Hospital not for me?

[Leaemilyy]

Hello,

im a new nurse. I graduated in December and I've been working on an oncology/ transplant floor for about 3 months now. I've been a cna and med aid for many years before graduating and direct patient care has always been something I've loved and something I believe I'm very good at as well. I've been told I have good instincts and have always gotten compliments from those I care for.

This all being said, I can't help but leaving my job every shift feeling like crap, and feeling like I didn't chose the right area of nursing, or even the right profession in general. Now I know the transition from student to nurse is always going to be tough. I'm not naive to that fact, and the fact that I'm not going to know a lot of things starting out. But I've been holding back tears almost every shift.

Is it possible that I'm not cut out for hospital paced work? Or are these normal feelings? If this is the way I'm going to feel for the rest of my working life, then I'm going to lose my mind.

[brownbook]

Your feelings are kind of normal for a new nurse....but do you feel like crap because your patients are so sick, are you too empathetic? Or because you're overworked, overloaded with very sick patients, you feel you're short changing their care?

Where did you work as a CNA and MA. Did you like your job then?

Find a sympathetic co-worker or unit manager just to get stuff off your chest and find out your feelings are normal. Or maybe your hospital offers employee assistance counseling? If you don't feel comfortable with sharing your feelings writing them down helps sort them out.

Your job experience should make it fairly easy to transfer to a different unit within your hospital or to apply elsewhere. I wouldn't give up on nursing after exposure to just one area! There is only about 100 different areas, types of nursing jobs, out there!