Giving Up?

kohana · Oct 26, 2008

Don't give up yet. Try another specialty or look for a new job in a different hospital that offers something more stable. You always have the option of going back to school and obtaining your Masters or PhD. There are so many opportunities out there. Or maybe you just need a break. Take a leave of absence or a vacation (if possible). Once you've exhausted all your options then quit, that way you'll know that you tried your best and it still didn't work out. And you won't have any regrets, hopefully. You sound like someone whose heart is in the right place, but are feeling a bit discouraged at the moment. Changing careers is a big decision and I would mull it over. Good luck in whatever you decide though. Just do whats best for yourself.

seaspray700777 · Oct 26, 2008

NO, please dont give up. There are so many other places you can go that are more fair and appreciate you! Like the other post said try to take a leave of absence and look around. I dont know how Canada is but if you can move to Maine I can recommend a hospital that would LOVE to have you and are great ratio to patient in ICU it is NEVER more than 2 patients mostly 1 patient. Even in NICU. I am a CNA so I am not a recruter looking for RNs but there are great places to work that have support staff to help you. Feel free to private e-mail me. You worked to hard to quit now.

Good luck and hugs from Maine. Also I have one semester to finish my RN degree.:redbeathe:redbeathe:redbeathe:nurse:

JustaGypsy · Oct 26, 2008

Try the ER. As anyone here knows, I am a huge fan...

Besides... you may find your "inappropriate floor attitude" fits right in...

Flightline, BSN, RN · Oct 26, 2008

What would you do instead?

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Oct 26, 2008

Nursing is hard, and the demands are great. It's not for everyone. Are you sure you want to quit, though? Maybe a different specialty would be more rewarding for you.

I, too, tire of the incessant requests for jello and blankets. I've been trying to adjust my attitude lately, though.

rwright15 · Oct 26, 2008

Think of what you went through to get to be a nurse. I could not imagine all of the hard work being in vain. I am not even done with school yet and am in the middle of the tiring endless study nights, stressing for tests... I couldn't imagine going through all of this and in 2 years just giving up. You are just having a bad run. Maybe you need a vaca or just a different floor or specialty. Please don't just give up.

jeepgirl, LPN, NP · Oct 26, 2008

WARNING: Vent
Two years I've been a nurse. Two years and I feel very tired. Our other PEDS unit is closed due to the low census and we're either being floated to the NICU, PICU, Oncology, Cardiac units or being cancelled every week. If we do get to stay in our unit, we're taking care of five patients, without any clinical tech or secretary.
Also tired of dealing with wacko parents. They're rare but when they're on our unit - let's just say that it's scary that people like that are raising children. Tired of being disturbed during report just because someone wants their bed changed or wants apple juice.
I don't know if it's only my unit or if other units are the same. Bottomline is, I feel like giving up and leaving the Nursing field. Maybe nursing isn't for me after all.

this is why i went to graduate school! well, more to it than that - but believe me, i know your pain. small units, closed a lot, but when open slammed you with five patients a piece (or more - we sometimes had 7-8, NO tech or help - all total patient care). never getting an uninterupted lunch break due to not having enough staff - two nurses is not enough when you've got a packed unit. and i'm not talking about only being interupted by patient needs either. being locked into the peds until for the entire 12.5 - 15 hour shift because its a locked unit and the nurses can't leave (and no, i am not a smoker). not to mention that since we didn't have a unit clerk, we were also unit clerks - which included running out of rooms to unlock the door to the unit or to answer the phone 15 times while trying to complete a task. constant interuptions (playing unit clerk again) totally messed with me, to be honest.

my advice - look into something else where those elements are not present. ER has an ever changing mix of patients and at the facilities i have been at, seems to be staffed well. maybe be an office nurse with fixed tasks. employee health. stuff like that. i went back to school and i am glad i did - i about peed myself in happiness when i was getting lunch during NP clinicals (since lunch during my shift work was always pretty much missed, and if it wasn't it was scarfed down while doing other stuff, such as answering phones or charting). i remember sitting there one afternoon, eating my lunch and thinking - this is peace. getting a quiet, uninterupted lunch. i didn't even get that during nursing school (however, i find that most schools i have done student teaching with insist that their students make lunch a priority - even though it isn't in the real world...).

Get off the floor. Serious. It'll save your sanity. Some people love floor nursing, others aren't made to put up with that abuse. Good luck, you'll do great

VU RN BSN · Oct 26, 2008

Acey, I can relate to what you are feeling right now.

I've been an RN since August 2004, so 4 years now. I worked for a year and half in a hospital, I worked for just under a year in an outpatient same day surgery center, and I worked for less than a year as a home hospice nurse. :uhoh21:

I completely burnt out after my first year in nursing. Couldn't keep up with the workload and all the demands and the stress. I felt like I was not cut out to be a nurse, felt like I had made a big mistake majoring in nursing in college, etc. I didn't want to be an RN anymore.

I wanted to study something different, so I went straight into a massage therapy course. Most of my classmates were nurses. They encouraged me that it was common to feel this way as a new nurse and that sometimes it can take several tries before you find the right nursing position. They had all been nurses for awhile and had worked in various specialties and various hospitals and organizations. They encouraged me to try again. Also, it turned out that massage therapy was more difficult than I had previously thought, and I learned it can be challenging to make a living in massage alone.

I have had to try out different areas of nursing. I tried PACU, I tried hospice. Needless to say, I am still searching. But, other nurses keep encouraging me and reminding me that there are many many many different nursing specialties and the challenge for everybody is finding the right match. Some people are lucky and land in the right position on the first try. Others of us, it takes longer.

I personally have found that when I need to leave a nursing job because it is not working out, I need to take time off. I will generally take a vacation up in NY where my relatives live and I will spend some time off at home taking care of myself and I will often meet with a counselor. This helps me sort out my priorities, figure out my strengths and weaknesses, and decide where to go next.

So, my advice is resign from your current job if it is burning you out and abusing you, take some time off and/or take a vacation (if you can afford to), and look into different hospitals and different nursing specialties.

God Bless!

medsurgrnco, BSN, RN · Oct 26, 2008

I also think you should try other avenues of nursing instead of giving up on nursing completely. Think of good questions to ask during interviews to get a feel for whether you'd be happier in that position. Explore other nursing areas through the specialty forums on AllNurses.com. Search career websites for openings in other areas of nursing. Good luck to you.