New nurses feel like quitting?

Nurses New Nurse

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I'm wondering if any relatively new nurses (a year or less in the field) are on the verge of quitting or did quit with no intention of getting another nursing job. I'm not talking about the, "I had a bad day..." kind of 'wanting to quit; rather I'm talking about seriously feeling like you can't take it any more.

If this is you and you're either about to quit or did quit, what lead up to wanting to end a career that you worked so hard to enter? We know that getting into nursing school, finishing nursing school and passing the NCLEX are not easy accomplishments, so after years of hopes and dreams, something dramatic must have happened to get you to the point of giving up on what was probably your dream job? Can you share your story, here?

Specializes in Pediatrics.

I always think of quitting, every single day. I am a new nurse two months off orientation and hate my unit so much. I'm on a medical-surgical telemetry unit, handle 5-6 patients every day and my hospital keeps jerking me around regarding my employment status (they have me as part-time temporary because they did not have any full-time positions for the new grads they hired. But hired more this October. Try figuring that out). I hate the patient population immensely. Patients never seem to care about their health, repeatedly come in for the same issues, painkiller seeking or just plain crazy. Half the time I'm getting beat up by demented old people with a UTI while trying to provide care - and then get blamed by the family for causing "trauma" for the patient. I only graduated in May but already I'm trying to figure out how to get out of bedside nursing. I wanted to come into nursing to challenge my mind, not be a glorified pill dispenser and be beat up.

If there's a light in nursing, I sure as heck don't see it.

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I officially started my job 8/19/13. A new grad nurse for a medical/telemetry floor during day shift. I was so excited. Then I realized we were the "dump" floor..... ICU/ER dumps... Holding unit for the psych hospital if they didn't have beds.... We even took in hospice overflow.... And I kid you not- I had a patient who was 39 weeks and 6 days pregnant----- ON MY UNIT!!! I was so scared she would have her baby on the unit and I would have no idea what to do bc L/D was not my thing.

During my orientation I had 5 grand mal seizures in one day due to stress (that's what the hospitalists say when they don't have a clue) and I was told that I was lucky that I was receiving an extra week of orientation, which kind of hurt bc I was in the hospital for 5 days.... So it felt like I was now a burden.

The first time I cried was when I took 5 patients for a shift (small amount, I know but this was jumping from 3 patients to 5). I was so busy and so overwhelmed that I didn't even know what I was feeling until after work when I sat in my car and just started crying. I was crying bc I was so damned angry. For 4 years, during nursing school, I told myself that I never wanted to be THAT nurse-- the one who comes in, does an assessment, gives meds, and repeats. And here I was.... A month and a half in- and I had already become that nurse. The second time I cried was when I had to stay late to finish my charting and night shift nurses started talking about me not realizing I was right there- so I turned around and asked them "did I do something to make you really really upset with me? Or are you just like this all the time?" I was sick of being bullied by the night charge nurse and her groupies.

My profession before nursing was at a tissue bank making double, if not triple, the money with none of the crazy cliques, screaming family members, angry doctors, or pharmacists who spend 5 hours to review an order for Tylenol. I got into nursing to help people, but now I'm always angry with myself for being so naive. The healthcare system is broken. There's no way nurses can give appropriate nursing care when there's 7-8 patients each and your hospital is always talking about meeting HCAP Scores..... I'm not going to ever quit bc I worked hard for this, but every day I wonder if I had judged previous nurses (while I was a nursing student) too harshly for being THAT nurse.

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