New Student... Feeling Unsure

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Hello! This is my first post here at allnurses, and I was hoping to get some support, advice, and/or words of wisdom from you wonderful nurses here.

I just got started with my clinical rotations for my BSN program, and I'm feeling extremely unsure about my decision to be a nurse. I've only completed 3 shifts so far (I'm doing 12 hour shifts, 7pm to 7am), and I'm starting to really freak out. I know it's all still very new, so I may be prematurely freaking out, but I'm freaking out nonetheless. I was 99.9% sure going in that I wouldn't like the hospital environment, and boy was I right. Again, I know I haven't been doing it for long, but I just never saw myself doing this kind of nursing. When I used to fantasize about being a nurse, I would see myself doing a lot of patient education, and working in more of a preventative type of environment. I didn't see myself taking care of extremely sick patients, and I certainly didn't see myself getting vomited on, cleaning up all sorts of bodily fluids, and taking people to the bathroom.

I guess my question is, have any of you hated the hospital environment during school, but went on to graduate and find a nursing job that you love? Are new grads able to get hired on in clinics, public health, research, or school nursing? I'm just feeling so confused... I'm literally the only person in my group of peers that is miserable at clinicals, and if this is an perhaps an early indication that I won't like nursing, then I almost feel like I should get out before I get too far in.

For what it's worth, I am absolutely fascinated with nursing, and I love everything I've learned so far in my classes. I know whatever I do with my life, I hope I make a positive difference in other people's lives.

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take a deep breath.... when I trained I really disliked the floor nursing (team nursing). I knew when I graduated that I wouldn't pursue it. I really enjoy primary nursing. There are so many different avenues to take. When I trained, I really didn't like paediatrics, however, I ended up doing that for a couple years (it was in a teaching facility)- I loved it!

It is difficult when you are new to the profession,and can be overwhelming- give yourself some time.

You will find something that you are drawn to... things will work out

good luck :)

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

think of it as an endurance test. Once it is done, and you are licensed, you can work many places outside the hospital. This too shall pass

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I have a hate love relationship.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Taking care of sick patients, dealing with bodily fluids and toileting are a reality in nursing. There are many away from the bedside jobs but you really need to get bedside experience first. Did you really not realize that nursing meant taking care of sick people? It's early days. Give it a chance.

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Specializes in medical surgical.

You may be best suited for a pharmaceutical sales job. The pay is far better than you will ever make in floor nursing. Most likely you will get a company car. The only downside I see is that there may be some travel involved.

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Thank you for all of the helpful replies, everyone! It's a scary thing to think about throwing a lot of hard work (1 year in prereq's plus 6 months so far in school) down the drain. I'll give it some more time before I decide.

Loriangel14, I honestly didn't think of that part of nursing, because hospital nursing was never my goal. The handful of nurses I have known in my life have all held nursing jobs outside of the hospital. I thought their jobs sounded amazing, mostly because they were focused around health promotion (education, family planning, etc). Certainly not all nursing jobs involve dealing with poop and pee. I figured I could put up with it for the 2 years that I'm in school, but it's not as easy to handle as I thought. I'm sure it doesn't help that I have three toddlers... I get pooped, peed, and vomited on on a pretty regular basis on my own time. ;)

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I only meant that you seemed shocked that you were taking care of sick people in clinical. No offense meant. Most jobs that are not bedside require that you get experience under your belt first so you have something to draw on.

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I was 99.9% sure going in that I wouldn't like the hospital environment,

If I was 99.9% sure I wasnt going to like ice cream I probably wouldn't. Your never gonna like it if you don't give it a chance. 'You are investing allot of time and energy into becoming a nurse so you owe it to yourself to go into it with an open mind with out any preconceived notions of what you think bedside nursing may be. A positive outlook is half of the battle and you sound smart enough for the rest.

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Thank you for all of the helpful replies, everyone! It's a scary thing to think about throwing a lot of hard work (1 year in prereq's plus 6 months so far in school) down the drain. I'll give it some more time before I decide.

Loriangel14, I honestly didn't think of that part of nursing, because hospital nursing was never my goal. The handful of nurses I have known in my life have all held nursing jobs outside of the hospital. I thought their jobs sounded amazing, mostly because they were focused around health promotion (education, family planning, etc). Certainly not all nursing jobs involve dealing with poop and pee. I figured I could put up with it for the 2 years that I'm in school, but it's not as easy to handle as I thought. I'm sure it doesn't help that I have three toddlers... I get pooped, peed, and vomited on on a pretty regular basis on my own time. ;)

Hi,

The strangest thing... I received recently your message. I live in WI. I was unable to reply back. I am a member it just doesn't work. Email me on yahoo so we can talk more. My email is freetobeme82@yahoo. I am Leah Thanks

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
Hi,

The strangest thing... I received recently your message. I live in WI. I was unable to reply back. I am a member it just doesn't work. Email me on yahoo so we can talk more. My email is freetobeme82@yahoo. I am Leah Thanks

You don't have enough posts to PM. I think you need 10 or 15 before you can use the PM function.

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hey there,

you are very new at this. it may well be that you will fetch up in some excellent nursing job where you will never see feces, urine, or vomitus (except from your own kids, and even that stops someday :D). maybe not-- when i was faculty we routinely saw that 90% of our incoming class wanted to be "mother and baby nurses," because as generally healthy young people all they knew was what they saw in their pediatrician's offices, from having younger siblings, or from kids they babysat for. now i think more plan to be icu or er nurses, because there is so much icu and er on tv. hint: do not think it's all like that. nuff said. i digress.

for now, you really don't know very much nursing, and three shifts isn't enough data to pitch a long-held goal.

hang in there. nursing school will expose you to many, many things (not just excreta and ejecta). you haven't seen but the tip of the iceberg yet. even if you fall in love with some area while you are a student, you still need to do all of it before you graduate and get work, and even then you might find yourself taking a job you never planned on and find yourself on an entirely new career trajectory.

keep an open mind. every shift you don't enjoy, tell yourself that's one fewer left to go. :idea: look for the small clinical pearls that sometimes get found in nasty sharp oyster shell experiences, and remember them. no learning experience is wasted. ask every nurse you meet why s/he does what s/he does, and more importantly, why s/he doesn't do what s/he doesn't do. listen. wear comfortable shoes, put the negatives out of your mind as soon as you notice them in there (this takes a good deal of practice but it's a very useful skill), and remember that five years from now when you're getting paid for doing something else you won't remember most of this at all. seriously.

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