New grad RN, absolutely hate nursing

allnurses Guide · May 7, 2019

Most non-bedside nursing roles that pay worth a darn require 2-5 years of acute care experience.

If you hate nursing, do something else. Will it be convenient, cheap or easy? No. But it isn't worth your mental health and your patients deserve someone who is able to be fully present. Its okay to change your mind.

Zippy83 · May 7, 2019

Echoing a lot of the other posts here, but you don’t have to do bedside nursing in an acute setting. There are so many other options, it seems too early to say you hate nursing as a whole. It sounds like you would enjoy case management maybe. That definitely uses more of the academic skills, developing care plans etc.

Clinicals really stressed me out too, and I knew pretty early I was not interested in working on a hospital floor. Since getting my license I’ve done hospice and home health, a marketing position, patient advocacy, and staff educator. All enjoyable and challenging positions.

Then of course there are unlimited options using your degree in teaching, research, project management.... the list goes on and on. Some of these jobs do require some acute care experience, some don’t, and of course some require even more school, at Masters degree level.

Dont give up hope, there are lots of options for you!

Forest2 · May 7, 2019

On 5/5/2019 at 4:18 AM, Ashley Karanja said:
I am a new RN, graduated in dec 2018. I am starting my first RN job this month as a surgery float. Im from Canada so I did a 10 week preceptorship at the end of my degree.
I really really dislike nursing. To be clear, i enjoyed the academic part - i like science and learning and i did well in the academic part. It was clinicals i hated. I realized this more than halfway through my degree but I didnt want to quit and i naively thought id somehow like it by the end. In 2nd year i made a med error in clinical with no harm to ththe patient but i was seriously traumatized and didnt deal with it until after i graduated when I decided i needed to start going to therapy. This event in 2nd year severely intensified the anxiety i was already experiencing. Honestly i had never before experienced in my life what i would call anxiety until nursing school - and I already had a unrelated diploma and had worked since i was 15, but never experienxed anything near the continually worsening anxiety in nursing. In the first week of my 4th year preceptorship, I had a "near miss" were i hung a med and realized at the last second that it was too early. I was completely devestated, went home and told my parents i was quitting and not going back the next day. Long story short i did go back and finish, but it was rough
I didnt realize fully how much nursing had affected me until i finished school. All of the sudden i started to be happy again. Like, actually happy. I hadnt realized how much i hated my life and myself up to that point. My therapist diagnosed me with situational depression.
So now, i dont know what to do. I have this job starting in a week and i am getting very anxious again. I really really dont want to do it. But i feel like i need to? I dont know what else to do and it seems pretty difficult to get a nonhospital job without hospital experience but there in absolutely no way i can go back to how things were before, even if "just" for 6 months or a year. Any insight? Tips?

I understand not quitting and it makes you feel like a failure to just even think it. You may have been cornered into nursing as a career choice, it happens. Now that you are done with schooling that immense pressure is off. I think sometimes nurses who have been practicing awhile forget how intense the pressure can be. I remember how awful it was, I had no life, my toddler suffered for it because I didn't have time for him and I couldn't quit because I invested in it and had to find a way to make a living and as quickly as possible. Yea, school for me was torture to be endured. After you start working the pressure is not as bad, but it is still bad because starting a new job is a life crisis. There are a few life crisis, like moving, getting married, new job, death in family, these things bring on stress. The challenge is to try to avoid having more than one life crisis at a time.

One piece of advice I can give is to try to not be so hard on yourself. You are not infallible, you are human. Humans make mistakes. Is there a way you can put off starting a job for awhile, even another month down the road?

I hate the feeling of dread and it seems that often what we worry about never happens. So we set ourselves up for failure. I have found dreading to go to work for days ahead of time to realize that the work day was not near as bad as I expected.

I have been trying to practice "mindfulness", this is where you concentrate on what is going on in the moment. I won't spend a lot of time on that but you can look it up. It helps with anxiety.

One thing to remember is that nursing school is not nursing practice. Once you start working you will eventually get a reality check. What is taught from books is often not how things work in reality.

You might think of finding a more quiet unit to work on and work nights. I have found that night shift people are pretty cool and work well as a team, for one, there are fewer of them. Also, find a good friend to share your feelings with, someone who will boost you up.

I would try nursing if you can, not sure I recommend it as a career though. It is terrible to hate your work, it really messes a person up, practically will make a person sick. So I understand you. One thing for sure if you try it and it just makes you cringe with dread get out as soon as you can, life can pass by quicker than you realize.

Hope something I said was helpful, but I'm not the wise man on the hill so I am not sure it will help or not. Just know I wish you the best.

saongiri · May 7, 2019

I think you should continue in school and get a degree that compliments your BSN like an MSN in Nursing informatics or research.

Workitinurfava, BSN, RN · May 7, 2019

I usually say, stay in and try to find something that works but if you have depression that you can't shake due to this job, then you need to move on. Why not try Health Information Management? You should do something dealing with paperwork and no bedside care etc. For a lot of positions in nursing you have to give medication to patients, and do some sort of treatment on them. It is harder to bounce around in nursing when you leave the bedside and the hospital. The last thing you want to do is start out your career in a non-medical surgical type of enviornment. You will be shutting the door on a lot of high paying positions. I tried to get my daughter into nursing but she could not handle the sight of blood. I really tried my hardest to get her to do nursing but it is pointless to be into something that you mentally cannot handle. She works at the bank and may soon be working for Apple the phone company. I am letting her find her way right now before she goes to college and does something she doesn't want to do. All too often kids run to college and take out all of these student loans for degrees they can't use, or they don't like the job they went to school for. Once that happens it is hard to get into something you later find out you like. She says she wants to get into IT. We will see. I had to let go of my dream of her becoming a nurse. I would not want her being a nurse to make me happy. The other thing is I was completely honest with her about the job, and I even had her come to my work to shawdow a bunch of times. She was always sick to her stomach. Lolz... I know way too many nurses on anxiety medication to functions as nurses.

shona5514 · May 7, 2019

There are soooo many work at home positions as well as positions if you dont want to work from home where RN are utilized. Most nurses do that once they get burnt out or if like you they dont enjoy the patient care aspect. I have been working behind the scene prior to nursing school and after. I enjoy working from home. You can find posotions with EVERY healthcare insurance company, hospital, doctor offices etc. They are plentiful and pays great.

ruthogden, ASN, BSN, MSN, PhD · May 7, 2019

GET OUT.. Nursing will screw with your body and mind! I am on disability now, but I worked 35 years and it was horrible.

Everline · May 8, 2019

I can relate to a certain extent. I hated clinicals in nursing school and my first nursing job in a hospital really made me miserable and drove me to drink. I wish I was kidding. I hung in there about 7 months, networked and was able to move on to an outpatient setting where life got much, much better. Don't get me wrong, it was still stressful and I had to work hard on my self confidence and self care. But I was much more suited to an outpatient setting. I eventually got a job as a public health nurse and that is what I do today and what I will continue doing for the foreseeable future. I can say I've been successful in my work, but I still occasionally have days where I fantasize about suddenly quitting and going to work in a grocery store. Nursing is a stressful profession and I am a person prone to anxiety. It probably wasn't my best choice for a career. But I found my niche and can function well and, for the most part, I go home at night peacefully and not dreading the next day.

You will probably have to go through a job or two that will be difficult but you could find a place in nursing that suits you. However, you have to decide how much you are willing to bear and whether you think it will be worth it.

Ruadh · May 8, 2019

I wholeheartedly agree with “Everline”—-nursing is stressful and at times exhausting, as are most jobs. One aspect that sets nursing apart from other careers is the satisfaction you gain from helping another person. When you put their mind at ease or relieve their pain or help them understand a new diagnosis....the list goes on.

Doesn't mean we won’t find ourselves dreaming of maybe scooping ice cream or waitressing instead when we have tough days—-I’m afraid that’s just part of being human.

Go easy on yourself. Good luck navigating & hopefully finding a niche in nursing!

jules65 · May 8, 2019

Please go into a field or job that enables you not to work with patients. You have many options. To be a nurse, your heart must truly be in it. I hated being one for years and finally found my niche at 50. Hospital is not for everyone.

iskapacu · May 8, 2019

I graduated in 2016, worked on the floor for about 7 months, too stressful for me knowing the someone’s life is in my hands and don’t have enough experience to do what has to be done if something happened. I’ve been an MDS Coordinator since then and love it. Look it up - you might like it- don’t quit nursing world all together. You can do soooo many things with your nursing degree. Let me know if you have any questions

Sarah2018, BSN, RN · May 8, 2019

A hospital nurse is like a pilot of a big passenger plane, she has to be skillful.

I became comfortable with nursing when I saw how my colleagues were happy. I was not the only nurse, also so many of them graduated with me. They are humans too with feelings.

Look at your friends whom you graduated with. Maybe this will encourage you. You are not the only one.

Non-bedside nursing means a bullsh*t job where you won’t make a difference whether you are there or not.