Burned out and hate nursing

Nurses Stress 101

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Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to help people. I wanted to heal. Now 4 years out of nursing school, I HATE nursing with a passion. I am a med/surg nurse with a BSN.

Reasons I hate nurses (in no particular order)

1. Most days I feel like a pill-pusher. I don't feel like I make a difference.

2. Doctors feel they are perfect.

3. Patient satisfaction scores.

4. Patient sense of entitlement. (see #3)

5. Family at the bedside dictating what they want...like I am their personal servant. I have to comply (see #3).

6. Lack of appreciation mized with how much more work can they give us.

7. Nights, weekends, and holiday. I don't want to give everything I've got only to see no return in work satisfaction.

I don't want to be a case manager. I don't want home health nursing. I really want to be outside of the hospital. Quite honestly, I want to be away from people. I would be quite content to work on a computer and have email interactions. Preferably work from home. Any suggestions?

I'm a nursing school hopeful and after reading this thread, I'm not as excited at the prospect of nursing! I am just wondering if any of you have done or considered the outpatient setting? It seems the hours are better and you might not feel as much like a servant. Also, smaller clinics may have less politics (or maybe more?). Just wondering what your thoughts are on that.

Also, I am between nursing and doing some sort of therapy, like MFT. Do you think both inevitably burn you out? Thanks for any insight! I really value nurse's honest opinions.

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Specializes in PCCN.

A co worker of mine was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and got a job down in pre- op. She loves it. But very rarely do they ever have openings. Most MD offices except for plastic surgeries don't hire RN's where I am.

Some of the urgent cares that are popping up all over now do hire RN's, but they only want Rn's with ED experience.

Like other posters said though, maybe it's the managers/facility that make things suck.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

This is why I only work two days a week and even those are spaced out until I find a way out altogether!

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Research Nursing is great. :) I do phase I clinical drug trials. The other nurses and I constantly revel in the fact that we have it made compared to bedside or acute care nursing. We may make a little bit less than a hospital nurse, but trust me-it's totally worth it!

I would recommend looking into a specialty that is as far from the hospital as possible.

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You could try telephonic case manager work eg United Health Care, but I have heard that EVERYBODY is trying to be a case manager now since nursing really sux. So, they get flooded with applications. It's the first thing all the RN pharm reps do since pharm companies are laying off like the plague has hit.

Oh, and also some of the pharm companies do hire RNs still in telephone roles, but there is usually a catch - the pharm company itself probably won't hire you at all, it must go through a temp agency they are contracted with so you have no ties with the co. (they don't want to give you any benefit of working for them, so you will never be an employee) You get like 5 month contracts and are paid through the temp agency.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
I don't mind school, but I will need a job after graduation. I have no IT experience.

Eh. Go back to school for some sort of IT degree then (although IT degrees are the same dime a dozen as nursing degrees these days). Informatics positions are hard to find and, at least in my area, pay substantially less than bedside so you'll be stuck having to pay off that masters on a smaller salary..if you find a job.

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Yeah informatics is kinda old. Never see ads wanting RNs for that anymore, they just use regular IT folks now. You know it's all corporate now.

A friend of the family taught IT related stuff at a CC after he lost his IT job and now he's in charge of implementation and RN teaching at a hospital chain that's kind of in the boonies. He has absolutely no healthcare experience, and he teaches the RNs how to use the EMR....

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
Research Nursing is great. :) I do phase I clinical drug trials. The other nurses and I constantly revel in the fact that we have it made compared to bedside or acute care nursing. We may make a little bit less than a hospital nurse, but trust me-it's totally worth it!

I would recommend looking into a specialty that is as far from the hospital as possible.

I Want to get into research nursing. Actually have lab experience. But most of the phase I places want experience, and the phase II-III trials are mostly cancer in my area so they want at least two years of heme/onc.

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Specializes in Psych/med surg.

There are informatics positions here but they require an associates in IT. Once you are certified in EPIC, you make $43/hr. I may consider it if I don't like being a community health nurse because I have a bachelors in computer information systems. I don't think floor nursing is for me. I tried it for 3 days in a nursing home and it sucked the life out of me. I hate 12 hour night shifts. I give KUDOs to nurses that can do it but it is not for me.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
Yeah informatics is kinda old. Never see ads wanting RNs for that anymore, they just use regular IT folks now. You know it's all corporate now.

A friend of the family taught IT related stuff at a CC after he lost his IT job and now he's in charge of implementation and RN teaching at a hospital chain that's kind of in the boonies. He has absolutely no healthcare experience, and he teaches the RNs how to use the EMR....

I work at a large teaching hospital. We do hire RNs for informatics positions, as do several of the other large hospitals in the area. But you're looking at maybe a handful of openings a year in a two million person geographic region.

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I just got hired on to do Utilization Review at a hospital. I haven't started yet so I can't speak to whether or not I will like/love it, but I had to get away from floor nursing. I've only been at it 15 months and I just can't do it anymore for all the reasons you state and then some. I am starting in UR very part-time but she will add more shifts in for me as the department grows. Good luck to you...I feel your angst.

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Hey good you have a bachelors, because there are so many IT guys out there even, you know? The ads I see want "build" ability - no mention of RN. I met a Healthcare Administration degreed person the other day. He can't get a break either, but I knew that was a dead degree when I started nursing school. Some of the peeps I had Bio and A&P with many years back were HA degreed even masters level, and they couldn't get interviews so they decided to get their RNs :uhoh3: - so I guess most everybody has already flooded every river.

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