Advice for a flustered pre-nursing student

msega1988 · Jun 17, 2015

My second year of nursing I really was feeling hesitant. Soon after I was so stressed and wasn't sure if I liked it, I had a placement in telemetry and I wasn't feeling it. I really had to reflect about what it was that I did not like. For me on that telemetry floor I didn't enjoy the team dynamic, and I didn't feel challenged. Throughout my nursing experience I've had two placements overall that I did not enjoy at all.. but you know I've had others I loved. I had another friend that had a similar experience too..and neither of us had that "calling" that they were "born to be a nurse". So my suggestion would be to reflect about what you didn't like. There are so many options in nursing, so if you don't like one area that is completely okay. I hope that helps and I wish you the best!

canigraduate · Jun 18, 2015

What you are feeling is pretty common.

It sounds like you have built up nursing in your mind into something terrifying.

Try to relax and focus on what you like about your job. Being a tech is nothing like being a nurse. When I was a tech, I thought nursing was my job plus medications. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Just look through the boards here. Each nursing specialty is basically a different career field. Figure out what you like and it will help you decide where to go as a nurse in the future.

If you like a lot of action and making high priority decisions, you may do well in acute care. If you like spending a lot of time with a few people and really getting to know them, home health or private duty may be the way to go. If you don't like patients, you can aim for a career in informatics.

These are just a few examples. Don't base your future off of one very narrow, tiny part of nursing. The field as a whole is pretty awesome, with thousands of opportunities.

Honestly, it sounds like you like your work, you are just not confident in your ability to do a good job. That will improve with time as you become more familiar with your duties. Also, it may just be the floor you are on. I loved being a CNA for tele, oncology, and post-surgical, but I didn't like it for Med/Surg or LTC.

mvm2 · Jun 18, 2015

What are the likes and dislikes you are finding so far in the health care field. It might help you be objective if nursing is going to be for you.

Depending on what you don't like might give you reflection if what you don't like will have anything to do with nursing or is it that your dislikes are about the tech job and what you like are things about nursing.

If you are truly concerned about if nursing is for you don't jump into nursing school till you are definetly confident that nursing is for you. If you need more time to decide then is it possible to wait till spring to start nursing school.

HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD · Jun 18, 2015

I'm just wondering about when you made your decision to pursue nursing. Was What was your BS major? Have you tried to find work in that field?

Nursing is an idealized profession; "angels of mercy" , "saviors of tiny babies", "knights in shining armor"... etc. Those archetypes are far from the nitty-gritty reality of very hard physical labor and extremely rare instances of gratitude or even acknowledgement from our patients. You were wise to dip your toe into the water by becoming a CNA.

I was a second career nurse also (first degree journalism). I did the same thing by becoming an LVN first. I loved it from the first day of my very first clinical experience. Very hard to describe, but it felt like "home" to me. I had no second thoughts about investing more time, energy & resources over the years. I have never wanted to do any other type of work.

My advice? If you really hate it, for goodness sake, go in another direction. Don't make yourself miserable - life's way too short.

jz16 · Jun 18, 2015

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. It's really helpful to hear other people's perspectives on this.

As for how I decided on nursing, I honestly just kind of just fell into it. I was a Public Health major who was originally pushed into first the engineering and then the pre-med direction by my parents, but I knew I wanted to do neither of those things. I was actually always discouraged from nursing because culturally, my background doesn't paint nurses in a favorable light. I started thinking about it when many of my fellow nursing friends told me I should look into it and would make a great nurse. It kind of just fits with my personality (I don't know if that sounds silly but I'm not sure how else to describe it?) and I've always loved the health field and can't see myself doing anything else (which is probably why I have no backup and am freaking out a tad). I feel like this is where I can make the most good in the most meaningful way. I've already met some patients who have left an impact on me and though deffffinitely not everyone is thankful (as one poster had already mentioned), I do feel good about what I do. I don't think I hate it, but I guess I just feel uneasy for some reason. Yes, sometimes it's annoying to get crap from the patients you've working all day to help, but that's not really what bothers me.

I really look up to nurses and the things that they do, but I guess what scares me is how low the morale is where I work. Everyone walks in already excited to leave, and I just don't feel like that's how it should be. I have 9-12 patients per shift and sometimes I feel like my whole day is taking vitals and changing beds. Sometimes I don't feel like anything I'm doing is actually helping anyone. From what I've seen, a large part of the days of the nurses I work with are spent giving medications for pain, doing the occasional assessment, and charting. Like a previous poster said, it really does feel like nurses do my job plus medications, so I'm glad to hear that that's wrong. I don't really look forward to going to work everyday and this is my first example of what nursing really is, so that's rough. Maybe it's not a good one?

I'm not sure if I'm just not cut out for ortho/neuro, if it's where I work, the people I work with, or what I'm doing. It's so different from a place I previously shadowed at where the nurses loved their work, but shadowing is very different from actually being neck-deep in it, so I'm not sure which to weigh more.

Sorry if it sounds silly that I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, I'm just a tad flustered because I really thought this is what I wanted to do. Perhaps it's a case of overthinking and I just need to give it more time, but a part of me is just excited and can't wait to get going and start applying, so it's a catch 22. I'd love to be more confident in my decision, but I'm not sure how to do that.