Discouraged, frustrated... tired of switching JOBS!

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

Well, this morning was pretty much the last straw when it comes to my CURRENT job, which I've only had for seven months now; the shortest span that I've ever worked in a job that didn't take place in a fast food restaurant. When I took this current job, I told myself "Okay, this is IT, I'm going to make this one work". But, the fact is that I jumped into this job way too quickly without really being patient, doing plenty of homework, and REALLY finding something that I would love. I get excited about new jobs and new experiences and sometimes, especially when I'm frustrated with my job (as I was with my last job), I get impatient and jump right into a new one, take the first thing offered to me even, without... being PATIENT.

Well, this current job is just flat out turning out to be a disaster, a train wreck, about the worst nursing job that I've had so far. I won't even go into what happened today or what all has been happening... the point is, I can't seem to commit to a job. There always seems to be something wrong (or several somethings), and I can't seem to find satisfaction. I'm actually thinking about returning to the first place I ever worked as a nurse; a local hospital where I worked for 7 years. I often think about returning there; it would kinda be like going home.

Who else has switched jobs frequently, as a nurse or nursing professional... before finding somewhere that you are truly happy and want to stay??

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Specializes in Abdominal Transplant.

I'm not a nurse yet, but I've worked with many. Whether in nursing or another field, I think you're experiencing "grass is greener on the other side" syndrome. I know nursing can be rough, and jobs can lack satisfaction sometimes. But you've already experienced that there are problems everywhere. You just have to find a place where you can deal with the problems best. There is no trouble free workplace, especially in health care.

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Specializes in Psych, M/S, Ortho, Float..

NurseCard,

I feel your pain. The first six years in nursing I was all over the place. Then I got mad. Then I ran into a friend at a car dealership and she said there were permanent jobs in the offing at the psych hospital. I wasn't crazy about the thought of working there, but if it was a "real job" then I would give it a go. I've been there more than 4 years now and I still like the job. I don't love it, but it works for the time being. It's not an awful place. I've worked in places that were so bad that I stayed less than 6 shifts. Others for less than a year. You think that you can make a change to improve the place, but in fact, they drag you down into their mess.

One thing that I have noticed about the good places to work is to look for old nurses that have been there for more than 20 years. This tell you that it is a place to retire from. They do get set in their ways, but their ways usually work.

Good luck and take the time to talk to others that have worked in a facility before jumping in.

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Specializes in Labor & Delivery.

I have switched jobs frequently since becoming a nurse in 2006. Funny to find this thread today because I just accepted a new job this morning! The first two hospital jobs I had out of school were terrible. The first because the staff tore each other apart, and the second because it was so poorly staffed. My next job was at a county health dept. The job was okay but low pay. I took time off for a while after my daughter had sugery and worked prn at a small hospital near my home. I'm still there prn and work an occasional shift there. I'm now in a unit full time at a larger hospital and have been there seven months. I'm now tired to the hospital schedule and just this morning have switched to the clinic at the same hospital so that I have Mon-Fri hours. I love bedside nursing on the floor much more than clinic settings but like the clinic hours better. My husband gets frustrated that i've changed jobs so frequently but it hasnt hurt my chances of getting a new job. I applied for the clinic and two days later was hired! They didnt ask why I had changed jobs previously, just why I was wanting to change jobs now. I was honest and told them I want a better schedule. I don't know that I ever want to stay in one place for to long and eventually may check into travel nursing, but for now I do what works for me and my family!

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Specializes in see above.

I am newly employed in my fourth job in just over a year of nursing. The first I had was a wonderful nursing home (I know those words seem to be an oxymoron)

I disliked very little in the six months I worked for the home, but I met this wonderful cowboy and I wanted to move closer to him.

So I moved and found another nursing home job in another city. That's when it all began. With in two months I had enemies at this new job.

One of which stemmed from my working as an aide. Yet she was their prime example of nursing, and thus I was "let go" when asked the DON said "you aren't fired we're just letting you go." Ok...

Enter home #3... Felt like home again. Nice people, great residents good staff...

Until someone decided I wasn't doing my job. Not that the residents weren't taken care of but that I needed too much help.

I rarely asked for any help and when I did it was for something I had never done, for a new nurse it only happened enough times in the three months I worked there aroun six times.

Taking care of nearly 80 residents by yourself and having to change a catheter on a five hundred lb woman, and the bulb wouldn't deflate is not something I knew what to do with so I asked for help. This sort of thing.

So I was slated to "reorientate" (why do people use this 'non'word) on days. I was offered a job elsewhere making much more.

That job is a prison and its a completely new world from nursing homes...I'm not really sure if it will last but ya I feel your pain.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

I've moved around a lot too in my 12+ years of nursing. My longest-lived job was 2 1/2 years; my shortest, a mere three months. (I only left the 2 1/2 year job because of stupid upper-management politics, otherwise I'd probably still be there.) I've been at my current position a little less than a year and will probably be there for some time to come, as I enjoy what I'm doing and I work for a really great DNS and administrator; if I stop loving it and/or the management changes, I'll be out of there. Life is too short for bad jobs, and believe me, I've had some.

BTW, I've never had trouble landing a job despite my history of job-hopping. In my area at least, nurses do a lot of that, and everybody seems to know everybody else because we've circulated among the different facilities. Around here, you can literally change jobs every year, but it doesn't cost you as long as your reputation is good and people like you.

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