Hi guys im 28 years old and I'm having trouble finding my groove and niche in nursing all together but figured maybe i can get some insight. I have been a practicing nurse for nearly 3 years coming next month. I started out on MED/SURG and only lasted a total of 7 months before i couldn't do it anymore and wanted to find something else less stressful and find quality of life rather than being constantly stressed. (long story on that) so i made the decision and quit and went off to a sedation dental ambulatory surgery center. it was way to easy but told myself to stay for a year just because i didn't want to jump to another job quick again since i didn't believe that would look good on my resume. during that year, i applied for an agency and with my limited med surg experience they only hired me for outpatient day surgery PACU at another surgery center involving way more (plastics, T&A, carpel tunnel, rhinoplasty etc) i did that job for about 2 months and i learned some more and pretty much enjoyed it for the most part.
a year went by in search for a job in anything else, i landed a job at a level 1 trauma hospital OR TRAUMA. with a pension plan! i took it because i really thought of retirement and wanted to get in the pension plans they had at the facility. Now, since i did REALLY well in the interview, they THOUGHT i had REAL OR experience! went through the cracks of HR and got hired as a staff nurse but in actuality i didn't have the experience so there were 2 other nurses who got hired into the periop program the month prior that i got hired so they kept me and put me in the program.
FAST FORWARD to today. 11 months has passed by and im still on orientation, and I'm finding that i still don't like the OR at all. i honestly never really cared for the OR.. I just applied all over and took the first opportunity of the pension plan and wanted to get my foot in the door and took the opportunity on the job in the OR. since the beginning, i wasn't so intrigued by the specialty sadly, but i kept truckin' in hopes i would maybe soon like it. during the course of 11 months there has been many times that I've played hooky at work or just go to SPD to help out instead of being in the OR. overall, i just don't think i still like it even being on orientation still! It's mainly because, the environment is horrible, people are so negative, and everyone is out to get everyone and they thrive on you failing! on top of that, trying to learn the job is already stressful in itself so i have to deal with trying to learn and dealing with all those crazy personalities!
Im less than 2 weeks away from being on my own and feel like i don't really know anything. i can probably survive in simple cases but im just over it and kinda miss bedside nursing ? i dread waking up in the morning to go to work and dread seeing everyone, even though im still antisocially social if that makes sense lol! i just don't know where i stand in my niche in nursing and just want to be happy or at least satisfied with my job. i love nursing but i haven't found my place!!
any advice from you guys will help me tremendously! im pushing for my year on my own so that way i can have "2 years" of OR experience and maybe laterally move to another department... please you guys any advice helps! thank you so much for taking the time to read my rant!
