Wanting to Quit Nursing School

[_ashley_]

Hi there,

I am am almost half way through my third year on my BSN program. My specific BSN program is very decelerated. It is just in the past month that I have taken on my OWN patient and have now started to take two. (Yes, I know, in third year)

Either way, I HATE it. Finally having enough exposure and knowledge of the profession/what its really like, I want to quit so badly. Every time I am giving medications, charting, doing assessments, I feel sick. I'm so scared that I am missing something and I realized I never want to have the responsibility of someone's health. I can admit now that I went into it without knowing what the profession was really like and doing it mostly for job security reasons.

Its taken me 2.5 years of school to realize this because 1st and 2nd year where so academic based with minimal clinical, I love class and learning, have a 90% average. I just HATE clinical and lab and truthfully am not doing very well in them.

Only area I could see myself going is addictions, marginalized populations, community type nursing or related non-nursing jobs I could acquire with my degree. The thought of quitting and starting a different degree gives me such happiness and relief, but I don't want to regret abandoning my BSN. I just don't know if I can physically make it though the necessary clinicals to graduate.

I would love any opinions or advice you guys have to offer.

Thanks for any imput!

[middleagednurse]

I would advise finishing this year. You never know, you might find yourself liking nursing. Now if you still don't like it by the end of your 3rd year, then switch to something else. Your clinicals will give you the opportunity to see other professionals in action, and maybe something will strike you as interesting.

[SN2014]

The first step in accomplishing something is telling yourself your can. IMO, I wouldn't give up. You're almost done! There are a million different things you can do as a nurse that is not as stressful as an acute care bedside nurse. Consider addiction, mental health center, psych, home health, free standing surgery center, hospice, doctor or surgeon's offices, school nurse, public health center nurse, infusions, sales rep, etc. Being thrown to the wolves, so to speak, in an acute care setting is enough to make anyone second guess what they're doing some times and want to pull their hair out. There's a reason why you chose nursing in particular.. and you've already gotten this far. You don't have to do what you're doing now for clinicals. Hang in there. Best of luck with whatever you choose.

[DahliaDaisy, RN]

Only area I could see myself going is addictions, marginalized populations, community type nursing

And what is wrong with that? I entered nursing school in my 40's KNOWING I wanted only to go into psych and/or addictions nursing. I too enjoy the academics and have consistently high scores on the ATI predictor (putting me at 99% chance of passing the NCLEX, mine is a Associates degree program at a community college). I have lost too many people to addictions and then the pain I went through after all the losses gave me great empathy for the mentally ill and suicidal. I can't wait to graduate and go into the field, it seems to not be a popular option so getting jobs in my area does not seem to be a problem.

Oh, and I hated clinicals too, mostly d/t the adjunct professors who hated their jobs and took it out on us, and after spending a day in the MICU, I realized that if that was the only kind of nursing there was, I would drop out of nursing school that DAY lol. But I enjoyed the psycho social aspect of brightening up the patients day! That's how I tried to look at it on those cold mornings when I had to get up at 4am for clinicals, we had to look up our patients at the hospital the night before, so I knew all about them and I would think to myself " I'm just going to do my best to help out Mrs. C and Mr B in whatever way I can!"

So, obviously you know which way I'm leaning

[time2go, MSN, RN, NP]

I wanted to quit nursing school nearly every semester. I'm now finishing my AGNP and I've wanted to quit that too. Before you quit, learn about all the jobs you can do that are not in the hospital. Hospital nursing is not for everyone but nursing is such a broad animal, there may be something you find that you love. I never worked in a hospital. People will say you have to for a year or two to get your skills and assessments, blah, blah, blah. I hated the hospital and went directly into hospice. LOVE IT. I plan to keep doing it as an NP and throw in a little primary care. You are wise to be sure before you quit.