I hate nursing!!

[Mistb13]

I'm a fairly new nurse still. I have 5 months of experience. I work on a med/surg telemetry floor, and I absolutely hate it. It makes me not like nursing. I'm not sure if it's just the floor or if I don't like nursing all together. When I was in nursing school, I had doubts that I wanted to be a nurse, but I was half way through the program. My assistant dean of the college of nursing I went to convinced me to stay. I really thought I wanted to help people. But now I'm not feeling it anymore. I also have issues with anxiety that get in the way. But I'm currently working on that. I'm just wondering if there is anything I can do with my BSN that doesn't involve direct patient care? Maybe I would like that side of nursing.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

When Nursing was more an apprenticeship, you got plenty of real world experience cuz they used you as slave labor in their hospitals

Laughing ,good one. so true.

[GoodKick01]

you can do case management, nurse educator, home health, surgeries, clinics, ... if you get your master or PHD you can become a faculty member at nursing school.

[turtlesRcool]

GoodKick01 said:

you can do case management, nurse educator, home health, surgeries, clinics, ... if you get your master or PHD you can become a faculty member at nursing school.

But for most of these jobs, she's going to need more than 5 months as a new grad (which probably means more like 2 months off orientation).

The nurse educators are nurses who REALLy know their stuff well enough to teach it to others, usually with some kind of specialty like cardiac or diabetes education. They're not new grads. Surgical nursing is a whole other specialty, and requires training and patient contact. Case management nurses usually have several years of clinical experience before transferring to that role. Home Health is difficult for a new nurse because you're on your own, whereas at least in a hospital, there's someone to ask if you are having trouble. The list goes on.

OP, I don't know if nursing is for you or not. I do know that it's pretty common in the first year for nurses to feel overwhelmed and under appreciated. Several PPs have summarized their feelings of anxiety and misery in the period where you are. My advice is to keep going, learn everything you can, and reassess in a few months. You'll be in a better position to know if nursing really isn't for you or if you were just feeling the pain of the steep first year learning curve. And if it's not for you, you'll be in a better position to get a job that might be a better fit.

[naptimeRN]

You hate your current job... But you may not hate nursing. I did hospital nursing for five years (per diem when I started working outpatient) and I did not like it. I really regretted my decision to become a nurse. Once I started working in outpatient jobs, it became tolerable. And now at my current outpatient job, I actually like it. I would honestly try to stick out a year where you are. But you could always apply to outpatient or other positions that sound appealing to you because you never know. Good luck!

[Hotburnout]

I've been a nurse for 40 years... critical care..... and I absolutely HATE my job! If could find something else to do and make the same $, I would do it now. Nursing has changed so much; in PACU now and THE most important thing is to get the patients in and out as quickly as possible so we can get another patient in surgery because THATS where the hospital makes the $. The newer RNs I work with are lazy, NEVER do a complete head to toe assessment... they don't even put WHERE the patient is hurting ( its not necessarily where they had their surgery ) and are ALWAYS on their fones & never offer to help those who are slammed. What happened to pride in your work...sick of this. Hate nursing and used to adore it. Sad