One Year in and I’m done

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I became an RN a year ago after being a paramedic for 10 years. 

Every day I struggle with knowing I’m not meant for bedside nursing. I’ve tried a few different facilities and assignments, but it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, 12 hours of *** from admin, other nurses, patients, their family, etc has made me miserable for a year.

My problem is that I have no alternatives. A nursing degree is very limiting, obviously.  I can’t be a paramedic anymore.

The situation is akin to wanting to jump out of a plane and knowing I need a parachute to do it, not having said parachute, but contemplating jumping anyway and hoping for the best.

I don’t know what to do. I have a wife and 2 toddlers and my prime function is stability for them. But my wife is okay with me making a change so long as we can pay the bills. She’s a stay at home mom and we want it to stay that way until my kids get into school (they’re 2.5 years old).

I’ve tried looking everywhere online for answers and I can’t find anything. 

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Specializes in oncology.
12 hours ago, pararn2b said:

I became an RN a year ago after being a paramedic for 10 years. 

Every day I struggle with knowing I’m not meant for bedside nursing

From your previous posts you "don't get nursing" and maybe are looking for an EMT-P job that will pay the same as an RN job and limit your responsibility/actions/job duties to a limited for a time within the ambulance.  (IVs and such)

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12 hours of *** from admin, other nurses, patients, their family, etc has made me miserable for a year

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 I don’t know what to do. I have a wife and 2 toddlers and my prime function is stability for them. But my wife is okay with me making a change so long as we can pay the bills. She’s a stay at home mom and we want it to stay that way until my kids get into school (they’re 2.5 years old).

 

Have you thought to readjust your thinking? You are not an emergency medical guy anymore. Nursing has many satisfying jobs ahead of you if you stop thinking of your past.

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
On 4/2/2022 at 12:21 AM, pararn2b said:

A nursing degree is very limiting, obviously.  I can’t be a paramedic anymore.

Maybe you can't be a paramedic anymore, but do you have ACLS transport crews? We have nurses that work with the emergency medical crew to transport patients between facilities. You could work towards flight nursing if you gain experience in critical care.

Nursing has many non-bedside options available. Are you interested in informatics? Are you interested in case management? I even know a few people in case management that work from home with small kids and are able to keep a full time work schedule. I find that a nursing degree is the OPPOSITE of limiting, but if what you're really wanting to do is paramedic, then maybe that's why it feels like that.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Without further information, it’s hard to know what would be better. What are you struggling with the most? Floor nursing can be a grind. If it’s not working out, go into another area.
 

I would suggest trying a different specialty to see if you like it better. A few different areas come to mind- OR, IR, Pacu, IV therapy, case management, insurance, home health, dialysis, school nursing, sub-acute, long term care. If floor nursing isn’t for you, try to find something less stressful until you can plan a next step.

I’m not familiar with the paramedic world, but why can’t you go back?

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Specializes in Community health.
3 hours ago, mimibrown said:

I’m not familiar with the paramedic world, but why can’t you go back?

Yes, please clarify for me, too!

Usually, I tell people who hate nursing to quit.  But in your case-- the heavy-duty child-rearing that goes with having toddlers makes every aspect of life feel more tiring and worse than it really is.  My advice is to bloom where you've been planted for a few years. 

If you don't like your bedside job, get a different nursing job.  I work outpatient, try that, or one of the million other types of nursing jobs that are around.  (Home health?  You'd have fewer coworkers etc. to deal with in that field. Urgent care? GI procedures?  PACU?)  I can't imagine why a nursing degree would be "limiting," but if you see it as limiting, well, just be limited for a while.  Give it a couple of years. Once the kids are in school, you and your wife can sit down and decide how you want to proceed.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Look into flight/transport. If you get an RN transport job it will pay better than medic jobs but be as far away from bedside as you can get. 

 

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1 hour ago, zoidberg said:

Look into flight/transport. If you get an RN transport job it will pay better than medic jobs but be as far away from bedside as you can get. 

 

While this might suit the OP really well it's not likely with only a year of experience. 

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I agree with Community RN, try outpatient (all the patients are fully dressed, they go home in 20 mins to an hour, or you send them to the ER), it's completely different.  It's more like officey, but much less overwhelming.  Good luck to you and hang in there?

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Specializes in Critical Care.
On 4/4/2022 at 12:20 PM, Wuzzie said:

While this might suit the OP really well it's not likely with only a year of experience. 

True. Though I do not know what experience OP has from being a Medic, so I figured I may throw it out there. 

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"I agree with Community RN, try outpatient (all the patients are fully dressed, they go home in 20 mins to an hour, or you send them to the ER), it's completely different".

Two things:

1. The OP may not be able to take that much of a pay cut. You will make $10/hr less (or more in this current job market) by going to outpatient.

2. You are working 8 days/week and it can be more difficult to get days off (Many nurses who started at the bedside do not like this schedule). Also, no outpatient RN float pool.

Why don't you try the ED/ER? You already have some of the skill set for this department and the opportunity to make better $ is there!

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You have MANY options as a nurse, with that golden one year experience. Your paramedic experience is also very marketable. Start  scouring the job boards to see what is available. That will give you many ideas.

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Specializes in Community health.
On 4/7/2022 at 5:28 PM, 2BS Nurse said:

1. The OP may not be able to take that much of a pay cut. You will make $10/hr less (or more in this current job market) by going to outpatient.

 

 

I 100% do not make less than the people working in the hospital in my town!  I know that every market is different and every job is different, so I'm not disputing that that is often the case.  I just want to make clear that not all outpatient jobs pay poorly.  I'm in an FQHC in Connecticut.  One of my classmates (I.e., we have the same number of years experience) recently left bedside (Yale/New Haven Health system) to work at my clinic, and it was a pay increase for her.  If you're interested in a job, apply and interview and find out what it pays, but definitely don't just assume that if it's a 9-5, the pay must be low.

(The other things are true, such as you can't really earn overtime, the schedule isn't as flexible, etc.)

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