Confused new RN!

NoviceRN10 · Feb 12, 2011

I don't work LTC, and I don't think I could after reading the experiences of those that do. I am a

Blackcat99 · Feb 13, 2011

Go ahead and suck it up for one year. You can do it. In today's economy, be very careful. There was a nurse here at this site who couldn't stand LTC so she quit. Later on she wrote that she had been looking for another job for over a year and had no luck in finding one. :crying2:

cjroan · Feb 13, 2011

I worked in LTC for three months for the same reason you are doing it now. It's really hard for new grads to find employment. LTC will help you to learn to organize your time, but it is tough. I am in med/surg now, and it's tough too! I will have been employed as a Nurse for one year in July. I still get confused and I have cried too. I can't wait until I feel like a seasoned, confident nurse. But, no one ever knows it all. We are all learning all the time. At least, we should be. Talk to everyone you know! Network, Network, Network! Find out where other students you graduated with work. They may be able to put in a good word for you. Even in my previous career of Graphic Design, my best job was attained thru someone I knew. It's really hard to get a job just thru sending resume's to HR. Just be sure to not leave your job until you have a new one if you can. It's always easier to find a job when you already have one!

:rolleyes:

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Feb 14, 2011

keep working but KEEP APPLYING. no need to stay a whole year in a dreadful situation. Good luck!

ashalina213 · Feb 15, 2011

I just want to thank everyone SO much for your input! I REALLY appreciate it! I'm going to start applying other places and just looking anywhere I can, even a dr's office or something while staying here in the mean time. I'm just very depressed and anxiety ridden and very nervous that I hate nursing! It makes me extremely overwhelmed with the responsibility of all the patients I have and the work I need to do. Being new and thrown into 21 (oh, now 22) patients and all the tasks that come along with it scare the crap out of me. Having to talk to doctors and families and everything is just ALOT to deal with. I really REALLY hope that it's just the territory bringing this on me and not nursing in general. :confused:

My mom has been suggesting trying to look for a dr's office or clinic where I'll have diff. patients all the time and not QUITE as much to do. Just for now, hopefully to kind of get my mind back on track.

I KNEW nursing was a huge responsibility getting into it and KNEW nurses were overworked and understaffed but I guess I wasn't so much prepared for how I'd feel about it and how scared I'd be. ALSO how much I wouldn't as much be CARING for patients as throwing meds at them all day and an occasional treatment. CARING for patients is what turned me onto nursing in the first place, I like helping people and loved the idea of caring for people at their most vulnerable times and making them FEEL BETTER. I don't feel like I'm helping anyone and don't have TIME to even sit and talk to patients for more than a few minutes even if I wanted to .

I just hope it gets better, I find a different job, and things get easier. I hope my view on nursing isn't tainted forever and hope I can stick it out long enough to prove to myself that I got into nursing for a reason and I made the right decision. It's very hard to try and see that now. I really just hope it's not nursing in general I dislike, just LTC.... :uhoh3:

Cmatt13, BSN, MSN · Feb 15, 2011

LTC is a tough place to cut your nursing teeth, for sure. I couldn't do it, and I admire anyone who can stick with it for any length of time. I worked on the ambulance prior to becoming a nurse and--I was in and out of LTC facilities all the time so I knew ahead of time that it wasn't for me. Fortunately for me, when I graduated I was able to find a place in a hospital.

I hated the hospital I ended up at the first time! I ended up going into research at a clinic to save my sanity. Did that for a few years and when I came out of that job, it was again a difficult task to find a hospital job because I had no clinical experience. I finally found a place at an extremely difficult hospital/unit where I had to grin and bear it until I could make my way into critical care. Ugh!

My point being, stick it out. The survival skills you learn while you're there will serve you well when you finally do get a job in an area that you enjoy. It sounds like you are in it for the right reasons, just maybe in the wrong place at the moment. It'll get better!!