I need help: a nurse not prepared for the job

Blee O'Myacin, BSN, RN · Jul 7, 2009

This never came up during clinicals?

There is a big difference between seeing patients professionally and caring for a sick family member or friend. The most important lesson I learned from being a nurse is how to leave my personal baggage out of my professional practice. It takes time, but it does happen.

Good luck with whatever you decide is best for you.

Blee

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 7, 2009

How did you get through school? Did you not have to function in your clinical classes? Why did you go to nursing school if you hate being around sick people? What did you expect your career to entail?

There are some nursing jobs that don't require interactions with sick people, but it is fairly rare that a new grad can get those jobs. You will pobably need to get some nursing experience taking care of sick people for a while before those jobs become available to you. You'll probably have to "suck it up" and do whatevery it was that allowed you to take care of sick people while you were in school for at least a little while.

allnurses Guide · Jul 7, 2009

Honestly, someone who doesn't like sick people? Why on EARTH would you choose a career in nursing???

You may want to look into occupational health or something with mostly well people? As llg said, there aren't many jobs like that for new grads.

What about labor/delivery? They aren't sick!

arelle68 · Jul 7, 2009

The only response this OP deserves is to be told to get real. Read it again. This isn't a nurse talking. GET REAL amateur troll.

Read the tags nurses. This person is "phycheing" (sic) us.

elb252 · Jul 7, 2009

Try looking for nursing opportunities in which patients may be ill but not necessarily on their death bed. Stay away from critical care, trauma, and hospice nursing. I would suggest community nursing, OB nursing (the patients you receive aren't admitted because they're ill, they're admitted because they are in the process of childbearing), and perioperative nursing might be a good one.

However, taking care of patients who are in bed, ill, and/or close to death is inevitable in nursing. You're going to run into it at some point. A major definition of nursing is taking care of those who are very sick. But one of the beauties of nursing is that there ARE a lot of opportunities in practicing.

But, may I ask what took you to the point of graduation to realize that you don't like taking care of ILL people?

GOMER42 · Jul 7, 2009

Maybe you should consider working in a clinic- usually people come in relatively healthy for check-ups, shots, or minor health ailments. It is nowhere near "lying on their beds and nearly dying."

There are many areas of nursing that you can work in in which you don't have to see "sick" patients- OB, OR, psych. These areas don't usually have the deathly sick that appears to bother you.

Do some research and you'll find an area.

roser13, ASN, RN · Jul 7, 2009

I actuay see this as an ASN/BSN issue. And yes, I will have judgments rained down upon my head.

In my experience (and of course that is all I can speak to), the ASN-prepared nurse is better prepared for the bedside nursing experience. My fresh-out-of-BSN degree nursing school co-workers have seemed (again, my experience only) to be less prepared for the actual act of nursing care.

To have graduated from a nursing program with the issues that you state seems incomprehensible to me. Did these thoughts/reservations not occur to you in the course of your studies? I don't have any advice, other than to search out a case manager/insurance position, most of which will require actual nursing experience.

Vito Andolini · Jul 8, 2009

Work in research, a doc's office, a school, a clinic, or maybe in Psychiatry.

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Jul 8, 2009

There is a big difference in caring for patients and yur family members that are patients, as Blee said. I have to ask, though, (and please don't take this the wrong way) did this ever occur to you during all the time you spent in working so hard for your nursing degree? Getting a BS uses so much time and energy - it's just kind of strange that this didn't stop you once you started clinicals.

Is there an aspect of nursing that you would want to try where you had no patient contact, maybe? It wuld have been better maybe, if this had shown up earlier in your school career?

I know there are a lot of nurses who just do not enjoy direct patient care, but hadn't really heard of one to that extent.

Good luck to you - Anne, RNC

CABG patch kid, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2009

I actuay see this as an ASN/BSN issue. And yes, I will have judgments rained down upon my head.
In my experience (and of course that is all I can speak to), the ASN-prepared nurse is better prepared for the bedside nursing experience. My fresh-out-of-BSN degree nursing school co-workers have seemed (again, my experience only) to be less prepared for the actual act of nursing care.
To have graduated from a nursing program with the issues that you state seems incomprehensible to me. Did these thoughts/reservations not occur to you in the course of your studies? I don't have any advice, other than to search out a case manager/insurance position, most of which will require actual nursing experience.

Let me guess, you must be an ASN prepared nurse? I am a BSN program graduate and have never felt "less prepared for the actual act of nursing care" than my fellow new grads. Unfortunately I have been hearing this since my very first clinical, so I'm pretty used to it by now. I just can't believe people still think this.

netglow, ASN, RN · Jul 8, 2009

Gotta be a Troll.