I started an ADN nursing program over a year ago and graduate in May. I have the highest average in class, and I really seem to be doing well. However; I hate everything nursing, I really only started the program because I was bored, and now I feel to far invested to quite. I have to keep telling myself that this is a great job, but in reallity this job holds a lot of responsibility, "crappy responsibility." In addition I feel tremendous pressure from my family, my husband, and my husbands family to finish and work. It's not like I don't already have a BSN from another university, and my husband makes an excellent salary, I don't have to work. I keep hoping that all the pretentious people in class with their over enthusiastic "I love nursing" attitude will be non-existent in the workplace. This is me just venting, but if you have any productive advice or have felt this way I would love a response. However; if you are just wanting to tell me how terrible I am, please keep it to yourself.
Dear "pretty" I also doubt that you are a terrible person. I do wonder however how or why you would waste your time, money and efforts on something you say you hate. If it isn't for you - that's fine - best you know that now but please don't take a job and try to care for people who need someone compassionate and and caring, not just someone with skills. Your attitude of hating nursing will no doubt reflect in your taking care of patients and that is unfair to them. Maybe you need to be mature enough to tell your husband and your family the truth about how you feel and that this isn't for you. Finish your schooling, you're almost done then step back and look at what's right for you not the rest of the world. You won't be an exemplary nurse with an attitude like yours - GPA doesn't make a nurses.
Specializes in Wilderness Medicine, ICU, Adult Ed..
you are not a terrible person; you are just not cut out to be a nurse. there is nothing wrong with that. most people are not cut out to be nurses, just as most people are not cut out to be firefighters, or lawyers, or, well any particular worker. be gentle with yourself. you explored this path, and found that it does not lead to where you should go. fine. let it go. find something else that is more "you." and don't regret your nursing education. knowledge is never wasted. what you have learned has expanded your intellectual horizons. that's great, but it does not mean that you have to work in a job that is wrong for you.
as for your family's expectations, remind them that you are an adult, with the same right that they have to choose your own career. it is not your job to be someone that they want you to be. your job is to be the best you that you can be.
I got through 3 years of in-hospital nursing training by promising myself every morning I'd quit at the end of that day. It wasn't for me, but having started it, I felt I had to finish it.
I then rolled that over into a university degree program in public health, so my nursing career has been in the community for 40 years now. I have really enjoyed that b/c of the automony. I was glad to have that career b/c like you I didn't have to work at first but life changed.
If you can't find a type of nursing you like, then think carefully about working as a nurse. You need to feel reasonably positive about it, or your attitude will show to colleagues and patients, and the outcome will confirm your worst views of the profession. Compassion is right up there with skills, and if you don't have any to spare, it will show.
My daughter hated Nursing School but loved Nursing! Maybe you can just take your time finding a job, then pick what appeals to you most and give it a shot. Maybe some of it is fear of not being the best. High acheivers have that issue sometimes. Good luck to you regardless.
well thanks for all the imput, some of it really great
I think I was just having a bad day and focusing on all the things I hate. I hate that feeling that I can mess up and hurt someone at anytime, and during clinicals our instructor is virtually impossible to locate. Furthermore; when I was talking about people in my nursing class, I was refering more to the ones that love everything nursing and are always excited regardless of the duty. I mean really who loves cleaning poo, lets be honest here. Anyways I am going to finish and sit for the NCLEX, but I really want to explore other options besides direct pt. care. Any suggestions?
Cleaning poo is not my favorite. I didn't go to Nursing school because I wanted to be a nurse, I went because I needed it to become a nurse practitioner as I was too old for med school when I decided I was going to be able to go back. As it turns out, I am a very old NEW nurse who absolutely loves it. I start my MSN program in Jan. but know that i can always fall back to floor nursing if I need to. I have been an MSW for over 30 years and got to thepoint where I hated going to work, now I look forward to the challanges of nursing and wish I had the energy to work 5 12 hour days, LOL! I am not totally out of touch with reality however. 3 shifts is plenty. If I were not going back to school, I might very well head for Psych or A&D nursing. I need the background I am getting for FNP. I may try some work in the ED if I can find something prn just to get the perspective.
I always wondered about the folks who always let on like "Everything is wonderful, all day long, all the time, latedatedateda! LOL!" The world needs them too!
It sounds like it's bedside nursing you don't like. There are other types of nurses. Case manager's for instance make phone calls all day arranging different things. There are nurse researchers and many other types of nursing. I am a new grad too. and don't care for the job I'm doing. But I figure once I have a year's worth of experience I can find a job I like.
My mother was a nurse and I SWORE growing up that I would NEVER go into nursing. Talk about hating something. However, at the age of 40, and after a traumatic event in my life, I thought I would do something different and got into nursing school. A long time friend said to me "I would have guessed a million careers for you, Charlee, and nursing would not have been one of them".
I'm now 55, and thank goodness I went to nursing school and have a great job. I am good at this. I'm easily bored, and find that this is one of the few careers I have tackled that keeps me going back.
Nursing is not easy, but you have already proven with your grades that you have the God given ability to do this. You do not have to LOVE nursing to be good at it. Quite frankly, the patients don't care if you LOVE it, they just care that you are a @#$% good nurse.
The students that just love everything about nursing are usually the ones that have the hardest time in the real world of nursing. You on the other hand, will most likely quickly adapt to the real world and will contribute greatly to it. You see a very small fraction of the many ways a nursing license can be used. Stay focused on the fact that you are really good at this and will eventually find your niche.
Your issue is not uncommon. I bet there are many in your class that sometimes feel the same way, they just don't express it. It's the stress of nursing school. Also with your BSN and an RN license, you don't have to work in a hospital, there are so many opportunities besides bedside care. I really feel you should finish what you started, because I believe there is a reason for everything. I wish you the best.
To me, cleaning poo is just like cleaning up anything else organic. I worked at the SPCA cleaning kennels when I was in High School so poo doesn't affect me. Gloves, gown, even a face mask if necessary, will help you to overcome your "distaste" for poo (excuse the inevitable punnage).
It's the vomit that makes me pale. I have taken every patient with N/V so that I can try to get over this, but each time I'm standing at the bedside holding the EB while my pt is retching, I get dizzy and the blood starts rushing in my ears. My doctor said it's psychosomatic. Yes, I'm still working on it, but it offends my internal sense of masculinity to go all weak in the knees for a little vomitus.
There is SO MUCH wonder and possibility in nursing! I am not particularly religious, but I have seen unexplainable miraculous things with patients in my short time at school. I hope the OP won't let a little poo (and, you know, the other stuff) stand between her and all that is grand about nursing. :redbeathe
I have known persons who attended nursing school, but did not really have the intention of entering a career as a nurse. In one such case, the person felt that being an RN would be good background for the non-nursing position that they were being recruited for.
Nursing school provides a fairly rounded education when it comes to health care, and can serve as a stepping stone to other professions. While I don't generally recommend that people do this, in some cases it makes sense.
Certainly what you should NOT do is go into nursing with the attitude that you hate everything about your work. Your patients will know this, and you will not serve them as well as you ought to. Being a good nurse has more to do with attitude than it does with technical skills.
If this is truly how you feel, you would be better suited in another health care profession. Your RN will only help you when you actually start working in another profession. Find what you like, and go there. Don't torture yourself nor under-serve your patients. Neither of you will benefit from such a strategy.
Specializes in Corporate Compliance ICU, US Army ret.
I have been in Nursing for 34 years and actually really do love the job. I think it is important to understand how you feel about your profession. You should give consideration to finding something you really enjoy doing and go into that field. Any amount of time that you spend doing something you hate is damaging to yourself and the others around you. Life can be too short to be unhappy in your endevors.
I agree with a comment on this thread saying that "there is no shame in not persuing something that doesn't resonate with you". Years ago I used to teach nursing in an assoicate degree program, and sometimes students would discover that nursing just was not their "thing". Have you considered changing your major and transferring as many as possible of your hard earned college credits toward completion of a different college program?
To me, nursing work has long been sort of a "personal calling". I have worked as a nurse for over 35 years. Over time I have experienced "burn out" feelings about nursing work, and my solution was to transfer to a different hospital unit or to change jobs to different fields of nursing such as teaching nursing at a university or working with the state health department doing patient education. Best wishes in your decisions!
livinadream
8 Posts
Dear "pretty" I also doubt that you are a terrible person. I do wonder however how or why you would waste your time, money and efforts on something you say you hate. If it isn't for you - that's fine - best you know that now but please don't take a job and try to care for people who need someone compassionate and and caring, not just someone with skills. Your attitude of hating nursing will no doubt reflect in your taking care of patients and that is unfair to them. Maybe you need to be mature enough to tell your husband and your family the truth about how you feel and that this isn't for you. Finish your schooling, you're almost done then step back and look at what's right for you not the rest of the world. You won't be an exemplary nurse with an attitude like yours - GPA doesn't make a nurses.