New grad looking for some advice

[AMM0322]

Hello, I am hoping to get some advice. I started my first nursing job in August of this year. I currently work on a adult Med Surg floor (rotated between 3 different units) at a level 1 trauma hospital in a difficult area. Needless to say, the hospital acuity is pretty challenge. I try my best navigate, but not only do I feel extremely overwhelmed at all times, my heart really isn’t in it. I don’t enjoy going, in fact I dread it. I truly feel like nursing isn’t for me, but I also know it’s FAR too early to really make that decision. I am trying my best to get through that first year, but I can’t help but feel that adult care is not for me. I don’t know if 6 months would be too early to switch and I would be doing myself a disservice? As of now, I feel like my life is on hold for this job. I want to find my niche because I know when I do I’ll put my heart and soul into it, but as of now I feel very lost. I want to work in community health nursing, but I know that experience is critical. I also feel like i would like to work with babies. I’m scared to change and then realize the grass wasn’t greener on the other side. Has anyone felt this way and have advice?

[RNperdiem, RN]

Stay at your current job. Make it though the day even if it is hard. Realize that you are at a low point that almost new grads will hit that slump, and that as you learn to handle the workload, things do get better.

In a way, your life is on hold because the first year of nursing has become the all clinical last year of school now that nursing education has become more theoretical and less hands on over time.

Use the next few months to do some research about where you want to move next. Who is hiring? What are the requirements? Can you shadow? Just knowing that you don't have to stay at your current job forever is freeing.

[Katie82, RN]

I agree that you should stay for at least a year. Bedside nursing was not my favorite, but it was necessary experience. I left the hospital and worked in Community Health for 10 years, then moved on to Case Management. I loved both. There is a career beyond the hospital, but you need the acute care "foundation".