Nursing is not what I thought it would be!

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As a new grad nurse I was beyond excited when I landed my first job at a highly reputable hospital on a surgical unit. Feeling extremely overwhelmed I told myself that things would get better, but here I am 7 months in and I'm finding that nursing is not what I thought it would be. I feel completely overwhelmed each and everyday at work, I feel like I have no time at all for my patients. Rather than seeing my patient's as people I am forced to treat them as task lists each and every day. I don't even feel like I get to "care" for my patient's, it's all about productivity. I feel like I made a mistake with my career choice, however changing careers is not a choice as I am a mom of two with some hefty student loans. I know there are many other options in nursing but I keep hearing that you can't do much without floor experience and I'm afraid I will leave the job I have now and be even more unhappy. I'm just feeling very confused about my career choice at this time. I'm in my 20's, I'm I going to have to live with this feeling for the rest of my career? Anyone else have this problem?

Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
So you had a bad day, got ****** off by someone at work who hates her job, came onto allnurses, found a post from a new grad who also hates her job, and decided to put her "entitled" tush in her place...even though you know nothing more about her than I do, and all I know is she is miserable at work.

Did I get that right?

If so, I'm pretty sure that qualifies as bullying. Pretty sure.

No, you got it wrong. I had a great day - both days. The whining by people who hate their jobs - on allnurses and the hospital - has been ongoing.

Your standard of "bullying" is so goofy (telling someone it gets better but they have to pay some dues is bullying to you) I doubt you would be a factor in curbing it.

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No, you got it wrong. I had a great day - both days. The whining by people who hate their jobs - on allnurses and the hospital - has been ongoing.

Your standard of "bullying" is so goofy (telling someone it gets better but they have to pay some dues is bullying to you) I doubt you would be a factor in curbing it.

I am confused as to why you would come into a nursing forum, knowing that you are going to see topics like this if it makes you so angry, and even click on the title which tells you what it is about. Why not just skip it?

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Sorry just got off work. I asked that question earlier because I felt that if that remark was considered bullying then I probably need to close my account because I am considerably more blunt, both on line and in person.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

This has gone pretty far afield.

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Yup nursing is not at all what it is supposed to be. Now that's a truth that can be accepted by all, new nurse and yoda nurse.

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It's called paying your dues. Pony up, baby! You'll get that caring job you want, but you have to dig a few ditches first.

What, you wanted the whole dream laid at your feet 7 months in?

I wouldn't have called this comment sympathetic, but it certainly isn't undermining or destructive, i.e. bullying. I thought this poster was just speaking to the realities of a first nursing job and suggesting being patient and persevering, which seems like good advice to me.

In regard to some people seeing bullying in this poster's comment, I am beginning to think that some people on this thread, and on this forum, either have very little life experience, and/or have been extremely cosseted and protected and feel entitled to kid glove treatment. In the workplace you will encounter plenty of people who are not sympathetic towards you; that does not mean they are undermining or bullying you.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.

I think MN-Nurse's response missed the point of the OP's post entirely. The OP is simply stating what so many other nurses on this forum have stated: patient care has become a list of tasks and endless paperwork that is overwhelming, and the human side is addressed "when there is time."

I thought MN-Nurse's comment was completely irrelevant to the point the OP was trying to make! As if after the OP was finished "paying her dues," the list of tasks and endless paperwork would somehow magically go away? That the very definition of floor nursing is the opposite of a "caring job." What?

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I agree with dudette.

MN-nurse, have you paid your dues yet? 'cause, if your still a nurse you didn't get anything for all that paying! LOL. I think the commonly referenced one year or two years and then you will feel better about things means often that, you:

1. know you are leaving nursing and thus feel the weight lift

2. are now medicated and thus feel the weight lift

3. are truly broken (like a bronco) and thus feel the weight lift

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"i think every nursing student should be a nursing assistant at some point. you get to see how nursing works, not the idealized view they show you in school and movies. "

oh, like a cna really has an appreciation for the nursing process...as opposed to the process of performing tasks. nope.

i was a na (this was before anyone was certified) for several years before and during nursing school, and i didn't have a clue about what nursing was all about besides the tasks and skills i yearned to be able to say i could do.

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"i think every nursing student should be a nursing assistant at some point. you get to see how nursing works, not the idealized view they show you in school and movies. "oh, like a cna really has an appreciation for the nursing process...as opposed to the process of performing tasks. nope. i was a na (this was before anyone was certified) for several years before and during nursing school, and i didn't have a clue about what nursing was all about besides the tasks and skills i yearned to be able to say i could do.
nurses who were cnas before becoming a nurse are almost always better nurses than those who weren't. why shouldn't cna be a requirement to lpn/rn? new grad nurses who have no nursing assistant background too often walk into the profession clueless. nurses who were cnas first have some idea of what the real world is like, not the absurd fantasy world schools make nursing out to be.....
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seven months isn't much at all in the infinite scheme of things. jeez, when i look in the mirror i can't believe how long i've been doing this stuff! immediate gratification isn't something that we should expect in any sphere of life; sometimes it takes some really delayed gratification to teach us that lesson. (wait until you have a toddler...you'd give the wicked witch anything to make her grow up faster, and all that gets you is... adolescence.)

it gets better. you have a good life ahead of you. think of this as the dues that we all paid before you. not that we insist that you suffer too-- if you didn't live in a nursing student dorm in 1962 you have nothing to complain about :D-- but because you can look around and see plenty of people who somehow managed to survive their first ten or fifteen years in. :bowingpur if they could do it, you can too.

hang in, and stay in touch.

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I feel your pain. I am on summer break in lowly nursing school, and decided to get a job as a CNA. Lolololol......wow what a mistake. I could have had a few more months of naivety dreaming about my misconceptions of a Nurse. Now I am absolutely horrified.

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