Advice for a first year nursing student

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Hello all, I need some advice.

Its my first year in nursing school and Im thinking I may have made a mistake. I really enjoyed all my prereq classes (a&p, micro, psych ect) and the beginning of the semester was a whirlwind of information. I first started to get concerned when we hit lecture on nursing process and roles of the nurse. I guess I didn't fully understand that a nurse had her own system different from doctors. I am much more interested in the scientific portions- what their disease/illness is, how it affects the body system, what can be done to treat it ect- the study of pathology basically. I'm not very much a fan of this nursing process/patient education. Im not a teacher, never have been able to teach/train anyone in my working past. I was hoping that once clinical started that Id be able to see that side of things but my first day was awful! I despised every minute of it, and I know nursing students basically get the crap end of the stick- helping pts to the bathroom and cleaning up after them, but I realized that I don't have the best bedside manner, Im actually pretty awkward and really bad at small conversation and questioning. I was just very uncomfortable with the whole experience. The nurse we were assigned to was barely around and only saw our patient maybe 3 or 4 times the 6 hours that we were there and i know she probably had 5 or 6 more patients but I found myself wondering what she was doing the entire time she wasn't with them? Im learning that Im much more interested in like the scientific/clinical aspect- testing the patient and figuring out whats wrong with them or any anomalies and stuff like that, the medical stuff. I really don't know what to do from here. I don't wanna waste time and money to just 'get through' nursing school to find out that they don't have a branch that pertains to what I like- minimal patient contact and disease processes.

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated!!

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

you might like medical technology - you would get a baccalaureate degree and work in a lab. The ones in our hospital make the same as nurses. I think I would have like that route.

BTW: MD's have to teach sometimes too. You might be more comfortable when you gain more confidence in what you know.

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Specializes in Dialysis.

And just so you know, what you do as a nurse depends so much on where you decide to work after you're finished. I found that school was nothing like the real thing. If you realize right now that this is not for you then you are very lucky. Nursing is not a field where it is wise or even easy to just go through the motions. Don't become a nurse if you are not into it. That is the worse thing that you can do to yourself and your future patients.

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you should try and job shadow different types of nurses or start looking at job descriptions on-line

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Specializes in LTAC, ICU, ER, Informatics.

I'm only in my 2nd semester, so take my experience with a grain of salt. I am a *screaming* introvert, and at first found the whole patient encounter challenging... I didn't like "bothering" them for my assessments, I didn't know how to make small talk with them. What I found was that these are acquired skills, and I'm getting MUCH more confident and comfortable with that.

As for preferring the pathology to the nursing process... my observation FWIW is that nurses in practice are much more involved in the pathology - the facility I'm at right now wants the RN to have suggestions for treatment/tests ready when s/he calls the MD with a status update. (e.g. Mr Jones - a cardiac pt - has spiked a fever of 102.4 after being on the floor 3 days. Would you like me to administer Tylenol already ordered for pain, and should we get some blood/urine/other cultures and a CBC?) Obviously the RN won't always know, but experienced RN's seem to know what the doc is going to order (or should order) a heck of a lot of the time.

Also, keep in mind that one of the career paths open to you is going for your NP/DNP which is definitely more pathology/diagnostic driven. One of the things that attracts me to nursing is that there are so many options for settings and career paths.

You're already into the semester, you might as well finish it, look around and see what RN's are doing in practice vs. school, and see if you still don't like it come the end of the semester.

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Specializes in wound care.

kinda of sounds like you wanna be that dr house ..lol, but seriously if you are a little uneasy/ not confident that's normal. if you absolutely hate it cant stand class, clinical's or labs then go to a counselor or your instructors and explain your situation to them and get some advise , theres no easy job in health care

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Specializes in Medical Surgical Orthopedic.

I despised all that "fluffy" stuff, too, and was always anxious to get to the "point". It really doesn't get much better until after you get out of school, IMO.

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Specializes in Addiction / Pain Management.

I'm graduating in December and currently working my externship. Heres my advice

Stay attached to your nurses right hip. Aside from following her into the can; stay with her.

I'll bet she charting, checking labs before she starts med rounds, or admission/discharge paperwork.

Stay on her hip alot more happens behind what your seeing right now.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Just to offer my "two cents' worth"...

I'm a recent grad as of December 2010, who went into nursing as a second career, starting in my late 40's. During that first sememster of school, I like a very large percentage of my classmates, HATED clinicals. I constantly heard some of my own thoughts in the comments of, "...not what I thought..." and "...is this right for me..." I, and most of my classmates, stuck with it, and as we got further into the program, clinicals became more bearable and fun. I took my first nursing job in April working at a large hospital. It took a few months for me to feel "on my feet" and comfortable. You are going to find that as the RN, you are in contact with your patients during that 12 - 14 hours a day a lot more than those doctors who stop in during those 10-15 minutes every day. While you're not "diagnosing" patients and prescribing treatments, doctors do depend on you to notice, and inform them, of missed medical conditions that you notice. I've had several situations similar to the one in which a pt who was admitted to the med/surg floor, through the ER, for such vague conditions as altered mental status, and failure to thrive, and on assessment noticed indications that lead to the discovery of a fractured hip.

In short, real world is as different from school as night and day. Before you are quick to decide that this isn't for you, talk to people who have graduated and are doing the job. And if you still don't feel it is for you, then by all means, move on to something else. There is nothing as bad as being stuck in a job you hate.

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Specializes in Gastroenterology.

Patient interaction is an art that you develop with experience so it's not bad that you are finding it difficult and awkward at the moment. I'll echo the others and agree that nursing is a very broad field and you only see certain types of nurses during your clinical rotations. It could be that critical care nursing or ER nursing would be better for you as there is more of a focus on identifying and managing the disease/condition and less teaching/discussion than in other types of nursing.

With that said if you really feel that this is not the career for you then you should explore your options. Like classicdame said, maybe medical technology or pathology is more in line with what kind of working environment you would like.

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If you are paying tonnes of money then maybe take sometime off after the semester to reflect and think on your likes and dislikes. It would be sad to have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a degree you really don't care for.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I can really relate to your post. I love the pre-patient portion of clinical. I like going through the charts, the labs, the diagnostics and putting the whole picture together. Then the patient contact starts and it's not nearly as much my cup of tea. I'm in the third semester now and this semester is the best so far for being not as much (not offense to anyone) "emotional fluff" and more process driven. However, we're not going to be doctors coming out of nursing school. We're going to be nurses and we're patient focused by definition, not disease process focused. If you know that you're absolutely not interested and unable to deal with that, maybe you look into something else now. However, you're going to have rotations within your clinicals that will show you different aspects- OR, ER, cardiac rehab, etc. Maybe there's something within those that will appeal to you. Good luck.

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