So I've been a nurse for over a year now and I am not liking it. Before becoming a nurse I was a chemist and I enjoyed it . my plan with nursing was to work for a pharmaceutical company as a nurse doing clinical trials. That has been super hard to get. So far I've had the following jobs :
CTSDU- 3 months , I left because it was hard finding childcare for 12 hour shifts
Ambulatory care - 9 months - I enjoyed it but I only was paid 21/hr not enough money and awful benefits
dialysis- 1 month ... absolutely hated it . Start time 5 am and just didn't like it
currently I am in skilled nursing / rehab for acute care geriatric patients. Hours and pay are ok but I don't like it . I'm the only RN so I'm responsible for staging wounds , admissions, and when/of state comes my documentation and patients are who they will look at. I'm just tired of it
I would love to work from home and I have applied and so far nothing .
So what should I do ? Does my resume of "job hopping" look awful? I haven't gone back to chemistry because most offers have been contract and I don't want that .
I wish I would have done something like engineering or accounting where I can actually get paid and have job stability. I already have two bachelors so I know I won't go back to school (money, time, too many student loans).
What should I do ? I no longer like my current job but I've only been here 4-5 months.
You're not going to like this ... but I think you need to get serious about nurturing a career rather than hop from job to job looking for a fantasy job that you love, pays well, and fits your family needs. Most of us spend our whole lives never getting that perfect fantasy job. What happens in real life is that we find a job that is "just OK" and then we invest a lot of time, effort, tolerance, and patience to make it work for us. You seem to leave a job as soon as you discover it does not match your fantasies.
Yes, your job-hopping looks awful -- so much so that it is unlikely you would be hired by anyone with a really great to job to offer. You will be unlikely to win out over the competition of the other applicants for any job that is really great. So ... you need to stay where you are for a while and invest in making it better for a while. Try to get along with your co-workers and develop a great reputation that will help you get a high quality next job in another year or two. Use the next year to develop a great professional reputation and to look around to figure out the type of job that will work best for you. Then after a year or two, after you have built your resume and developed a strong professional reputation, and earned strong recommendations ... you can pursue whatever type of job you think will suit you better.
It looks like all you have been doing for the last year in your nursing career is finding fault with all your jobs and leaving. It doesn't look like you have accomplished anything positive that would make a good impression on a potential employer. Use the next year to accomplish some positive things that you can use to get hired for something better.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
So I've been a nurse for over a year now and I am not liking it. Before becoming a nurse I was a chemist and I enjoyed it . my plan with nursing was to work for a pharmaceutical company as a nurse doing clinical trials. That has been super hard to get. So far I've had the following jobs :
CTSDU- 3 months , I left because it was hard finding childcare for 12 hour shifts
Ambulatory care - 9 months - I enjoyed it but I only was paid 21/hr not enough money and awful benefits
dialysis- 1 month ... absolutely hated it . Start time 5 am and just didn't like it
currently I am in skilled nursing / rehab for acute care geriatric patients. Hours and pay are ok but I don't like it . I'm the only RN so I'm responsible for staging wounds , admissions, and when/of state comes my documentation and patients are who they will look at. I'm just tired of it
I would love to work from home and I have applied and so far nothing .
So what should I do ? Does my resume of "job hopping" look awful? I haven't gone back to chemistry because most offers have been contract and I don't want that .
I wish I would have done something like engineering or accounting where I can actually get paid and have job stability. I already have two bachelors so I know I won't go back to school (money, time, too many student loans).
What should I do ? I no longer like my current job but I've only been here 4-5 months.
The first year after nursing licensure is miserable for most people. In order to GET through that first year, you have to GO through it. You're not through your first year yet because you keep job hopping. Every time you start over, you have to learn a new patient population, new policies and protocols, new coworkers, new management, new providers, new drugs, new everything. And you don't learn them before you're off to the next job. Nursing isn't for you unless you're willing to stick with something long enough to become competent, which is about two years.
Pick a job -- nursing or chemistry -- and stick with it for two years. Then decide if it's for you.
Since you know what you want and it is not easy to come by do you have any connections from your chemist days to get a foot in the door. I just watched some inspiring Ted talks on Youtube about getting the attention and response from hiring managers. Check out Why your job applications are getting ignored by Jean-Michel Gauthier and another one How to land your dream job with one email by Edward Druce. They offer a couple different ideas about getting noticed to help get the job you want. There are others on youtube that I haven't viewed. Maybe they will give you some ideas to help you find the job you are really interested in.
I am sorry, but your expectations were not realistic going into nursing. You've probably figured that out by now.
A cardiac ICU position is enviable for many new nurses. Why didn't you take that offer or the other one? Why do you apply for positions you're not serious about?
You seem really proud of your background as a chemist. I'm wondering if leaving that field was a mistake.
If you really do want to try to make nursing work, you're going to have to do some soul searching. Try not to think of it as looking for the perfect job... that's a unicorn... but building a career that takes time and patience. If you're interested in research, maybe look at large academic universities. They will sometimes hire nurses for their research. It's not exactly what you want, but it's probably as close as you can reasonably expect.
OP, do you have a MSN? I thought a masters was required for research. That's what I was told by nurse researchers.
I think you have fallen into the trap of what many people who go into nursing do, not fully understanding the field, what you are going into, and delusions of finding that perfect job right outside of nursing school.
I read your post and I don't get why you left chemistry. Especially if you liked it.
OP, do you have a MSN? I thought a masters was required for research. That's what I was told by nurse researchers.
I think you have fallen into the trap of what many people who go into nursing do, not fully understanding the field, what you are going into, and delusions of finding that perfect job right outside of nursing school.
I read your post and I don't get why you left chemistry. Especially if you liked it.
I think you would need a master's (at least, more likely a phd) if you were going to be an investigator in research.... like creating the methods/study protocol, applying for grants. Nurses are utilized in other aspects, however, like conducting follow ups, administering treatments, screening subjects, collecting specimens. That kind of stuff she could do.
Once you have a solid year of experience, take a look at NIH for jobs, or even at larger hospitals. You may be able to get a position as a staff RN in a research division. You could then start as a direct care RN and work your way up. But you are going to need at least a year of solid experience.
With your chemistry background I am surprised you didn't go for pharmacist. It may be a better fit for you. All of the job hopping says nursing may not be the job that keeps you content enough to stick it out. Go back to school if you can and use all of that chemistry, don't let it go to waste. Just like you in my past I bounced from job to job (nursing) only to find that I really want to be a MD. I am going back to school for that right now. I am working as a nurse until I gain acceptance into a school. Sometimes sticking it out works and other times you just become more miserable. Honestly it doesn't sound like you really want to be a nurse but rather more of a researcher. Good luck!
Here is a little bit of myself.. Soon after graduating from a School of Nursing and passed the board in the US, I moved to overseas (to the country where my family lived.) Over there, I worked for a contract research organization and got involved in multiple pharmaceutical clinical studies. I enjoyed working in the industry.
I moved back to the US a couple years ago and started to work as an RN. My initial dream was to become a research nurse. I learned that I had to have experiences in bedside nursing to become one, so I got a Med-Surg job. I found I absolutely hated Med-Surg and regretted that I chose Nursing as a profession. Now I work in operating room. It can be very stressful, but it is much better than Med-Surg. I never wanna go back to bedside nursing, so I no longer dream to be a research nurse.
new gal
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What a fantastic post. Loved it.