Dislike working in the lab!

[jordanl]

Hey everyone, I have posted a few times on here regarding stuff sort of like this. I am currently a lab tech at our hospital. I really thought I wanted to be a nurse, and most days I still do. Then I look at how miserable my job in the lab makes me and it discourages me. Am I comparing apples and oranges here? Or if there some validity to thinking if I don't like the lab then I may not like nursing either? Thanks in advance :) .

[MLTtonursing, BSN, PhD]

I worked in the lab many years trying to find where I fitted in. I started out in a 600 bed hospital

as a generalist. I saw many procedures done in the lab. Eventually ending my lab career at a 25 bed hospital. At a smaller hospital I rarely saw anything different but had more patient contact where everyone thought I was a phlebotomist. Being a lab tech to me had challenges. Like doing antibodies in bloodbank. Alot of people don't know lab people have degrees. I went into nursing cause I felt I had knowledge I wanted to gain and give. I also went into nursing for more variety of places to go and to advance faster. I probably would have never become a lab manager because jobs like that are hard to come by. In nursing it is easier to move up in the profession. In about another year I plan to go to nurse practitioner school. That way I can put my lab knowledge with my nursing knowledge. When your not so busy in the lab shawdow a nurse and it may help you to decide what is best for you:)