How do I get out of being a nurse?

[KalipsoRed21]

I've been a nurse for 4 years. I worked as a registrar/unit secretary/nurse's aid for 4 years before that. I like people. However, I'm not a really good nurse. I try, but I'm slow and recently I opened my stupid fat mouth and said something TOTALLY inappropriate to one of my patients. Like I ended up telling a teen that pot was safe....I don't know why that came out of my mouth, well I do, but I don't. Anyway, I'm a ****** nurse and would really appricate some advice on other jobs I could do in nursing with minimal patient interaction or other careers out side of nursing that have minimal customer contact but maybe wouldn't have to go to school for another 4 years to get into.

Thanks for any suggestions a head of time.

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

Thanks to all who have replied thus far. I appricate the suggestions and will look into them. For those who have made some snide comments, let me clear up a few things. I like my patients and I like being a nurse, I just don't think that I'm very good at it. I LOVE the hospital I work at. I do not want to be a burden to the nursing profession by becoming 'a lazy nurse manager'. I have a wonderful and very active nurse manager that I respect a great deal, I realize that a lot of them are not like her. Aside from being a 'slow' nurse I do not have the medically 'authorized' mind set that I'm suppose to have. There are MANY things that we do in medicine that I feel are unecessary, that DO NOT help patients, and are just down right mean. I understand that it is my job to keep my opinions to myself and spew the offical ******** to my patients.....occasionally I slip up and my own individual thoughts come out. In an effort to save my license and to not damage the derranged form of medicine we offer at times, I would like to use my nursing skills in a setting that will benefit those who honestly preach the crap I don't accept.

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

... My statement to my patient was this, "The only recreational drug I've never seen kill someone is pot." ... All I was really saying is that it is the only one in 8 years that I haven't seen someone die from.

When I read your initial post, I imagined a nurse literally telling a patient, "Yeah, pot is alright!" (and it does come up in oncology, from time to time...) Your actual statement is the truth, not opinion, so what's wrong with telling that to a patient- it's an anti-drug statement, on its face.

[KalipsoRed21, BSN, RN]

When I read your initial post, I imagined a nurse literally telling a patient, "Yeah, pot is alright!" (and it does come up in oncology, from time to time...) Your actual statement is the truth, not opinion, so what's wrong with telling that to a patient- it's an anti-drug statement, on its face.

Well the context was an 18 yr old with her mother and grandmother in the room admonishing the girl for trying cigarettes. I said what I said to drive home the fact that tobacco kills (because when I said recreational drug I ment legal AND illegal) but the statement that came out I guess sound too much like "don't do any drugs but pot". The family got so mad that I was unable to clarify and would not accept my apology. The patient was laughing her ass off.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Well thanks for not judging me as a crappy person, NETGLOW. :) My statement to my patient was this, "The only recreational drug I've never seen kill someone is pot." As you might imagine a blossoming adult may misinterpret this statement to mean that I think pot is okay. All I was really saying is that it is the only one in 8 years that I haven't seen someone die from.

*** LOL! Is that all? So what. Your statement may have been illadvised, but no big deal really. I have worked in trauma for years and have yet to see a woman or child severly beaten by a pot head. Its always the drunks or meth heads

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

Geez, here I was thinking you were a moron, and that something far away from nursing would be a better bet for you. But you just offered your opinion about pot, which is true. I've never seen anyone in the hospital that has suffered withdrawal from marijuana. It's been from narcotics, benzos and alcohol. I've never seen anyone get hurt in an MVC related to pot; it's been alcohol, benzos and narcotics. Those three legal drugs are far worse than pot. Too many interests insist on keeping marijuana illegal, for it supplies a constant stream of inmates into private prisons. Also, illegal pot brings in lots of money for the drug runners, and you don't think the gov't is getting a cut of all that. They're getting more money than they would from taxes on legal pot.But that's just my theory. And I don't think you are a s***ty nurse for voicing your opinion.

[danarooo, BSN, RN]

How does one break into the other nursing fields suggested? I can't find work at all as an RN, so I'm wondering how you would make the transition to another area of nursing besides direct patient care. I would imagine they would all require some amount of experience, or at least a BSN????