Confused! Guidance needed for new RN please! (kinda long)

[MrsCasey]

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to share my situation with you in hopes of getting some advice from seasoned nurses as well as opinions from fellow new grads. I graduated in May 2010. Passed the NCLEX and started my first job on a "cardiac" telemetry floor, I say cardiac with quotations because it was more like med surg with telemetry. The patients were very VERY sick, a step away from ICU acuity. Vents, trachs, total care patients. We usually had 4 patients, but 25% of the time we could have 5. I worked the night shift and you know how that goes...not enough help to go around. I usually did not pee, sit down, chart anything, or eat by 3 am after being there for 8 hours. By that time, I'd be scarfing down my food and my phone would ring for me to take report on my new pt coming from the ER or a transfer from another floor OR one of the patients would start crashing. I often had to stay over to chart. I know everyone says, "it gets better" "just wait it out." At that hospital, you have to wait a year from your out-of-orientation date (orientation was 3 months) to transfer. I started in July 2010, but would have to wait until October 2011 to get out. I was miserable. I spent most of my time off work worrying about going back. I would often head into work sick to my stomach. I cried to and from work. The only thing that seemed to make the job doable for me was getting a script for xanax. But I just wasn't a fan of taking medicine everytime I went to work.

So as you guessed, I resigned in March. I absolutely could not continue for 7 more months. My husband begged me to quit sooner (my husband is also an RN and has a great experience working on a rehab floor and is about to begin working in the pediatric ICU).

So now I am looking for a new job, but honestly just thinking of working on a floor makes me a bit queasy. I am TERRIFIED of finding myself in the same situation. I have considered going back to school to do something else...like anything else. But I know there is a part of me that loved nursing. And I know the floor I was working on was infamous in the hospital for being difficult, so I'm trying to chaulk it up just having a bad experience.

I have always been interested in psychiatric nursing and it is a long term goal of mine to become a psychiatric nurse practicioner some day. I would love to work in that area. Other areas that seem somewhat tolerable would be peri-surgical, recovery, or post anesthesia nursing. Would it be detrimental to me to take one of those jobs in that I wouldn't get to practice my skills as much as I would on a floor? My husband and I would also like to travel one day. Would I be able to find any travel jobs in those areas? If not, would I be totally lost working on a floor while traveling?

What do you guys think?

[allergyrn]

Wow! I could have written that post! I also graduated in May 2010 and first job on telemetry- just as you described, terrible pts that should have been in the ICU half the time, we were supposed to have 4 pts on day shift and 5 on nights, my first night alone I had 7 and 1 of them was a trach pt. Always had nurses calling off and worked short-staffed. We did 12.5 hour shifts, so I rarely had any life outside of that unit. I absolutely hated it. I stayed 5 months and left. I couldn't take it anymore...I felt like I was carrying too much responsibility and wasn't ready for it. I would not have left if we were not planning to move out of the area, but it was such a relief to leave. I now work in a totally different environment and have none of that stress. I do have to say that I miss the more 'clinical' side of working there, but I NEVER want to work telemetry again. I am not a fan of floor nursing...at all. I'd love to work in a specialty area and I think that's the great thing about nursing - we have so many options, so many areas to end up. I took it as a learning experience, that's how we find ourselves. I know I am a good nurse (and I'm sure you know you are too) I'm just not meant to be a floor nurse (or god-forbid a telemetry nurse!). I'm sure you will find something you love. I have friends who work in psych and some love it, others have learned it's not for them, but they do it for the experience. I don't regret the time I spent there, nor the fact that I left, as my husband has said there's a huge difference in me since :) I now know to only apply for jobs that I think I'd LIKE, not just jobs I NEED.

Best of luck to you! Keep us posted :)