I just don't know if nursing is really for me

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Jun 10, 2010

Most people feel like a bumbling idiot for the first 3 months at ANY new job. Nursing and others! Unless you stick with it you will never know. Give it 90 days.

Sparrowhawk · Jun 10, 2010

I think your advice overall is good, but as a side note...I wouldn't suggest a Children's Hospital as a place to go if you're looking for something less intense and more light hearted. Um...kids get just as critically ill as adults, and for lots of people, it's more emotionally challenging because little kids "aren't supposed to be sick and die." Very little about my work at a children's hospital is light-hearted. Do I love it? Yes. But light-hearted it is not. Someone's little baby or child is depending on you for their life.
And I'm not an OB nurse, but that specialty is fast-paced, intense, and high-risk. And more sad things happen than you would like to hope.
Just my 2 cents.

Is there anything in nursing that's light hearted? Unless your definition of light hearted is different then I think.

kafluknik · Jun 11, 2010

I was in a class of 120 students. During our preceptorship period we had a chance to get together as a group and chat with each other briefly. Most of the people I spoke to told me that nursing isn't what they expected it to be.

From my perspective, I love the nursing part of it. What I don't like is how it has turned out to be too task-oriented. You hardly even have time to care for the patient ala Florence Nightingale. Instead, you have to run from one bed to the next to make sure that you finish your workload. Other factors e.g.

- you are paid hourly (if you get sick mid-shift, it is charged to sick leave unlike office workers who have the luxury of just calling it a day)

-when you have an emergency, you have to wait for someone to relieve you so as you are not charged with abandonment.

-you have to work odd hours and weekends if you are hired full-time.

There are other things that I can think of but I am sure when we give it time, we will find our niche. Schedule-wise, an older nurse gave me this advice, "Just stay as casual employee." That way, you get to pick your hours & days.

You are not alone.

FiduciaRN · Jun 12, 2010

I think I too am frustrated because nursing isn't what I thought it was going to be! Not one floor I have worked on is what I imagined. I really enjoyed psych as a student. When I graduated I wanted to go into psych. Haaaaa. Not anymore. As a float, I went to psych quite a bit. I thought I would be able to help people. Nope, not so much. The drs over medicated pts or under medicated, there were no groups, nothing constructive, it was like a movie on that floor. Sad. Detox wasn't people who wanted to get clean, it was people who didn't have enough money to get high, and would try and bully you into giving extra meth or xanax to them. I frequently heard, my medicaid pays your salary. No sweetie its the other way around. my salary gets whacked with taxes to pay for you to cheat the system. When I tried to offer other meds for s/s of w/d I was called every name in the book! Frustrating. Even on the med floors it was a joke. Tell me how a dr prescribes a pt who comes in the hospital to get a broken needle taken out from in between her toes Dilaudid 2mg every 3 hrs IVP, Dilaudid 1mg Q hour for breathrough pain, percocet 2 tabs Q 6 for mild pain and xanax 2mg Q 6 for anxiety. This girl had stickies next to her bed with the times she was supposed to get her pain meds. She was soooo doped up, she would get mad that I didn't give her everything she was due. I told her firmly that I am not losing my liscense which I worked hard for, when she went into resp arrest. I had a pt with end stage pancreatic ca, that had 2mg of morphine Q 6 for pain. This man was in such severe pain, to even move him broke my heart. It took me 4 hrs to convince the same dr who prescribed that cocktail to that girl, to give this dying man 2mg of dilaudid. *****???? I fought him for it. I told him to come upstairs stat and look at both pts and tell me the problem with the picture. He gave in, but was angry and said I am not his boss. No, no I am not. BUT, I will not let a person suffer like he was an animal in the street!!!!! This is why I hate nursing!!!!!!

BryanG · Jun 12, 2010

Consider looking into non-clinical jobs for Nurses, they are out there. I'm not an RN yet, but it is a very diverse field.

Nurseinprocess · Jun 13, 2010

Is there anything in nursing that's light hearted? Unless your definition of light hearted is different then I think.

I worked in post partum nursing as a student and I think it is a much more lighthearted area than most. I hope to get back there after I gain some experience. Currently I am working as a new nurse on a surgical unit. I don't like it at all. It's not as bad as med-surge, but we do get some medical pts when our surgical census is low (and those pts scare me!). I just had my last orientation shift (6 wks) and I am not feeling prepared to be on my own. I don't feel like my orientation was very thorough, and I don't feel that I am getting appropriate assignment as a brand new nurse. I don't know if it is like that everywhere, but I am also feeling like I want to quit. I am not that close to actually doing so, but I am wondering how long I can handle the stress before I break. All the nurses I have precepted with do things differently, which is confusing. I knew I didn't want to do this kind of nursing but jobs are scarce. I feel lucky to have my job, but it's been a tough transition. What is the difference between being off orientation and being on it? I get counted as a full staff nurse, I guess; but I was already taking a full pt load anyway! You are not alone in feeling overwhelmed, and underwhelmed in your new role. Nursing is hard work, with so much responsibility. I haven't turned into a crying mess yet, but I am close :sniff: . My pts love me, but they don't know how much I don't know :coollook: . It's hard trying to be super nurse, when you feel like you're a 1/4 nurse at best.