Feeling Discouraged: Am I a hopeless case

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

Unless you aspire to be a CRNA or CNM, most grad schools do not seem to care what type of nursing experience you have.

Unfortunately, nurses who work the daylight hour Monday through Friday jobs that pay well did their time in the trenches. When I say trenches, I mean that most of them spent several years working evenings, weekends and night shifts in less-desirable bedside nursing positions. Bedside nursing is the foundation upon which the 'nicer' banker's hour nursing jobs are built.

~Shrek~ · Dec 21, 2014

Unless you aspire to be a CRNA or CNM, most grad schools do not seem to care what type of nursing experience you have.
Unfortunately, nurses who work the daylight hour Monday through Friday jobs that pay well did their time in the trenches. When I say trenches, I mean that most of them spent several years working evenings, weekends and night shifts in less-desirable bedside nursing positions. Bedside nursing is the foundation upon which the 'nicer' banker's hour nursing jobs are built.

thanks for your answer!

i don't mind working holidays or weekends or evenings 12 hour shifts or anything! I also don't mind being on call for nights of doing 1 night a week.

Just constant nights, all the time, pull the life out of me. And yes, I followed all the tricks

I would prefer to stay in nursing though. I am so confused with my career and my life!

WhoDatWhoDare, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

What areas of nursing have you been looking into? Have you applied to any OR internships? Your chances of ending up on day shift might be slightly better than if you were med-surg.

Take this time to make yourself more marketable by obtaining your ACLS and PALS if you haven't already.

Good luck,

Don

~Shrek~ · Dec 21, 2014

What areas of nursing have you been looking into? Have you applied to any OR internships? Your chances of ending up on day shift might be slightly better than if you were med-surg.
Take this time to make yourself more marketable by obtaining your ACLS and PALS if you haven't already.
Good luck,
Don

Hi, and thanks for answering!

I am basically applying to everything that has day hours or evening hours. I applied to one OR position in my area, but I haven't expanded outside my local area for acute care jobs since I was too intimidated to apply to them but now I think i will.

I have ACLS and PALS thankfully :)

I need to also be more patient. It took me a few months to get my first job (but I applied to it during school so i was busy while job hunting), and it has only been about 6 weeks.

SubSippi · Dec 21, 2014

Have you considered taking that job but then continuing to apply to other places?

~Shrek~ · Dec 21, 2014

Have you considered taking that job but then continuing to apply to other places?

Yes! But it is so rural and I would have a 40 hour workweek that I would have a hard time going to interviews.

Another option would be to work there for 8 months and apply to a bunch of graduate schools and then go to grad school in the fall

SubSippi · Dec 21, 2014

After working a few months, you'd have enough vacation days built up to where you could go on an interview. It would be tough but definitely doable. If you turned down that job, and then went another several months without any offers, would you regret not taking it? If your answer is yes, then I think you should just bite the bullet and go for it.

It's nearly impossible for anyone, with any degree to find their ideal job right out of school. But if your gut is telling you to do something, I'd say go with that. There's no way to ever know if you made exactly the right decision. But I think making a decision is almost always going to be better than just waiting and seeing what happens.

malamud69, BSN, RN · Dec 21, 2014

How bout move to a part of the country with actual options. ..sounds like you describe a no option area. ..you also seem motivated, unencumbered and willing...go for it! Big city acute care...that's where the action is...get some experience there...then the options will multiply. Never stay stuck...not with a career with endless routes!

~Shrek~ · Dec 21, 2014

After working a few months, you'd have enough vacation days built up to where you could go on an interview. It would be tough but definitely doable. If you turned down that job, and then went another several months without any offers, would you regret not taking it? If your answer is yes, then I think you should just bite the bullet and go for it.
It's nearly impossible for anyone, with any degree to find their ideal job right out of school. But if your gut is telling you to do something, I'd say go with that. There's no way to ever know if you made exactly the right decision. But I think making a decision is almost always going to be better than just waiting and seeing what happens.

The work schedule is set up so that you get a set vacation in the holidays, but not throughout the year.

~Shrek~ · Dec 21, 2014

How bout move to a part of the country with actual options. ..sounds like you describe a no option area. ..you also seem motivated, unencumbered and willing...go for it! Big city acute care...that's where the action is...get some experience there...then the options will multiply. Never stay stuck...not with a career with endless routes!

i can move after I get a job offer :) I would love to live in a big city and work day hours in acute care.

i know my biggest setback is that I only want days or evenings because I think I can tolerate a lot of the abuse and craziness that new grads inevitably have to face, but nights make the whole thing a living nightmare.

and I need honesty....is it more reasonable for me to leave nursing for something like engineering, law, or accounting so that I can build a career for myself where I can maintain my health?

SubSippi · Dec 22, 2014

i can move after I get a job offer :) I would love to live in a big city and work day hours in acute care.
i know my biggest setback is that I only want days or evenings because I think I can tolerate a lot of the abuse and craziness that new grads inevitably have to face, but nights make the whole thing a living nightmare.
and I need honesty....is it more reasonable for me to leave nursing for something like engineering, law, or accounting so that I can build a career for myself where I can maintain my health?

Would you have to go back to school? Do you have the money to do it? If you don't have to pay for a degree and you feel like you have the time get one then it's not unreasonable. To me, it would be unreasonable to put myself tens of thousands of dollars in debt to avoid working night shifts for a year or two.

If you don't have any financial obligations then go ahead and wait around a little while and see if anything comes up. You might even be able to work part time at a clinic when you were going back to school.

But I mean, do you want to be a nurse? You say you want to work in a hospital, but even working during the day is absolutely exhausting. If I didn't really love my job I would probably resent the toll it takes on me physically. But I ******* love what I'm doing right now.

You don't have to have a "calling" or whatever to be a good nurse and enjoy what you do, that's not what I'm saying. But it would definitely help if the idea of being a nurse sounds like fun to you.

So...what do you want to do?