I started my nursing career and I am so unhappy!!!!! :(

amanban · Jan 27, 2015

I also hated my job at first. I was so overwhelmed with everything, dreaded going to work, even looking for new positions after a few months. Now, just shy of a year, I'm finally feeling better and don't dread going in everyday. Heck, some days I even look forward to it!

Hang in there. It will get better!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 29, 2015

Hi
I graduated in May with my BSN and recently just got hired for my first nursing job. My first day on the floor with my preceptor was a day ago and I am already in misery at the thought of going back tommrow for 3 shifts in a row my family and spouse is so proud of me but I am so unhappy in this field. I would be happier without the bedside aspect but being a new grad feel no one willhire me for an office job. I can't afford to quit because I have a car payment etc but the thought of it is miserable every time. I feel I am going to live in misery. Idk what to do because I don't want to disappoint anyone. I know you aren't going to love ur job everyday but I feel I shouldn't be this miserable. Advice please!! Oh not to mention it is super understaffed and the nurses there are completely burned out!!

Hating your job (and possibly your life) in your first year of nursing is pretty common. That said, after only one day you're not really in a position to know what your job is going to really be like. It's far too soon for you to make up your mind to be miserable. That makes me wonder about your attitude going in to this whole nursing career . . . is it something YOU wanted or is it something you did to make someone else happy?

Since you have this job and you cannot just up and quit, you might as well make up your mind to be happy about it instead of miserable. Look for aspects of the job that you like or enjoy. If you go looking for the bad stuff, you WILL find it. The trick is to maximize the GOOD stuff about your job. Perhaps you're right -- you shouldn't be this miserable. That, though, is entirely up to you. Most folks are exactly as happy (or as miserable) as they make up their minds to be.

After one day, I fail to see how you can have decided that the place is super understaffed and the nurses there are completely burned out. Maybe that one day was under staffed and the nurses there were having an awful day. But you've not been there long enough to make such sweeping generalizations.

iPink, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2015

The transition from student nurse to primary nurse will be eye-opening and a learning curve. And just because the first day was tough doesn't mean it will always be tough every time your scheduled. By six months you'll notice a difference and by one year an even bigger difference.

Get your experience to sharpen your critical thinking skills and increase your knowledge base then move on to a more desirable specialty. Most of us started on tough units but the experience gained was invaluable in hindsight. With that experience we were able to take with us to any unit/specialty we wanted to tackle next.

Good luck and hang in there. Go through the fire knowing you won't get burned, instead you'll come out a more confident and competent nurse!

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THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN · Jan 30, 2015

Are you saying that you were on the floor one day and you already want to quit?

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Feb 7, 2015

One shift??? Seriously, you're waaaaaay too early to be complaining about anything right now.

These posts make me mad because you likely took a job away from someone out there unemployed right now who would truly embrace the opportunity despite anything thrown at them.

Office job in nursing? Those mostly go to the nurses that have put in their dues on the floor for years.

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~Shrek~ · Feb 10, 2015

These posts make me mad because you likely took a job away from someone out there unemployed right now who would truly embrace the opportunity despite anything thrown at them.

I hate it when people say this on here. I think it is very mean and rude. Just because she/he doesn't like her job doesn't mean she doesn't deserve it. She/he likely *earned* it through hard work and perseverance. Just because she is not happy doesn't mean she is a bad person who doesn't desrve employment. just because someone else may want the job doesn't mean that the one who got hired doesn't deserve it. If she works hard and does her best and worked hard to get the position but hates her job, does it mean she deserves it any less? NO.

I think you are letting emotion get in the way of your sense of justice. Plenty of people hate their jobs, no matter how competitive it is. That doesn't make them bad people.

wanting a certain job doesn't make you entitled to getting a certain job.

scaredsilly, BSN, RN · Feb 11, 2015

I never met anyone who went home after a first day saying "I love this job", and that's any job not just nursing. Nursing is intense, there is SO much to learn that you did not learn in school, and so much fear. You worry you will make a mistake that may hurt someone (or worse), you worry you won't learn the charting system fast enough to please the NM, you worry that you are going to miss meds, or give the wrong meds, or that your bladder will burst because you are never going to get to pee again. And all of those things may happen! Stop thinking about them! Instead, focus on the reasons you wanted to be a nurse. Focus on the patient that tells you that you made them feel better, or the family that said that you helped them understand. Think about the minute when you advocated for a patient and it helped them, or the patient who's daughter brought you home made fudge because she thought you made the difference for her dad (those things will happen too!)

The beginning (all beginnings) are difficult, and nursing for most of us seem more difficult because it is all SO different than school and we really don't know what to expect. Give it a bit of time, form a support group with other new grads on your unit, or with classmates going through the same thing. Come here to vent and ask for advise. If you really feel you are in a toxic environment with nurses who are all burned out and unhappy, then consider a switch, but don't quit! not yet, give it a chance first!

thenightnurse456 · Feb 11, 2015

It's your first week and you want to throw in the towel?

Tele is hard, but there isn't an "easy" nursing job, bedside or not.

You have to give it time. Like 6 months to a year. Just read the endless supply of threads identical to yours and see that most of them come back after 6 months and say how much better it got.

It gets better. Please give it longer then 3 days before you decide to hate it and quit.

amarav · Aug 1, 2016

I hate my job too. New LPN only two years, i feel so abused. I am overloaded with patients and more work than i can handle and underpaid. I am also in school to get my RN. I wish there was something else for me. I feel like i cant even go on with this anymore