I hate being a nurse

SweetheartRN · Oct 25, 2011

Reasons I love clinic work and how I'm so mentally, physically, and emotionally relieved to be going back to it in a few weeks:

1.I can pee when I need to and not worry about being fussed out by a patient b/c I was in the bathroom for 21/2 minutes instead of taking that time to get their prn q hour morphine or their ginger ale.

2. I can take a FULL HOUR for a lunch break. We have no patients scheduled during lunch. This means I can eat my lunch at a decent pace or go run an errand if I need to, take a minute to call a friend or family member, or meet someone for lunch, etc. etc. etc. Basically be treated like a human being instead of a pack mule.

3. The pace is exactly like I like it. Its a steady/fast pace but in a controlled setting/enviroment. I can basically expect what my day will be like with the occasional surprise or patient going sour. (And I did not realize how important this would be for my sanity.)

4. My work is autonomous but we also do team nursing. I love being able to share the workload, and it builds great teamwork. Its not MY patient or YOUR patient. We help each other out. I LOVE IT!!

5. I love babies and kids. I love seeing them grow as they come back for their future check ups and that something I told or/taught the parent made a big difference.

6. I don't have to supervise CNA/PCT's. I do my own vitals and don't have to figure out if something got done or not.

7. I still practice alot of my skills. I do venipunctures, I&O caths, etc. I do alot of patient teaching, which I love, newborn care, asthma teaching, etc...

8. No excessive charting. Never stay late to chart. Ever. No hourly rounding, no administration breathing down my neck.

9. Get to leave on TIME 95% of the time and I get off at 5. I'm part time so it doesn't mean I have to work 8-5 M-F either. No weekends :) And I can pick up extra time if I want.

10. I don't think about work when I'm not there, unless its a good thought about a funny kid or something. I don't dream about work or not sleep the night before going to work because I'm anxious about what my day is going to be like.

11. When students come I actually have time to show them things.

12. I feel like I have a LIFE with this job and it doesn't consume me, mind, body, and soul like hospital nursing has done to me.

netglow, ASN, RN · Oct 25, 2011

Sweetheart, what type of clinic?

SJE RN · Oct 25, 2011

Most of the nurses I work with are seasoned and not welcoming at all. I'm not a new graduate. I'm not an expert either. I'm young, I started working as a nurse with my BSN at 22. It's hard to work in an environment where there is no teamwork. I'm not there to make friends but it would be nice to have a person to fall back on. My manager is amazing but strict. She expects you know every little detail about the pt. Why the patient is here, when they will be discharged, what is the plan of care. It really gets you thinking cause she comes to take report from each nurse at 4am even though her shift starts at 6am. She really cares but she's not there when I need here unfortunately. There's more negative than positive though. I'm losing my mind and I've only been here for 4 months. I'm trying to stick it out for the year because tuition reimbursement is $6000/yr and I could really use the money for my masters. I have 60,000 in loans from a bio degree and nursing degree combined.

SweetheartRN · Oct 25, 2011

Sweetheart, what type of clinic?

Its a pediatric primary care clinic. The largest ambulatory peds clinic of its kind in our state. There are two separate floors. I can float upstairs if I want but upstairs is slower paced so I like where I'm at now b/c its a little faster and more goes on. There is a late clinic that I have the option of working as well if I want to change my hours up and there are satelite clinics if I want to float to those as well. We are apart of a large teaching hospital.

ksc0723 · Oct 25, 2011

Its a pediatric primary care clinic. The largest ambulatory peds clinic of its kind in our state. There are two separate floors. I can float upstairs if I want but upstairs is slower paced so I like where I'm at now b/c its a little faster and more goes on. There is a late clinic that I have the option of working as well if I want to change my hours up and there are satelite clinics if I want to float to those as well. We are apart of a large teaching hospital.

Sounds heavenly.

SweetheartRN · Oct 25, 2011

Sounds heavenly.

Its really the best nursing job I've had. Granted I've only had a couple of others. :lol2: Nothing is perfect. It still has flaws such as the pay being lower being the main flaw but I like going to work when I go. I feel at ease going into work with just enough "stress" to make it not boring and I don't think about work when I'm off. I can sacrifice a new purse/pair of shoes for that and I don't overextend myself financially so that I can work there.

Those things alone are what make it worth it to me. I'm not Florence Nightingale. :eek: There I said it. I guess I'm a little selfish in that I like to pee when I need to. Thats always been my complaint since starting hospital nursing. I'm just doing what I know will keep me happier vs. striving to be a nurse that someone else feels I should be or who I used to think I should be. :nurse: I'm still a nurse. A nurse with her bladder empty.

Bortaz, MSN, RN · Oct 25, 2011

If you hate your job, QUIT. It's nonsensical to go to work day after day when you hate the job.

ChocoCakeRN · Oct 25, 2011

SweetheartRN, do you think that to work in an ambulatory clinic such as yours, is it necessary for some med-surg experience?

I've worked homehealth x3 years and med surg x1, and I don't like med-surg because of all reasons stated above, but I learn and experience so much of my nursing skills on the hospital floor. So, I feel a kind of despair when I tell my friends and family Med-surg is not for me. It's like I'm not living up to the expectation..you know what I mean?

Sometimes, I think that, I'm young, I can still go with the riff-raff of med-surg craziness, but then I also ask myself, all this mental stress and ********--is it really worth it!?!

Thank you for all the comments so far, reading it helps me feel like I'm not the only one feeling like a horrible nurse. :smokin:

SweetheartRN · Oct 25, 2011

I just want all of us that have and are struggling in nursing to know that I really believe there is hope. There is a place for each of us that we will come to find and enjoy. It is possible. Its just hard getting to that place sometimes. Sometimes its lack of experience that stands in our way and we have to muscle through until we can get to where we want to be. Sometimes its location or simply just not knowing what area is right for us. What I realized helped me was taking jobs on a prn or part time status. This way if I hated it I wouldn't have to be there all the time, still getting the experiene and then getting another job a few months in and seeing if I liked this better...and so on like that. Ofcourse I understand many of us are not financially able to "pitter patter" our way in and out of part time positions. Its understandable to need full time pay and benefits. But I do think this contributed to me being able to find a niche for myself in a quicker fashion.

I kinda already knew I didn't like med surg just from clinicals. It just seemed sooo drab to me and depressing. The only areas of inpatient nursing that seem tolerable to me is peds, nursery, NICU, OR, pacu, L&D, ER. There is an overwhelming consensus. Its either gotta be kiddos or adults who are coming and going.

I had been working as a secretary/nursing asst. in an outpatient urgent care for 6 yrs at the point of my becoming an RN. It was my first job in healthcare ever and I realize now that is what I based my opinion of nursing off of. i liked in and out type nursing. I like you coming in, fixing your problem and you leaving.

So naturally I knew that when I took the clinic job it would be the best place for me and it was. Stupidly I kept cliniging on to the notion that I HAD to do med surg and that I needed the extra experience etc...which that part has been great. I love IV therapy and maintenance and other aspects of the hospital but there are so many things I no longer desire to put up with in the hospital so I'm going back to the clinic. I am currently working my 3 week notice and will resign from my med surg position and will have to be rehired by my clinic even though I'm still working there as well because it became my "secondary" position when I went to work on the floor. These two positions are within the same hospital system.

So another tip: If you love your job, don't be a dummy like me and leave it for what you know to be pursual of personal unrealistic goals.

bulletproofbarb · Oct 25, 2011

I agree finding something different may be the answer. I too felt like this a year ago and took a non nursing position part time and do casual part time as well. It's made me feel better about things.

I got to the point I was not interested in learning new things, everything seemed a chore. Now I am doing self education and look forward to my nurse shifts. Sure they are still on a ward but I chose the day and shift the suits me.

Ideally I would like to get into GP nursing but need ED experience. I have not worked ED for years but with my current job I now have the option of getting back into it so I am using the job to brush up my skills in the required areas for GP work and hopefully one day will land a job in the area.

Whatever you do, dont resign unless you have something else to go to but start looking at what you would like to do and if you lack skills in the area you like, see if you can gain any of those in your current job. Use your employeer to get what you want to!

bulletproofbarb · Oct 25, 2011

. So, I feel a kind of despair when I tell my friends and family Med-surg is not for me. It's like I'm not living up to the expectation..you know what I mean?QUOTE]
i feel like this sometimes!! isn't it just the worst feeling...I look at what my nurse friends do and feel like a failure and feel like I shoule be working fully as a nurse because I am a nurse but honestly, I have no carreer drive. I like to go to work, do my job and dont want to be in meetings, on commitees ect ect..I want to leave work in the driveway when i drive off! I dont want to spend days off doing reports and stuff and have no inclination to do further long term study. I am happy to do day or week courses but nothing more than that.
Some of my friends really get into their job and are doing so much and I compare myself to them and come away feeling like you do.
I read alot of posts on here that say "i hate being a nurse, nursing isn't for me" but I think alot of them really mean "i hate my current area"

SweetheartRN · Oct 25, 2011

SweetheartRN, do you think that to work in an ambulatory clinic such as yours, is it necessary for some med-surg experience?
I've worked homehealth x3 years and med surg x1, and I don't like med-surg because of all reasons stated above, but I learn and experience so much of my nursing skills on the hospital floor. So, I feel a kind of despair when I tell my friends and family Med-surg is not for me. It's like I'm not living up to the expectation..you know what I mean?
Sometimes, I think that, I'm young, I can still go with the riff-raff of med-surg craziness, but then I also ask myself, all this mental stress and ********--is it really worth it!?!
Thank you for all the comments so far, reading it helps me feel like I'm not the only one feeling like a horrible nurse.

I think it would be very helpful but I don't think its 100% necessary. The experience you have is quite enough. When I got the position I hadn't worked in the hospital at all. I had worked a little peds home health and as an LPN as well as a nursing asst. at a Kids Care. The LPN experience helped me a lot because everything I did in the nursing home as far as skills go I do at the clinic. (Caths, breathing treatments, vitals). I'd say all of my experiences helped me at the clinic. I hadn't had a lot of experience giving IM injections to kids though but by my third day I was giving all the shots. I loved it(not hurting the kids) but I loved teaching parents about the vaccines and knowing that I was doing something right there that was going to help these kids stay healthy. I've learned how to do venipunctures, draw labs, and run them, which is something nurses often times don't do in the hospital setting b/c of phlebotomy and in house lab.

I'm a good nurse regardless of if I'm in the hospital or not. I'm glad I went to the hospital though because there is "more" that I can do AND LIKE to do but its all the other crap that I care not to deal with that isn't present in the clinic setting. I'm not doing myself any favors by putting up with stuff I don't have to. Thats just the way I choose to look at it. I think I would in the future like to be able to utilize my IV and assesment skills more and may look for a clinic that caters to that....part time ofcourse so I can continue to work here.