Need Advice on Career Path

[RhythmicCandy, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I'm a little less than 1 year as a nurse working on a telemetry unit in relatively small suburban hospital. I dislike dealing with patient care for 12 hour shifts. I don't like the maintenance feel about it in terms of patient care. You're too focused on bowel movements, urinary continence and skin checks. On top of that you have 5-6 patients, more often than not 6, and you need to coordinate and complete all the assessments/charting and medications and performing in between any necessary interventions like placing Foley catheters, NG tubes, IVs, etc. I'm frustrated that you are depended upon to be a patient advocate yet you're assigned too many patients on an understaffed floor and have too many tasks to complete and perform, including trivial tasks like labeling IV tubing date change times. Looking up lab values and other results is put on hold sometimes and I'm not able to critically think about my patient's care. The biggest thing of all for me is dealing with the personalities of patients. Too many patients have nasty attitudes, demanding, anxious. And when you're with someone 12 hrs out of the day you need to constantly help perform activities of daily living for them. I get drained and exhausted after doing this nor do I have the patience to deal with everyone's individual personalities. I understand patients are needy and are sick and not able to care for themselves in some circumstances but I also recognize that this is not necessarily the type of work I want to perform for 12 hrs, three days a week.

I'm interested in NP, CRNA, and even Flight Nursing. I think I would enjoy taking care of acutely ill patients stabilizing them and then transferring them to the next stage of care. I'm currently and EMT part time which I enjoy very much because you don't know what type of situation you're going to get yourself into. I also like that you can help address the pertinent problem and then pass off the maintenance side of the patient care to the bedside, or medsurg nursing. I have actually moved my work schedule at the hospital to only weekends so I can pursue a certification as a Paramedic because I enjoy the pre-hospital side so much.

I do want to stay in nursing and continue my nursing education in ways where I can have a more influential role in treating or helping the patient as opposed to more maintenance like care. But I do want to have an exciting day each time I got into work. And I do want to earn more money. The payscale for RNs does not compensate for the amount of work they do. This is why I have expressed interest in NP, CRNA, and Flight Nursing.

If anyone can lend me some advice I would be open to your thoughts.

Thank you