New hospital nurse... needing advice

jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B · Jan 20, 2016

There is a LOT more to nursing than a hospital job. It is not the be all or end all.

I have been an LPN for a lot of years, most of which back in the days of LPN's being utilized in acute care. When I felt the burnout of changes in my scope, I moved on to a more M-F non-hospital gig.

Now I can't imagine going back. Sure there's times that I miss the hustle and bustle. But not often.

There's nothing that says you can not go back. What is your ultimate goal? Meaning "losing skill" is subjective.

Best wishes, and I would look at Urgent Care as well...

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jan 20, 2016

Not every nurse is a hospital nurse. Hospital nursing is getting more and more difficult ... with the high nurse to patient ratio and the additional responsibilities piled on.

Please, go back to your old job.. with your head held high.Life is too short to be "physically and mentally exhausted".

rn1115 · Jan 20, 2016

Thanks for the replies! I'm just worried about leaving.. I have been off orientation for only a week. I did have 8 weeks on but my preceptor was kinda like go do this yourself.. Now with all the responsibly of having 5 or so patients on my own is very scary to me. I honestly don't know my long term goal at this point.. I want to continue nursing but idk what to do. I have this horrible feeling all the time of forgetting to look at important info like labs, orders, etc. & im so worried that I will make a mistake that will hurt someone. I don't wanna give up a hospital job but this floor is so short staffed it's making going to work dreadful.. í ½í¸¢

rn1115 · Jan 20, 2016

When I said about losing skills I was talking about like assessment skills and such. I feel like in the clinic setting I was forgetting things bc I wasn't in the hospital but now I hate the hospital. I did do a lot of IVs there as I was one of the only RNs there. Im worried that if I leave he hospital I'm like ruining my career tho... Ugh!

nutella, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2016

When I said about losing skills I was talking about like assessment skills and such. I feel like in the clinic setting I was forgetting things bc I wasn't in the hospital but now I hate the hospital. I did do a lot of IVs there as I was one of the only RNs there. Im worried that if I leave he hospital I'm like ruining my career tho... Ugh!

Not everybody is happy in the hospital environment and there is really no law that says you have to be a hospital nurse to be a "good"nurse. There are so many options ! If you like outpatient/clinic better - look for a job in that area ! There is nothing wrong with finding out what you want and like. You do not need to put yourself through something you do not want. Perhaps you would have more options after staying for lets say a year or two - but is that reasonable for you? While it is true that it takes some time to adept to hospital nursing, for some nurses it is just not a good fit because of the way it is.

I have done many different nursing jobs and have not worked med/surg bedside in a while and would not go back to it if I can avoid it. I have worked critical care, med/surg with step down, acute dialysis, home palliative and hospice and palliative inpatient service. To be honest - I do not see as many older nurses on med/surg floors anymore - too much craziness and stress ....

Don't feel bad if you go back to outpatient services - different things work at different stages in out life...

There are also doctor's offices in my area that see very sick patients in their offices. They do a bunch of things in the offices like starting IVs, accessing ports, inserting foleys and so on - the level of acute in some doctor's offices is high.

Libby1987 · Jan 20, 2016

8 weeks for your first floor position? We used to be ready to be functional in 8 weeks, my own telemetry orientation was 6 weeks after working there as an extern, but we can't even orient an experienced nurse to home health in 8 weeks anymore.

I would ask myself, what do I want to do for a living and how do I get there? If I wanted to be a telemetry nurse or use that as a stepping stone to something else I wanted to do, and this would be realistically able to do, I would dig deep and make it happen.

However if this experience opened my eyes to realizing that isn't what I thought it was, then I'd go back to what worked, and excel and appreciate that position.

CryssyD · Jan 20, 2016

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time. Cardiac in general scares the holy bejeebers out of me--just not my strong suit and never was. I started out in peds, where the patients usually don't smoke or do drugs and have super strong heart muscles. I kind of miss the excitement of acute care, but I wouldn't go back to it now no matter what you paid me.

Hospital nursing isn't for everyone. Yes, it's a good place to learn skills when you're new, but it's also very stressful and can overwhelm new nurses really fast. Whether you quit or not is up to you, but you are still relatively new there--maybe it'll get better with time? Can you get more orientation?

Whatever you do, best of luck to you!

rn1115 · Jan 20, 2016

I want to say and make it work but honestly don't know if I can physically handle it right now.. I have been having to stay until 8:30-9pm to get everything done and it's exhausting. I wanna talk to my husband about leaving the hospital but I'm afraid bc I don't want him upset with me. He knows it has been making me sick lately though with the stress. I honestly feel like a failure since I can't handle the hospital. I feel like going back to my old job makes me look bad and people will talk crap. Although, I shouldn't care.