Dissapointed in nursing

[needrn]

I have been a RN for 3 1/2 years now, but I am not sure if I nursing is for me. I got interested in nursing while taking care of my mom after her open heart surgery. I always wanted to help people, and I always liked to challenge myself by learning new things. So, after being laid off from my business administration job, I decided to go to nursing school. I loved the theory, hated the clinicals, except peds and psych. I wanted to go into psych after graduation, but decided to do med/surg/tele, so I could learn some clinical skills. And I did. However, the stress was too much for me. It was very difficult to deal with the lack of staffing, the amount of responsibility, and the posibillities for making an error and losing my licence. So I quit after year and a half. I went to work for an agency part time, doing occupational nursing at a major corporation. I loved it, my manager was great, willing to train me in this new nursing area. I got hired on permanent part time. Alas, my mgr became ill and had to go on permanent disability.

The new manager, who used to be a nurse in the dept, did not think I had the skills, education and experience to work for this MAJOR corporation, and she intimidated me all the time. I got laid off, even though I did my best to learn the job.

I have been looking for work, but have had no luck so far. I am not sure if I can go back to the hospital scene again.

I would like to work at a private practice or a clinic, and I applied at many of them in the area. But seems like they all want LPN's, not RN's. I had few interviews, including at nursing homes,but no job offers. I have also applied at the VA, no luck there either. The other hospitals in town are on hiring freeze because of budget cuts. I've applied for case management jobs, no luck. They want CM experience or BA in nursing.

There is only one psych center in the city, and I am planning on applying there. I found that most specialties, though, want you to have experience in that area.

I am thinking of maybe trying home care, but not sure if I'm cut out for it.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I thought I would love nursing because of all the different areas I could be working in, but I have been very dissapointed so far. I also wanted to see if I could combine my business education and experience with nursing, but tough luck there, unless I get BA in nursing? I don't really want to leave nursing, but I really don't know what else to do......?

Any suggestions anyone?

NeedRN

[needrn]

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that am 44 years old, and I do have a recurrent back injury, which limits my lifting ability....

[Mijourney]

With your back injury, if you think that you may enjoy healthcare but not particularly physical work, try health information management (HIM). It's one of the fastest growing fields in healthcare. You'll see some of the threads talk about coding but there's more to HIM then coding. Check out http://www.ahima.org and surf that website for all the opportunities. Yes, more schooling will be required but you can get your BS or BA in HIM and it will take you as far as a BA in nursing. The two credentials that you can make yourself eligible for are the RHIT which is based off of a two year program and the RHIA which is based off of a four year program. You'll be amazed at the areas that you can work in being a RN and having a four year degree in HIM. Also, if you get experience in coding, you could consider working from home. Unfortunately, like the other health care fields, experience is the operative word. If you decide on a coding career or a HIM career, I urge you to consider volunteering in the medical records department of a hospital to get a feel for if you would like going the coding or HIM route. Best wishes.