Need advice from experienced RNs

[sophieblophie]

Hi, I'm only a CNA/ pre-nursing student but I needed some advice from some nurses who have been around awhile and might know my situation. I've been working as a CNA in a LTC facility for exactly two weeks now and I want to quit already. LTC just isn't for me, but my CNA instructor recently became the DON here and offered me the job, so I took it w/o thinking about what I really wanted to do. Had she not offered me the job, I would have applied at the hospital. I volunteered in a hospital in high school and loved it, and when I become a nurse I want to work in one, too.

However, my real problem is that at work, I'm simply overwhelmed. I was not properly oriented to work at the facility, and I'm not strong enough to transfer many of the patients, even though I exercise regularly. My back aches every night when I come home and when I ask another aide for help, I don't get it. Back problems run in my family and I don't want to get a permanent injury because of an unsafe workplace. They're also short-staffed and in my first week I got stuck caring for 15-18 residents whom I knew nothing about.

So, I want to go to my DON and tell her all these things and say that if my conditions don't improve, I'm going to look elsewhere, but I don't know how that will really reflect on me and if that will affect my chances of getting a job in the future. I really don't know what to do at this point, because I'm really miserable.