Please help me - dread going to work

[Newnurse8123]

Hi all,

im having a lot of trouble. I started a job as a new graduate in a well known busy hospital in their neuro icu about 4 months ago and I hate it. I excelled in nursing school and actually liked it. I feel extremely depressed on a regular basis as I feel I was disillusioned to how hard nursing actually is. I am constantly busy during my shift and the learning curve is insane my schedule stinks and I absolutely dread going to work knowing how busy and unpredictable my shift is going to be. I truly don't know where to go at this point I am struggling to make it to my 1 year mark, even after time when I feel more comfortable with my skills I still don't see this as something I am going to like. I come home at night and have nightmares about work and my anxiety is killing me. I feel so lost and I feel like I wasted years attaining a degree for a career I feel so disconnected with. Any advice please? I feel like I want to get into psych and work with eating disorder or addiction patients or get into forensic nursing and go back to school so I can work with patients who I can at least talk to . My stable post op patients are actually my favorite ones. Thanks for any and all advice!

[nina12345]

So you chose to seek another profession or you liked psychiatric nursing as a NP? Sorry I am a little confused

[Oldmahubbard]

A nurse practitioner is a different profession from an RN. The two jobs are very different, and have almost nothing in common, other than nursing philosophy, whatever that may be.

So yes, I like being an NP, whereas I didn't like being an RN.

The main reasons I did not like being an RN : low pay, no respect, disconnect between the level of the responsibility (great) and the level of power and control (none).

Throw in a few dumb supervisors and back-stabbing co-workers, and I knew I had to get out of it.