Almost finished and want to quit

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I am almost done with my ADN program and thought I really wanted to do this but have become so disillusioned I am on the verge of quiting with only 3 months to go. I literally have trouble openning a book to study as I feel like I have made a huge mistake. Please take no offense when I say this and do not think I feel I am too good as I have done all kinds of jobs but nursing in most place I have seen so far is abusive. I did not know there was a setting that allowed this kind of treatment by "customers". I dont think walmart would allow their customers to be treated like this. I am starting to feel like I studied hard to work in a sweatshop environment. And the interesting part is that, although I keep my feeling to myself everyone else things it is ok to have 100 patients with 1000 procedures theya re going out for. The students themselves talk about time management as in she just doesnt have good time management skills? What? I was a waitress in many very busy restaurants and when I was younger earned a lot of money in these places with little time to take breaks but it was nothing like this. It seems to me that nursing attracts a certain kind of person to be able to tolerate it and perhaps I am not that kind of person. I love the theory of it and think it could be a great job if nurses were treated as professionals but sadly they are not. Doesnt anyone ever wonder why they are not consulted more when the hospital builds a new wing , buys new software since they are primarily the ones using it. In other workplaces this is typically not the case. I think of my friend that works at the bacon plant with full benes and 15$ hour and no liability. She would never work in the hospital I dont think.

THe saddest part is that I dont think it can be changed. I have never seen a group of people more ready to take the blame for things they didnt do and cant control continue to think its ok to be treated like a unwanted pack mule.

I am sorry if this is a little over the top. I am mad that I have student loans to pay back on this "career"

I absolutely would not quit now. As others have stated you will have so many options once you get a little experience. There are different cultures in different hospitals, different parts of the country, different specialties. You will have so many choices. There are so many areas you can use your RN trainingm where you don't even nave patient loads or pt contact, i.e. infection control, quality assurance, etc.

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Specializes in critical care.

Don't quit...don't quit...don't quit!

Look, just the experience of completing an AD program in Nursing is arduous. Yet, it demonstrates important qualities, such as perseverance, self-discipline, and motivation, all of which are highly sought after and valued in the marketplace. I'll share my own experience with you; I think it's illustrative and educational: as an idealistic AD grad (new career, late forties) I was off to work at my first job, in a progressive intermediate care unit. Sounds neat, huh? Well, what it turned out to be was a rather interesting trial by fire. The unit had a revolving door between CCU and it, as our patients really needed to be in CCU, and many returned, via coding! Vents, psych, geri, postop, drug/alcohol detox...we had it ALL, baby! This would be challenging to an experienced RN, never mind a new grad.

This all came to a head when my mom's health took a turn for the worse (she, in fact, was a patient on my unit for a spell). I decided to take a breather from the unit, become my mom's primary health care provider, and started to reevaluate my options. Long story short: I started my BSN, with which I will be done in December, and learned that there are other ways for a good RN to earn a nice living. Sometimes, we need to take a step away from a bad situation to realize that a wealth of opportunity is at our fingertips. If you need someone to talk with, I'd be happy to let you bend my ear.

Don't quit...don't quit...DON'T you DARE freakin' QUIT!!!! OK?

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Specializes in Telemetry.

I've been a nurse for 9 months and I felt the same way you did for a year before I graduated. I would like to tell you that it gets better and that all these people telling you to stick it out are correct, but that is a lie. Nursing sucks and it sucks bad. I even work on a floor with decent staff and a decent nurse manager and it still sucks bad. Get done with school though, it will be easier to get a job with a degree than without one. You don't have to be a nurse, find a job that has a decent schedule and doesn't suck your life away and you might be alright. Look into all the non-bedside nursing positions that you can and no matter what position you take DO NOT take any sign on bonuses. That is how they trap you in a job you hate and put you more in debt. I know it's tempting, but don't do it.

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Specializes in critical care; community health; psych.

I think your insight into nursing in the current culture is right on point. No argument from me. That said, you're so close to completing your degree AND taking NCLEX. Get your degree and your license and then work on something else of you choose. You only have to pass NCLEX once in a lifetime and your best chance of passing is right out of school.

Things can change. It can get better. But I agree, right now it sucks.

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Hi misplaced,

I had a few former nursing classmates who were struggling with the same dilemna as you--ultimately, 2 of those 3 classmates dropped out of the nursing program after realizing nursing was not a 'good fit' for their personalities, potential career satisfaction, and lifestyle preference. I kept in touch with those former classmates and they are happier, satisfied with their decision to pursue alternate careers. One girl told me "It would be a disservice for patients to have an unhappy nurse like me who did not want to be there..so I'm glad I followed my heart, so to speak, and left nursing. Patients deserve someone who really wants to be there."

Conversely, I have spoken to older, more experienced nurses who have been through 'blood, sweat, and tears' to get to that point in their careers where they could look back and say "You know, it's been worth it." They, too, acknowledge the downsides of nursing such as inept management at their workplace, short-staffing, 'difficult' patients, and perceived lack of respect from some of the attending physicians (not all physicians are like that, I don't want to draw up a 'nurse vs physicians' battle because our patients need both nurses and physicians!)

I will admit I had the same misgivings as you when I was fresh out of nursing school and working in a toxic environment. Inept management, nasty charge nurse, certain back-stabbing coworkers. Sometimes I would return home and just cry.

I decided to leave nursing and pursue other personal interests and obtained another degree during that period. But ultimately, I realized I missed psych nursing and I didn't give it a chance. That is, it wasn't nursing itself that burned me out but the bad work environment. I have decided to give it another chance because I felt like I did not give nursing a chance in the beginning. If you have a toxic working environment or hate your nursing specialty, I would advise you to leave that job as soon as possible or switch to another nursing specialty instead of leaving nursing altogether.

I can't say which choice would be best for you in the end. Do you feel like you have given nursing a chance but in the end, you really feel like you would be happier in another career? Or are you in a malignant nursing school environment and feel burned out? (Believe me, there were some nursing instructors who should not have been teaching and there were some malignant clinical sites where nursing students were treated like serfs or 'worse').

Many have posted good advice in this forum. There really is no clear-cut decision because only you and you alone can decide if you would be satisfied with your nursing career and only you can truly 'gauge' how unhappy you are at this point.

I wish you the best though and remember, there are always good folks here on allnurses to lend you an 'ear.'

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Specializes in medical.
I've been a nurse for 9 months and I felt the same way you did for a year before I graduated. I would like to tell you that it gets better and that all these people telling you to stick it out are correct, but that is a lie. Nursing sucks and it sucks bad. I even work on a floor with decent staff and a decent nurse manager and it still sucks bad. Get done with school though, it will be easier to get a job with a degree than without one. You don't have to be a nurse, find a job that has a decent schedule and doesn't suck your life away and you might be alright. Look into all the non-bedside nursing positions that you can and no matter what position you take DO NOT take any sign on bonuses. That is how they trap you in a job you hate and put you more in debt. I know it's tempting, but don't do it.

I agree with KalipsoRed, nursing in general sucks badly, especially in the hospital. You are smart to figure that out as a student,I had the same thoughts as you have right now, but... please finish your school and get the license, you're are too close to finish it. Now, telling you the truth, if I knew how bad the nursing was , I would never, ever go for nursing again.I feel like, I got sucked into this profession because of huge propaganda about this profession people think: nursing is flexible, stable, well paid job etc..blah, blah, blah.It's just nobody knows how miserable this job can be. On the other hand, now that I have some experience, I can tell you that I'm glad to stick it out, because my job right now is very flexible ( I work per diem 1-2 times a week, make 35-40$/hr). Also, there are different specialties and like other nurses often advise on this forum, it is worth to find unit that you might like.

I decided that I'll do the most out of this profession and am getting further education ( working on bachelor), and I observe other experienced nurses who moved to different units in the hospital or outpatient from my unit and are now much happier. I still work on one of the most "dreaded" units by new grads, med-surg, but I know that there are better and somewhat easier units than mine.

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wow, i feel the same exact way you do in almost the same exact situation! Its like your reading my mind. I'm also a student nurse and im almost half done my ADN program. I actually thought about quitting to and some days I still go back and forth on whether i want to do this to myself.

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You know what I would do? I would make a promise to myself that I'd never work one day as a hospital nurse, but that I would get my degree and license to "expand my resume'."

Even if you never use it, you have it. It might open up a door to some similar, or not so similar, career.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Yes, the patients treat us horribly and the visitors even worse. There is way too much work, and a lot of it is JCAHO nonsense that does the patients no good, and that the doctors try to be noncompliant with, as the nonsense of it annoys them too. Then you have a certain percentage of doctors who are rude, lazy, and demeaning. And no, I would not have become a nurse had I known all this. But you have put in too much work to quit now and it does NOT have to be this way. We nurses have only ourselves to blame. We don't actually have to work off the clock, blame ourselves when we are floated to areas we're not trained in and feel incompetent, backstab and backbite instead of helping each other, give up our breaks and our lunches to spend that time being chewed out once again by the ridiculous and hateful second cousin of one of our 8 patients. We as nurses have let this happen. Get your license and be part of the solution. You have an immense advantage over me and many like me in that you understand right now, before you even graduate, that the problems you will have in nursing, should you choose to participate, are not your fault and you don't have to feel bad about yourself for one single minute. And I really believe things will change, because they are going to have to, or there will be a sizable chunk of the population who will have no nurses to take care of them.

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I keep typing out responses and it will not let me post them. Thanks to everyone you have made a differnce. i will finish and see how it goes.

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I'm in the same boat you're in. Almost done with my ADN, and the one big lesson I've learned from nursing school is that much of the nursing scene today (esp. hospital nursing) is an abyss I don't ever want to step into. But, my advice would be - just stick it out. Take each day ONE DAY AT A TIME. It will end, and you'll have your degree and a license. You can choose to use it as a nurse or - as something else. But at least you'll have the credientials, whatever your decision as far as what job you choose. (And yes - I would totally stay away from sign-on bonuses, no matter what the job - big red flag...)

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No one should make a rash decision based on a few tough times. If that were the case I would have quit a lot of things early on. I have been in nursing for 30 years, I have fought the tough fights so that many of you could have it better. Believe me nursing has never been what is portrayed on TV. There is nothing glamorous about any of it. It is HARD WORK, it is THANKLESS! Sounds like being a single parent of teenagers, which I am, but I don't give up.

If there is anything I have realized about any job I have had, and there were ones before nursing too, your character is tested day in and day out in nursing, just like in any other job. I don't weigh my career in nursing on the few days I have a crappy assignment or tough patients, it is assessed on the patient who I helped get better and go home, or have a good death and the family had the best last minutes of their life, however long or short. It is weighed each and every time a client says, "thank you." We are exposed to people who are sick and at the worst. Yes, there are some who are at their worst no matter whether they are sick or not, but I see them act out in public too. No one is immune to poorly behaved people and coworkers. Do not be distracted by the few who are at their worst, but be transformed and re-energized by the ones who appreciate everything you do for them.

Nursing is weighed on the 30 year old client I took care of who was on a Thoractec and a Heartmate (both Ventricular Assist Devices) who was on six different vasoactive drips and expected to die by every MD and nurse. The family came from all over the country, many of who were not talking to each other, waiting for the moment to happen. I escorted family and friend into the room amongst every device known to high tech medicine and nursing and encouraged them to tell the patient how much they loved her and how much they were going to miss her. I encouraged them to share with her the importance of her life to them. I encouraged them to pray like they had never done before. I spoke to a brother who was fighting with another brother who wouldn't stay to see the end for his sister, he just couldn't do it emoitionally. I counseled and consoled this brother about the way we each see and deal with the world. I encouraged him to see how his sister in the bed would not want her family coming apart at this difficult time, but would want them to come together. He cried and I held him (awkward being a guy, but I'm a father and a nurse). He left the room to go call his brother and apologize. As the night went on, I watched a miracle occur for this patient and this family. Through the night I saw a patient who was not expected to live be titrated off almost every drip and improve to the point the cardiothoracic surgeon could not believe the transition when he arrived the ext morning. I took care of this complex patient and family for nearly three months before she left, ALIVE. Every day she was sedated I talked to her like she was very much alive and going to make it. Months later she returnd to visit our unit after having gone through therapies and struggles, including several digits being amputated and physical therpay to learn to walk again. Upon hearing my voice she said, "You are the one who told my family to come together and my friends to tell me how much they loved me." "I heard you and I heard my family say your name many times. You changed my life!" That is what makes me continue the fight for better patient-nurse ratios, better pay and better recognition for all of you who will follow in my steps many years after I am no longer a nurse and ultimately am long since forgotten in the hallowed halls of any hospital.

You can make a difference, nursing - just like raising a child, can feel like panning for gold nuggets at the bottom of a rapidly moving stream. It is worth it when you make a find, but moving all of that debris to get to the nugget can seem thankless. Bloom where you are planted. Give nursing a chance first, then decide if you would rather ask, "You want fries with that?"

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