I hate nursing!!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 11, 2018

There are many Nursing Jobs that don't require patient contact, but they require several years of solid nursing experience. You aren't qualified for those jobs.

The first year of nursing is miserable. There is so much to learn, and it seems that it must all be learned at once. Many new grads have never held a real job before and don't understand how workplace relationships work, and many don't understand that it's on them to fit into the workplace and not on the workplace to accomodate them. Plus all those nursing responsibilities -- it tends to be overwhelming. At five months, you're almost halfway through that first year, so you're getting there. It seems that around the time of your first anniversary in nursing, things start to "click" for a new nurse. Things fall into place and you begin to understand your place in the health care team. At that point, you may find yourself loving your job. Even if that isn't true, try to stay for two years until you become a competent nurse. At that point, you'll have a pretty solid idea what you do and do not like about your job and what to look for in future jobs.

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Jan 12, 2018

Try to last out 12-months post orientation (not 12-months from hire date), and 24-months if able. I'm told with one to two years solid medsurg experience, a lot of doors can be opened for you.

Mavrick, BSN, RN · Jan 14, 2018

Ruby Vee said:
There are many nursing jobs that don't require patient contact, but they require several years of solid nursing experience. You aren't qualified for those jobs.
The first year of nursing is miserable. There is so much to learn, and it seems that it must all be learned at once. Many new grads have never held a real job before and don't understand how workplace relationships work, and many don't understand that it's on them to fit into the workplace and not on the workplace to accommodate them. Plus all those nursing responsibilities -- it tends to be overwhelming. At five months, you're almost halfway through that first year, so you're getting there. It seems that around the time of your first anniversary in nursing, things start to "click" for a new nurse. Things fall into place and you begin to understand your place in the health care team. At that point, you may find yourself loving your job. Even if that isn't true, try to stay for two years until you become a competent nurse. At that point, you'll have a pretty solid idea what you do and do not like about your job and what to look for in future jobs.

If this is true for you, we're done here.

What the real problem is: Your expectations do not match your reality.

You may have had the expectation that nursing is like what is portrayed on TV or what your friend's mother who is a CNA told you. The sooner you give that up the better your acceptance of your reality.

I don't believe the current nursing curriculum adequately prepares you for the job of nursing. Nursing theories are all well and good but that book-learning is no preparation for the real world.

When Nursing was more an apprenticeship, you got plenty of real world experience cuz they used you as slave labor in their hospitals. Now the pathetic experience you get in clinicals is just not cuttin' it. It's not wholly your fault, though, it's just that you are not anywhere near prepared to function as a real live nurse until your employer trains you and that takes time. So your first year of employment is more an extension of your nursing education. It's usually not very well organized but at least you paid for it.

joseyjo · Jan 14, 2018

I'm also a new nurse (7 months) on a Tele floor. About 2-3 months ago I could have written this post! Pretty much every shift I would all but have a panic attack as I took report and realized how much I was responsible for, or when I started to get behind passing meds, with assessments, etc. I cried pretty much every day, and started looking for jobs outside the hospital even though I know that changing jobs before year in my area can really affect my long-term employability.

However, I got over it. I am able to handle my patient assignments now without panic attacks and when I get behind I just keep working until I get caught up. I am actually enjoying my job and remember why I became a nurse :) A couple of tips that helped me:

1. When the panic starts to set in, take a short moment and gather yourself mentally and emotionally. Are your patients alive and stable? Then keep trucking. No? Then focus on the immediate need (patient stability). Assessments, routine meds, and even most scheduled IV meds can wait.

2. Ask for help. Utilize your CN, fellow nurses, etc. On my floor people while often walk by and ask " How's it going? Need anything?" I used to just say, "Nope, I got it" (not wanting to look bad), or say "I'm behind but I'll catch up". Now if I am behind at all I'll say "I'm a little behind, are you busy?" I am amazed at how much help it is just to have someone pass 2100 meds to one patient. I return the favor by doing the same anytime I am caught up.

3. Delegate. If you don't have one already, develop a good working relationship with your tech/CNAs. In the last few months I have worked hard at making sure my techs know they can rely on me to work hard, but that I need them to work too. If I am in a room and a patient needs something I do it. But I no longer answer call lights unless my tech is already in a room. I allow them to answer the lights so I can focus on charting, meds, etc.

4. Focus on the part you DO like. I love patient care. I focus on that. If you don't, then focus on what you do like in the day (patho of the diseases, treatment protocols, whatever floats your boat).

5. Be patent with yourself. It's a new job, in a new field. You need to make mistakes to learn your best way. Once you figure put your "groove" for the flow of the day it is SO much easier.

Stick with it if you can. You became a nurse for a reason. After a year it's a lot easier/acceptable to change specialities/jobs.

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Jan 15, 2018

You're only 5 months into your job & nursing. You don't have your footing on either. Don't jump ship just yet, give nursing & your job at LEAST a year! It takes awhile to get into a routine. So just take a breath & know you will get the hang of things.

sunny time · Jan 17, 2018

I know several nurses that have not had hands on nursing except nurse training. they are MDS coordinators, home health case managers or take more education and go into administration. you really did not say the reason you hate nursing. is it the patients or the staff. is it because you don't like primary nursing or actual procedures. maybe a change to OR, PACU so you are not with the same patients for 8 to 12 hours. How about dialysis where you are with the patient only 4 hours no bathroom breaks, tons of medication, or or naked bodies. just dialysis and nothing else. check around some places are willing to train.

retiredmednurse · Jan 17, 2018

I agree with the earlier posts-PLEASE give it a good solid year before thinking of moving on. For the most part, almost every floor nursing job requires you to have that one year med-surg experience. But then the doors do open wide for you. Be willing to float to other floors, if your hospital allows this. This will give you a chance to see how other nursing floors work and the type of patients they care for. And as a float nurse, not from the float pool, they realize you don't know their floor and usually give you the easier and more stable patients soon to be discharged. During my first year work, I worked on the surgical floor. (My hospital split med-surg into separate nursing floors.) And I was floated to the ob/gyn floor. The other nurse who I was working with was going around doing her work and it really impressed me. She just seemed so sure of herself and so confident in what she was doing. I asked her how long she had been a nurse, and she answered one year. I was shocked, felt my jaw drop, and her answer gave me such hope. To think that I would be so confident and really know what I was doing just gave me such a big boost. So please stick it out. Then after that year, you can go into other nursing areas including patient education, staff education, IV team, dialysis, out-patient wound care, x-ray nurse, chemo, diabetes teaching, ER if you like the fast action with minimal charting, out-patient hospice nursing, and these are just a few areas in my small 100-bed community hospital. I have no idea what can be available in a 300-bed or larger mega-hospital. Hopefully, something will click. Nursing is such a wide area, that if you have a BSN, consider school nursing, or public health nursing. But these still depend on getting that one year of med-surg nursing. Good-luck.

NunNurseCat · Jan 17, 2018

Mistb13 sorry you're having a hard time, but you can do this. You are tougher than you give yourself credit for. If you are at all like me...well maybe your downplaying your anxiety a little bit. Is this the only part of your life in which you experience anxiety? Probably not, huh?

In a way what you're experiencing is very much like life itself, the same theme will repeat in many forms. Don't let yourself to become convinced that you hate it. Don't even entertain or give those thoughts power, because dear...they're a dead-end with nothing to offer but emptiness. Giving into anxiety or negativity (and believe me when I say I know this one)...it only leads to way more more anxiety and negativity.

Instead you need to think of just a couple of good things (in this case about nursing) and focus on those. In those good things you will find some peace and the calm-strength to move forward. Moving forward is the key to overcoming difficulties, and overcoming difficulties will empower you.

So, ready for some of the best advice you'll ever hear? Here goes:

:)

mykr · Jan 17, 2018

I'm sorry to hear that you hate nursing. Unfortunately, I'm right there with you. Nurses are underpaid and treated like crap. I would never recommend the field of nursing to anyone. With that said, I suggest you find an area of nursing that you like. For example, research, simulation, Medical Records, etc. I will never go back to floor nursing. I enjoy working with patients. It's the incivility I can't tolerate. Good Luck to you!!

ajh_txrn · Jan 18, 2018

You picked a great career! Nursing can be so many different things to so many people. Yes, we all have to have that first year in the pits. I've been a nurse for 27 years. The first year I also would come home crying that I hated my job. I was on a medical floor with very sick nursing home patients, isolation rooms and multiple pages of medications to be put down PEG tubes, catheter changes, dressing changes, incontinence, really tough IV sticks, etc. It DID get better and it did make me a much better nurse in the long run. Was I anxious, overworked, stressed and sad? Absolutely for that period of time I was there - I had so much to learn in such a short period of time. I felt like I knew enough to really hurt somebody. I had great preceptors though. Time passed and I grew more confident. Now, the most beautiful thing about being a nurse is that there are so many different options for work: Home health, day surgery, school nurse, research, legal, case management, long term care, physician office, travel nurse, hospital floors, rehab care, employee health, infection control, wound care, insurance verification, pre-op, radiology, IV team, OR, recovery room, occupational health, camp nurse, public health, health department, inspector, and others. Isn't it amazing that you can go so many places? Find your nursing mentor(s) and work hard at learning basics. They'll take you far. Hang in there. I could not imagine a better career. I hope you will soon feel the same.

Green Tea, RN · Jan 19, 2018

I was like you. I realized I didn't like nursing when I was a nursing student, but I didn't quit because I was already half way through the program. Also, it was because I studied so hard to get in to the competitive program.

I still don't like nursing in general. I worked on med-surg for a year, and now I work in the OR. Lately I cut back hours at work and started going back to school (part time) for a non-nursing master's degree. I'm glad that I finally took a big step to get out of this misery.

Nursing is not for everyone.