i think i hate being a nurse?

clayraRN · Jun 5, 2011

I am a new grad and after a yr of searching for a job...I finally got one....at a retirement home...which is not where I had wanted to be...I always wanted to work in OB....So ending up herre is a big disappointment to say the least....The stress that has come over me since I began working at the nsg home is unimaginable and with my case of OCD it makes me 10x as slow as the other nurses....I look back at those 3 yrs olf school and wish to God I could go back...and just fail and have to do something else....bc I can honestly say.....nsg is not what I expected or what I want......unfortunately with those 3 yrs of student loans to pay off I feel trapped beyond help...I just don't know what to do...but I dread going to work every single day...my days off are not my days off anymore...they are the count down to when I go back in.... I do feel better that other new grads feel the same!

Guest393655 · Jun 5, 2011

ClaraRn do not give up hope. I graduated in 2007 and also wanted to work in OB or NICU. I could not find a hospital job at all and ended up working in a nursing home just like you. I felt like everyone in my class had an "in" somewhere and got a hospital job but me. It made me feel like a lesser RN and very depressed and discourgaged. Every 90 days I resubmitted my resume to every hospital in a 50 mile radius from my house and after 11 months 1 called. I took a job working in ICU step down and although it still wasn't what I wanted I was thrilled that I finally made it to a hospital. After 8 months the L&D and NICU units expanded and posted for 20 nurses. I spoke to my manager on step down and said that NICU was what I really wanted. He was supportive and told me to go for it. It's now been 6 months and I am a NICU RN and love my job, but it took almost 4 years to get here. Don't give up hope and hang in there!

clayraRN · Jun 5, 2011

Thanku puppyluv for the support. I will be going in tonight. HOPEFUL! I am trying to keep a positive attitude but as u can see it gets the best of me sometimes. I am glad to see someone who came from where I am to where they want to be!

nola1202 · Jun 5, 2011

I feel the same exact way. I work at a hospital in a not so great environment in a urban city (NY). Management along with the staffing they provide suck. I have been in nursing for almost 10 years and I absolutey hate it. I can not believe I worked so hard to get here-just to say I HATE NURSING.
At times Ive asked myself if it is the facility where I work.
I've decided to start looking for a job and it iis more difficult than ever...that's another topic. I am going to just wish the both of us luck!

it's not.

VICKRN · Jun 5, 2011

To all my fellow nurses, I have been an RN for 14 years. I have done every kind of nursing you can imagine. I am a true ER RN but, have always felt like I would be happy if I could just find the right place...No. Its not going to happen. I have worked from Cali to Rhode Island and everywhere in between. The patients are always the same. Nursing sucks the life out of you. I remember how full of life I used to be. I remember when I was a new grad I was told my smile would be gone after a few years. I thought to myself NO WAY!! This is who I am. Well, they were right. The system, the patients, other staff, the Doctors, ALL of it takes its toll. I toy with taking anti-depressants, I think what else can I do? The answer is always the same. I go to work, take excellent care of my patients, and ask GOD for as much strength as he can muster for me to get thru the shift. I am a caregiver, thats what I do best., I thank GOD everyday that I did not go into nursing for the money..If so..I would of been gone a long time ago. You eithier have it or you don't. I can tell you more nurses coming into the field don't than do..It seems that nursing is looked at as a quick fix, good money, and easy. WRONG!!! It is the hardest job you will ever have in your life. EVER. This comes from 8 years of military service. It is HARD to say the least. I hope this helps. at least to let all of those thousands of nurses know they are not alone in how they feel. :)

Ohboy · Nov 19, 2011

I am right there with you!! I have been a nurse for 6 years and have often been discouraged and wondered whether I needed to try a different profession. However, my husband gets mad at me when I vent to him- I don't think he really understands how physically and emotionally draining it can be. I often get nauseated before my shifts because I'm so nervous- I don't want to make any mistakes or encounter any emergency situations that I may not know how to handle and I often bring my worries and anxiety home with me.

I am doing outpatient procedures (mostly gi) right now and it has been the most rewarding so far- maybe you should try a different area in nursing- I also think you need a home unit- so you can experience being part of a team and not so alienated

I am sticking with nursing- but I pray a lot- and hope to god that I don't make any major mistakes- and I have taken up journaling,meditation ,yoga and this has helped

And an occasional glass of wine helps to!

You are not alone- remember that- but if you are ever a patient you know how important nurses are- they can comfort you when you are the most scared- so

Do your best- find mentors at work to help you- try different areas- and most of all keep your head up!! if it doesn't work out- go back to school and do something else!

IckuRN, RN · Mar 22, 2012

So what have you decided to do?

Stevenyzwife · Mar 24, 2012

I have been nursing for 17yrs now and know completely how you all feel. I go through stages of loving my joba and then there are days when I just don't want to go.

I think that you need to find an area that you really like. I always wanted to work in critical care since i was a student and now I have my masters in Crit care but i still have my days when I want to get out of nursing full stop.

At my age, I think it is too late to go back to university for a new career so I am at a loss also.

I think I would Love nursing to the day I die if I didn't have to deal with other nurses.

The bitchiness, brown nosing and politics I see at work make me hate it. At least I have one patient and am in my own bay in intensive care so I can have limited time around other staff. I love my patients and I love caring for them.

I would love to be an ambulaance officer but a preexisting condition prevents that for me.

The only way is up the ladder or another specialty.

I am looking at forensic nursing, how interesting?

I also don't recommend people to go into nursing and when I see the young graduate students come in on their training days I pity them but they are so enthusiastic like I once was.

Try looking at all the other venues or specialties, community nursing, forensic nursing, management, teaching, psychology, peads, oncology, renal, medical, surgical, nursing homes, wounds, stoma nurses, outpatients, working for health insurance companies, selling medical products....

If you think of anything else that's exciting, please LET ME KNOW! :)

Take care

arallenrn11 · May 18, 2012

I just want to say thank you to everyone who posted here. I am feeling downhearted as it seems most of you have (or are). After 10 months at my first nursing job in LTC I am finally starting on a Med/Surg unit. I'm very excited most of the time but I also go through periods of apprehension. I started my current job feeling confident, intelligent, and hopeful and am now insecure and hopeless. To say my job was disappointing would be an understatement. I tell my husband all the time I just want to be good enough. I have become hypercritical of myself and feel like a failure. I feel I will never be able to relearn all the knowledge that has escaped me. The past year has been an emotional roller. I don't know that my psyche can ever be repaired, but knowing I am not alone means so much.

seesaw208 · Jul 27, 2012

I feel the same way but do not know what else to do.

seesaw208 · Jul 27, 2012

I was working my first night shift in years on med floor and I started getting real sleepy big time so I went to make coffee and forgot to put the pot under the stream and it went all over the floor all the staff were making fun of me then you will never believe what I did next the same thing again all over the place. The sad part it is my first week on the job.

nurseladybug12 · Mar 15, 2013

I am a new RN just about to be off my 10 week orientation in a few days and I am really regretting going into nursing. I was a great student, I worked my butt off, I really had an interest in it, and I still do, I like reading nursing journals, I like reviewing my nursing notes. I moved from CT to Florida to get a job because the job outlook in CT was bleak. I moved to Florida and 1 week after getting my license endorsed I got a job. I was at this one hospital for 8 weeks and was bullied, I felt like my preceptor and some of the nurse aides were purposely bringing up small "problems"(which were not even issues, really, saying I wasnt "nice"-I am the nicest person I know) to management to get me fired, and would never help me no matter how many times I asked. I also felt like I didn't fit in, so I found another job and quit. So now I am at this new hospital and I like most of my co-workers, everything is electronic so no verbal, no phone orders, I feel like my job is streamlined. The aides are very helpful and professional. There is a lot of teamwork, and ,my pt load is 4-5 pts, but it is a high accuity med-surg floor. For some reason, I am just not liking it. I dread going to work everyday. Looking back, I have enjoyed every job I have had before this, even minimum wage jobs, and I would work 60 hours a week to make extra money. I dont think I will be volunteering for more hours than my minimum required to make more money though I could because I just dont want to go. I feel that me volunteering to work an extra shift would break me- I feel like some incident or accident would occur and it would change my life for the worse, I would be liable for something, sued for something and I would get my license taken away. I just dont like being so responsible for the lives of every pt. I get blamed for things that I had no hand in doing, simply because I am that pt's nurse. For example, I tried to draw blood on a pt, was unable to. I asked a fellow nurse, he tried, could only get a little, needed a new tube, the charge nurse handed us a new one from stock room. He got the blood and sent it down, I labelled it and initialed it. I get a call from lab that 2 different pt labels are on it! I felt so twilight zoned, I didnt put another pts label on a new tube, and I didnt see another one on a brand new tube from stock room. So I got a talking to from the manager about patient safety. They somewhat resolved it, not really knowing how the label got on it, just said something like oh well maybe a sticker from another tube in the lab got stuck to it. I just dont like that everything falls on our shoulders even if we had no knowledge of it, had no hand in it. I feel that others would throw you under the bus in a heart beat to save themselves. I also feel that many other professionals in the hospital that are not nurses yet work with pts will slack off with some aspects of their job because they have a RN that will finish things up for them, ie PT has just worked with pt, put them in chair, "Oh, they had a BM, you will have to get them cleaned up, byebye". Some will leave the pt to sit in their own filth for others to clean up when they are the ones that discovered it, and others are good about it and will clean up the pt. They are busy but I am busy too! I also dread walking in not knowing what kind of assignment I am going to get for the day, what kinds of new problems I will face, what problems I will have to solve, what I wont know how to handle, what the night RN left for me to do that really shouldve gotten done 2 days ago,ie rotating IVs. Sometimes I feel that some night RNs barely look at the pt, they can barely recall certain things in report etc. Skin? IV? Dsg? I know certain things cant get dealt with at night, but I feel like a lot of things are left for me that couldve gotten taken care of as well. Also, I hate that I know I am getting an admission at 2 or 3 pm but here they come at 6:30 pm , 30 min before shift change. If you are an ER RN please, stop doing that! I feel trapped and on top of it all, I just found out that I am pregnant, so I wont be leaving anytime soon. Just venting....