I don't want to do bedside nursing

[noki1024]

I need some advice, I thought I wanted to be a nurse ever since I was a little girl, however, once in school I started to really dread it. Couldn't figure out what it was, I enjoyed the lectures but hated clinicals. I realize that I don't want to do bedside nursing, but what non-clinical nursing jobs are available? I am a new grad so that limits my options right there. I am very compassionate but just cannot handle high stress and fast paced environments. I don't know what to do.

[scubanurse2000]

I could not agree more with some of these posts! I too, am not interested in bedside nursing, and I am tired of the same old argument of paying one's dues. And, looking at it from the other side of the argument, if I were to chose Med-Surg as my career (hypothetically) I think I would resent having my job being viewed as a type of "boot camp" for new nurses. Different hospital departments require their own specialized set of skills. Our "boot camp" should have been during our clinicals, but that is a different issue to discuss.

[~Shrek~]

First of all, don't let anyone tell you that you "need to" be miserable for a while just to be a nurse, or that in order to be a real nurse, you need to pay your dues and work at the bedside. It's always an option, and it's a good way to develop skills, but as my public health instructor told me, there is this belief out there that you need to be at the bedside to be a "whole" nurse, and that's not true.

I precepted in public health at the health department and eventually got my first full-time nursing job there. I tuned out the negativity about how I needed to sculpt my career a certain way, and I'm incredibly happy. Public health, to be sure, takes a very different skill set than bedside nursing. There are many different settings out there, even in such a saturated market.

Amen, same here. I am in public health now and I would not do anything else. Getting a year of bedside experience would have been valuable if I wanted to stay in bedside jobs. But my goals are to work in public health, and my public health experience will help me to continue in public health.