I have hated bedside nursing ever since I started. I even hated it when I was in school but IDK why it never clicked to me that I should pursue something else...anyway, I am on my 8th month of nursing of my first consecutive year. I say consecutive, bc I held a bedside position in an adult hospital for 2 months before switching over to pediatrics. I can at least handle this job better than my first, but I really really hate nursing so much. I can't wait to become qualified for other jobs.
Is it normal to hate my job this much? I get so depressed and anxious the day before my shift starts. It's been 8 months and I still feel this way. Makes me think it's never going to get better ? please tell me when I can leave the bedside pretty please ... I just feel with the pandemic it's so much harder to get a job but IDK I guess I am lucky to have the one I do right now (I just hate it SO MUCH).
People keep telling me it would get better but it never did. I'm losing hope and even started researching other majors I could pursue. please help
Becoming a Nurse is not easy. When you decided to become a Nurse you must have been influenced by something or someone in your life. If it was a someone, then have you reached out to that person and talked about your feelings? If it was a something then did you talk to your preceptors or mentors? I can understand how this transition can be difficult.
I am a Director of an Emergency Department and developed a residency to help develop new Nurses. Did you attend a residency? If not do you have an assigned mentor in your unit to speak with?
No one wants to appear vulnerable and in the beginning of your career it can be very stressful. It does not help that we are in a pandemic.
At this time I would not recommend any overtime as you need to get a handle with your new reality.
Bedside care sets your base of knowledge and is critical to developing your career. I regularly work at the bedside whenever I can and it keeps my skills sharp and always remind me of what a nurse basically is.
I sit on an advisory board for one of our local Nursing Programs and I can hear (Using MS Teams now) the concerns in both students and instructors.
Keep the faith, you are in a wonderful profession and just need to better understand where you fit in this crazy world of Nursing.
One of the great things about nursing is that it has so many facets and areas you can go into. You could probably even find a job just sitting behind a desk doing data analysis or something if you wanted to get out of direct patient care entirely.
I've been nursing 9 years and still love my job, but the key seems to have been changing things up regularly. I cut my teeth on a GI post op med/surg floor for a while, where I charged and tried to learn as much as I could, even asking surgeons to sit in and watch surgeries. Then I moved to a neuro-surgical ICU for a couple of years and soaked up as much info and experience as I could there charging and learning advanced care with things like EVDs and CRRT. Then I did ICU travel nursing for a year and a half. Now I've come back to my home city where I'm working a float pool between two hospitals, and I've just been trained to insert PICC lines and I work with IV therapy frequently but also ICU and general med/surg with the float pool.
So keep things moving! Burn out is inevitable if you stay in one place long enough. Granted, you've only been there 8 months so it sounds more like a bad fit than burnout, but the point is the same. Start seeing about moving to other areas within your facility. If you don't like floor nursing, try PACU or ICU. If you hate hospital nursing in general, start looking at private practices. If you hate patient care, look into working for insurance companies or other businesses that need people behind a computer. The options are endless, don't let yourself get stuck. It's your practice to shape into what you want.
If you just hate working.......well......good luck with that.
Why did you go into nursing to start with? What changed? Maybe you are not working in the right place. When doing acute hospital nursing the hospital you work for makes a huge difference. Are you in a teaching hospital? I did bedside acute hospital nursing for 13 years before going into school nursing. I never could stand working in small community hospitals. I would last a week. I had to work in large teaching hospitals. The atmosphere, the knowledge, the respect nurses get etc is at a whole different level at large teaching hospitals. You have to be someplace where you are constantly learning something new with passionate coworkers. If it wasn't for my experience in those hospitals I never could have been the nurse I am today (going on 39 years as a RN). If you just plain hate being a nurse, then leave. Life's to short. Find your passion.
You sound stressed and overworked. A few thoughts on your current situation.
First, do not be available on your days off. This is something you have control over and you can start doing immediately. Your days off are yours. You don't owe anyone a schedule change. You don't owe anyone even a conversation. Don't answer calls or texts from work on your days off. Protect that time. You've earned it and you need it. I personally work to my control hours, and that's it. If I pick up a shift, it's because I want to. If there's a staffing issue, it's NOT MY PROBLEM. Management and management alone is responsible for staffing the hospital, not me. You aren't getting the break you need on your days off, because work is still taking up residence in your headspace - evict it.
Second, you should not be abused by management. Full stop. Sometimes families get nasty, and that's probably just part of any job that works with the public, but management should have your back when it occurs. If management is pouring it on rather than supporting you, it might be poor management, not be bedside nursing that's an issue, and on a different unit, you'd be okay.
Third, those hours seem really long. Why are you getting up at 4:30 and returning at 9? Do you have a really long commute? If so, then maybe a lack of sleep and the stress of the drive is a contributing factor. If you start your day tired and stressed, that doesn't set you up for a good shift. Would it be possible to move closer to work or find a job closer to home? Are there any 8-hour positions available rather than 12s? I personally work 8s, and even when they stretch to 9 or 10, that's better than a 12 that stretches to 13 or 14.
You don't have nearly enough experience for nursing ED, and it would probably drive you nuts sticking it out to get enough experience for that.
*Actually, I started as a new grad in the ER and did very well. There are some very experienced nurses that drown in the ER. Just depends on how you deal with the environment. However, it IS a highly stressful job and IV starts are just one of many needed skills.
*Actually, I started as a new grad in the ER and did very well. There are some very experienced nurses that drown in the ER. Just depends on how you deal with the environment. However, it IS a highly stressful job and IV starts are just one of many needed skills.
My comment was a reply to OP stating she was interested in nursing ED in a hospital or university (so ED as short for education, not emergency department). OP has worked 2 months with adults and 8 months in pediatrics, which is not nearly enough experience to be considered for that kind of position. New grads sometimes go right to emergency nursing, which can be the right fit, depending on the nurse and the support.
However, along those lines, OP has also stated that she does not handle stress well. So even though it would provide opportunities to practice PIV insertion, the emergency department would not be a good fit for her. But that's a matter of temperament, not experience.
ED62
2 Posts
Pinkdoves,
Becoming a Nurse is not easy. When you decided to become a Nurse you must have been influenced by something or someone in your life. If it was a someone, then have you reached out to that person and talked about your feelings? If it was a something then did you talk to your preceptors or mentors? I can understand how this transition can be difficult.
I am a Director of an Emergency Department and developed a residency to help develop new Nurses. Did you attend a residency? If not do you have an assigned mentor in your unit to speak with?
No one wants to appear vulnerable and in the beginning of your career it can be very stressful. It does not help that we are in a pandemic.
At this time I would not recommend any overtime as you need to get a handle with your new reality.
Bedside care sets your base of knowledge and is critical to developing your career. I regularly work at the bedside whenever I can and it keeps my skills sharp and always remind me of what a nurse basically is.
I sit on an advisory board for one of our local Nursing Programs and I can hear (Using MS Teams now) the concerns in both students and instructors.
Keep the faith, you are in a wonderful profession and just need to better understand where you fit in this crazy world of Nursing.
ED62