Nursing is not what I thought...hate my job...need ur opinion

classykaren · Jul 19, 2009

I think you may injoy Home Health Care

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Jul 20, 2009

I was grossly disillusioned what nursing was like,too. I like working psych. There is an extreme amount of paperwork, but less of the physical stuff that keeps you so busy... Your job IS to talk to patients. Yes, there are still IV's, foley's, etc. but GENERALLY, patients are more stable medically. You aren't left with the feeling "Do I grab oxygen tubing for the patient having SOB, Call the doctor for the patient having chest pain, deal with the confused lady climbing out of bed for the 1,000th time, make rounds with the doctor, knowing you have 2 patients that have to be discharged and are antsy, and your new admit is waiting for you and wants pain meds NOW, all while knowing your regular med pass is already an hour late and you haven't yet opened a chart" type feeling CONSTANTLY.

geekgolightly, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2009

What is your ratio? If you're on telemetry during the day it should never be more than 5, and preferably no more than 4. If it's more than this, you're in a bad situation. But even if it isn't the case, you've been a nurse less than a year. You, like all new nurses are learning on the job, and it's going to take a long while to really get a good flow. It will get better, as long as your ratios are good.

dionnedillon · Jul 21, 2009

hospital nursing sucks, you are over worked like crazy and all your managers care about is if you r getting high customer service ratings and steadily trying to increase the nurse patient ratios and cuting your cna's any chance they get. I have been a nurse for many years and we all run around like chickens with our heads cut off b/c the work load is just too much.

pawsomepooch47 · Jul 21, 2009

And I've been doing this for 27 years--and it's always been the same rat race--nothing much has REALLY changed.

ladside, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN · Jul 21, 2009

Pierce Brosnan said in the movie Dante's Peak, "that if you put a frog in boiling water, he will jump right out. But if you put him in cold water and heat it up gradually, he will slowly boil to death." Unfortunately, nursing is this frog. We who have been in nursing for years, are boiling to death because we got into it when nursing was nursing: the water was cool, patients believed in us and what we were doing for them; it was just a different time when I began in 1985. Things got progressively worse over the years. But the instructors are still teaching the dream of what nursing was and is supposed to be. You new guys and girls are suffering because of that because new grads are going directly into the boiling water and sometimes, over-shoot the pot and land directly into the fire. Keep your paths because one day 20+ years from now, you will be simmering like us and a new grad is gonna need your support because today will seem like old times when the new grad shows up tomorrow. We thought times were great with the invent of email, cell phones, MP3s. But modern technology came into the hospital setting, too, but the care provided to our sick is still made of flesh and blood....something that lawyers and the media fail to realize 99% of the time. Take care, better yet, take a vacation even if you feel it is too soon. In my opinion, anyone who has to walk to the beat of another's drums, no matter how off-beat the tempo is, needs a regularly vacation. Don't wait for the once a year thing! If you do, you won't last!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2009

I am not happy with my job as this is not what I thought nursing to be.

Many people who do home health nursing absolutely love it, because they only get to provide for one patient per visit. After you accrue one year of hospital experience, home health is merely a suggestion of an area of nursing where you can actually talk to your patients and spend quality time with them. Private duty is another option.

Here's another thread regarding nurses who share your sentiments on the sorry state of nursing today. Click on the blue link below to read the discussion. It is very lengthy.

https://allnurses.com/nursing-career-advice/no-i-wouldnt-7423.html

Scorpio, MSN, RN · Jul 21, 2009

Wow did we work at the same place?? Lol I completely understand how you feel. My first job out of school was on a tele floor with 5 to 6 patients on days with fat night rotation ugh talk about no energy or life! Felt pulled in 100 different diections I always felt frustrated that I couldn't give the care I believed in etc. It wore on me so much and made me unhappy and physically sick before work that I had to leave. I now specialize as an RN in the operating room and boy is life good! One patient at a time very organized and fun and enjoyable! Steep learning curve though! Some people told me and will tell you to stick it out but you know life is too short for that go out there and find something that makes you smile at the end of your shift because you deserve it!

MedSurgeMess · Jul 21, 2009

There are soooo many different areas in nursing, don't let the tele experience ruin you. See how soon you can transfer to a different area. Shadow in other areas to see if you like the experience. And go on a BUSY day, not the slowest day, when everything seems perfect, or at least manageable. Every department has days where you just want to throw your hands up and throw the towel in. Does anyone know of any tests or web sites that can help find a good fit for nurse? Also, every facility is different as well. But as other posters have included, the first year is so rough--you get the reality of nursing, plus you get to try to pull together everything you learned in nursing school while running around like a headless chicken. Hang in there, and vent anytime you need here. We're just a click away;)

pawsomepooch47 · Jul 21, 2009

Many people who do home health nursing absolutely love it, because they only get to provide for one patient per visit. After you accrue one year of hospital experience, home health is merely a suggestion of an area of nursing where you can actually talk to your patients and spend quality time with them. Private duty is another option.
Here's another thread regarding nurses who share your sentiments on the sorry state of nursing today. Click on the blue link below to read the discussion. It is very lengthy.
https://allnurses.com/nursing-career-advice/no-i-wouldnt-7423.html

I have to disagree about home care. I did it for a year--was an awful experience--too many pt visits in one day, huge responsibility, thrown into situations where I had no back up like i would have in a hospital setting. i actually started having nightmares every night. So i went back to med surg. Which is life in the nut house but atleast someone has your back.

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2009

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a newhire say, "I didn't know it would be like this / school didn't prepare me for this / nursing isn't what I thought" then I'd be a rich woman. We get students from 3 different schools, and the stories are always the same.

The first thing my preceptor told me after her name was, "forget everything you learned in nursing school." And she was right. Do I have the luxury of wondering if someone would be better served by an Orem nursing diagnosis or a Warner one? Or which Erikson's stage they are in? Cultural applications? All I have time for is ABCs -- keep them breathing is the best I can do some nights.

On my tele/ICU stepdown floor, we almost always have 6+ patients. The admin rep will be in the room signing the funeral release form on the death you've just had while asking how fast the room can get turned around so you can take an admission. I almost always have at least 1 or 2 people on isolation for MRSA, almost always have at least 1 either on CIWA or needs to be detoxed, at least 1 or 2 dementia/alzheimers trying get out of bed and fall, fresh MIs, evolving CVAs, surgical patients with significant cardiac histories.

We get yelled at for stupid meaningless things, while our requests for functioning equipment, lower patient ratios, gloves that don't tear, functioning suction and O2 in every room, etc., never seem to be important.

The average time a nurse stays on our floor is less than 2 years because they burn out; what worries me is that while I see some nurses moving on to other units, other hospitals, about 30% leave nursing completely. When we get new hires, so many experience such culture shock from the dream world of school to the hard reality of a hospital, most leave before orientation's up or shortly after. Especially after working on the floor, "clinicals" with one or two patients (carefully chosen stable patients, because we look for people that won't "scare them off") are a useless way to learn.

My aunt said they had a solid year of study before they touched a patient, then 2nd year functioned as "night shift" at a major hospital in NY -- there were enough RNs to staff the floor, but the students did everything -- admissions, discharges, deaths, DTs, "problem families" -- with the RNs there to supervise, advise, and take over if something went wrong, and the RNs were slowly pulled off until the students ran the floor with 1 RN. 3rd year, they farmed out to the specialites, but they still worked regular shifts 2 days a week. By the time they graduated, they had been functioning as a nurse, real loads, real acuity, for over a year. And most of the students my aunt went to school with (aside from brief hiatuses for childbearing), stayed in nursing for 30, 40 years.

We really, really need to do more practical teaching, more real life experiences, total immersion experiences; people would drop in school, rather than staying in school 4 years, accumulating loans and debt only to come out and drop out of nursing completely before they even get thru orientation. It would be nice if we changed the working conditions, but I don't see that happening. At least, if we gave people real, practical experiences, we might prevent the high drop rate in that first 2 years after initial licensure.