Finally decided to quit nursing

Nurses Professionalism

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Hi everyone. I have been a nurse for over 7 years and for the past year I have debated getting out of the profession for good. I had just finished the week long hospital orientation for a new job and was to start clinical orientation Sunday. Between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon I was having big doubts about the job, then I realized that it wasn't the job itself that I didn't like. I hate hate hate being a nurse. I called the unit manager on her cell phone Saturday afternoon and told her my decision and that I would not be coming back. I am scared to death because I have no income at this point but at the same time I have a sense of relief and peace about the whole situation.

Question to all who ended up hating nursing- did you guys hate nursing school? Were you CNAs first? I'm 25 and I'm a senior in my program and I've been doing patient care washing/changing dressings/doing meds for 8 years and I absolutely love it and I'm wondering if I'm being Naive in believing this is my calling?

Maybe I haven't felt all the pressures of being an RN? I've worked weekends/holidays and worked so short staffed I've had 18 patients I had to give meds to and help with hygiene, and worked with some real "characters" and I still couldn't picture myself doing anything else. I've been mandated to stay 32 hours straight before...But, I've heard from nurses my whole career in the health care field that they wish they chose a different profession and this is scary to me-I can't tell if they ever loved working under pressure/ caring for people/ taking abuse from co-workers. I know things aren't like they are in school when you're out in the real world, but I'm hoping what I've expereienced is even a small representation of what nursing will be like...

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P.S. I admire the honesty and the guts it took to quit doing what you thought you would love jennyjen

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Question to all who ended up hating nursing- did you guys hate nursing school? Were you CNAs first? I'm 25 and I'm a senior in my program and I've been doing patient care washing/changing dressings/doing meds for 8 years and I absolutely love it and I'm wondering if I'm being Naive in believing this is my calling? Maybe I haven't felt all the pressures of being an RN? I've worked weekends/holidays and worked so short staffed I've had 18 patients I had to give meds to and help with hygiene, and worked with some real "characters" and I still couldn't picture myself doing anything else. I've been mandated to stay 32 hours straight before...But, I've heard from nurses my whole career in the health care field that they wish they chose a different profession and this is scary to me-I can't tell if they ever loved working under pressure/ caring for people/ taking abuse from co-workers. I know things aren't like they are in school when you're out in the real world, but I'm hoping what I've expereienced is even a small representation of what nursing will be like...
I love what I do for whatever it's worth. I have bad days and frustrating days but overall I do love it. It's just not for everyone, you know? And it's a demanding enough that it's a really rough job to do if you're not enjoying it.
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Good luck to you, sincerely. I'm struggling with the same decision. Actually, I don't have much of a choice in the matter. I think I may have been squeezed out of nursing. Having a hard time coming to terms with it in that I cannot seetm to be able get a nursing job. On the other hand, I'm kinda relieved. It wasn't the bedside nursing, I loved that. It was all the beaurocracy, politics, and time spent away from the bedside endlessly charting on the computer, the phone, or answering a lazy nurse's call lights in the ICU and their patients in PACU.

I'm hope that you'll be happier and that you live a longer live.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Stepdown.

Nursing sucks. I used to really enjoy working in a hospital when I was younger and a unit clerk. I did see the realities of being a nurse through just observing and then later falling from grace as a nurse. Doctors that were demeaning, heavy assignments, support staff cut to "save money, save money", scrutiny from managers who run over your charting with a fine toothed comb and the backstabbing and gossip that runs rampant in this profession. I love science, I enjoy helping people, I did very well in Nursing School, my first 5+ years of nursing were alright. I have had very moving experiences where I felt what I did made a huge difference and then it was "Oh yeah, this is why I love being a nurse!" I was always taught to put patients first, paperwork second, but that has cost me employment. "If it wasn't documented, it wasn't done"-all well and good in theory but it is so damn hard sometimes to do it all when you're still documenting when you should be going home! Oops-don't leave without doing every last detail, yet you get counseled if you are on double-time, and counseled if working off the clock! Yet I plead for jobs so I can support myself and pay my bills, only to have the door be shut in my face and face time and again. I know the economy is tough and a lot of people face hardship. We are lucky as nurses to have some forms of employment available to us even in dire times.

If I could go back in time and tell the college youngster that I once was about what life would be like in 10 years if I chose nursing as it is practiced today in America-I would have made many different choices. The fact that you can work your ass off, but are set up to fail makes me so sour on continuing in this profession. The fact that managers can cause havoc in your life with threatening, write ups over paperwork details makes me regret my life choices and wish to God I could go back and change things. I do not want to be a nurse anymore.

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There ARE other settings nurse can go into. Working with an HMO, such as Blue Cross Blue Sheild, Aetna, Cigna (case-managers, pre-auth nurses).....There are so many opportunities for nurses outside of the clinical setting. Occupational Health Nurse for major plants, such as GMC. RN's with clinical experience can become a pharma. sales rep and travel. RN's can also work for DoD overseas...excellent pay. The list can go on and on. As nurses we must learn to "re-invent" ourselves, within our profession.

See I think this is the problem. Nursing is attracting too many "non nurse" minded people because of this attitude. Nursing should be kept bedside. It shouldn't be an "administrative" position. Every since nurses have left bedside to take on jobs "outside the clinical setting", our profession has declined. Today we are more concerned with titles and superiority over one another that we have lost the basis behind why each one of us got into healthcare in the first place....that is to HELP other people. Nurses belong bedside. Only when we return to that ideal will the profession regain the nobility it has lost. Too many students do not go into nursing for the right reason.

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Nursing sucks. I used to really enjoy working in a hospital when I was younger and a unit clerk. I did see the realities of being a nurse through just observing and then later falling from grace as a nurse. Doctors that were demeaning, heavy assignments, support staff cut to "save money, save money", scrutiny from managers who run over your charting with a fine toothed comb and the backstabbing and gossip that runs rampant in this profession. I love science, I enjoy helping people, I did very well in Nursing School, my first 5+ years of nursing were alright. I have had very moving experiences where I felt what I did made a huge difference and then it was "Oh yeah, this is why I love being a nurse!" I was always taught to put patients first, paperwork second, but that has cost me employment. "If it wasn't documented, it wasn't done"-all well and good in theory but it is so damn hard sometimes to do it all when you're still documenting when you should be going home! Oops-don't leave without doing every last detail, yet you get counseled if you are on double-time, and counseled if working off the clock! Yet I plead for jobs so I can support myself and pay my bills, only to have the door be shut in my face and face time and again. I know the economy is tough and a lot of people face hardship. We are lucky as nurses to have some forms of employment available to us even in dire times.

If I could go back in time and tell the college youngster that I once was about what life would be like in 10 years if I chose nursing as it is practiced today in America-I would have made many different choices. The fact that you can work your ass off, but are set up to fail makes me so sour on continuing in this profession. The fact that managers can cause havoc in your life with threatening, write ups over paperwork details makes me regret my life choices and wish to God I could go back and change things. I do not want to be a nurse anymore.

This is the other problem with nursing today. We have more responsibilities regarding paper work, a necessary evil in todays society. CYA! But in order to do this, we need to have more staff and better hours. Until the administration realizes this, good nurses are going to continue to be lost, patients are going to suffer and ultimately healthcare is going to implode. Then what?

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry, Stepdown.

Yeah, healthcare in this country is a house of cards that will eventually collapse and then what will happen? Medicare pays less and less, the burden of proving we do not cause our patients to have MRSA, pressure ulcers, catheter infections, complications from falls, etc. all adds to the stress.

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I wouldn't say I hate nursing, but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't do it. I was a medical assistant for years before I became an RN, and I wish I had stayed a medical assistant. I really hate working nights, I hate working weekends and holidays, and mostly I hate being away from my family so much. Thankfully, I like most everyone I work with. I also really like my job (I work OB), but our patient load is way too much, there is way too much charting, doctors are very rude, and management does not care about us at all. Pay also is bad, and we haven't gotten a raise in years. Sometimes I just want to cry when it is time to go in. I am trying to go part time because I'm not sure how much longer I can handle it.

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Specializes in CCM, PHN.

Thumbs up to you and a high five, OP. I have been a BSN/RN for 6 years now, and done bedside, case management and public health. I HATE all of it. The last 3 years I've really spiraled downward into total hatred for the job. I'm cursed with being really good at it - I'm always a patient favorite, and have never received a bad review. But I'm so over it.

I'm starting a new job in two weeks doing case management, and have already decided if this doesn't re-ignite some hope and passion for this profession I'm done. I'm gonna try for a year, and if I still hate it, I'm headed for grad school to teach nursing. I had an awful nursing school experience -and if I can do anything, at least I can help avenge my experience by being a good teacher.

Why do I hate it?

1. The obvious: the health care system is broken. Horribly. And I'm sick of being a part of it.

2. The bubble is going to burst, folks. Nursing salaries are going to take a nosedive. Of this I am certain.

3. The quality of schooling and therefore quality of nurses is in the gutter. I can't believe some of the people I have worked with. How the hell do half these dopes graduate? They can't spell and can't speak clear English. I don't get it. I don't want to be lumped in with people like that.

4. I have worked with "under-served" populations for way too much of my nursing career, and their sense of entitlement and demanding services they don't need has embittered me and ruined my faith in this profession forever.

5. I like animals and machines more than people.

One other thing. It's so sad how we who hate nursing & want to leave have to keep that such a secret, or that ANYONE is shocked by something like that. Nursing is just a vocation, an occupation, a profession. No profession should completely define a person. YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB. You are a human being, first and foremost. Nursing is not the noble, altruistic, self-sacrificing job it used to be. Sorry, Charlie. Florence Nightingale is DEAD.

Some people end up hating it, just like some accountants end up hating their job. A nurse leaving the profession really should not be judged so harshly, it doesn't mean she's an uncaring, cold, uncompassionate person. In fact, it's probably the opposite. Too many nurses who hate it STAY in the field and make everyone's lives - their co-workers, bosses, patients, and their own - MISERABLE. So kudos to those who bail when they know they need to. I wish you all the best of luck.

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mclennan,

i think i will quote you at the bottom of all my future posts.

:bow:

nursing is not the noble, altruistic,

self-sacrificing job it used to be.

sorry, charlie.

florence nightingale is dead.

[color=#a52a2a]

[color=#a52a2a]mclennan

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Specializes in wound care.

ouch double ouch, sometimes i dred going on all nurses cause of articles and commentd like this ,, so demoralizing , i respect your truth and honesty but holy cow, im about ready to delete my allnurses account

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