I will be graduating soon with my ADN. I went into nursing because my previous career had become very difficult to make a living at and is becoming obsolete (medical transcription) and I was newly divorced. I was also sick of working from home and feeling like a hermit all the time, chained to a computer. I felt I needed to go back to school to find a career that would allow me to support myself financially and offer me some sort of job security (I know, no job is secure definitely) and satisfaction--I really wanted to care for people. I always enjoyed medical, so I thought nursing would be a viable option, although admittedly I never considered it in the past. My real interest lies in counseling and therapy but after speaking to friends in that field and for various reasons (pay, up and down nature of client load, etc.) , I thought choosing nursing would be better.
Now that I am near the "end of the road", so to speak, for nursing school, I realize I am not liking nursing at all. I work in a hospital on a busy floor as a tech and I watch the nurses and see what they deal with--I realize I don't want to be a nurse! Feeling kind of conflicted on what to do next--I want to pursue a bachelor's to give myself options away from bedside nursing and possibly into counseling, but not sure whether to pursue a BSN and just do my time on a med-surg floor for a year and try to go to other areas of nursing or just get a bachelor's degree in something else altogether where my RN degree isn't wasted but I can get away from bedside nursing (I'm interested in nutrition, physical fitness, holistic health, counseling). I don't think I want to pursue an advanced degree at this point in the future because I'm in my late 40s and I'm tired! Sorry for the long post--I'm sure it is redundant as others have posted similar things, but I would ask for input from any who have contemplated the same and come up with any answers for themselves! Thanks :)
I am a new grad and I just landed a job as a psych outreach nurse. You don't have to be a bedside nurse and I so understand what you are feeling at this point. I gave bedside nursing a try in a nursing home and I really disliked the 12 hour night shifts. Med/surg and floor nursing is not for everyone. I originally tried to get a floor nurse job in a hospital but luckily I did not and I ended up finding an 8 to 5 mon-fri job.
Why not call up some of the psych hospitals and ask to speak with the nurse recruiters about the possibility of starting with one of them? I'd include your state hospitals here. I'm not convinced that everyone expects a year of med surg experience before specializing.
Specializes in Home health, medical, pulmonary, psych.
I never loved or really liked hospital nursing a lot either. I hated to be so busy and often behind that I couldn't sit and talk to a frightened or troubled patient. I did my time in medical though and loved doing charge. I really found my love in home health though-one on one, lots of education involved, time to really get to know my patients, their families, their needs. I came to understand why a lot of folks were frequent fliers when I saw their home situations. Its not for everyone but I loved it and when my kids grew up I did HHC as a travel nurse for awhile and got to see the country too. Just a thought...
I had to laugh as i read this post!!! I could have written MYSELF!!! As such, I enjoyed reading all the responses and may consider psych nursing (though Im considering NP eventually). I graduated in dec 2010 and it took me a 1.5 yrs to find a job. i too am in my late 40's. ive now been a bedside nurse for a year (yeah i made it to the 'one year acute experience required')... and it sucks!!! i work in the med surg unit of a large county facility and cannot stand it. its not so much the direct patient care per se (i can deal with those who live on the call light, or demanding family members, etc); what's irks me is the amount of paperwork and how everything seems to be geared toward protecting one's license. they have whole departments of former bedside nurses whose job it is to audit charts and make all t's are crossed ,etc; if not, you can be written up. managers constantly coming up with stuff to do, or you can be written up! its like those in management have forgotten or dont care about the stress bedside nursing involves. like i said, the only thing that gets me through is the smile on patients' faces when i make them, or their meddling family members, happy. Thanks for putting up that post and thanks to those who've responded; its given me plenty of food for thought...
amygarside
1,026 Posts
Maybe you can consider working in a physician's office if you are not happy with using your profession in a bigger scale.