Nursing hospital situations

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I am a first semester nursing student and I’m thinking of switching my major. It is very hard for me to see the patient in so much pain and not to be able to do much about it. I also find the situation of having 5 patients who are very ill and needs something from me pretty stressful. I want to give my all to them but I just don’t think it’s possible to a great job and make them happy which kinda makes me sad. I also get kinda sad seeing people in these situations. Do you think these are valid reasons to make a switch? Or will nursing be different in a different hospital?

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I absolutely understand where you're coming from, but I view nursing as the front-lines in making people feel better. We are the face they consistently see, and we can advocate for their needs. In terms of having five patients, I had three with my last clinical rotation. I will say, time management and organization are crucial skills as is prioritization, but it's totally doable. I found myself with "down time" throughout my clinical and used it to see and help as much as I could and to pick floor nurses' brains about my future career.

The flip-side of things is how much you can do with your nursing major. After graduation, you may work in acute care for a bit and find that your fears are accurate and you thoroughly dislike seeing patients in such discomfort and you still feel as though you can't give them each the care they deserve. In that instance, there are other areas of nursing: psych units, outpatient clinics, the OR, L&D...the possibilities really are endless. I wish you the best of luck with your decision, but in your position, I can't say I would decide to switch majors.

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Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology RN.

You are in your first semester. Its all new to you. Take it all in, reflect as you go through clinicals. You have quite a few months of experience ahead of you. You will feel differently about everything.

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On 10/2/2019 at 2:34 AM, SummerOlaf said:

I am a first semester nursing student and I’m thinking of switching my major. It is very hard for me to see the patient in so much pain and not to be able to do much about it. I also find the situation of having 5 patients who are very ill and needs something from me pretty stressful. I want to give my all to them but I just don’t think it’s possible to a great job and make them happy which kinda makes me sad. I also get kinda sad seeing people in these situations. Do you think these are valid reasons to make a switch? Or will nursing be different in a different hospital?

You will have to process this with other considerations in mind, such as what made you interested in nursing in the first place, what is your general goal with regard to becoming a nurse, etc.

I personally do not think it is right to minimize real concerns that people have about their career pursuit, nursing in particular. It is not an easy life for everyone. The hard part of this is that it's mostly up to the individual to process a lot of thoughts and feelings to arrive at a reasonable conclusion about whether something is a real concern for them or not.

We do not all have the same make-up/personality and therefore I would not find it at all surprising to meet someone who had an idea about nursing but then realized that for them it was too much pressure, too sad, too conflicting...whatever. It is not for everyone, and that is perfectly okay.

What you need to decide, though, @SummerOlaf is whether you are simply experiencing a period of growth/realization/adjustment where you come to terms with what nursing is. That is very common. For this reason I think you should give yourself a little more time to see where your thoughts take you.

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Specializes in Nephrology Home Therapies, Wound Care, Foot Care..

Remember too, that hospital nursing is only one option out there. There are so many other places to practice. You might love home nursing, transitional nursing, public health, wound care, surgery, the list is nearly endless. Right now you are a student and can't do a whole lot. But look for the things you can do. In nursing school I had a patient who had been hospitalized for weeks, one arm was taped to her side, and she was miserable. I got the ok from my nurse to do a bed bath. Shampooed her hair-heated shampoo caps can be amazing! Gave her a bedbath, massaged her feet and hands with lotion, changed her bedding and gown and she was in years with gratitude. Turned out she was a 90+ year old retired NP/PHN. Gave me one of my most treasured compliments to this day/ told me I was an old-school nurse who knew how how to do what really matters for patient care.

Look for opportunities to make patients happier, take care of grieving families, make people smile. These are skills that they don't tell you about in NCLEX prep, but that I personally use every day in my practice. Those moments make my day.

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