I have been a nurse for almost five years. I’ve been in every job possible; nursing homes with 22 patients and paper charting, rehab facilities with 24 patients on EMR on a tiny laptop dragging that stupid 500 lb med cart everywhere, not having all meds in the cart, and having to go all over looking for supplies, yet having to pass meds on 24 patients in two hours (ya good luck with that!)
I have been bullied by old lady nurses telling me to “get a thick skin, stop asking stupid questions, and figure it out yourself!” (Yes an older nurse of 30 years said this to my face!) To make matters worse, I spoke to the DON in the same facility and asked her how I was doing in my job (I thought I was catching on and doing pretty good) and she said “go back to your nursing books, learn how to do an assessment then come back when you learned something!”, and was fired on the spot.
I have worked in “world class care” hospitals working day/night rotations on two 12s and two 8s (starting at 11p - 7a?Thank you, next) I worked another straight night hospital and was told that I don’t have good critical thinking skills, while I run around with my head cut off caring for only 4-5 pts as the 20 year old new grads sit around on their phones all 12 hours and chart the entire shift.
I still don’t feel like I can do this freaking job or feel like I may kill someone! It all sucks to me. Why did I ever think I could do this and become an OR nurse someday? I regret every single day that I didn’t get out after first semester (but I didn’t want to show my kids or my husband I was a quitter!) My first year of nursing I had four jobs as mentioned above, and said screw this - I’ll never make it. I went back to HR and office administration and felt the pull back to nursing a year later. I landed a job in another state working primary care as an RN and I was dang good at it. I was the happiest I had ever been in any job! I was rooming patients, giving injections on my own schedule, assisting doctors with procedures. I loved my job and my coworkers but I still had my sights set high that I could be a good hospital nurse.
Here I sit after spending 10k$ of my own cash on my stupid BSN and graduating last May with honors and no job to speak of (yes I apply to all sorts of RN/BSN jobs and go to lots of interviews). I was unemployed all of last year because I moved back to my home state and left my awesome primary job that I loved (why why why???). No one is going to hire me without much experience for the last five years. I don’t list all the jobs I have worked for two months here, three months there, etc, so it looks like I haven’t done anything or learned jack except my primary care gig for a year and a per diem position that I don’t even get approved for!
I can’t keep flip flopping from admin to nursing so I am currently studying to get a medical assisting certification so I can work in the primary care environment (offices in my town require a certification and don’t hire RNs as MAs)making $10 less an hour than regular nursing jobs in these god awful facilities and understaffed hospitals. At least I will have A JOB. I should have just been a medical assistant all along and saved me and my husband tens of thousands of dollars.
I want to know if any of you will take the time and tell me your nightmare story or a story that started out bad but got better.
Do you also regret becoming a nurse? I would love to hear from you! Thanks for reading.
