health. I would love it if I could do something with the education I already have and not have to go back to school. I don't have to love my job, I don't even have to like my job. I just want to be able to tolerate my job at the very least.

To all of you who have changed professions or got away from bedside nursing. Where did you start your job search? Would it be most helpful to post my resume on a a large job search network? Did you start calling around to the insurance companies (for those of you who work for them)? I have looked online for public health nurse positions in my county and have not found any thus far. No school nurse positions currently available....They want you to have public health or pediatric experience however. I would just like to hear some stories about how you found your new job?

[inland18mempire]

You are not alone. I know a LOT of nurses that are nurses simply for the pay, the benefits, and the availabilty of jobs close to home. I guess I would say make the best out of it as much as you can.

[jjjoy, LPN]

roadrunner25 said:

To all of you who have changed professions or got away from bedside nursing. Where did you start your job search?

I started my search at on-line sites like career-builder and looked up a bunch of jobs related to health care that looked interesting or do-able (I, too, was minimally looking for a tolerable position that I didn't dread going to each day). I built up some key words to search for similar jobs and tried to get a feel for what non-clinical health care related jobs that seemed to be out there. I went to a local college's career fair and interrogated the reps that were there to recruit new college grads. Even though they were there more for business majors and the like, it helped me to get beyond the computer screen and talk to people and, again, see what might be out there. There were some health science related companies as well as large organizations with health-related departments. I stalked my local hospitals' job boards and was heartened to see many non-clinical jobs listed (though, of course, there were many more clinical nursing jobs listed, but I had to remind myself to stay focused on finding a job that I really thought I could do okay at, and not just feeling pressured to apply for a clinical nursing job because they are there and I have a license.)

I applied to a ton of job listings and got a few interviews here and there and interrogated the interviewers to try to find out the realties of the job and what other possible jobs might be out there to strive towards. It was a long, frustrating process but it was worth it to me to hold out for a job that I felt more likely to be able to do well enough and one that I didn't dread going to or felt on pins and needles all day every day. But I did finally get a couple of offers and got a job that suited my strengths and weaknesses. It was a dead-end job in and of itself, but being there built up feelings of competence and self-confidence that I could then use to continue looking for opportunities that would have more potential AND would suit me. That job was reviewing health care articles and now I manage clinical data.

Best wishes!

[Angela RN]

Thank you soo sooo much for your posting. After a year and a half of postpartum and now just got off orientation with antepartum, I am already burnt out and ready for a change. I thought this would be my absolute DREAM job (both of them). I came home from a 12 hour night shift after not peeing, not eating and having about 2 sips of water all night. Not to mention the craziest assignment ever with my charge nurse making me feel like an idiot. (sorry this was only my 4th night off orientation on antepartum). I'm stressed out all the time feeling overworked. I can't provide the best care to my patients in this environment. I don't think it would be better anywhere else. I'm constantly worrying that I will do something wrong. I went into nursing wanting to HELP people, SAVE people, not worrying constantly I may kill them or their unborn child because I have too many high risk patients. (I work at one of the busiest OB units in the US, teaching hospital, lots of high risk pts) I feel like I'm just not cutout for this job. It really helps to know I'm not alone, and there is another path within nursing to take. Unfortunately, the paycut scares me in the non-clinical area. I know I'm young, but I've been accustomed now for a year and a half living on my own and I don't want to depend on anyone else. I'm so proud to tell people I'm a nurse. People always ask how I like it and mostly I end up tellling a lie, smiling, pretending everything is great. I'm just a little lost I hate being such a sap.... ugh. This just doesn't feel like me. I'm really interested to learn more about the insurance, case management and public/community health nursing areas. I always enjoyed community health in nursing school... NEVER liked hospital nursing in school. I shoulda listened to my instincts.... thanks to anyone for reading. It really helped just to write that all out. Like a big weight lifted off my shoulders.... phew! :bowingpur

[RN1263]

I never wanted to do floor nursing in school...frankly i hated it!!!! Well, I now do home health nursing and like it. Yes, it's a different animal all together with it's own stresses, but nothing like floor nursing, which I would NEVER do again! So, if your burnt out, but don't want to leave nursing you may want to try home health or hospice nursing.

[blueheaven]

purplemania said:

Sounds like your emotional plate is full right now and you could use some counseling. Does your employer offer an assistance program? Maybe a few sessions would help you focus on which way to turn. It could be something deeper than the job. I hope you get relief soon, you sound very stressed.

As the OP has stated, a little counseling could go a long way as far as making decisions on which way to go.

[mystic33]

Wow, what an interesting thread. It would be awesome to hear any updates for 2010 since this thread was in 2006. Would love to hear from the OP what changes she made including if she did quit and what her husband's response was. I would also love to hear updates from the nurses who were unhappy in their career and what changes they made.

Basically I know how you all felt back then. How are you feeling now, 4 years later?

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

You don't need advice from anyone on here - you must talk to your husband first if you are so unhappy. He will be angry by the sounds of it, but he IS your other half and should support you. After all you both bring money into the household, and would he really want you to stay in a job for years perhaps, where you were miserable if he loves you?

You may need to go get career counselling from somewhere, or do a non-nursing job for a while. Can you look for work say in a doctor's surgery which has better hours maybe, or do community care? Maybe you can work as a telephone advice nurse. There are lots of other aspects you can look into. Troll some of the job websites for nursing related work - you would be surprised what is out there.

I too hated nursing not long ago. I am going back to admin/hospital secretarial/medical typing work next week, but they wanted someone with a nursing background just to help out. I drop pay, but I am really looking forward to it - I can work regular hours and maybe have a life again!!

Write down ALL your skills (not nust nursing) and see which ones might be useful and make you happy as well. What else have you done? Can you even go to some nursing/job places and do some volunteer work to see what suits you?

You husband should support you, please talk to him and he may even have suggestions.

Been there done that sista so I know how you feel!! :)

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

After crashing and burning in 2 LTC jobs, I'm about ready to hang up my stethoscope.

I never wanted to work LTC, but I looked for a job for 10 months after graduation, and I figured it would be a stepping stone toward something else. Unfortunately, each job was worse than the last. I never want to work LTC again, but there's not much else here.

I have an interview at a home health agency tomorrow. If they don't hire me, I'll probably move back to Boston and find something else. I can do vaccine clinics as a side job, and take a refresher course when the economy picks up.

I wanted to be a nurse because nurses have options. I didn't think I'd run out of options so quickly.

[PACNWNURSING]

You should have become a NICU nurse thats what everyone else does who finds out they can't stand taking care of sick adults or deal with the stress of nursing :)

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

Not_A_Hat_Person said:

After crashing and burning in 2 LTC jobs, I'm about ready to hang up my stethoscope. I never wanted to work LTC, but I looked for a job for 10 months after graduation, and I figured it would be a stepping stone toward something else. Unfortunately, each job was worse than the last. I never want to work LTC again, but there's not much else here. I have an interview at a home health agency tomorrow. If they don't hire me, I'll probably move back to Boston and find something else. I can do vaccine clinics as a side job, and take a refresher course when the economy picks up. I wanted to be a nurse because nurses have options. I didn't think I'd run out of options so quickly.

I agree Not a Hat Person.

I was offered several different courses at university when I first applied to study (I could choose 6 different ones at the time). I was told nursing was great cos there are so many different fields you can go into, variety, etc. I feel the opposite has been true. I can't get jobs in other nursing fields unless I spend MORE money doing more post grad/certificate studies (which I can't afford), can't work in other areas I am not trained in so that limits my scope of working, and nobody wants to hire newer nurses cos they are all too scared of getting sued. Some newer nurses have made mistakes and it has got everybody scared of the lawyers. The hospitals can't afford lawsuits anymore. I have also worked LTC and absolutely hated it - being the only RN on for about 50 high care residents is absolutely ridiculous - I am not working in a busy facility like that again unless I have support, I was absolutely frazzled out after one shift I did.

I hope the economy picks up more again soon as well. I am moving into a non-nursing job next week which is only short term for now but may become full time. They were happy to have a nurse work in this position as it is in the adult mental health section. The pay won't be anywhere near as good as I get, but at least I can work dayshift hours and they are set days - thank God!

Keep applying for everything like I have been doing - something will come up. Try and stay positive, though I know this is hard some days.