I am a young nurse with just under 2 years experience. I was so excited about going into nursing but it seems I keep hitting bad experiences-- 1 year night shift on a crazy, intermediate/telemetry hospital unit and 10 months experience outpatient GI office losing clinical skills. I just feel I keep hitting bad experiences and am started to get turned away from nursing in general.
(night shift was terrible for me -losing weight, feeing like a zombie and was filled with a lot of bullies making it hard to learn on already stressful high turnover floor--that one year in the hospital was a blur, just typing this makes me have feel anxious
and this new job I was promised to eventually get trained in endo doing pre/post op--the whole reason I accepted the position--but with the high turnover of the office it looks like this will never happen--day shift is lovely but I feel bored and stuck in an office job and I don't quite feel like a nurse nor do I feel I am using my BSN to its full potential, not to mention my DON is so ineffective it is not even funny, and I am losing clinical experience)
I am now stuck in a weird position-- I just don't know where to go from here. I feel like I keep ending up in high turnover positions. I just want the next job I go into to be more of a long term job and I just feel stressed/anxious looking for new jobs for fear it will be another terrible experience. I love geriatrics and I always was interested oncology but no one will hire me in these positions without "experience" but I cannot get into these positions to get experience! I also would love a day shift position but these are also hard to come by. I am lucky I am young and have time but its just frustrating trying to find the best type of nursing for me.
Just looking for some advice on where to go next and how to find my niche? or any recommendations of specialties?
Okay, what I really meant, nursing has great varieties of opportunities and one should take an honest evaluation of their skills and passions before committing to a single path. Explore, ask coworkers, former classmates, friends but never be afraid of trying something different. If you try your best and contribute to departments that end up not working out, you can still retain dignity and respect; and what the heck you just expanded your professional relationships and have a greater pool of colleagues, a network to draw from when you do find your niche and have a question beyond your expertise.
There are many different types of nursing. Not all use clinical skills. If you like your schedule and don't hate your job then you're set. However, you seem to be feeling restless. What would happen if you told them you were ready to be trained in endo and if that's not going to happen in a reasonable amount of time you're going to start looking elsewhere? Maybe they keep using you in that other role because they can.
There's no way we can tell you where you'll be happy. A lot of nursing jobs are high turnover. You may have to try a few areas to find where your happiest. Anyway, your best bet would probably be getting back into a hospital (with all the shift work, holidays, over time, etc) because there it's easiest to try different areas, gain experience and clinical skills without changing employers. You may have to stick out a unit you don't like until you can find one you do. Check different hospitals too. My first one was like your experience almost word for word. My second was ten times better and had better schedules.
I've job hopped a lot and wish I hadn't. I left an area I absolutely loved (OB) to go for a better schedule (school nursing). I've never been able to get back in that area. I wish now I had considered a different hospital or going part time first. I did go back to the hospital to try different areas-one I hated, one I really enjoyed but after a couple of years I was tired of all the extra stress, politics, and call-in's and went back to school nursing. I like school nursing but it's not like I feel challenged that often or super excited to go (but I don't dread it either). Then I look around and how many people do feel excited to go to work? Not many! There's not a perfect job-all have their ups and downs. Good luck!
Shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow. I have interviewed at eight places total (a couple more than once), and of those, only two didn't offer me a shadow experience built into the interview. Unfortunately, one of those is my full time job now. If the manager only interviews you and doesn't offer you an opportunity to shadow, ask before you leave! Shadowing isn't perfect, especially if you are interviewing for night shift but they are making you interview in the daytime, but it does give you at least a little bit of an idea of what a shift is like. The shortest time I've shadowed is two hours and the longest I have ever shadowed at an interview is seven hours. It at least gives you a chance to walk up to staff and ask, "How long have you been here? Do you like working here? What's your least favorite thing about this facility?" If you're lucky, you might get some honest answers that will help you decide if the job/facility is a good fit.
oldandintheway
81 Posts
Okay, what I really meant, nursing has great varieties of opportunities and one should take an honest evaluation of their skills and passions before committing to a single path. Explore, ask coworkers, former classmates, friends but never be afraid of trying something different. If you try your best and contribute to departments that end up not working out, you can still retain dignity and respect; and what the heck you just expanded your professional relationships and have a greater pool of colleagues, a network to draw from when you do find your niche and have a question beyond your expertise.