Is there such a thing as the two year blahs?

[DedHedRN]

I officially have two years experience now, and believe me, I am still learning. I have spent about 14 months in LTC, and the last 8 months in Hospice. I love my job, but I feel its so slow paced and I am not learning very much being on night shift. I basically take calls and triage them and do home visits if necessary. I do a lot of listening and give medication advice. I think that I could easily do this job the rest of my life. But I feel so blah! I sometimes look at other jobs just because I feel like they may be more exciting and I might learn more at them. Does this feeling pass? I am thinking that I will become certified HPCN just to have something to work on.

Also, I am worried that if I don't get some Acute care experience soon, that I will become unemployable in the acute care setting. I have heard that if you don't work acute care by a certain amount of time after becoming a nurse that you never will. Does anyone know how accurate this is?

[llg, PhD, RN]

Yes. Definitely ... there is a phenomenon that happens to many nurses as they reach the "competent" stage of development. They have spent the last several years in school, struggling to learn and survive. Then they spend a year or two as a new grad struggling to learn and survive. Once they have mastered the basic staff nurse role where they work, they take a breath, realize they are tired, and think, "Now what?" In fact, that stage of development is part of a class I am teaching later this week.

I think it happens to most nurses. The details just vary from person to person and with different particular situations.

My recommendation is to give yourself a little time (a couple of months, a year?) to simply rest and recover that the hard work and struggles of the past few years. Enjoy your paycheck and focus on having a good, well-rounded life that includes fun and recreation. As you begin to feel rested and/or inclined to think about your future ... reassess your strengths, weaknesses, career preferences, oppportunities, etc. and start establishing some new goals and plans. There is no need to push yourself so hard that it hurts ... just keep learning and growing in a direction that will take you somewhere you want to go.

Another suggestion: Think about the difference between "career enrichment" and "career advancement." Sometimes, the best moves to make are things that enrich our current jobs -- give us a new perspective on the work we are already doing and/or adding depth and sophistication to our current work. Moving forward doesn't have to mean getting a new job. It can mean enriching your current one. For example, precepting, getting involved in work improvement projects, getting involved in a nursing association or charity, etc. ... these things can enrich your professional life and help you develop a broader and deeper perspective while your basic job goes on "auto-pilot" for a little while. That's not only OK, it can be really good for your mental health as well as for your career in the long run.

Good luck to you!

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

During nursing school I worked full time and raised 2 teenagers essentially by myself. Getting through nursing school was the hardest thing I've ever done. The amount of discipline and persistence required was inhuman. I got straight As to boot. Once I finished nursing school, I went to work immediately on a high acuity inpatient unit. Our facility didn't have a stepdown ICU at the time, and so our floor received many patients with one foot in the ICU, and yet we still had the same patient load as a less acute floor. Two years into that, I transferred to the ED. A little over 2 years into that, for various reasons, I left acute care and am now working in an outpatient capacity. This job is so relaxed and there is hardly ever a sense of urgency to anything I do. It has been like taking a big deep breath, and I've had time to focus on the softer skills such as interpersonal communication and patient teaching. It's been great!

But...I am so freaking bored. I am ready to get back into acute care.

I had been pushing myself hard for the 4 years it took to get my ADN, then for the five years combined I spent as a new nurse in high acuity, intense patient care environments, for a total of close to 10 years! Taking this break has given me the opportunity to just get some time, focus on other parts of my life, like recreation and travel, and re-evaluate my career goals.

In a nutshell, I think the above poster has shared a great deal of wisdom that really resonates with my own experience.

You must find your own path, though. Good luck!

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

Congratulations on getting to your second year!! You can officially say "in all the YEARS I've been nursing..."