Help!! New nurse that hates Med/Surg!

Kallie3006, ADN · Jul 15, 2018

I forgot to mention, I'm on a med/surg/oncology floor. Do you think that will limit where I can go even if I wait to transfer at my 1 year mark?

Absolutely not. You are still taking med/surg patient and developing your knowledge base with that. You haven't been practicing long enough to have your ONC, are you trained in chemo administration? I dont know about where you are but our Oncology floor will have a patient getting active chemo infusions every now and then and the nurses have to have special training to do that. We also see oncology patients on almost any floor, depending on admitting dx and stage of tx or remission. If you are or do get training or cert on it later on, I personally believe that it would make you more marketable, shows you are willing to put forth the time and effort to learn and/or get the certification to provide the best care for your patients. (Not that not having these certs or training diminishes your marketing ability)

RK694 · Jul 15, 2018

99.9% of nurses hate med/surg. That's what happens when you're treated like a slave. NEVER stay in a job you hate. Take some courses in medical aesthetics. Add those to your resume.

RK694 · Jul 15, 2018

No, it's not the exception. I, too have had multiple jobs and have never had any problems getting the jobs I want. It's just not a big deal anymore - especially given it is in the same hospital.

RK694 · Jul 15, 2018

For some people it might take a year to know for sure if they hate something. For others (myself included) I know within a few days/weeks. I also have a couple different careers.

For example, in nursing, I knew the first DAY that I HATED working in nursing homes - the smell, the institutional-like environment, depressing atmosphere, staff who clearly don't want to be there, etc. Give me ONE HOUR with certain jobs and I could tell you which ones I despised. In fact, some of them I wouldn't even need to try them; for instance, I would hate cleaning outhouses, teaching adolescents in a public school, working with Hospice patients, working in a factory doing repetitive, mind-numbing work, and so on and so forth. This is simply because I know who I am and what I prefer.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jul 15, 2018

I guess I should start off by saying I've always disliked med/surg throughout nursing school. The reasons I wanted to be a nurse were for pretty unconventional reasons: 1) I have a great interest in Medical Aesthetics because I'm creative and love to help people feel better about themselves 2) I've also had a great interested in the Operating Room/Recovery because having outpatient surgery as a child is what sparked my interested in wanting to be a nurse in the first place.
When applying for jobs, I was told by every nurse around me that I absolutely needed med/surg and bedside experience for at least 1 year- the same tune that everyone normally sings. Aside from that, all the jobs that I truly wanted required experience in that field (OR wants OR experience, med spas in Florida want Nurse Practitioners for injectors with experience)
I couldn't find anyone willing to train a new grad in their specialty of choice so off to med/surg I went.
So, I've been on a med/surg floor for about 3 months now. And to no surprise at all, I hate it. I despise everything about it- I won't go into detail and list every single thing I hate, because it's truly everything. I should point out that my floor itself is not that bad, which, to me, really validates my feelings that med/surg is just not for me and not my niche. I'm currently on orientation as a full-time employee however I've been hired for a per diem position. Everyday I fantasize about the day I can leave and work somewhere that I'll be truly happy. I've started to get anxiety before work and what feels like a depressing state. I just want OUT! According the the employee handbook, I can transfer to another floor or facility (there are 4 other facilities) after 6 months of employment. If I find a position that I really want, do you think it would look poorly on me if I were to apply/transfer after 6 months of being on my current floor? Even though I'm staying within the same hospital/company?

Three months -- especially three months in your FIRST job -- isn't long enough to know whether you really hate Med/Surg or if you're just having a difficult transition from nursing student to nurse. I would venture to guess it's the latter because MOST new nurses seem to hate their first jobs. It takes about a year to become comfortable in a new job, and that year is downright miserable for most of us. If you've wound up on a floor that "isn't that bad", you're doing really well! Stay long enough to get comfortable, learn the job and learn how to be a nurse. Don't transfer within your first year because if you do, you'll just have to start over a second time and it will take that much longer to get comfortable and become competent.

Heylove, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Jul 20, 2018

Gag. I would only work med-surg/ICU if my family depended on it for me to provide them food or shelter.

I went straight to psych nursing and I have loved almost every day of it. There have been challenging days...but I work with adolescents, and it's not all sunshine and unicorns!

Hollyhocks720, MSN, NP · Apr 26, 2019

The hospitals in my area (midwest large and small hospitals) hire brand new grads in every area except cardiac cath lab. Apply somewhere you will be happy. I hated med/surg too, no reason to be miserable. Not a single job I have seen from a 9 bed critical care hospital to Mayo says “med/surg experience required”. You can spend 2 years in a med surg unit and learn about little more than pneumo, what lands on a given med surg unit depends on the population and how many specialty units the place has. Follow your heart!

Hollyhocks720, MSN, NP · Apr 26, 2019

On 7/15/2018 at 3:17 PM, Ruby Vee said:
Stay long enough to get comfortable, learn the job and learn how to be a nurse. Don't transfer within your first year because if you do, you'll just have to start over a second time and it will take that much longer to get comfortable and become competent.

I have spoken to dozens of nurses with long careers, pretty much every change is uncomfortable for a while. It’s not starting over, the assessment skills, med passes and IV comfort level will not be lost. All the skills you learn will go with you to the next job. Its not a waste of time. I changed jobs after 6 mos to get away from med surg and never regretted it. I don’t believe a person has to stay 1-2 years to find out if you like it! If you don’t like it now, you probably never will.

RK694 · Apr 26, 2019

Hi,

I don’t know how long you looked for work in the area you’re interested in, but maybe it wasn’t long enough. I know many brand new nurses (including myself - when I was doing nursing) who got the job they wanted right out of school. It is nonsense that anyone should have to do something they hate before doing something they love. Talk about old-school thinking! It is a waste of your time, not to mention physical and mental health, to spend time at a job you hate. You don’t need to explain or justify the fact that you hate med/surge nursing - you just do! Don’t waste one more minute of your life doing something you abhor.

RK694 · Apr 26, 2019

On 7/6/2018 at 12:18 PM, elkpark said:
Yes, it will look bad if you transfer after six months, but, if their policy says you are eligible to do so, they can't really stop you (assuming you can find someone else who will take you). And it's certainly not as bad as resigning outright after six months.
Quote
Everyone hates their first nursing job after three months.
The transition from nursing student to practicing nurse is notoriously stressful and difficult. Give it some time -- I'm not saying you'll grow to love med-surg, but you'll feel better about your job than you do now. And, all that stuff people say about the benefits of starting out in med-surg? It's all true. A basic foundation in med-surg will benefit you wherever you go in the future. On the other hand, if you start out in a specific specialty and later want to, or need to, make a change, you may find your options seriously limited by your limited and specialized experience.
Best wishes for your journey!
No, EVERYONE doesn’t hate their first 3 months of work after they get out of school. While many nurses do indeed hate nursing - especially patient care, and for many legitimate reasons - it is not in any way normal or healthy for this to be the case. It never ceases to astonish me how many nurses believe they must take a job they hate “to get experience”. In no other field would someone make this kind of statement.

RK694 · Apr 26, 2019

On 7/6/2018 at 6:50 PM, elkpark said:
Congrats, but your experience is the exception, not the rule. You've been lucky.

It’s not the exception anymore. Studies show that it is perfectly acceptable now for nurses to move from job to job.