I think I need help, or maybe a place to vent. I graduated nursing school in December and started my first nursing job in April at a rural hospital. I don't like it. Somewhere between don't like and hate is how I feel. I always thought I would like hospital nursing, but I am discovering I really really don't. (And to the many wonderful hospital nurses out there, please don't take offense! It is just not for me!)
I hate working nights, I hate working weekends, but mostly, I just don't like hospital work. I don't like dealing with IV's, round the clock medication schedules, etc. I initially thought I was going through an adjustment phase, but I'm now reasonably certain that it's not adjustment, I just don't like it. Plus, I started in ER for six weeks, but moved because I thought medical would be better for me. It was. Then they decided to put me in ICU. I had one month in ICU as an orientee and then was a primary this past Friday night. I just don't think I should be a primary yet anyway, but on my second night after orientation? That is another problem with the hospital, at least in my case... You get all these great promises of orientation and nurse to patient ratios, but in a bind, they don't hesitate to stick it to you. I feel so overwhelmed, but I am trying very hard to hold on for a year, because I know the experience will be important. My goal is an office job.
Any help/suggestions to help me make it to a year? Seems so far off right now. Any new nurses who can commiserate?
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
People, if a psych unit was boring all the time they wouldn't be staffing it with RN's. I'm guessing that none of you had a clinical in a locked psych unit with schizophrenics who were having acute episodes or taken care of patients who are detoxing from drugs or alcohol. A doctor can hire an LPN or a medical assistant for his office, why an RN? You will be doing work worthy of your license. Every position has its stresses, believe me.
People, if a psych unit was boring all the time they wouldn't be staffing it with RN's. I'm guessing that none of you had a clinical in a locked psych unit with schizophrenics who were having acute episodes or taken care of patients who are detoxing from drugs or alcohol. A doctor can hire an LPN or a medical assistant for his office, why an RN? You will be doing work worthy of your license. Every position has its stresses, believe me.
I beg your pardon, if you read my post I stated that I had done a clinical rotation through a Psych unit. It was definately a lock down unit with nothing but bipolar schizophrenics. I will give you credit for saying it is not boring but all the RNs where doing was paper work and stated to me if you want true pt care---don't get into psych b/c it's mostly paperwork for the RN, they were not out on the floor with the pts, that was the MHTs, and the LVNs were passing meds through the window. And I don't have to go to the psych hospital to see people going through ETOH and drug detox b/c I see them on my MedSurge floor all the time. I would love to know your rationale for thinking that an RN would not be doing work worthy of her license by working in a Doc's office??? I don't know where you are but in our neck of the woods the LVN doesn't even have to have A&P to get their license. IMO that is the whole backbone of one's nursing knowledge and speaking from a pts stand point I think that is important knowledge for one to have to care for anyone. I am by no stretch of the imagination knocking LVNs and the importance they have in all aspects of nursing care b/c I have gained alot of knowledge from them on the floor as well as the Aides.
Seems to me and you can correct me if I am wrong, that you have one of those "Holier than Thou" nurses attitudes that perpetuates the saying that "Nurses eat their young". It is nurses like you that I have no desire to be like!!!
People, if a psych unit was boring all the time they wouldn't be staffing it with RN's. Please explain what you mean here...........how in the world does a psych unit being boring correlate to staffing it with RNs?????
People, if a psych unit was boring all the time they wouldn't be staffing it with RN's. I'm guessing that none of you had a clinical in a locked psych unit with schizophrenics who were having acute episodes or taken care of patients who are detoxing from drugs or alcohol. A doctor can hire an LPN or a medical assistant for his office, why an RN? You will be doing work worthy of your license. Every position has its stresses, believe me.
Of course it's not boring all the time, but compared to the constant stress of hospital nursing it is a whole different world, especially adolescent psych, which is more behavioral problems than truly psychological problems, in two and half years as a psych tech I never saw a schizophrenic patient and we didn't do detox at all. Once a week or so we would have an escalated pt. who would get a booty dart and then back to quiet time. The nurses got up off their butts maybe once or twice a shift or if there was an escalated pt. Every job in the world has its stressors, heck, working at Mcdonalds is stressful, but taking care of 12 patients including 4 new onset chest pains by myself as a new grad just out of orientation because my entire team is in with the 5 traumas we just got back to back (happened several nights ago) does not even compare to what a psych nurse has to do. One of my pts could have died and I wouldn't have known it for an hour unless someone happened to walk by the monitors on my zone. At least psych pts won't die on you like that. Really, arguing about what is harder or better or worse is pretty much ridiculous anyway though, it's all subjective.
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
You are very quick to jump to conclusions. Because a nurse on one unit that you had exposure to tells you that psych nursing is mostly paperwork rather than being out on the floor with patients is hardly representative of all psych nurses. My exposure to psych nurses was that they very specifically engaged in directed therapeutic communication with patients as part of the patient's care. My knowledge comes from being a nursing supervisor in a facility that had three locked psych units which I looked in on several times over each shift I worked. I never saw those nurses just sitting around doing paperwork. They were often interacting with their patients.
I never said that an RN would not be doing work worthy of her license by working in a doctor's office. Since you were unable to comprehend what I wrote, let me state it another way. A doctor is going to have an RN working in his office because he needs the RN to engage in patient care for him. An RN costs more than an LPN or a medical assistant in terms of salary. Many doctors don't have RNs in their office. If they do, they certainly are not there to look pretty! They are needed.
I have a "Holier Than Thou" attitude? It takes one to know one. I doubt that you will ever be like me. You would need to be less close minded.
Of course it's not boring all the time, but compared to the constant stress of hospital nursing it is a whole different world, especially adolescent psych, which is more behavioral problems than truly psychological problems
Psych units have constant stress also. Just because you don't happen to see people in 4 point restraints tied to beds doesn't mean that nurses have been on a shift-long break. The job of a psych nurse is to constantly de-escalate and predict stressors before they occur in order to control the milieu. The fact that the patients were calm on the floor actually speaks volumes for the efficacy of those nurses' interventions.
In addition, properly diagnosed adolescents have as broad a spectrum of psych diagnoses as adult patients do. This pervasive attitude of pigeonholing kids that 'act out' as "more behavioral problems than truly psychological problems" is a disservice and a shows a fundamental lack of knowledge of psych nursing. I would dare you to walk a mile in some of these adolescent's shoes. It ain't pretty.
One of my pts could have died
And quite often psych units receive the 'cast offs' from every medical floor that has been challenged in any way by perceived behavioral 'problems'. Add to the mix highly suicidal patients (btw, ever cut down someone that decided to hang themselves with a bedsheet?) and it's quite a volatile mix more often than not.
In summary, psych nursing is demanding work and is THE most misunderstood nursing specialty in most hospitals, as evidenced by the gross misperceptions in this thread.
Specializes in Geriatrics/Oncology/Psych/College Health.
Please, everyone, refrain from personal attacks. No need to diss one form of nursing over another. Also, the quickest way to honk off another nurse is to tell him/her the job they do is easy .
I agree! I have spoken with several seasoned nurses and fresh from nursing school nurses who agree it is nothing like it was or presented to us in clinicals or school. I have worked in several places too.........those I speak with agree...you JUST HAVE TO FIND YOUR PASSION in nursing. And switching to part-time has helped. I can pick up plenty of extra shifts and they are all OVERTIME! I'm happy with my choice. You hang in there.........:)
Starting as a new nurse today is much different than it used to be 'back in the day'. I've spoken to seasoned nurses about this many times. The patient acuity is through the roof now and the sickest of the sick are 'allowed' to be inpatient per insurance company mandates. Remember the days even 15 years ago when vag-delivery moms could actually stay in the hospital for 48-72 hours?? Good luck on that today.
Sometimes it's good to have a paradigm shift before pronouncing someone 'arrogant' and not right for the profession.
Psych units have constant stress also. Just because you don't happen to see people in 4 point restraints tied to beds doesn't mean that nurses have been on a shift-long break. The job of a psych nurse is to constantly de-escalate and predict stressors before they occur in order to control the milieu. The fact that the patients were calm on the floor actually speaks volumes for the efficacy of those nurses' interventions.
In addition, properly diagnosed adolescents have as broad a spectrum of psych diagnoses as adult patients do. This pervasive attitude of pigeonholing kids that 'act out' as "more behavioral problems than truly psychological problems" is a disservice and a shows a fundamental lack of knowledge of psych nursing. I would dare you to walk a mile in some of these adolescent's shoes. It ain't pretty.
And quite often psych units receive the 'cast offs' from every medical floor that has been challenged in any way by perceived behavioral 'problems'. Add to the mix highly suicidal patients (btw, ever cut down someone that decided to hang themselves with a bedsheet?) and it's quite a volatile mix more often than not.
In summary, psych nursing is demanding work and is THE most misunderstood nursing specialty in most hospitals, as evidenced by the gross misperceptions in this thread.
I am talking about a specific psych hospital where I worked for 2 years.
I was not trying to offend, just talking about a very specific situation, not psych nursing in general.
SherBear. . .I was born, raised and got my BSN in the midwest. Also, spent 6 years in Kansas City and know the Midwest mentality very well. I worked in several rural hospitals and know well the kinds of situations the nurses who work in them face. I believe that we nurses should think more in terms of working with management and administration rather than against it. I think we are now way off topic and this has become personal. I'm sorry if my comments have caused you distress; I was merely trying to stimulate some intelligent debate.
No you weren't! Trying to stimulate an intelligent debate does not involve name calling or telling someone to leave the profession. Now I know where the phrase "Nurses eat their young." comes from...old nurses like you who think they know it all.
I have been a Registered Nurse for about 14 years. I liked alot of things about being a nurse for many years, but, I am where you are at. I've worked many areas of nursing trying to find the niche that makes me want to wake up every day and look forward to the day. Some days, I want implement my ideas to improve patient care and processes. Other days, I am disappointed that nursing hasn't progressed as rapidly as I prefer. Acute care, in any regards, is difficult. It's a work out. I recommend acute care for the young and flexible. You need to have endurance and stamina or it won't work for you. Long term care is also very demanding and the responsiblity can be extensive, but i think over all it's easier on a nurse. Ask yourself what you want as the years progress. This will help you decide what area of nursing you should pursue. It has taken me 14 years to come full circle. I am back to long term care. I'm not sure this is where I will stay, but I remember I was happiest doing this type of nursing after all. Check things out. By the way, you may find a metropolitan hospital more desirable than a rural hospital.
Shelly
Hi.
I think I need help, or maybe a place to vent. I graduated nursing school in December and started my first nursing job in April at a rural hospital. I don't like it. Somewhere between don't like and hate is how I feel. I always thought I would like hospital nursing, but I am discovering I really really don't. (And to the many wonderful hospital nurses out there, please don't take offense! It is just not for me!)
I hate working nights, I hate working weekends, but mostly, I just don't like hospital work. I don't like dealing with IV's, round the clock medication schedules, etc. I initially thought I was going through an adjustment phase, but I'm now reasonably certain that it's not adjustment, I just don't like it. Plus, I started in ER for six weeks, but moved because I thought medical would be better for me. It was. Then they decided to put me in ICU. I had one month in ICU as an orientee and then was a primary this past Friday night. I just don't think I should be a primary yet anyway, but on my second night after orientation? That is another problem with the hospital, at least in my case... You get all these great promises of orientation and nurse to patient ratios, but in a bind, they don't hesitate to stick it to you. I feel so overwhelmed, but I am trying very hard to hold on for a year, because I know the experience will be important. My goal is an office job.
Any help/suggestions to help me make it to a year? Seems so far off right now. Any new nurses who can commiserate?
I graduated nursing school in December and started my first nursing job in April at a rural hospital. I don't like it. Somewhere between don't like and hate is how I feel. I always thought I would like hospital nursing, but I am discovering I really really don't. (And to the many wonderful hospital nurses out there, please don't take offense! It is just not for me!) 
.
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
People, if a psych unit was boring all the time they wouldn't be staffing it with RN's. I'm guessing that none of you had a clinical in a locked psych unit with schizophrenics who were having acute episodes or taken care of patients who are detoxing from drugs or alcohol. A doctor can hire an LPN or a medical assistant for his office, why an RN? You will be doing work worthy of your license. Every position has its stresses, believe me.